Priests and High Priests

During the period of the law of Moses, the high priest was the ranking temple official. He, together with the priests, held the Aaronic Priesthood (but God’s prophets held the Melchizedek Priesthood). Every worthy priest and high priest during ancient times served as figures or symbols of Jesus Christ, who is “a high priest . . . a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle” (Heb. 8:1–2; see also 2:17; 3:1; 4:14; 9:11), and “an high priest after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 5:10) (meaning, Jesus was a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood).

Priest (model) dressed in sacred vestments stands beside the altar of incense (veil in background).

The high priests of the Mosaic order were required to be holy and undefiled and to maintain personal and ritual purity (see Lev. 21; Num. 16:5); Christ was a “high priest . . . who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26). The high priest entered into the Holy of Holies as part of his duties on the Day of Atonement (see Lev. 16), but “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24). Priests and high priests were workers of the Atonement for Israel and for their sins: “The priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them” (Lev. 4:20), as Christ would perfectly work out the Atonement.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland affirms: “God has ordained priests ‘after the order of his Son.’ . . . They have been ordained in a way that serves as a type and shadow of Christ, letting the people know in what manner they may look forward to the Son of God for redemption.”253