Priesthood of Christ

 "THE expressions He became and He was made," says Athanasius, on Hebr. iii. 2, (vid. Orat. ii. § 8,) "must not be understood as if the Word, considered as the Word, were made, (vid. art. Personal Acts, etc.,) but because the Word, being Framer of all, afterwards was made High Priest, by putting on a body which was made.

 In a certain true sense our Lord may be called a Mediator before He became incarnate, but the Arians, even Eusebius, seem to have made His mediatorship consist essentially in His divine nature, instead of holding that it was His office, and that He was made Mediator when He came in the flesh. Eusebius, like Philo and the Platonists, considers Him as made in the beginning the "Eternal Priest of the Father." Demonst. v. 3. de Laud. C. p. 503 fin. "an intermediate divine power," p. 525, "mediating and joining generated substance to the Ingenerate," p. 528.

 The Arians considered that our Lord's Priesthood preceded His Incarnation, and belonged to His Divine Nature, and was in consequence the token of an inferior divinity. The notice of it therefore in Heb. iii. 1, 2, did but confirm them in their interpretation of the words made, etc. For the Arians, vid. Epiph. Hær, 69, 37. Eusebius too had distinctly declared, "Qui videbatur, erat agnus Dei; qui occultabatur sacerdos Dei." advers. Sabell. i. p. 2, b. vid. also Demonst. i. 10, p. 38, iv. 16, p. 193, v. 3, p. 223, vid. contr. Marc. pp. 8 and 9, 66, 74, 95. Even S. Cyril of Jerusalem makes a similar admission, Catech. x. 14. Nay, S. Ambrose calls the Word, "plenum justitiæ sacerdotalis," de fug. Sæc. 3, 14. S. Clement Alex. before them speaks once or twice of the [ logos archiereus ], e.g. Strom. ii. 9 fin. and Philo still earlier uses similar language, de Profug. p. 466 (whom S. Ambrose follows), de Somniis, p. 597. vid. Thomassin. de Incarn. x. 9. Nestorius on the other hand maintained that the Man Christ Jesus was the Priest; Cyril adv. Nest. p. 64. And Augustine and Fulgentius may be taken to countenance him, de Consens. Evang. i. 6, and ad Thrasim. iii. 30. The Catholic doctrine is, that the Divine Word is Priest in and according to His manhood. vid. the parallel use of [ prototokos ] infr. art. in voc. "As He is called Prophet and even Apostle for His humanity," says S. Cyril Alex., "so also Priest." Glaph. ii. p. 58. And so Epiph. loc. cit. Thomassin. loc. cit. makes a distinction between a divine Priesthood or Mediatorship, such as the Word may be said to sustain between the Father and all creatures, and an earthly and sacrificial for the sake of sinners. vid. also Huet. Origenian. ii. 3, § 4, 5.