Priesthood, Temple, and Semantics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Most people know that in our current arrangement, young men tend to receive the priesthood at age 12, when they are ordained to the office of Deacon in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2008\/01\/priesthood-temple-and-semantics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Priesthood, Temple, and Semantics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most people know that in our current arrangement, young men tend to receive the priesthood at age 12, when they are ordained to the office of Deacon in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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{"id":526,"date":"2008-01-26T16:40:16","date_gmt":"2008-01-26T21:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faithpromotingrumor.wordpress.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2008-01-26T16:40:16","modified_gmt":"2008-01-26T21:40:16","slug":"priesthood-temple-and-semantics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2008\/01\/priesthood-temple-and-semantics\/","title":{"rendered":"Priesthood, Temple, and Semantics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What we don\u2019t really have is a good definition of priesthood in terms of offices or ritual<\/em>. For those readers mumbling \u201cuh, yes we do,\u201d let me confuse the issue for you.
\nFirst, we know that \u201cpriesthood\u201d is not synonymous with \u201cpriesthood office,\u201d according to D&C 107:1-5.<\/p>\n

Second, in terms of etymology, \u201cpriesthood\u201d means something like \u201cthe condition or status of being a priest; the order of priest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third, the biblical way one becomes a priest is not by laying on of hands. (At least, we have no record of Aaron undergoing laying on of hands.)<\/p>\n

Rather, according to Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8, it involves a ceremony of ritual purification, entering into sacred ground within the temple boundaries, being washed, anointed, clothed in priestly clothing, \u201cfilling the hand,\u201d and some other things. We certainly don\u2019t do that with 12-yr olds (anymore), although we do something similar with adults.<\/p>\n

The question then, becomes this. Does an LDS male become a priest when he receives the (Aaronic) priesthood<\/em> and becomes a deacon, when he is ordained to the office of priest <\/em>(in the Melchisedek priesthood), or when he undergoes the LDS equivalent of the Biblical ritual which makes one a priest<\/em>?<\/p>\n

(It has been pointed out in print that if one goes by the Biblical standard, than the LDS Church\u00a0 has de facto<\/em> female priests who are not ordained to any particular office.)<\/p>\n

The OED notes in its definition of priesthood that it can also refer to \u201cPriests collectively; a body of priests.\u201d That certainly applies to the 12-year old, who, upon being ordained, joins that collective body of males. But it doesn\u2019t provide us a good definition of priesthood with regard to the offices and LDS rituals.<\/p>\n

Some of the semantic issue here is due to the LDS doctrine of priesthood as some kind of authority instead of priesthood as service (ie. teaching and performance of ritual). That is, the usual definition of priesthood given is \u201cthe authority to act or speak for God,\u201d but that definition is not entirely consistent with the role of priests in the Bible. Nota bene, I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s wrong. I\u2019m just saying that we view things differently today. Our view of priesthood (definition, responsibilities, offices) doesn\u2019t map very well onto the OT, the NT or the Book of Mormon.<\/p>\n

Food for thought.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"