The English word priest began life meaning simply an elder
Priest descends, through Latin, from the Greek presbyter, an elder of a Jewish or Christian community. The proper Latin term for a sacrifice-offering priest was sacerdos. English squeezed both roles into one word, a mismatch that later gave Bible translators real headaches when the distinction mattered to their theology.
A priest is authorised to perform a religion's sacred rites, often standing between worshippers and one or more gods, and traditionally offering sacrifices to win divine favour. The duties vary widely: hearing confessions, blessing marriages and births, teaching doctrine, comforting mourners at funerals and visiting the sick. Even our word clerical, for office paperwork, comes from clerics keeping written accounts.
Priesthood is ancient. The trifunctional hypothesis about Proto-Indo-European society places priests among the earliest social roles, probably appearing once farming surpluses allowed class divisions. The need to read sacred texts and keep temple accounts pushed many early societies towards literacy. In the Ancient Near East, priests even managed the gods' estates on their behalf.
Mesopotamia offers striking examples of powerful women in the role. The high priestess Enheduanna, around the 23rd century BCE, held rank equal to high priests, wore special regalia, owned property and did business. The naditu of Inanna's temples at Uruk came from elite families, stayed childless and ran their own affairs. Controlling the priesthood of Nippur usually meant dominating Sumer, and at one point its priests named a tavern keeper from Kish, Kugbau, queen of Sumer.
Not every priest was a full-time professional. In early Iceland the chieftains carried the title godi, meaning priest, yet the saga of Hrafnkell shows the job amounted to occasional sacrifices to Norse gods, with no ordination. In Judaism the priesthood passes down family lines, while elsewhere people are chosen or volunteer. The word priestess was coined in the 17th century for pagan women of classical antiquity, and in modern Anglican debates ordained women are called priests, making priestess sound archaic in a Christian setting.
Source: Priest
