How Tolkien's Treebeard Points To An Ordained NT Priesthood
How I Discovered 'An Ordained NT Priesthood' in Scripture, the Church Fathers, & Lord of the Rings
In my favorite novel, The Lord of the Rings, there is a profound, religious scene that doesn’t make it into the film versions. Treebeard, a walking and talking tree who is the chief elder of the Ents (other talking trees), performs an act of consecration like a priest. Merry and Pippin travel with Treebeard to Wellinghall, an ent-house, and when they walk inside, they see “a great stone table… but no chairs.” For those who also love the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (a dear friend of J.R.R. Tolkien), the phrase ‘stone table’ should immediately conjure up the place where Aslan was sacrificed for the redemption of Narnia. Tolkien goes on to write,
“Treebeard lifted two great vessels and stood them on the table. They seemed to be filled with water; but he held his hands over them, and immediately they began to glow, one with a golden and the other with a rich green light.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, 470.)
J.R.R. Tolkien, the devout Catholic that he was, placed this scene intentionally in Lord of the Rings to tell us something. I believe he was revealing to us the sacred ministry of an ordained priesthood or presbytery. Treebeard, as high elder (presbyter in Greek) of the forest, is consecrating the natural elements just like an ordained priest would at your typical Catholic or Orthodox parish. The ordinary water transforms into luminous greens and golds as his hands hover over the sacred vessels. In Mass or Divine Liturgy, the Holy Spirit comes down from Heaven, and the ordinary elements are transformed into Christ’s true and deified Body and Blood.
In general, evangelical Christians are uncomfortable calling any individual a priest besides Jesus (Hebrews 4:14-15). The line of thinking goes--“All believers now have direct access to God, because Jesus, our True High Priest, paved the way into the Holy of Holies (God’s Dwelling Place), which was revealed when the temple curtain (blocking the way) was torn in two at the hour of his death (Mt 27:51). The Old Testament priesthood ended with Jesus, and now we can all directly approach the throne of grace by His authority (see Hebrews 4:16), which in turns makes us all his priests, not just a select few (1 Peter 2:9). To think of an ordained priesthood operating apart from all Christians is, for most Protestants today, the equivalent of saying that “the way is blocked again to God,” and is deemed an unacceptable and un-Biblical position.
In my own experience, priests were not something we had at my Baptist church growing up, and the only image I had of priests came from the movies, which generally were negative, corrupt depictions. Combine that negative backdrop with an elementary understanding of church history and the Protestant Reformation, when all Christians were ‘freed’ from an ordained priesthood, and my chances of ever imagining a ‘priest’ in a favorable light were not good.
Q. So why do Catholic & Orthodox Christians have priests?
I was surprised to find that there was much confusion around this topic, which primarily comes from issues in translating the Bible. The word ‘priest’ actually cannot be found in the Bible. It is not an ancient word, and therefore it is not found in the original languages of the Bible.
What we find in the New Testament are two Greek words that have been translated as ‘priest’ which are ‘presbyteros’ and ‘hieros.’
The word, ‘presbyteros,’ often translated into English as the word, ‘elder,’ is mentioned in the New Testament 19 times for the title or office of a Christian minister. In contrast, the word, “pastor,” the most preferred title for evangelicals for their Christian minister, is mentioned only once in Ephesians 4:11. Presbyter appears to be the preferred term for a Christian leader who is charged with leading, overseeing, and administering a church in a city. This can be seen particularly clear in Acts 14:23 when the apostle Paul goes from city to city appointing presbyters for each of the churches. Toward the end of his life, Paul gives this task of ‘appointing presbyters’ to Titus and Timothy as a way of showing that he wanted this process to continue. As he writes,
“This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5).
Q. Why don’t Catholics & Orthodox simply call their leaders presbyters instead of priests?
Surprisingly, they do and always have! To this day, in the the historical languages (Greek, Latin) of the Catholic Church, these leaders are still called ‘presbyters.’ Writing in 107 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch, describes the 3 orders of ordained leadership within the Catholic and Orthodox churches:
“Take care to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop…, and with the presbyters .., and with the deacons, who are most dear to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ” (Letter to the Magnesians, 6:1). “Let everyone respect the deacons as they would respect Jesus Christ, and just as they respect the bishop as a type of the Father, and the presbyters as the council of God and college of the apostles. Without these, it cannot be called a church.” (Letter to the Trallians, 3:1–2) “It is necessary, therefore—and such is your practice that you do nothing without the bishop, and that you be subject also to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope… It is necessary also that the deacons, the dispensers of the mysteries [sacraments] of Jesus Christ, be in every way pleasing to all men.” (Letter to the Trallians 2:1–3 [A.D. 110]). “Anyone who acts without the bishop and the presbytery and the deacons does not have a clear conscience” (ibid., 7:2).
Interestingly, the word ‘priest’ never existed until other cultures began translating ‘presbyter’ into their own language. For example, the Germans began using a shorter version of the word presbyteros and called their Catholic leaders by the word, preost, and the English translated the same word into priest. Therefore, whenever a church refers to their leader as priest, they are simply saying the English stylized version of the word presbyter!
This is an example of ‘transliteration’ which is different than a translation. Names and words in their original languages can simply morph over time as they move into other regions of the world with different language groups. For example, the name of Jesus in English doesn’t really sound all that close to the way his followers and family would have pronounced it Hebrew, Yeshua, or Greek, Yesus. The same could be said for priest which is derived from prebyteros.
Q. Doesn’t 1 Peter 2:9 say that every Christian is apart of the priesthood of all believers?
Yes, but he doesn’t use the word ‘presbyer’ but ‘hieros.’ In the New Testament, hieros generally refers to the Old Testament temple managers and worship leaders. A hieros was one who managed the Temple, led prayers in the Temple, and offered sacrifices to God in the Temple. This same word also is applied to Jesus who is called the ‘High Hieros’ who offered his own life as a holy sacrifice for the entire world.
“Since, then, we have a great high priest (hieros in Greek) who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession” (Hebrews 4:14). “Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest (hieros) forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:20).
Hieros is also a term used for all baptized Christians who have collectively become “a kingdom of hieros.” St. Peter writes:
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood (hieros), a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9)
Like St. Peter taught long ago in Sacred Scripture, the Catholic Church has maintained that everyone becomes a hieros at baptism and participates with Christ, the High Hieros, when they make him known to the world. He alone is the Mediator between God and man, but we are all His ambassadors of reconciliation. St. John Chrysostom refers to all Christians beings made into prophets, priests (heiros), and kings through baptism as they clothe themselves with their new identity in Christ:
"So you too are made king and priest (hieros) and prophet in the laver (referring to baptism): a king, having dashed to earth all the deeds of wickedness and slain your sins, a priest (hieros) in that you offer yourself to God and sacrifice your body, and are yourself being slain also."
St. Augustine, commenting on Rev. 1: 6, writes:
"This is not said of bishops and ministers alone ... but just as we are all called Christs because of the mystic chrism, so all are called priests (hieros in Greek; sacredos in Latin) because all are members of the one Priest (hieros)."
Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes Scripture and the fathers in paragraph 1268:
“The baptized have become ‘living stones’ to be ‘built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood (hieros).’ By Baptism they share in the priesthood (hieros) of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission. They are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood (hieros), a holy nation, God's own people, that [they] may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called [them] out of darkness into his marvelous light.’ Baptism gives a share in the common priesthood (hieros) of all believers.”
We can conclude that the ancient, apostolic churches do teach in harmony with the Bible. Every believer is a hieros and that there is a ‘hieros of all believers.’ *However, the Catholic Church, like other Christian traditions, teaches that there is ‘no presbytery of all believers.’ Some men really are to be separated from the laity in order to be chosen and ordained to be presbyters which is something different. In other words, ‘all believers have direct access to God through their Mediator, Jesus Christ, but not all believers have the God-given authority and gifting to oversee local churches.’ This is the difference between these two words. There really are appointed and anointed leaders (Apostles, Bishops, Presbyters, & Deacons) in the New Testament Church that doesn’t include everyone. This is where a sound theology of ordination in the New Testament originates.
[I am of the opinion that Scripture scholars who spend time translating the Bible should find a new word for ‘hieros’ in English and German translations. My preference would be to simply call them ‘temple ministers’ or ‘hierarchs’ or perhaps ‘cohens’ (Hebrew form) of the temple. To continue to use the word ‘priest’ for the Old Testament Levitical order is to take away its historical origins in reference to the NT ‘presbyter’ and creates confusion among English and German-speaking Protestant traditions.]
Q. Why do Catholic & Orthodox ‘presbyters/priests’ look and behave more like the Old Testament ‘hieros’ who wear elaborate vestments, incense altars, offer a sacrifice, and lead rituals on behalf of the people?
This is because there is still a hieros function and identity to being a presbyter.
Let’s go back to Treebeard in Lord of the Rings. He is very much like a presbyter of the forest. He is the chief elder of the Ents (talking trees) who calls a ‘council’ in order to make binding decisions. He is also like pastor or shepherd who guards and protects the forest from outside threats. Finally, Treebeard presides over an altar and ‘consecrates’ vessels of water, which are transformed into magical liquids of green and gold. This is his hieros identity bursting through his role of presbyter. Treebeard not only oversees a forest but also “a stone table… without chairs.” He is like one of the 70 presbyters appointed to aid Moses in governing Israel while also being a hieros in the Levitical order of Aaron who leads Israel in worship.
During my Protestant days, I was surprised to discover that the job description of a presbyter in the New Testament was not only to preach and pastor, but also to lead worship, administer the sacraments, and to offer the Eucharist. One example of this hieros dimension comes from James 5:14-15, which states:
“Is anyone among you sick? They should call for the presbyters of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.”
The presbyters were not only on a council (presbytery, council of elders) to make decisions like in some Protestant, presbyterian models of church government, but they also had a role to lead a rite of anointing, healing, and confession of sins. The ‘prayer of faith’ was likely not a spontaneous prayer, but one that had a liturgical form that was recited during this rite of anointing. Catholic and Orthodox presbyters/priests have been leading this rite of healing for the sick for 2,000 years.
This holy gift (charism) was handed on to the Apostles by Christ in order to discipline the Church by forgiving sins in His name. This has been preserved in the various forms of confession and the rites of absolution or reconciliation over the last 2,000 years.
“When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (John 20:23).
This text from the Gospel of John is another example of the hieros function being fused with the office of presbyter. Forgiveness of sins and the healing of impurity in the Old Testament was associated with going to the temple to see the liturgical ministers (hieros) in order to be reincorporated into the People of God. This is why Jesus sent the 10 men healed of leprosy to see the temple hieros so that they could return to the worshiping community.
“When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the
priests(hieros). And as they went, they were cleansed” (Luke 17:14).
The Apostles also had a function of reincorporating people who had been excommunicated back into the worshiping community so they could partake of the benefits of salvation and Holy Communion (See 1 Corinthians 5).
But there is more. In Acts 1:23-26, we see the office of apostle/presbyter being connected with the office of hieros in the Old Testament, when the apostles are deciding on whom to choose as Judas’ replacement.
“So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, ‘Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.”
Why are they ‘casting lots’ to choose an apostolic successor? Were they putting God to the test or doing some type of superstitious practice? No, they were implementing the same process that was used in the Old Testament model of choosing Levitical ministers (hieros) who would rotate their liturgical service in the Temple. Did Peter choose this process because he knew the office of Apostle and presbyter had a hieros dimension to it? It would certainly seem that way particularly if we connect Acts 1 to Matthew 16:16-20.
“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’” (Mt 16:16-20).
Although Matthew 16:16-20 is a popular text that the church fathers use to argue for Peter’s authority to govern, they also use it to establish the heiros dimension to his job description as chief apostle (and extended to the other apostles and their successors, i.e. the bishops & presbyters) in connection to worship and the Temple. 1 Maccabees 14 provides us with Old Testament imagery of an earlier Simon who was High Priest for the Jewish people:
“The Jewish people and their
priests(hieros) had decided the following: Simon shall be their leader and highpriest(high hieros) forever until a trustworthy prophet arises. He shall act as governor over them, and shall have charge of the sanctuary… and he shall be clothed in purple and gold…. Simon accepted and agreed to be highpriest(high hieros), governor, and ethnarch* of the Jewish people andpriests(hieros), and to have authority over all.’”
The Church Father, St. Ephrem of Syria, connects Simon Peter of Matthew 16 with Simon the High Priest in 1 Maccabees 14 when he writes:
“Therefore the former Steward and the last Treasurer (Simon of 1st Maccabees) handed on the keys of the priesthood (hieros) and prophecy to him [Jesus] who had authority over the treasury of both of these… And our Lord, to show that he had received the keys from the former steward, said to Simon [Peter]: To thee will I give the keys of the gates [Matt. 16:19]. But how could he give them to another unless he had received them from another? The keys, therefore, which he received from Simeon the priest (hieros), he gave to ‘Simeon’ the Apostle [Peter], so that even if the Nation would not listen to the former Simeon, the Nations should listen to the other ‘Simeon [Peter].’”1
St. Ephrem taught that Jesus was establishing Peter as His high hieros who will oversee the sanctuary of the church on his behalf. Matthew 18:18 also extends ‘the binding and loosing’ authority to the rest of the Apostles, which in turn passes on to the apostolic successors—the bishops and presbyters.
“18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:15-18).
St. Theodoret of Cyrus also sees a hieros dimension being given to the apostles in their ministry which passed onto the bishops and presbyters through apostolic succession and the laying on of hands:
“According to this quote (see Isaiah 22:22 & Matthew 16:16-18), too, he gives to him [St. Peter] the priestly (hieros) and governing jurisdiction. Wherefore, too, he was mindful of David: For David is not a priest (hieros) but a king, but all the same he [Jesus] ordered the priesthood (hieros).”2
St. Theodoret believes this passage applies to all bishops who received this hieros identity when he writes:
“In this passage are also prefigured the realities which are ours: “Whatever you bind on earth, he says, will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, earth, will be loosed in heaven.”
St. Theodoret views the ministry given to Peter as one involving both the role of presbyter (governor, pastor) and hieros (liturgical temple minister), which passes on to the other apostles and their successors. This is why bishops were often described as ‘High Hieros’ by the church fathers. They were the ‘Peter’ over the churches in their diocese/region and had binding authority regulating pastoral oversight and worship (the Eucharist). Mostly importantly, they were charged with presiding over an altar where the Eucharist became Christ’s Body and Blood and was offered back up to the Father. The Apostolic Constitutions (8:5) uses a prayer for the ordination of bishop:
“O God, who search the hearts, that this Your servant, whom You have chosen to be a bishop, may feed Your holy flock, and discharge the office of an high priest (hieros) to You… Grant to him, O Lord Almighty, through Your Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, that so he may have power to remit sins according to Your command; to give forth lots according to Your command; to loose every bond, according to the power which You gave the apostles; that he may please You in meekness and a pure heart, with a steadfast, unblameable, and unreprovable mind; to offer to You a pure and unbloody sacrifice, which by Your Christ You have appointed as the mystery of the new covenant…” Apostolic Constitutions Book 8, Section 5. (Compiled in 4th century from early works in 1st-3rd centuries)
Pope St. Clement also connects the Eucharistic sacrifice with the role of bishops and presbyters. Writing in the late 1st century (80s-90s AD), he states:
“Our sin will not be small if we eject from the episcopate (bishops) those who blamelessly and holily have offered its sacrifices. Blessed are those presbyters who have already finished their course, and who have obtained a fruitful and perfect release” (Letter to the Corinthians 44:4–5 [A.D. 80]).
What are these sacrifices offered by the bishops and presbyters? The Didache, another document from the 1st century, elaborates:
“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’” [Mal. 1:11, 14]” (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).
St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, writes in 107 AD:
“Make certain, therefore, that you all observe one common Eucharist; for there is but one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and but one cup of union with his Blood, and one single altar of sacrifice—even as there is also but one bishop, with his clergy and my own fellow servitors, the deacons. This will ensure that all your doings are in full accord with the will of God” (Letter to the Philadelphians 4)
Fifty years later, St. Justin the Martyr, also comments on the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist when he writes:
“God speaks by the mouth of Malachi… “in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering, for my name is great among the Gentiles . . . [Mal. 1:10–11]. He then speaks of those Gentiles, namely us [Christians] who in every place offer sacrifices to him, that is, the bread of the Eucharist and also the cup of the Eucharist” (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 41 [A.D. 155]).
In no uncertain terms, St. Justin the martyr declares that the Eucharist mystically and truly becomes Christ’s Body and Blood:
“We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).
As we conclude our survey, let’s return to the vision of the New Testament for presbyters as hieros. Christian writer, Ben Bollinger, provides a wonderful summary:
But was ordination in the New Testament truly a bestowal of sacerdotal (hieros) power rather than just right doctrine? Indeed it was. Consider 1 Timothy 4:14, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift (charismatos) within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” … This data is lent further significance by 2 Timothy 1:6, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift (charisma) of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” …Paul confirms that his hands were the instrument “through” which Timothy received the spiritual gift of God. This sheds great light on why Paul enjoined Timothy “not [to] be hasty in the laying on of hands” (1 Tim 5:22). Like Paul, Timothy had been authorized to transfer the “spiritual gift” of ministry to other men through the laying on of hands. Because of this, Timothy had to ensure that these ministers-elect were “above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, and able to teach” (1 Tim 3:2), before giving them any kind of sacerdotal (hieros) power.”3
You can the read the rest of his article here:
“And I will give the glory of David to him, and he shall rule, and there will not be someone contradicting, and I will give to him the key of David’s house upon the shoulder of him, and he shall open, and no one shall shut, and he shall shut and there will be not be someone opening” (Greek variant of LXX Isaiah 22:22). On this matter, too, our own realities are (proto-)typified. For he [Jesus] says: “Whatever you should bind upon the earth shall be bound in the heavens and whatever you should loose on the earth shall loosed in the heavens” (Matthew 16:18-20). “And I shall establish him a ruler in a faithful locale, and he shall be unto the throne of glory by the house of his father” (LXX Isaiah 22:23). According to this quote, too, he gives to him [St. Peter] the priestly (hieratikên, heiros) and governing (archontikên) jurisdiction (eksousian). Wherefore, too, he was mindful of David: For David is not a priest but a king, but all the same he [Jesus] ordered the priesthood.”
Theodoret of Cyrus (5th century) Translation by Rev. Dr. C. W. Kappes. The citation is Matthew 16:19. (PatrologiaeCursus Completus: Series Graeca, TomusLXXI, pg. 355).This is further demonstrated by the church fathers describing the bishops as the ‘high heiros’ among the presybters who also have a ‘heiros’ identity and function.
Well thought out and clearly written! Great work, brother.
Indeed, I would love that!