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What's New
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July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
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The Priesthood

The priesthood is the function of the priest. The priest stands between God and men: he carries to God, in the name of men, the offering and the prayer, and he passes on to men what God gives, his pardon and his blessing. The word comes from the Latin sacerdos, bound to the sacred: the one who performs holy things. Greek distinguishes two words: hiereus (ἱερεύς), the one who offers the sacrifice, which the New Testament reserves for Christ and the baptised people, and presbyteros (πρεσβύτερος), “the elder,” from which the word “priest” comes and which names the ministers established by the apostles.

The priest, a mediator

Scripture defines the priest in a single sentence: “Every high priest is taken from among men and appointed to act on their behalf in the service of God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Hebrews 5:1 The priest is taken from among men: he is one of them. He is appointed on their behalf: his office is a service. His domain is their relations with God: prayer, worship, all that binds the people to their Lord. His proper task is to offer sacrifices: to present to God a gift in the name of all, to adore him and obtain his pardon. This is the mediator: the one who stands between the two shores, God and his people, and joins them.

From the temple to the Cross

In the Old Covenant, God appointed Aaron and his sons, in the tribe of Levi, to offer in the temple, in the name of all, animal sacrifices endlessly repeated. To grasp what these sacrifices accomplished, one must know what impurity was under the Law. Contact with death or corruption (touching a corpse, certain diseases, the flow of blood) made the faithful unclean, and this uncleanness was not first of all a sin: it was a state that barred one from approaching the sanctuary, on pain of profaning it: “In this way you shall keep the sons of Israel apart from their uncleannesses, lest they die by defiling my Dwelling, which is in their midst.” Leviticus 15:31 The blood of animals and the ashes of the red heifer washed away precisely this state: they restored to the faithful ritual purity, sanctifying them “so that their flesh is clean,” Hebrews 9:13 that outward purity which reopened access to worship and allowed one to appear again before God. Sin itself remained, for it engages the free will: to turn away from God is an act of the heart, and only a reparation freely offered can answer for it. A slaughtered beast does not offer itself, it submits; its blood bears no obedience and no love, nothing that could redeem a guilty will: “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Hebrews 10:4 Yet God commanded these offerings, and for a good: returning every year for the same sins, they kept the conscience awake and deepened the longing for a pardon still to come: “these sacrifices are a yearly reminder of sins.” Hebrews 10:3 Each slain victim thus foretold the true victim. Christ came to fulfil the priesthood. He made himself at once priest and victim: on the Cross, he offers to his Father, once for all, the one sacrifice that saves, the gift of his own life: “we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.” Hebrews 10:10

According to the order of Melchizedek

This priesthood of Christ endures forever, foretold from afar by a figure of Genesis, Melchizedek: “Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram.” Genesis 14:18-19 Genesis presents him without genealogy, without birth or death recorded: he appears without origin and vanishes without end, and the Epistle to the Hebrews reads in him the image of the eternal Priest. “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, made like the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” Hebrews 7:3 This very absence makes him the image of the eternal Priest, whose priesthood has neither beginning nor term; and the bread and wine he presents foretell the offering of the Eucharist. The oracle of the royal psalm had foretold it. “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” Psalm 110:4 The Epistle to the Hebrews draws from it Christ’s superiority over the ancient priesthood: Abraham, and in him the tribe of Levi, pays the tithe to Melchizedek and receives his blessing, for “it is the lesser who is blessed by the greater.” Hebrews 7:7; and this change of priesthood brings a change of the whole Law. “when the priesthood is changed, a change of Law necessarily follows.” Hebrews 7:12

The priesthood shared

From this one priesthood of Christ flows all Christian priesthood. Through baptism, all the faithful receive a priesthood: they can offer to God their whole life, their work, their joys and their sorrows, as a spiritual offering. “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5 This is the common priesthood of all the baptised: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.” 1 Peter 2:9 Within this people, Christ calls some to a particular priesthood: through ordination, the priest receives the power to act in the very person of Christ the Head, in persona Christi, to make present, in the Eucharist, his one sacrifice. This is the ministerial priesthood, given to serve the common priesthood, and received in three degrees, the bishop, the priest, and the deacon, treated in the article on holy orders.

The same priest acts also in the other direction of mediation. Offering the Eucharist, he speaks in the name of the whole Church, in persona Ecclesiae: he presents to God the prayer, the thanksgiving and the offering of the assembled people. The two directions announced thus meet in him: he makes Christ present to his people, and he carries that people to God.

One single reality

The word “priesthood” thus goes back entirely to Christ, the one high priest who offered himself. “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.” Hebrews 4:14 The baptised share in his priesthood by offering their lives; the ordained share in it otherwise, by making present his sacrifice. These two participations do not differ as more and less of one same thing: they differ in nature. The Second Vatican Council teaches that the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood “differ in essence and not only in degree,” while being ordered to one another. All goes back to Christ, the one mediator. “there is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind: a man, Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5

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