The above verses testify to the fulfillment of a prophecy uttered by Isaiah
centuries earlier concerning the conversion of the Gentiles, when he said,
“And they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to
the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and
upon dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as
the Israelites bring their cereal offering in a clean vessel to the house of the
Lord. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the
Lord” (Is. 66:20-21).
Second objection: “It appears that specific men were set apart and
ordained to perform specialist functions but these functions were not
of a sacrificial nature to qualify them as priests. They were simply
ministers of the word of God and their sacrifices were prayer and
praise.”
In all fairness it must be recognized that the Greek word ‘Hiereus’, used to
describe the Jewish High Priest, is only used in the New Testament with
respect to Christ. It is for this reason that Protestants hold that Christ is the
only New Testament priest and that those who are elders or overseers hold
no priestly office.
The question as to whether the ordained Christian clergy in the New
Testament constituted a priesthood hinges on whether the Eucharistic
Sacrifice of the Mass is a part of authentic Christian worship. This was
recognized by the Council of Trent:
“Sacrifice and priesthood are, by the ordinance of God, so conjoined,
that both have existed in every law. Therefore, whereas in the New
Testament, the Catholic Church has received, from the institution of
Christ, the holy visible sacrifice of the Eucharist, it must also be
confessed that there is, in that Church, a new, visible and external
priesthood into which the old has been translated.”²
The Prophet Malachi in the Old Testament predicted that the Jewish
priesthood and sacrifices would be replaced by Gentile ones:
“I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts: and I will not receive a
gift of your hand. For from the rising of the sun, even to the going down,
2
Decree on the Sacrament of Order, Ch. I, (1563).
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