Jesus the Priest?

Last updated on: August 4, 2019 at 5:43 am by Michael F. Bird

Jesus the Priest? 2019-04-17T23:30:02-04:00 Michael F. Bird

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Nicholas Perrin

Jesus the Priest
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2019.
Available at Baker Academic.

Nicholas Perrin (Wheaton College) has completed the second volume of his trilogy of books about Jesus. The tirst one was Jesus the Temple and the next one will be Jesus the Sacrifice. In Jesus the Priest, Perrin offers a new paradigm for understanding the historical Jesus as a self-consciously priestly figure. Perrin challenges the standard anti-cultic and anti-clerical reading of classic texts (e.g. the Lord’s Prayer, Parable of the Sower, the Beatitudes, etc) to argue that the historical Jesus identified himself not as sage or prophet but as Israel’s eschatological high priest. In addition, it is as the priest that Jesus claims to reveal God’s unchanging character through his own person and he announces the impending climax of God’s eschatological purpose, constituted by the arrival of the heavenly temple on earth. For Perrin, Jesus’s priesthood exhibits a mediating understanding that sheds crucial light on the kingdom of God.

I remember during my doctoral studies realizing that several episodes in the Gospels had a distinctly cultic or priestly feel about them. For instance, Jesus appealing to David and his companions eating the bread of the presence in the days of Abiathar (Mk 2:26) and Jesus citing Ps 110 which mentions Melchizedek (Mk 12:35-37). I was going to follow this up with a research project, but after Crispin Fletcher-Louis wrote some articles in JSHJ on the same thing, quite ably too, I didn’t see the point anymore. But I’m glad to see that Perrin has taken up the idea of a priestly Jesus and prosecuted the thesis with exceeding rigor. It is a testament to an anti-clerical hermeneutic usually by protestants or secular scholars that this aspect gets overlooked.

Perrin aims to show that Davidic restoration has a number of “cultic entailment” and “important as Jesus’ royal messianic aspect may be, the evidence suggests that he subordinated his royal identity to his primary identity as priest. Jesus sought to implement not a theocracy but a hierocracy under the God of Israel” (7). Perrin sees in each petition of the Lord’s Prayer an allusion “to a different aspect of a single eschatological reality, all centered around a new consecrated priesthood and sacred space” (52) so that the prayer was “the oral charter for a new eschatological priesthood, which was in the process of being formed under Jesus not on the basis of genealogical descent but on his call” (53). Perrin detects allusions to priestly themes from Psalm 2 and Ezekiel 36 pertaining to Jesus’ baptism. The largest chapter on Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom brings to the surface Ezekielian themes of restored cultic spaces, new priesthood, cleansing, and issuance of the Spirit (140). If Jesus did think he was the Son of David, then part of his task was to install “a monarchic hagiocracy” with himself somewhere in the mix. Perhaps the most intriguing and profitable chapter pertains to Perrin’s argument for the priestly connotations pertaining to “the one like a Son of Man” in Daniel 7. For Perrin, Daniel’s SM is “symbolically rendered as Israel’s eschatological high priest” (167) and for Jesus the SM functioned as a “coded template for himself and his movement” (236). In other words, for Jesus, the SM was “not a title but a story” (238). Perrin points out that imperial coinage of the day portrayed Emperor Tiberius as Pontifex Maximus (high priest) which Jesus seems to disparage in Mk 12.13-17. Then, concerning Mk 14:62, Perrin sees the echoes of Dan 7 and Ps 110 as connected by the theme of a priestly figure who defeats God’s enemies. In the end, Perrin believes that Jesus launched a counter-temple movement that was a liturgical movement, an itinerant movement, and an inclusive movement. And, to give a hint at his forthcoming book, Perrin declares “A humanity shaped for service in the guild of eschatological priests could only emerge through the crucible of the fully God-honouring life. Thus for Jesus, atonement was not so much a singular act of self-giving but a divinely ordained process by which Jesus’ true humanity would come into full expression and realize its full potential. Just as in ancient Judaism atonement was assumed to be ineffective apart from the perfection of the priest, so too the fullness of humanity was inconceivable apart from atoning self-surrender” (287).

The strength of this book is that it brings to the surface the priestly and cultic text of much material in the OT, STJ, and the Gospels. Also, Perrin rightly points out that Davidic and priestly categories overlapped, Jesus led a counter-temple movement which by implication had to be a type of counter-priestly movement too, how Jewish restoration eschatology meant restoration of the temple, the combination of ethics and eschatology, and it explains the application of priestly metaphors and images used for Jesus in the Pauline letters and Hebrews.

That said, I do worry that Perrin is trying to make something that is a thematic leitmotif (priesthood) to be the orchestra (driving apparatus) of the self-conception and mission of the historical Jesus – I’m not sure on that one. Also, I’m left thinking that not everything cultic should be construed as priestly. Plus, individual interpretive decisions he makes were not always convincing, e.g. Perrin’s view of Mk 2:9 about declaring the forgiveness of sins making Jesus a priest and his interpretation of Jesus’ response to Caiaphas in Mk 14:62 as priestly rather than a claim to be co-enthroned with YHWH.

Sadly, books on the historical Jesus are fairly rare these days, so this is a welcomed publication, a stimulating and informative read, and we can earnestly look forward to Perrin’s completion of his trilogy in the next volume Jesus the Sacrifice.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 2, 2019

Asian Christian Theology

Next Post

August 5, 2019 Mondays with Moo and McKnight - Romans 2

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Bible Lands Blogosphere Book Review Calvinism Colleges & Universities Ecclesiology Emerging Adulthood Evangelicalism Foreign Affairs Gospel of John Greco-Roman World Humor Just War N. T. Wright Old Testament Resurrection Terrorism Theological Education Travel Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the Hebrew word 'Shekinah' mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Everlasting Light Holy Fire God’s Glory Divine Presence

Books by This Author Books by Mike Bird

See All Titles »