J. Lippert's
Allg. Gesch. d. Priesterthums
, Berlin 1883-4, contains the most ample collection of materials with which I am acquainted. Tylor's
Primitive Culture
, London, 1871, and Spencer's
Ecclesiastical Institutions
, London, 1885, contain much that is of interest. The Jewish priesthood as a positive institution is well treated by OEhler; but it is desirable to place it in detailed comparison and contrast with ethnic priesthoods.
No non-religious tribe is actually found or known to have existed. Tylor, Primitive Culture , 1.378.
The Essay of Bp Bull
On the state of man before the Fall
, contains many most suggestive thoughts on this subject.
Compare Kurtz, Hist. of Old Covenant 1.126ff. (E. Tr.).
The derivation of $ heKo , H3913 ( priest ) is keenly debated. Two derivations seem to
deserve notice, (1) that the word is formed from $ wk and describes either one
who presents an offering, or one who stands to represent another; and, (2) that it corresponds with Arab. kahin , soothsayer, the earliest type of Shemitic priest in Arabia.
The printed text of the Homily is manifestly imperfect. Philo uses the silence of Scripture in a similar way: e.g., the absence of any geographical details in the mention of the Euphrates (Gen. 2:14), Leg. Alleg. 1.27 (1:60 M.); the absence of the title son in the record of the birth of Cain (Gen. 4:1; contrast 4:25), de Cher. §§ 16 f. (1.149 M.); the absence of the personal name of the man who met Joseph, Quod det. pot. insid. § 8 (1.195-6). Siegfried, Philo v. Alex. 179 f.
Bellarmine (
Controv. de Missa
i. c. 6) dwells at considerable length on this aspect of the incident, and gives a long array of quotations in support. A still further collection is given by Petavius
de Incarn.
12.12. The true view is preserved by Josephus
Antt.
1.10, 2; Philo (see below); Tertullian
adv. Jud.
3; Epiph.
Haer.
lv. § 8, p. 475, nor can there be any doubt that the original narrative describes refreshment offered to Abraham and his company and not a sacrifice made on their behalf. Compare, in answer to Bellarmine, Whitaker
Disputation
, pp. 167 f. (Park. Soc.); Jackson
On the Creed
, 9:10; Waterland
App. to the Christian Sacrifice explained
, pp. 462 ff. (ed. 1868). Heidegger
Hist. Patr.
ii. Dissert. 2 §
21.
The sect is noticed very briefly by Philastrius, Haer. 52; and by Augustine, De haer. 34. The writer whose fragment is attached to Tertull. de praescr. (§ 53) and Theodoret ( Haer. Fab. 2.6) assign its origin to another Theodotus, later than Theodotus of Byzantium. The former writer appears to have had some independent source of information. He grounds the superiority of Melchizedek on the fact eo quod agat Christus pro hominibus, deprecator eorum et advocatus factus, Melchizedek facere pro caelestibus angelis atque virtutibus...( l.c. ).
The construction of ËrEBe is normally with the simple accusative whether the
object be God or man. In the later language it is construed with l] : 1 Chron.
29:20; Neh. 11:2; and Dan. 2:19; 4:31 (Chald.).