The early church, born of apostolic fire and suffused with the spiritual equality proclaimed in Christ, gradually inherited and reshaped ancient notions of priesthood and sacred hierarchy. As the fervor of Pentecost dimmed and institutional needs emerged, the community of saints evolved into a stratified body, marking the rise of the clergy and the delineation of laity—not as a betrayal of its origins, but as a complex reweaving of divine vocation and human tradition.
Emergence of a Distinct Priesthood
The conception of a distinct priesthood—separate from the body of believers—was not born in a vacuum. It flowed, almost imperceptibly, from the cultural memory of both Jewish and pagan systems. In Judaism, the Levitical priesthood provided a divinely sanctioned structure of sacred mediation, while pagan traditions abounded with sacrificial rites and dedicated classes of religious intermediaries. These deeply embedded paradigms inevitably influenced Jewish converts, many of whom clung to the Mosaic rituals and never fully ascended to the spiritual liberty that Paul championed.
Although Paul vigorously contended with the ceremonial legalism among the churches in Galatia and Corinth, sacerdotalism itself was not a central issue. Yet, the analogy between the Levitical triad—high priest, priest, and Levite—and the Christian ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon proved irresistible. Among Gentile Christians too, the inertia of religious instinct held fast: the concepts of altar, sacrifice, and priesthood were familiar, even indispensable, from their former faiths. The transition toward a Christian priesthood thus appears as a reassertion of ancient forms, either never fully renounced or revived under institutional pressures. By the second century, this development had taken root. The sublime egalitarianism of the apostolic era, inspired by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit, began to recede into memory.
The Apostolic Model of Ministry
Within the apostolic community, no rigid distinction confined gospel preaching or exhortation to a clerical elite. The gifts of the Spirit distributed across the congregation empowered men and women alike to teach, pray, and testify. The New Testament vision of the church was not aristocratic but profoundly democratic in the Spirit; all believers were designated as “saints,” irrespective of their spiritual maturity.
The New Covenant introduced no priestly class to mediate divine grace. Jesus Christ alone stood as the eternal High Priest. All Christians, in Him, were vested with a shared priesthood and royalty—called to offer spiritual sacrifices of praise, charity, and self-surrender. The language of 1 Peter and Revelation did not echo Levitical exclusivity, but rather a universal calling: the entire Christian people as God’s inheritance, His chosen lot—κλῆροι. This rich conception exceeded anything found under the Old Covenant and remains incompletely realized to this day.
Ordained Ministry as a Means of Edification
Yet the New Testament also affirms the legitimacy of ministerial offices instituted by Christ—not to mediate grace, but to nurture the church into maturity. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers served to elevate the faithful from spiritual infancy toward the fullness of their prophetic, priestly, and royal vocation.
Even in the later epistles—particularly the Pastorals—where ecclesial structure is more defined, the terms used emphasize teaching, ruling, and pastoral oversight, not ritual mediation. The ministerial task was to serve, not to stand above. The Apocalypse, despite its elaborate liturgy, resounds with the theme of a universal priesthood. The apostles themselves never claim a distinctive sacerdotal identity; the sacrifices they exhort are spiritual offerings, not blood rites.
The single New Testament reference to a “Christian altar” distinguishes it from the Jewish altar and refers symbolically to the cross of Christ—where the once-for-all sacrifice was made. There is no altar of continual sacrifice in the apostolic church.
From Charismatic Equality to Ecclesial Hierarchy
As the early fervor of the church began to wane and institutional needs grew, the delineation between clergy and laity became increasingly pronounced. Ignatius of Antioch, the most ardent advocate of early episcopacy, conceived of the clergy as the indispensable medium between the people and God. He declared: “Whoever is within the altar is pure; but he who acts without bishop, presbytery, and deacon is unclean in conscience.”
Yet, even Ignatius did not present the ministry as a priesthood in the sacrificial sense. The Didache likens prophets to high priests, though likely in a metaphorical, spiritual register. Clement of Rome, writing to Corinth, developed a more explicit analogy between Christian and Levitical orders. By referring to the “layman” as distinct from high priest, priest, and Levite, Clement sowed the conceptual seed from which Christian sacerdotalism would later bloom—though still, at this stage, through analogy rather than dogma.
The Rise of Sacerdotalism
Tertullian was the first to ascribe explicitly sacerdotal status to Christian ministers, using the term sacerdotium. Yet he also, paradoxically, affirmed the priesthood of all believers. Cyprian, however, advanced the sacerdotal conception more fully. He appropriated the full language, symbolism, and authority of the Aaronic priesthood for the Christian ministry. Bishops, in his framework, became true priests—sacerdotes—with all the concomitant duties and privileges.
By the third century, the term “priest” was routinely applied to ministers, especially bishops. Likewise, the word “clergy,” once designating all Christians as God’s inheritance, came to refer exclusively to ordained officials. The triple office—deacon, presbyter, bishop—was now viewed as divinely instituted and formalized through solemn ordination and the laying on of hands. Beneath these ranks arose the “minor orders,” bridging clergy and laity.
Institutional Consolidation and Social Separation
Thus, by the close of the third century, the foundational structure of ecclesiastical hierarchy was in place—a hierarchy grounded in moral authority, not coercion, yet unmistakably stratified. The laity, in turn, was divided between the faithful (baptized communicants) and the catechumens (those preparing for baptism). Local assemblies of believers formed the basic unit of church life.
With the exaltation of the clergy emerged a parallel movement of separation from secular pursuits. Ministers were discouraged from engaging in commerce or public trusteeship. Celibacy was encouraged, though not enforced, and some revered figures—such as Tertullian and Gregory of Nyssa—lived in honorable matrimony. No standardized clerical garb appears before the fourth century, and if such garments existed earlier, they were likely restricted to liturgical use during times of persecution.
Persistent Echoes of the Universal Priesthood
Despite the growing gap between clergy and laity, the idea of universal priesthood never vanished. Irenaeus affirmed it; the Montanists, in their radicalism, allowed even women to prophesy publicly. Tertullian, later aligned with Montanism, provocatively asked, “Are not we laymen also priests?” He invoked Scripture to assert the spiritual dignity of every believer: “He has made us kings and priests.” The church’s distinction between clerics and laity, he claimed, was ecclesiastical, not divine. Where no ordained minister was present, laypersons could administer sacraments and teach. Wherever two or three gathered, there was the church.
Jerome echoed this ideal, declaring baptism to be the priesthood of the layman. In the West, the laity long retained the right to affirm or reject ministerial candidates. Clement of Rome and Cyprian both emphasized the necessity of congregational consent in episcopal elections. Cyprian, despite his hierarchical commitments, declared that he would do nothing as bishop without the counsel of his clergy and the assent of the people.
Lay Teaching and Intellectual Authority
Laymen did not merely assert their spiritual identity—they also taught. The celebrated Origen was permitted to expound Scripture in public assemblies even before his ordination. The Apostolic Constitutions affirm this possibility, noting that any layman of wisdom and reverence may teach, since Scripture declares: “They shall all be taught of God.”
The Fourth Council of Carthage (398) forbade laymen from teaching in the presence of clergy without express permission, implying that lay teaching was not wholly prohibited. Many of the era’s greatest Christian thinkers were laymen or only presbyters: Hermas, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Arnobius, and Lactantius. Hermas, author of the widely revered Shepherd, was almost certainly a layman—as perhaps was the anonymous writer of the so-called Second Epistle of Clement, recently rediscovered in Greek and Syriac. These men, though lacking ordination, helped shape the soul of early Christianity.
