Editing Priesthood of all believers (section)

== Antiquity ==
Hebrew [[Old Testament]] texts speak of a national "kingdom of priests" (Exodus, 19:5–6), [[Priesthood_(ancient_Israel)|Levites]] (Exodus 40:15, Leviticus 21:10),{{refn| group=note|In [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|ancient Israel]], priests acted as mediators between God and people. They ministered according to God's instruction and offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. Once a year, the [[High Priest of Israel|high priest]] would enter the [[Holy of Holies|holiest part of the temple]] and offer a sacrifice for the sins of all the people, including all the priests.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} }} and specific priests (e.g. [[Melchizedek|Genesis 14:18–20]].) Some issue of illegitimate priestly activity is found in the story of the "schism of [[Korah#Rebellion|Korah]]" (Numbers 16:1-40).

The [[Odes of Solomon]] (c. q70-120 AD) has an early understanding of a view of the priesthood of all believers, suggesting that Jewish-Christians in the region of [[Antioch]] believed themselves to be priests of God making spiritual sacrifices.<ref  group=note>"In a hymn now known as Ode 20, the poet describes his understanding of the "priesthood of all believers": ..... Ode 20 demonstrates that first century Jewish-Christians in the region of Antioch perceived themselves as individual priests offering spiritual sacrifices." {{Cite book |last=Voss |first=Henry Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQNoDQAAQBAJ&dq=Priesthood+of+all+believers+odes+of+solomon&pg=PA42 |title=The Priesthood of All Believers and the Missio Dei: A Canonical, Catholic, and Contextual Perspective |date=2016-10-25 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-8329-8 |language=en }}</ref> [[Tertullian]] held a belief similar to the priesthood of all believers. However his views on the laity may have been influenced by [[Montanism]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellingsen |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ahjsCgAAQBAJ&dq=priesthood+of+all+believers+Tertullian&pg=PA59 |title=African Christian Mothers and Fathers: Why They Matter for the Church Today |date=2015-10-21 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-60608-550-9 |language=en}}</ref> as the Montanists supposedly believed in the priesthood of every believer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rushdoony |first=R. J. |author-link=R. J. Rushdoony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwdfDwAAQBAJ&dq=priesthood+of+all+believers+Montanism&pg=PT590 |title=An Informed Faith: The Position Papers of R. J. Rushdoony |date=2017-07-11 |publisher=Chalcedon Foundation |isbn=978-1-879998-78-0 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Irenaeus]] has been argued to have held to a view of universal priesthood because he stated "for all the righteous possess the sacerdotal rank".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrow |first=Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NgrUAwAAQBAJ&dq=priesthood+of+all+believers+Irenaeus&pg=PA71 |title=Ascension And Ecclesia |date=2004-07-01 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-0-567-08325-8}}</ref> For [[Augustine of Hippo|St Augustine]], [[baptism]] (including [[infant baptism]]) was an [[ordination]] into Christ’s royal priesthood. In his exposition of 1 Peter 2:9, he writes ‘we call them all priest insomuch as they are members of the One Priest’.{{refn|group=note|"The responsibility of all those who were baptised is to offer their lives to God. Augustine deﬁnes the royal priesthood’s ‘true sacriﬁces’ as ‘works of mercy done to ourselves or our neighbour and directed to God.’"  ''apud'' Dreyer<ref name=dreyer>{{cite journal |last1=Dreyer |first1=Wim A. |title=The priesthood of believers: The forgotten legacy of the reformation |journal=HTS Theological Studies |date=1 January 2020 |volume=76 |issue=4 |doi=10.4102/hts.v76i4.6021 |url=https://www.academia.edu/44332445|hdl=2263/79729 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>}}

In the millennium from the 6th to 16th centuries, this common priesthood was sometimes overshadowed, to some extent, by the influence of [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]]'s book ''[[De_Coelesti_Hierarchia|Celestial Hierarchy]]'', which was widely believed then to be a second-century and near-apostolic teaching, that appropriated a pagan multi-level schema to make a hierarchical description of Christianity with a succession of intermediaries (energies, names, angels, priests, etc.) between God and man.<ref name="dreyer" />