The Priestly Messiah
The relationship between the priestly and the regal functions is a question of much interest and importance among peoples in the most diverse parts of the ancient world. The union of these two functions in the person of the king seems to have been quite usual. The origin of this is to be sought in t...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1967
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| In: |
New Testament studies
Year: 1967, Volume: 13, Issue: 3, Pages: 211-239 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | The relationship between the priestly and the regal functions is a question of much interest and importance among peoples in the most diverse parts of the ancient world. The union of these two functions in the person of the king seems to have been quite usual. The origin of this is to be sought in the conduct of family worship by the head of the family, and then by the leader of the larger group or tribe. When a professional priesthood arises, the king (as in Assyria and Egypt) commonly remains the chief priest, even though he may in practice officiate only on rare occasions. Among the Hebrews also the king on occasion exercised his priestly functions.2 But alongside him was the high priest, whose influence steadily grew, especially after the exile, when the nation was as much a church as a state, with its hereditary high priest who, in the absence of a king, came to enjoy an authority and prestige unparalleled before. It might have been expected that the replacement of kings by high priests and the subsequent enhancement of their position would eventually have wrought a transformation in the traditional messianic expectations. The remarkable fact is that this did not take place. The tendency for the kingly and priestly prerogatives not to be vested in one person is persistently projected into the picture of the eschatological hope. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-8145 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: New Testament studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0028688500019561 |