Priests
Role in Society
The Egyptian term that is now translated as “priest” actually meant “god’s servant.” This title was held by a man whose main duty was to act on behalf of the king (god’s son) in the temple, performing the rituals to fulfill the deity’s needs. State religion was believed to perpetuate and maintain the equilibrium of the universe; the rituals ensured the king’s immortality and success over his enemies and also the fertility of the land and its people. If these duties were neglected or abandoned the result would be chaos and disaster. The priests, however, had no pastoral duties and were not expected to preach to the people or oversee their moral welfare; indeed, they played no direct role in developing the religious awareness or beliefs of the masses. Although the priests’ training, preserved in the Instructions in Wisdom, emphasized the need for moral and social standards of behavior including discretion in speech, honesty, and fairness toward others, those entering the priesthood were not considered to have a vocation or to belong to a special sect of people who had experienced divine revelation. They were expected to become dedicated officials and functionaries who performed their temple and liturgical duties efficiently. It was the wealth and privilege that a career as a priest offered that attracted ambitious, able, and even sometimes unscrupulous candidates. The role of the priest can be traced back to the time of the predynastic communities when the leader would approach the local god on behalf of his people, presenting regular food offerings to the god’s statue in the village shrine. Most of these functions continued, although on a grander scale, until well into the Greco-Roman Period when Christianity became widespread in Egypt and all the temples were finally closed. . Recruitment and Training Priests were recruited in various ways. It was traditional for a son to follow his father, as in other professions and trades; however, the appointment of high priests and some promotions were made by the king, exercising his ultimate right of selection. He could move men from one temple to another or even from the royal court or the army into the priesthood. In other cases candidates were selected for vacancies by a committee of priests, and sometimes an office was purchased by the payment of a fee. After his appointment the novice priest probably underwent training in religious knowledge and ritual practices before he was initiated into the secret wisdom of the god’s cult. One important aspect was the fact that most of the temple employees were lay priests, particularly during the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Even in later times when the larger temples had a class of permanent priests, the lay or part-time priests continued to predominate in the smaller communities. .
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Duties and Restrictions
Their duties were organized around a system in which four groups of lay priests in each temple performed the duties for the god. Each group consisted of the same number of priests and served on a rotational basis for three months each year. A term of duty lasted for one month, followed by a three-month break before the next commitment. In the free period they could pursue ordinary lives and other careers (often as doctors, scribes, or lawyers); they could marry and live outside the temple except during their periods of duty when they were expected to reside within the temple enclosure. At the bottom of the hierarchy was the waab priest, a term that indicated he was ritually pure and could therefore enter the presence of the divine statue and have direct contact with the god’s possessions. To reach this level of physical purity the priest had to wash in cold water twice a day and twice at night (usually carried out in the Sacred Lake of the temple) and clean his mouth with natron (a mixture of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate of soda, which occurred in natural deposits in Egypt and was also used for mummification and laundry purposes). He was also required to shave his head and body every day. Priests were circumcised (probably after they had entered the priesthood) and were expected to practice sexual abstinence while they were performing their temple duties. They could only wear linen clothes and shoes made from plant products; materials such as wool and leather which came from living animals were forbidden. Some foods were also prohibited; fish and beans were probably generally unacceptable and permission to eat many other items such as pork, lamb, beef, pigeon, and garlic may have varied from one area to another where particular plants or meats were associated with individual deities. .
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Temple Hierarchy
Some temples, such as that of Amun at Karnak, owned vast estates and had large numbers of employees. In the reign of Ramesses III it is recorded that there were over 80,000 employees at Karnak and that it owned more than 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles) of land. The most important post was that of high priest of Amun (First Prophet of Amun); this carried great political power (generally, the temples became the largest employers in Egypt), extensive wealth, and the ownership of a great house and large estates. From the New Kingdom onward, the high priest of Amun had the right to confer or withhold the god’s approval of the royal heir (thus giving him control over the kingship). At the great assemblies to which the temples sent priests to represent their views to the king on matters such as temple taxes, revenues, and building programs, the high priests also exercised considerable power. Below the high priest were the ranks of the fathers of the god (the Second, Third, and Fourth Prophets of Amun) and then the ordinary priests (waab). The lay workers who serviced the temple, its estates, and workshops included stewards, overseers of granaries and estates, clerks, and police. In smaller institutions there were generally three categories of employees. The senior priests performed the daily rituals for the gods and included among their ranks the specialists who worked in the “House of Life.” This institution was attached to all the major temples; here, the sacred texts that perpetuated the divine cult were composed and copied, and the scribes (who included priests and lay scholars) discussed and developed the god’s theology and mythology, composed religious, astronomical, and medical texts, and probably gave instructions to students. There were also minor clergy who assisted with various religious duties and rituals and conducted the more mundane aspects of running the temple, such as supervising the renovation and decoration of the temple. Finally, there was the auxiliary staff: architects, painters, sculptors, doorkeepers, guards, estate workers who produced the food for the god, craftsmen who made the god’s clothing and the utensils used in the rituals, and the butchers, bakers, confectioners, and florists who prepared the divine daily offerings. There were also temple cleaners. None of these workers were priests, but their services were vital. .
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Priests
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