**This may help touch up the biblical and historical roots for the priesthood. The following are selections from
bringyou.to/apologetics.
If I find the exact article, I will give the link…**
…Now, the Greek word “presbyter” has an interesting position in the English language. While it’s usually translated as “elder,” the Greek meaning is actually more adjectival – being closer in meaning to “senior” – as in a “senior citizen” or a “father” of the community (i.e. a “patriarch”).
However, what’s most interesting for the Christian usage in English is that “presbyter” already has an equivalent word – an English word which draws its root from the Christian usage of “presbyter” in the Greek language; and that English word is “priest.”
This becomes most clear when one stops reading Scripture from the English (i.e. culturally-Protestant) perspective, and one realizes that the words “presbuteros” (in Greek) and “presbyterus” (in Latin) were used to designate the role of a Catholic (or Orthodox) priest for the first five to ten hundred years of Christianity. Indeed, if one travels to Greece today, one will notice that the Greek word for “priest” is still “presbuteros.”
The change is only apparent in English because we (as English speakers) are viewing things from an inverted perspective.
When we hear of Jewish or pagan “priests,” we assume the English word “priest” pre-dates the Christian usage, when in fact the word “priest” comes from the Christian usage of “presbuteros.”
Here’s how it works:
“Presbuteros” (Greek) → “Presbyterus” (Latin) -->“Prete” (Italian) → “Pretre” (French) --“Proest” (Old / Middle English) → “Priest” (Modern English).
So, the “presbyters” we see in Scripture are the “priests” of the Catholic Church. That is, they are those who preside as “fathers” at the new Passover Meal (the Eucharist / Holy Communion). For, in the Jewish Tradition, it was always the father who presided over the Passover Feast; and this Tradition has been elevated to the status of a far greater Passover Feast (the Eucharist), where the faithful are able to partake of the ONE Sacrifice of Calvary – made present in their midst.
Ignatius of Antioch was a man who both knew and was ordained by the Apostles. No modern scholar, Protestant or Catholic, seriously questions this fact. What’s morewhenever Ignatius uses the term “bishop,” it always applies to the leading, one-man shepherd of a city-church. Ignatius does not use the term “bishop” as the New Testament does, where the word is interchangeable with the term “presbyter.” Rather, for Ignatius, “bishop” and “presbyter” are clearly separate offices; and again and again, we see Ignatius referring to the traditional Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox) three-fold ministry of “bishop / presbyter / deacon,” in which the term “bishop” (“overseer”) is used for the monarchical leading presbyter alone:
“You must all follow THE BISHOP as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbyters as you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the church without THE BISHOP. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by THE BISHOP, or by one whom he appoints. Wherever THE BISHOP appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” (Ignatius, TO THE SMYRNEANS)
“…your most worthy BISHOP, and through your worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius, and through my fellow servant the deacon Soto, whose friendship may I ever enjoy, inasmuch as he is subject to THE BISHOP as to the grace of God.” (Ignatius, TO THE MAGNESIANS, Chapter II)
“Take care, then who belong to God and to Jesus Christ – they are with the THE BISHOP. …Do not err, my brethren: if anyone follow a schismatic, he will not inherit the Kingdom of God. …Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: for there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one Cup in the union of His Blood; one altar, as there is ONE BISHOP with the presbyters and my fellow servants, the deacons.” (Ignatius of Antioch TO THE PHILADELPHIANS, 3:2-4:1)
Furthermore, despite what some other so-called “scholars” have directly stated in their books, St. Ignatius of Antioch did not “create” the office of “bishop”; nor did he, as some others have maintained, “suggest that each church have a bishop.” Rather, if one bothers to read Ignatius’ writings, he speaks of these bishops as already-existing in each of the Asian city-churches he writes to; and he even addresses all but one of these bishops by name.
