Often, Protestants will appeal to Rev 1:6 and 5:10 as if it refutes the Latter-day Saint (as well as Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox) doctrine that there is an ordained, ministerial priesthood in the New Covenant. However, this is, at “worst,” teaching believers are members of a priesthood of all believers, which is not denied by various traditions that teach such a doctrine of priesthood in the New Covenant era. It is not “either-or” or “both-and,” though being able to think in logical categories is often beyond many Protestant critics of the Church.
Be that as it may
be, consider the following from early and medieval-era commentators who taught
such texts taught believers, in some sense, to participate in a priesthood. However,
they were also advocates of an ordained, ministerial (even sacerdotal)
priesthood, showing again, it is “both-and,” not “either-or”:
On Rev 1:6:
Andrew of
Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse 1:5b-6:
The glory belongs to him, it says, who freed us through love from the
bondage of death, and washed the stains of sin through the outpouring of his
life-giving blood and water. And he has made us “a royal priesthood” so that we
may offer, instead of irrational sacrifices, “rational worship” as a living
sacrifice to the Father. (Andrew
of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse
[trans. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou; The Fathers of the Church 123; Washington,
D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011], 58-59)
Bede,
Explanation of the Apocalypse 1:6:
We Are Priests in Christ, the Eternal Priest. Bede: Since the King of
kings and the celestial Priest united us to his own body by offering himself up
for us, there is no one of the saints who is spiritually deprived of the office
of the priesthood, since everyone is a member of the eternal Priest. (Revelation,
ed. William C. Weinrich [Ancient Chrisitan Commentary on Scripture; Downers
Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2005], 5-6)
On Rev 5:10:
Oecumenius,
Commentary on the Apocalypse 5:8-12:
“And they sang a new song.” It was new because it was sung to that God
who had become flesh, for this song had formerly never been offered, until the
incarnation. And what was the song? “You are worthy,” it says, you who were
slain for us and who by your blood did acquire an inheritance from the many
nations under heaven, to grant this salvation to humanity. And with very good
reason he said “from tribe and tongue and people and nation.” For while he did
not gain all nations—for many have died in unbelief—yet he acquired from every
nation those worthy of salvation. And the prophet said something similar:
“Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you will inherit [some] from among all the
nations,” not to be sure, “all the nations.” And he made “them kings and
priests for our God, and they will reign upon earth.” In addition to the
faithful servants of Christ who are kings and leaders of the churches, perhaps
you will also be able to understand the “kings” in this passage as those who
have ruled their passions and have not been ruled by them, and the “priests” as
those who have offered their own bodies as “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing
to God,” as the Scripture says. (Revelation, ed. William C. Weinrich
[Ancient Chrisitan Commentary on Scripture; Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2005], 80)
