The Priesthood of All Believers and the Missio Dei

A Canonical, Catholic, and Contextual Perspective

Voss

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498283304
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The priesthood of all believers is a pillar undergirding Protestant ecclesiology. Yet the doctrine has often been used to serve diverse agendas. This book examines the doctrine's canonical, catholic, and contextual dimensions. It first identifies the priesthood of all believers as a canonical doctrine based upon the royal priesthood of Christ and closely related to the believer's eschatological temple-service and offering of spiritual sacrifices (chapters 1-3). It secondly describes its catholic development by examining three paradigmatic shifts, shifts especially associated with Christendom (chapters 4-6) and a suppression of the doctrine's missional component. Finally, the book argues that a Christian doctrine of the priesthood of all believers should be developed with a Christocentric-Trinitarian understanding of the missio Dei. This suggests there are especially appropriate ways for the royal priesthood to relate to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. A canonically and catholically informed priesthood of all believers leads contextually to particular ecclesial practices. These seven practices are 1) Baptism as public ordination to the royal priesthood; 2) Prayer; 3) Lectio Divina; 4) Ministry; 5) Church Discipline; 6) Proclamation; and 7) the Lord's Supper as the renewal of the royal priesthood.

Part I

The Royal Priesthood in Scripture’s Script

1

Royal Priests: Actors in the New Testament’s Story

Theologians must therefore keep a wary eye on the foundations they build on, lest their castles be left up in the air . . . theological thinking should grow from the bottom up.

—Bruce Chilton, Introduction to The Isaiah Targum

I am a priest of the Lord, and to him I serve as a priest; And to him I offer the sacrifice of his thought. For neither like the world, nor like the flesh is his thought, nor like those who serve in a fleshly way. The sacrifice of the Lord is righteousness, and purity of hearts and lips.

—A Syrian Christian Hymn, ca. AD 100

The Introduction identified the need for a clear articulation of the Protestant doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. No reader should be surprised that this Protestant articulation commences with three chapters on the doctrine’s biblical foundations. Two categories of texts are especially relevant to the NT doctrine: texts focusing on Christ as a royal priestly figure (Priest-king) and texts applying priestly or royal-priestly terminology to every member of Christ’s body. Chapter 1 focuses on the latter, while Chapters 2 (OT) and 3 (NT) address both categories.

This chapter examines two central NT texts upon which the apostolic doctrine of the royal priesthood rests.120 Here I argue that the royal priesthood is a significant theme across the NT, its scope far greater than the four texts to which it is often limited.121 The chapter first identifies three major strands of scriptural evidence (temple, sacrifice, and priestly vocabulary) for the claim that every member of God’s eschatological people (λαὸς) has been granted priestly status. Secondly, it identifies the offering of spiritual sacrifices, especially understood as the work of temple-service and proclamation, as the primary function of the royal priesthood.

Did the NT’s authors and the first Christian theologians share a common doctrine of royal priesthood? Are the handful of NT references to Exod 19:6 randomly mined proof texts, or part of a larger motif relating to eschatological priesthood? What are we to make of the NT’s unique appropriation of cultic language? Are all believers in Jesus “priests”? With these questions we turn to Peter and to Paul, important NT witnesses to the doctrine.122

Temple, Priesthood, and Sacrifice in 1 Peter 2:4–9

The first-century concept of the royal priesthood is rooted in the conceptual triad of priest-king/royal-priesthood, temple, and sacrifice. Neglecting one of these three components can lead to a distorted understanding of the NT’s use of cultic vocabulary. For Bruce Chilton and Robert Daly, sacrificial language is paramount;123 for Gregory Beale and Nicholas Perrin the temple provides the leading concept.124 In this study, royal priesthood is central. But these three cultic concepts must be held together, and one contribution made by this chapter is carefully attending to the cultic concepts of temple and sacrifice while describing the NT’s doctrine of the royal priesthood. Through the Anointed (ὁ Χρι...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I: The Royal Priesthood in Scripture’s Script
• Part II: From Actors to Audience and Back Again: The Royal Priesthood’s Story across the Centuries
• Part III: The Royal Priesthood in Today’s World
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Significant Figures and Events for the Royal Priesthood: First through Twenty-first Ce
• Bibliography