Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Eugene H. Merrill on the Biblical Evidence for an Old Testament Royal Priesthood

  

. . . one should note the reference to David's sons as "priests" (‎כֹּהֲנִ֥ים) in the list of his principal officials (2 Sam. 8:18). Though the chronicler described them merely as "chief ones" (‎רִאשֹׁנִ֖ים 1Chron. 18:17, NIV). the intent no doubt was to suggest their important function without specifying its nature. Despite various efforts to explain ‎כֹּהֲנִ֥ים as something other than priests, it seems best to view these sons as priests in the same sense in which Dadi was, namely, a spiritual descendant of Melchizedek.

 

The strongest suggestion of Davidic royal priesthood occurs in 2 Samuel 6 (cf. 1 Chron. 15), which recounts the procession of the ark into Jerusalem from Kiriath-jearim, where it had been housed for a century or more. The entire enterprise was at the initiative of David and though the regular Aaronic order of priests and Levites was involved, David himself was in charge, leading the entourage and, clothed in priestly attire, offering sacrifice and issuing priestly benedictions. To maintain that David merely supervised the occasion and did not actually participate as priest goes against the clear intention of the text.

 

A similar exercise of priestly prerogative is evident at the inauguration of the reign of Solomon who went to Gibeon, the site of the Mosaic tabernacle, to offer sacrifice (1 Kings 3:1-9; cf. 2 Chron. 1:1-6). Though he obviously did not slay and present the enormous numbers of animals unaided, the narrative is clear in its insistence that he, the king, functioned as a priest. The same thing is implied on the occasion of the transport of the ark into the temple (1 Kings 8:5) and the subsequent dedication of that holy building (w. 55, 62, 63). On both occasions Solomon presided over the cultic festivities and personally participated in them.

 

The priestly role of the kings of Israel and Judah is not well documented following Solomon's early years, but that it continued and was tacitly recognized as appropriate may be seen in one example at least, that of Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:16-23). This king of Judah, the historian recounts, "was unfaithful ("acted treacherously" ‎וַיִּמְעַ֖ל) to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense" (v. 16, NIV). While it might appear at first glance that Uzziah's sin was that of arrogating priestly privilege, that is not the case at all for the rebuke of the Aaronic priest Azariah centered on Uzziah's having overstepped the bounds of priestly ministry to which he was limited and to have infringed on that of the Levitical priests. Azariah said, "It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense" (v. 18, NIV). The infraction was not that of a king functioning cultically, but of a king undertaking a cultic ministry limited to another order of priests. This is specified in Numbers 16:40: "No one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the Lord" (NIV). Despite the punishment of Uzziah for his indiscretion, there is not a hint of chastisement for his having assumed a priestly role in general. In fact in stating that the burning of incense was limited to "the priests, the descendants of Aaron," the high priest presupposed other kinds of priests, namely, the royal priesthood itself. (Eugene H. Merrill, "Royal Priesthood: An Old Testament Motif," Bibliotheca Sacra 159 [January-March 1993]: 60-61)