PRIESTHOOD (HOLY ORDERS)

The Orthodox Church accepts the general priesthood of the people of God (1 Peter 2:9. Revel. 1:6. 5:10. 20:6), which existed in the Old Testament too (Exodus 19:6). But this general priesthood did not exclude the existence of specific priesthood, that aimed in the development of the people and the exercise of the divine worship (Exod. 28:1. 29:9. 30:30. 40:12-13).

The Orthodox Church does not question the fact that the priesthood of Christ is untransferrable and that there does not exist, and there will never exist another kind of priesthood (Hebr. 7:23-26). But this does not prevent the existence of "priesthood" in a relative sense of the word, as "participation" in the one and only priesthood of Christ. The holy Bible talks about "priests" of the New Testament that will have nothing to do with the priesthood of Aaron and will come from the nations (Isai. 66:18-21). These priests will serve the christian altar (Hebr. 13:10. 1 Corinth. 10:21) and will offer "pure offering" (Malachi 1:11).

The priests of the New Testament do not have priesthood of their own, independent from the priesthood of Christ. In exactly the same way the divine eucharist conducted in Church constitutes "participation" to the sacrifice on Golgotha, this way too the priesthood of the Church is unique. The priests of the Church are deacons and stewards of the mysteries of the only High Priest (1 Corinth. 3:5-9. 4:1. Titus 1:7. 1 Peter 4:10). Christ is the only mediator; via Him the reconciliation with God is achieved (John 4:6.13-14. 1 Tim. 2:5).

The Orthodox Church continues the apostolic tradition. In priesthood, she discerns three ranks: the deacon, the presbyter and the bishop.

The apostles were fully conscious of the succession of the episcopal rank. In the case of the election of Matthias it becomes evident that the apostolic rank was independent of this particular person (Acts 1:15-26). Apostle Paul makes mention not only about "bishops" but also about "diocese" (1 Tim. 3:1). He even defines the attributes that the candidate "bishops" (1 Tim. 3:2-7) and "deacons" (1 Tim. 3:8-13) must have.

Of course, the New testament identifies at first the terms "bishop" and "presbyter" (Acts 20: 17.28); but this does not mean that in the apostolic Church there did not exist a third rank in priesthood. Titus for example was bishop of Crete and Timothy was conducting episcopal diaconia in the Church of Ephesus. In this diaconia, the placement of presbyters and deacons were included, and actually by ordination (Titus 1:5), with which the "charisma" (gratis) of priesthood was being communicated (2 Tim. 1:6. c.f. 1 Tim. 5:22. Acts 20:28).

These do not constitute later beliefs, but Biblical teaching, in the way the first christian Church did it, who is pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15).

Clemes, bishop of Rome (d. 96) talks about "priests" and "high priests" and connects the reality of the Church with the reality of the holy Bible. Clemes refers to verse Isai. 60:17 and underlines the special functions of "the high priest" and of the "priests" and of the "levites", i.e. of the deacons (Clemes, 1 Cor. 40:5. 42:3-4. 44:1-4).

St. Ignatius (d. 107) distinguishes the three ranks of priesthood and underlines accordingly (c.f. Ign., Smyrn. VIII, 1.9). According to the belief he puts forward there, away from the bishop there are only gatherings of heretics. St. Polycarp (d. 156) mentions that the teaching of Ignatius is teaching of the Church of the first century (Polyc., Epistle to Phil. 13).

Igisippus, who wrote around 180 AD and keeps the apostolic tradition, informs us that the apostolic succession was accepted catholically by the Church (Igis. Extract 5, ΒΕΠ 5,85). The same is underlined by Irenaeus (d. 202), who also adds that we must obey the priests of the Church because they are successors of the apostles and that via the succession of the episcopal rank they received the "certain charisma of the truth" (Iren. Against her. 3 3,1. 4 26,2).

Hippolytus (d. 235), student of Irenaeus, writes that essential help in order to avoid the fallacy of the heresies is to follow what the priests say (c.f. Hippol. Έλεγχος, πρόλ., ΒΕΠ 5,199).

In other words we see that the first christian Church had full conscience of the unity between the apostolic succession and the apostolic teaching, i.e. of Orthodoxy.

Origen (d. 253/254) highlights the divine origin of priesthood in the Church and adds that "the ministers and priests must undertake the weight of the sins of the people" (Orig., To levites V, 3).

Cyprian (d. 258) mentions that the bishops are "representatives and successors of the apostles and to them is referred the verse of Luke 10:16. All the schisms and heresies that were and will be, come from the fact that some people scorn with audacity the one bishop, that presides over the Church" (Cypr. Epistle 66, 4-5).

St. John Chrysostom expresses the faith of the Church of his time with an even more caustic tongue: "it is madness to scorn priesthood, for without priesthood neither salvation can be achieved, nor the goods that God promised can we achieve" (Chrys., On priesthood, speech 3, 5).

According to Gregory the Theologian, God trusted to the priests "the Mysteries, which lift one upwards towards the heavens and constitute the greatest and most precious thing of all that we possess" (Speech 2,4 , Apologia on being away).

The Orthodox Church therefore, from the time of the apostles to date, interprets the relevant verses in the holy bible in the same way and accepts priesthood and the apostolic succession. She cannot share protestantism's opinion in this subject.

More on the mystery of Divine Eucharist and that of Priesthood in the narrow sense of the word hiereus (corresponding to thysia i.e. sacrifice), can be found in Theme Four.

EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN THE CHAPTER

serve = In Greek διακονώ (diacono), from where the word diaconos i.e. deacon comes from.

mysteries = A mystery in the orthodox faith refers to the transmission of the invisible divine grace via visible signs. For instance, what the Roman Catholics call "the seven sacraments" are all mysteries, as well as the nativity of the Son from the Father and the procession of the Spirit from the Father and His mission from the Son are all mysteries. For more on this subject, visit this link.

diaconia = serving.