arising from an action or possession, in a favorable sense. The psalmist spoke of Israel as “the pride of Jacob, whom [Jehovah] has loved.” (Ps. 47:4) In a restoration prophecy Isaiah said that the fruitage of the land would be “something to be proud of.” (Isa. 4:2) The apostle told the Thessalonian congregation that, as a result of their faith, love and endurance, “we ourselves take pride in you among the congregations of God.” (2 Thess. 1:3, 4) Christians take pride in having Jehovah as their God, that they have come to know him and that he has recognized them. They follow the principle: “Let the one bragging about himself brag about himself because of this very thing, the having of insight and the having of knowledge of me, that I am Jehovah, the One exercising loving-kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth.”—Jer. 9:24; compare Luke 10:20.

PRIEST

[Heb., ko·henʹ; Gr., hi·e·reusʹ].

The original meaning of the word ko·henʹ is not known, but its significance as used in the Bible can be clearly understood from an examination of the many texts in which the word appears, together with their context. A fine definition is given at Hebrew 5:1: “Every high priest taken from among men is appointed in behalf of men over the things pertaining to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” The priest ‘comes near to Jehovah’ (Ex. 19:22), representing God to the people he serves, instructing them about God and his laws and, in turn, representing the people before God, approaching God in their behalf, offering sacrifices and interceding and pleading for them.—Num. 16:43-50; Heb. 6:20; 7:25.

IN EARLY TIMES

The need for the offering of sacrifices to God was recognized soon after the fall of man in Eden. Along with this, the need of priestly services seems to have been acknowledged. Cain and Abel presented sacrifices to Jehovah. Their father Adam, having rebelled against God, possessed no basis on which to approach God in their behalf. (Gen. 4:1-5) Cain and Abel were grown men, and Cain, at least, was probably married. (Gen. 4:16, 17) (Perhaps not long after the murder of Abel, Seth was born ‘to take his place,’ at which time Adam was 130 years of age. [Gen. 4:25; 5:3] This would allow for Cain and Abel to be 100 years old, or more.)

In patriarchal times the family head served as priest for his family, the duty passing to the firstborn son in event of the father’s death. Thus, in very early times we find Noah representing his family in a priestly capacity. (Gen. 8:20, 21) The family head Abraham had a large household with which he traveled from place to place, building altars and making sacrifices to Jehovah at his various places of encampment. (Gen. 14:14; 12:7, 8; 13:4) God said of Abraham: “I have become acquainted with him in order that he may command his sons and his household after him so that they shall keep Jehovah’s way to do righteousness and judgment.” (Gen. 18:19) Isaac and Jacob followed the same pattern (Gen. 26:25; 31:54; 35:1-7, 14), and Job, a non-Israelite but likely a distant relative of Abraham, regularly offered sacrifices to Jehovah in behalf of his children, saying: “Maybe my sons have sinned and have cursed God in their heart.” (Job 1:4, 5; see also 42:8.) However, the Bible does not specifically call these men ko·henʹ or hi·e·reusʹ. On the other hand, Jethro, the family head and the father-in-law of Moses, is called a “priest [ko·henʹ] of Midian.”—Ex. 2:16; 3:1; 18:1.

Melchizedek king of Salem was a priest (ko·henʹ) extraordinary. The Bible gives no record of his ancestry, his birth or his death. His priesthood was not by inheritance and he had no predecessors or successors in office. Melchizedek held the office of king and priest together. His priesthood was greater than the Levitical priesthood, for Levi, in effect, tithed to Melchizedek, since he was still in the loins of Abraham when Abraham offered tithes to Melchizedek and was blessed by him. (Gen. 14:18-20; Heb. 7:4-10) In these things Melchizedek foreshadowed Jesus Christ, the “priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.”—Heb. 7:17.

Evidently the family heads acted as priests among the offspring of Jacob (Israel) until the Levitical priesthood was established by God. Hence, when God led the people to Mount Sinai he commanded: “Let the priests also who regularly come near to Jehovah sanctify themselves, that Jehovah may not break out upon them.” (Ex. 19:22) This was before the Levitical priesthood was established. But Aaron, though not yet designated as priest, was allowed to go partially up the mountain with Moses. This circumstance harmonized with the later appointment of Aaron and his posterity as priests. (Ex. 19:24) Seen in retrospect, this was an early indication that God had in mind a superseding of the old arrangement (of family-head priesthood) by means of a priesthood of Aaron’s house.

UNDER THE LAW COVENANT

When the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt, Jehovah sanctified to himself every firstborn son of Israel at the time that he destroyed Egypt’s firstborn in the tenth plague. (Ex. 12:29; Num. 3:13) These firstborn ones accordingly belonged to Jehovah, to be used exclusively in special service to him. God could have designated all of these firstborn males of Israel as the priests and caretakers of the sanctuary. Instead, it suited his purpose to take male members of the tribe of Levi for this service. For this reason he permitted the nation to substitute the Levite males for the firstborn males of the other twelve tribes (the offspring of Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh being counted as two tribes). In a census there proved to be 273 more firstborn non-Levite sons from a month old and upward than there were Levite males, so God required a ransom price of five shekels for each of the 273, the money being turned over to Aaron and his sons. (Num. 3:11-16, 40-51) Prior to this transaction Jehovah had already set apart the family of Aaron of the tribe of Levi as constituting the priesthood of Israel.—Num. 1:1; 3:6-10.

Israel for a long period of time had the exclusive opportunity to supply the members of “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Ex. 19:6) That opportunity ceased to be exclusively theirs due to the national rejection of God’s Son.—Compare Matthew 21:43; 1 Peter 2:7-10.

Initially, Israel’s King was Jehovah. Later Jehovah directed that the kingship be vested in the line of David. Jehovah was still their invisible King but used the Davidic line as his representatives, as to secular rulership. As such, these earthly kings were said to sit on “Jehovah’s throne.” (1 Chron. 29:23) But the priesthood was still kept separate, in the line of Aaron. Therefore to that nation alone belonged both the kingdom and the priesthood of Jehovah God with its “sacred service.”—Rom. 9:3, 4.

Inauguration of the priesthood

The appointment of a priest must come from God; a man does not take the office of his own accord. (Heb. 5:4) Accordingly, Jehovah himself appointed Aaron and his house to the priesthood “to time indefinite,” separating them from the family of the Kohathites, one of the three main divisions of the tribe of Levi. (Ex. 6:16; 28:43) First, however, Moses the Levite as mediator of the Law covenant represented God in the sanctification of Aaron and his sons and the filling of their hands with power to serve as priests, the procedure being described at Exodus chapter 29 and Leviticus chapter 8. Their installation apparently occupied the seven-day period of Nisan 1-7, 1512 B.C.E. The newly installed priesthood began their services toward Israel the next day, Nisan 8.—See INSTALLATION.