And you must anoint them just as you anointed their father, and so they must act as priests to me, and their anointing must serve continually for them as a priesthood to time indefinite during their generations.’

Exodus 40:1, 2, 12-16.

61. What must be said as to whether the successors of those four original underpriests were anointed, and as to whether the successor of the high priest was individually anointed with holy oil?

⁶¹ Thus the four sons of Aaron were anointed as the first underpriests of Israel. But thereafter, their successors on being inducted into office as underpriests were not given an individual anointing with the holy anointing oil. Their just being invested with the official garments of an underpriest was considered sufficient. The anointing of the first four underpriests served as a representation for them. However, each successor to the high priest Aaron was individually anointed. (Numbers 3:1-3; Exodus 29:29, 30; Numbers 20:23-29; Deuteronomy 10:6) Nevertheless, the entire priesthood of Israel was to be considered as an anointed class according to the anointing of the original members.

62. By being used to anoint his disciples on earth, what did Jesus Christ make them under him, and how does John in the Revelation agree with this?

⁶² In the antitypical fulfillment, by anointing the 144,000 faithful disciples with holy spirit, the heavenly Jesus Christ acts as God’s Representative and makes them spiritual priests, his underpriests over whom he is High Priest. That is why the apostle John could write with reference to Jesus Christ as follows: “Jesus Christ, ‘the Faithful Witness,’ ‘The firstborn from the dead,’ and ‘The Ruler of the kings of the earth.’ To him that loves us and that loosed us from our sins by means of his own blood​—and he made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—​yes, to him be the glory and the might forever. Amen.” Also: “You were slaughtered and with your blood you bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.”​—Revelation 1:5, 6; 5:9, 10.

63. How did the apostle Peter by letter testify to the priesthood of the anointed disciples of Jesus?

⁶³ There is another inspired witness to the fact​—the apostle Peter. Writing a few years before the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans (in 70 C.E.) and the Levitical priests there were to lose their jobs, Peter said to the spirit-anointed Christians with a heavenly hope: “These are stumbling because they are disobedient to the word. . . . But you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies’ of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”​—1 Peter 2:8, 9.