Presbyter in the Latin BCP

An addendum to the previous post on the etymology of the English term "priest": The Latin translation of the BCP authorised by Queen Elizabeth (1560), which does not include ordination services, uses presbyter five times, once in relation to the ministration of public baptism of infants (the equivalent at private baptism is Minister), once at the the giving of the ring during the solemnization of matrimony, and three times in the service of Holy Communion, namely before the two exhortations ("minister" in English) and in a rubric right at the end in which priests are distinguished from deacons (Presbyterii et Diaconi).

The Latin sacerdos is not used in the baptism services but once in the marriage service. It is used seven times in the Holy Communion service, namely in the rubrics before the Ten Commandments, the reading of the Epistle, the general Confession, the Absolution, the Prayer of Humble Access, the Prayer of Consecration, and the Blessing. It is also found about a dozen times in services in which presbyter makes no appearance (Visitation of the Sick, Communion of the Sick, Burial of the Dead, Morning and Evening Prayer), always in rubrics, except for the petition "Endue thy Ministers with righteousness" (Sacerdotes tui induanter Justitia, cf. its occurence in the Benedicite hymnus, also at Matins).

The (unauthorised) 1885 Latin translation of the 1662 Prayerbook show a greatly increased use of sacerdos with presbyter having dropped out of baptism and marriage services. In the Holy Communion service presbyter is used twice, in both instances presbyteri are distinguished from diaconi. By contrast, sacerdos is used about two dozen times. The only place in which presbyter is used prominently is in the ordination service which is not surprising, as it helps to distinguish one kind of sacerdos from another (the episcopus).

The 1571 and 1670 Latin translations of the Book of Common Prayer are not available online, as far as I can see. The latter, by Jean Durel, would be particularly interesting. Charles Marshall and William W. Marshall in chapter 2 (pp. 46-60) of The Latin prayer book of Charles II; or, an account of the Liturgia of Dean Durel, together with a reprint and translation of the catechism therein contained, with collations, annotations, and appendices (Oxford: James Thornton, 1882) comment on Durel's preference for the term presbyter as due to its lack of sacrificial connotations. Presumably Marshall and Marshall think that sacerdos carried such connotations by that time, even though they believe that in the early church sacerdos referred to a person in holy orders, including deacons.

J. Robert Wright in the chapter on "Early Translations" in The Oxford Guide to The Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Survey, edited by Charles Hefling, Cynthia Shattuck (OUP, 2006), pp. 56-60, in reviewing the various Latin and Greek versions of the Book of Common Prayer comments that "there is no strict consistency as to how such words as 'priest', 'presbyter', or 'minister' are to be translated, and the confusion has given rise to much unnecessary theological speculation" (pp. 56-57).

The Etymology of English "Priest"

Most English translations of the New Testament observe the distinction between "priests" and "elders" made in the Greek New Testament where ἱερεύς ("priest") is used for Jewish priests, pagan priests, Melchizedek, Christ and for the priesthood of all Christian believers but never for individuals within the Christian church. For figures of authority within the Christian church πρεσβύτερος ("older man, elder") is used, the same term which in the Gospels designates certain authority figures within Judaism.

In producing the Latin translation of the Bible which would shape the Western church for centuries, Jerome preserved this distinction. He used the loanword presbyter in Acts 14:22; 15:2; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14 and sacerdos for ἱερεύς (numerous times). But he did more than that. Jerome bifurcated πρεσβύτερος. The Jewish elders were seniores. The Latinized presbyter was used for elders within the church only. The Latin speaking church consequently used presbyter for their clergy; in vulgar Latin this became prester.

Along with similar terms these Latin words were assimilated into Anglo-Saxon: prester became "préost" and then "preest"; sacerdos became "sácerd". (This is the most likely explanation. An alternative theory, noted  in the Online Etymology Dictionary entry for priest, allows that the Old English préost might have derived from a vulgar Latin word designating someone who is put over others, cf. "provost" and see below.)

This history gives superficial plausibility to the claim sometimes heard that the Roman Catholic Church hijacked the English term "priest," using a word that simply meant "elder" to refer to a performer of sacred  (sacrificial) rites. But when "préost" entered the English language via Latin it did so as a specific term for Christian clergy with the connotations the term would have had within the Latin speaking church. The English word "priest" never meant "elder" (presbyter, senior figure) in a general sense. Put differently, "préost" is not a loanword from Greek πρεσβύτερος but from Latin presbyter via prester and the Latin presbyter never corresponded exactly to the Greek πρεσβύτερος from which it derived.

The role of Christian clergy had long been understood within the church as in some ways analogous to the Levitical priesthood. (The priesthood of all believers in 1 Peter 2:9 was not seen as an hindrance to such a narrower usage, just as traditionally the priesthood of all Israel in Exodus 19:6 was not seen as a hindrance to the establishment of the Levitical priesthood.) So it is maybe not surprising that the Latin sacerdos and the Anglo-Saxon "sacerd" also came to be employed for ordained Christian clergy. See the relevant entry in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth (ed. Thomas Northcote Toller; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1898) which makes the point in reverse by stating that "the term is not confined to the Christian priesthood" (p. 807).

K.J. Elford, in her 2009 MPhil Thesis "The Terms Used for the Priests and Other Clergy in the Anglo-Saxon Period" observes about eighth century usage:

Bede seems to have used sacerdos for ‘priest’, for all those men in the Church who were ordained and able to administer the rites, when he did not feel it necessary to state their individual rank. He used the term presbyter for the specific rank of priest, as distinct from that of bishop, with monachus for monk, and clericus and clerus for the clergy in general, sometimes for men of any order and sometimes specifically for those in minor orders. (p. 100)

She notes this about Bede's (late ninth century) translator:

The translator consistently used mæssepreost when translating Bede’s presbyter, with preost mainly being used for the lesser clergy whom we refer to today as minor clerics. For the term sacerdos, the translator apparently considered the context carefully before choosing to use either biscop, sacerd or mæssepreost, instead of automatically translating every instance as sacerd, which appears to be the direct equivalent. Sometimes the translator seems to be making a much clearer distinction in the orders than Bede does, which may reflect the changes that had taken place in the Church since Bede’s day. The translator uses various terms such as gefer, geferscipe, preost and þeow for the Latin clericus/clerus, which suggests that where there was a choice in the terms available to him, he used them all. (pp. 102-103)

This is important for two reasons. First, the use of "préost" mainly for lesser clergy makes the alternative derivation noted above unlikely. Secondly, the consistent use of "mæssepreost" for presbyter shows that there was no sharp distinction between "presbyter" (having authority within the church) and "priest" (authorized to preside at masses) even at this early stage of the language. Elford adds, "In the royal law-codes contemporary with the OE version of the Ecclesiastical History preost is sometimes used instead of mæssepreost for priest." (p. 103)

How common the use of "sacerd" for Christian priests is unclear; Elford notes occurrences in two Old English pastoral letters of Ælfric from the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, used synonymously for priests alongside "mæssepreost" and "preost"  (pp. 104-105). By the twelfth century "mæssepreost" seems to have fallen out of usage, with "preost" being used more for "priests" as well as clerics in minor orders.

Indeed, it is not certain that "sacerd" ever got much of a foothold in West Saxon even as a designation for Jewish and pagan priests. If it did, it fell into disuse (cf. P. Goodwin, Translating the English Bible: From Relevance to Deconstruction [Cambridge: James Clarke, 2013], p. 134). By the time the Wycliff Bible appeared in the late fourteenth century "preest/prestis" was used not only to translate presbyter in Acts 14:22; 15:2; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14 but also to render ἱερεύς in the Gospels and Acts and, e.g., throughout Hebrews 7 (in cases where Jerome had used sacerdos). But Jerome's practice of using a different term for the Jewish "elders" was imitated (seniores becomes “eldere men” in Matthew 15:2 and other places). See the Wycliffe NT here.

The use of "preest/prestis" for both ἱερεύς and πρεσβύτερος was abandoned in Tyndale's translation. In keeping with etymology, Tyndale could have reserved "prest" for a (Christian) πρεσβύτερος / presbyter and re-introduced "sacerd" to render ἱερεύς but this is obviously not what he did, presumably because (a) "prest" had connotations which he rejected for ordained Christian clergy and (b) it was not feasible to re-introduce "sacerd". So πρεσβύτερος becomes "elder" (cf. "ealder" in tenth century Anglo-Saxon for Jewish elders).

The English word "presbyter" is apparently attested from the 1590s (Online Etymology Dictionary entry), presumably to revive the distinction between Jewish "elders" and Christian "presbyters" which Jerome had introduced. Thus it does not seem to have been available for the early versions of the Book of Common Prayer. Given the reservations of some Reformers about the use of the term "priest" for church leaders, it is remarkable that the ordination service in the Book of Common Prayer does not adopt an alternative term but retains it. (The 1662 Epistle is from Eph. 4 and could have given "pastor" as an alternative; earlier versions of the BCP used Acts 20 which could have suggested "elder".)

In the view of some, the decision of the Reformed Church of England to retain "priest" for its clergy ensured that the term remain sufficiently broad to prevent any necessary association with a particular understanding of Christian "priesthood". For others, the use of the term for Jewish and pagan priests as well as Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox) clergy means that "priest" carries connotations which make it unacceptable to them as a term to designate pastors or elders or presbyters within their own churches.

See also the follow-up post on Presbyter in the Latin BCP and the entry on the Catholicity and Covenant blog on The sacramental vision of the 1662 Ordering of Priests.

BCP and CW Principal Lectionary

The following list is based on the one in the previous post (see a fuller explanation there). It marks the occurrence of 1662 BCP set readings for Holy Communion in the CW principal lectionary (only). The gloss ---absent-- marks instances in which a reading is not found at all in the CW lectionary for Sundays, Principal Feasts and Holy Days. The table in the previous post includes references to the Second Service lectionary.

Day	Epistle		Gospel
Advent 1	Rom 13:8-14	= Advent 1 A*; Proper 18A	Mt 21:1-13	Palm Sunday A*
Advent 2	Rom 15:4-13	= Advent 2A	Lk 21:25-33	Advent 1C*
Advent 3	1 Cor 4:1-5		Mt 11:2-10	= Advent 3A*
Advent 4	Phil 4:4-7	Advent 3C; Proper 23A*; Harvest C*	Jn 1:19-28
Christmas Day	Heb 1:1-12	= Set III	Jn 1:1-14	= Set III
Sunday after Christmas	Gal 4:1-7	= Christmas 1B*; Circumcision of Christ*	Mt 1:18-25	Advent 4A
Circumcision of Christ (01/01)	Rom 4:8-13	Lent 2A*	Lk 2:15-21	Christmas 1B
Epiphany (06/01)	Eph 3:1-12	= Epiphany	Mt 2:1-12	= Epiphany
Epiphany 1	Rom 12:1-5	Proper 16A*	Lk 2:41-52	Christmas 1C
Epiphany 2	Rom 12:6-16a	cf. Proper 17A	Jn 2:1-11	Epiphany 2C, 3B, 4A
Epiphany 3	Rom 12:16b-21	Proper 17A*	Mt 8:1-13
Epiphany 4	Rom 13:1-7		Mt 8:23-34
Epiphany 5	Col 3:12-17	Christmas 1C; Bible Sunday A; Mothering Sunday; Proper 13C*	Mt 13:24b-30	Proper 11A*
Epiphany 6	1 Jn 3:1-8	All Saints A*; Easter 3B*	Mt 24:23-31	--absent--
Septuagesima	1 Cor 9:24-27	Proper 2B	Mt 20:1-16	Proper 20A
Sexagesima	2 Cor 11:19-31	--absent--	Lk 8:4-15
Quinquagesima	1 Cor 13:1-13	Epiphany 4C	Lk 18:31-43
Ash Wednesday	Joel 2:12-17	= Ash Wednesday*	Mt 6:16-21	= Ash Wednesday*
Lent 1	2 Cor 6:1-10	Proper 7B*	Mt 4:1-11	= Lent 1A
Lent 2	1 Thess 4:1-8	--absent--	Mt 15:21-28	Proper 15A
Lent 3	Eph 5:1-14	Lent 4A*	Lk 11:14-28
Lent 4	Gal 4:21-31	--absent--	Jn 6:1-14	Proper 12B*
Lent 5	Heb 9:11-15	4th Before Advent B*	Jn 8:46-59
Palm Sunday	Phil 2:5-11	= Palm Sunday A	Mt 27:15-26	= Palm Sunday A*
Easter Day	Col 3:1-7	= Easter Day A*; Proper 13C*	Jn 20:1-10	= Easter Day ABC*
1st after Easter	1 Jn 5:4-12	cf. Easter 6B, 7B	Jn 20:19-23	= Easter 2 ABC
2nd after Easter	1 Pet 2:19-25	Easter 4A	Jn 10:11-16	Easter 4B*
3rd after Easter	1 Pet 2:11-17	--absent--	Jn 16:16-22	--absent--
4th after Easter	Js 1:17-21	Proper 17B*	Jn 16:5-15	Trinity C*
5th after Easter	Js 1:22-27	Proper 17B*	Jn 16:23b-33	--absent--
Ascension Day	Acts 1:1-11	= Ascension Day	Mk 16:14-20
Sunday after Ascension	1 Pet 4:7-11		Jn 15:26-16:4a	cf. Pentecost B
Whitsun	Acts 2:1-11	= Pentecost	Jn 14:15-31a	cf. Pentecost C; Easter 6A*, cf. 6C; 3 Before Adv. B*
Trinity	Rev 4:1-11		Jn 3:1-15	Lent 2A*, Trinity B*
Trinity 1	1 Jn 4:7-21	Easter 5B	Lk 16:19-31	Proper 21C
Trinity 2	1 Jn 3:13-24	Easter 4B*	Lk 14:16-24	cf. Proper 17C
Trinity 3	1 Pet 5:5b-11	Easter 7A*	Lk 15:1-10	Proper 19C; cf. Lent 4C
Trinity 4	Rom 8:18-23	2 Before Lent A*	Lk 6:36-42	--absent--
Trinity 5	1 Pet 3:8-15a	cf. Easter 6A	Lk 5:1-11	Proper 1C
Trinity 6	Rom 6:3-11	Proper 7A*	Mt 5:20-26	Proper 2A*
Trinity 7	Rom 6:19-23	Proper 8A*	Mk 8:1-10a	--absent--
Trinity 8	Rom 8:12-17	Proper 11A; Trinity B; Pentecost C*	Mt 7:15-21
Trinity 9	1 Cor 10:1-13	Lent 3C	Lk 16:1-9	Proper 20C*
Trinity 10	1 Cor 12:1-11	Epiphany 2C; Pentecost A*	Lk 19:41-47a
Trinity 11	1 Cor 15:1-11	Proper 1C	Lk 18:9-14	Proper 25C
Trinity 12	2 Cor 3:4-9		Mk 7:31-37	Proper 18B*
Trinity 13	Gal 3:16-22	--absent--	Lk 10:23b-37	Proper 10C*
Trinity 14	Gal 5:16-24	cf. Proper 8C	Lk 17:11-19	Proper 23C; Harvest A
Trinity 15	Gal 6:11-18	cf. Proper 9C	Mt 6:24-34	Lent 2A; Harvest B*; cf. Ash Wednesday
Trinity 16	Eph 3:13-21	Proper 12B*	Lk 7:11-17	Proper 5C
Trinity 17	Eph 4:1-6	cf. Proper 13B and Epiphany 2C	Lk 14:1-11	only in Third Service lectionarty
Trinity 18	1 Cor 1:4-8	Advent 1B*; Epiphany 2A	Mt 22:34-46	Proper 25A
Trinity 19	Eph 4:17-32	cf. Proper 14B; Proper 1A 2nd	Mt 9:1-8	Proper 21B 2nd
Trinity 20	Eph 5:15-21	Proper 15B*	Mt 22:1-14	Proper 23A
Trinity 21	Eph 6:10-20	Proper 16B; Lent 3A 2nd; cf. Proper 3A 2nd	Jn 4:46b-54	--absent--
Trinity 22	Phil 1:3-11	Advent 2C	Mt 18:21-35	Proper 19A
Trinity 23	Phil 3:17-21	Lent 2C; cf. Proper 2B 2nd	Mt 22:15-22	Proper 24A
Trinity 24	Col 1:3-12	Proper 10C*; Christmas 2A 2nd*; cf. Christmas 1B 2nd	Mt 9:18-26	Proper 5A*
Trinity 25	Jer 23:5-8	cf. CtK C; Proper 11B related	Jn 6:5-14	cf. Proper 12B, 12A 2nd ; CtK B 2nd*