How long has the Priesthood been around?

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hamburglar

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I have to do a paper in my Communication class where I pick a career area I am interested in, and describe interviewing skills and stuff. Although I am looking into both the religious life and the diocesan priesthood, I figured the Priesthood would work better for the assignment.

Anyway, I’m writing my introduction. If you want to post any ideas on that you can…

I think I’m gonna start with just a little history of the Priesthood (very basic history) so how long has the Priesthood existed? Any kind of info would help, so maybe how long the modern day Priesthood has existed (pastor of parish working under bishop)
 
The Catholic Priesthood has existed since the Last Supper. Presbyters (priests who minister under the authority of the Apostles, or their successors, the bishops) are mentioned in 1 Timothy 5:17.
 
Well this is what I have from my dictionary;
In the OT and the early NT priests presented sacrifices to God for the people, taught them under law, entered the hholiest places of the tabernacle or temple, and met with God (Lev 4;26 Ezek 42;13-14 Luke 1;8-11)
Two major lines of OT priests were the Aaronic (Ex 28;1)
and the Levitical (Heb. 7;11 Lev 6;2-5)

High priest Aaron was the first high priest (Ex 28-29)
See also Holy of HOlies, Levites.

If you read about Noah you can see he is getting instructions on the boat about the altar mannah etc. burning inscense so I think he was the pre-abraham priest such but there wasn’t a temple yet .

I know a hebrew Catholic and he said our priests are more like the deacons of the early church, but did instructing, here as our priests do the sacrafice. And our bishops are more like the priests of then that strickly did the sacrafice.
Not sure if this is right . God speed in your hunt for the info.

Watch what you read because this book and I’m not going to give you the name because it has some false info about how we suddenly did not need any priests anymore and we speak directly to God and interpret the bible anyhoo we want.
I will contact my friend and see if he has some books I can refer you too.
D.
 
Well, I know you can say that the Levites were the tribe of priests, but that’s not really what I’m looking for.

I think that originally there were only bishops.

I’m more talking about the modern day priest. I don’t want some technical definition and refer to the 1st century as priests. I think you guys can understand what I mean by modern day priest.
 
There is some debate over when the three Holy Orders of Deacon, Priest and Bishop became disctinct.

According to some, the Twelve Apostles were the first bishops under the authority of St. Peter, and in the cities where the first Churches emerged they appointed other bishops. The role of the bishop was to celebrate the early Mass and lead the Christian communities. As Christian populations grew it became necessary for the Diaconate to emerge, whose original function was to serve the poor and assist the bishop (St. Stephen the martyr was one of the deacons). As time went on the presbyterate (priesthood) developed out of the episcopate. The episcopate, presbyterate and diaconate were distinct Holy Orders by the end of the Apostolic era, and all are mentioned in Holy Scripture.

However, in the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich- which are not binding revelations, but considering her beatification and miraculous life should be viewed as reliable- Our Lord established all three of the Hoyl Orders at the Last Supper where all the Apostles were annointed priests, and a couple (Peter and John? I don’t quite remember) were consecrated bishops.
 
hamburglar said:
Well, I know you can say that the Levites were the tribe of priests, but that’s not really what I’m looking for.

I think that originally there were only bishops.

I’m more talking about the modern day priest. I don’t want some technical definition and refer to the 1st century as priests. I think you guys can understand what I mean by modern day priest.
Click to expand...
How far back do you think the “modern era” goes? Catholic priests were present in the first century.
 
Caesar said:
…Our Lord established all three of the Hoyl Orders at the Last Supper where all the Apostles were annointed priests, and a couple (Peter and John? I don’t quite remember) were consecrated bishops.
Click to expand...
It seems to me that the Lord did establish all three Orders at the Last Supper, but that all of the Apostles were ordained into all 3 Orders.
 
hamburglar said:
Well, I know you can say that the Levites were the tribe of priests, but that’s not really what I’m looking for.

I think that originally there were only bishops.

I’m more talking about the modern day priest. I don’t want some technical definition and refer to the 1st century as priests. I think you guys can understand what I mean by modern day priest.
Click to expand...
I for one don’t completely understand what you’re getting at. Could you elaborate? If it helps, what we have of the writings from the Early Church Fathers shows evidence of priests, bishops (with less and sometimes no distinction between these two) and deacons as early as the second century. There is a much clearer picture of the church in historical records beginning around the start of the fourth century, where the three holy orders are unquestionably present in the same form we know them today.
 
hamburglar said:
I’m more talking about the modern day priest. I don’t want some technical definition and refer to the 1st century as priests. I think you guys can understand what I mean by modern day priest.
Click to expand...
I think I understand what you’re getting at. i think however, that you aren’t going to find any specific date or document that is responsible for the roles and duties of the modern priest. This is because development in the Church is organic and slow.

The modern priesthood was born of the ancient priesthood and they share a lot in common. For the purpouse of your project I would point out that the functions of a priest have been around since Christ, and the modern priesthood is the result of thousands of years of organic development from this very ancient and holy vocation.
 
hamburglar said:
Well, I know you can say that the Levites were the tribe of priests, but that’s not really what I’m looking for.

I think that originally there were only bishops.

I’m more talking about the modern day priest. I don’t want some technical definition and refer to the 1st century as priests. I think you guys can understand what I mean by modern day priest.
Click to expand...
I for one don’t understand what you are asking for.

All at once you are asking for the history, but telling us what history you don’t want.

Catholics believe the priesthood goes back to the Last Supper. It is actually fair to say their antecedents were the Temple priests of Israel who offered Temple sacrifice - which was nullified and replaced by the sacrifice on the cross, and the priesthood transferred to the Catholic priests of today.
 
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