Priesthood, Kingship, and Prophecy

Abstract

THE THREEFOLD office of Christ as priest, king, and prophet was one of basic ideas introduced by Vatican II into its Dogmatic Constitution on Church, just at a time when learned world was coming to realize that Jews of time of Christ were familiar with idea that there would be a kingly Messiah and a priestly Messiah from tribe of Judah and from tribe of Levi. Chapters in Testaments of XII Patriarchs (Judah 24 and Levi 18) described two individuals, but until finding of Qumran documents it was not safe to project back into first century these Jewish works, which after all had come down to us through care of Christian scribes. In second century, Christians were exercised by question How could Christ have been a member of tribe of Judah and also that of Levi? and Julius Africanus had to write his Letter to Aristides to tell him that it was no good to say baldly that two genealogies in Matthew and Luke were meant to answer that question by showing that Solomon and Levi both figured in lists. His own solution was that Matthan (who comes in Matthew's list) was of house of Solomon, while Melchi (from Luke's list) was a Levite, and that both successively married a woman named Estha, whose name does not appear in New Testament. Africanus was a native of Palestine and had some local knowledge of this woman's birthplace. A prophetic Messiah was naturally not expected by Jews, as he was to be fulfilment of all prophecy, but here Christian tradition (Rev 19:10) made good that defect by presenting Jesus as the prophet like unto me of whom Moses spoke in Deut 18:15. Matthew's Gospel is built around idea that Jesus is second Moses and, though Paul and Luke are not so enamored of idea, it appears again in John, where it is taken for granted that everyone knows of it.