This research will examine the emergence of the Christian priesthood by way of the commentaries of St. Paul and other writers of the apostolic period. The research will set forth the context in which apostolic-era views of what would become the priesthood of Christianity emerged and then discuss how, although Paul wrote little about the issue directly, the Pauline perspective on the role of the priesthood in the life of the developing church can be inferred and elaborated with some precision, by reference chiefly (though not only) to Paul's writings but also to the documents and trends informing and establishing Christianity as a major social and religious institution in the apostolic era.
In order to address and define the Pauline view of a Christian priesthood, it is necessary to look at how Paul could have come to conclusions or indeed hypotheses about the proper configuration of a priesthood for the nascent Christian cult in the first century AD. To do that, it is necessary to look not only at Paul's own writings, which are evidence of how his thought had been shaped around the issues confronting the new church, but also at writings roughly contemporaneous with his own, which reflect a larger body of thought emergent in the apostolic and post-apostolic periods that was shaping the religious sensibilities of all of those who intended to have a voice in church structure, hierarchy, doctrine, and praxis. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, the idea of a Christian priesthood is connected to the sacrament of Holy Orders, which has its sanction in the gospels, which are the narrative records of what can be called the Christ-event. The biblically sanctioned explanation of the doctrine is straightforward and definitive, as the relevant text of today's Catholic catechism indicates:
Christians should look upon the priests of the Church as the messengers of God and the dispensers of His mysteries. . . . Our Lord said to His Apostles: ...