The Departure
Clergy over the People
One Pulpit, One Pew — and the Wall Between Them
Clergy and Laity
In almost every church there are two kinds of people: the ones who are ordained and the ones who are not. One stands in the pulpit; the rest sit in the pews. Rome calls them priests; Protestants call them pastors, reverends, or ministers. Either way, one man speaks for Yahuah and the rest listen.
Protestants are quick to say what is wrong with Rome: a priest who hears confession and speaks for Yahuah stands where only the Messiah should stand (1 Timothy 2:5). Then they go to church and say, “My pastor says.” The Reformation of the 1500s removed the collar and the confession booth, but it kept the man in the middle — the pastor is the Catholic priest under another title. One man still reads, interprets, and decides, and the people still repeat him.
Torah called the whole nation “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Four Greek words built the wall between pulpit and pew. Choose a word.
The root word
Episkopos “bishop”
The verse
This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
1 Timothy 3:1–2 (KJV)
What you were taught
This is the job posting for the top man in the church. The bishop rules over a region; the senior pastor rules over a congregation. He sits above everyone else, and the people answer to him. Reaching that office is treated as the highest calling a man can have.
What the Greek brought in
Episkopos (G1985) means “one who watches over.” In Greek cities it was the title of officials sent to oversee a town for its rulers. In Paul’s letters the overseers are simply the elders — several in each assembly, serving together (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 7). Then, around 110 AD, Ignatius wrote, “do nothing without the bishop,” and one overseer was lifted above all the elders. Notice too: the word “office” is not in the Greek text of verse 1. The translators added it. The Greek simply says, “if a man desire oversight.”
The Hebrew beneath it
Peter shows what this word means in Hebrew. Choosing a man to replace Judas, he quoted David: “his bishoprick let another take” (Acts 1:20). David had written, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office” (Psalm 109:8). The Hebrew word is pequddah (H6486), from pakad (H6485), to watch over or take care of. It means a charge — a duty given to someone.
The same word describes Eleazar the priest, who had “the oversight of all the tabernacle” (Numbers 4:16): the lamp oil, the incense, the anointing oil, the vessels. That is oversight in Hebrew. A job of care and service. Not a throne.
Read it again
Now read it again the way Paul meant it: If a man wants to watch over the flock, he wants a good work. So a watchman must be blameless, faithful to his one wife, awake, sober, well-behaved, open-hearted to guests, and able to teach.
Paul calls it “a good work,” not a high seat. And Peter, an elder himself, told the elders how to do it: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof… Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2–3). Among the flock, not above it.
How it grew
- c. 110 ADIgnatius “Do nothing without the bishop” — one overseer now stands above the elders.
- c. 250 ADCyprian The bishop is the center of the church; outside him there is no church.
- c. 380 ADRome Bishops rule cities; the bishop of Rome claims first place.
- TodayThe pastor One man runs the assembly, often by title and salary.
What it built
- The single ruling pastor or bishop in place of a body of elders.
- The pulpit as authority — one voice, many silent.
The priest class
Hiereus · Laikos “priest · laity”
The verse
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:6 (KJV)
What you were taught
Yes, all believers are priests — in a spiritual way. But in real church life, only the ordained man can lead the service, serve communion, or explain the Bible with authority. Rome calls him a priest. Protestants call him the pastor or the minister. Everyone else is the “laity” — the people in the pews who watch and listen.
What the Greek brought in
Hiereus (G2409), “priest,” was the man who served in a Greek temple. He stood between the worshiper and the god, offered the sacrifice, and spoke for the god. Around 96 AD, Clement of Rome became the first church writer to use the word laikos, “layman” — the common man who stands back while the priests serve at the altar. Church leaders soon took that pattern for themselves. Two classes were born: clergy and laity. Yet the Greek text never calls a church leader a hiereus. It uses the word for the Levites, for pagan priests (Acts 14:13), and for all believers together — as in this verse.
The Hebrew beneath it
John is echoing Moses at Mount Sinai: “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). The Hebrew word is kohen (H3548), a priest — one who comes near to serve. Yahuah’s plan was a whole nation of them.
Under the Levitical order, the priests came from one tribe. That order pointed to Yahushua, who entered the holy place “by his own blood… once” (Hebrews 9:12). Now Peter takes Moses’ words and gives them to every believer: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9).
Read it again
Now read it again the way John meant it: He has made all of us — every believer — a kingdom, priests who serve His God and Father.
Not some of us. Us. And only one go-between is left: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). One God. One mediator — a man, the Son. No priest and no pastor stands in the middle of that.
How it grew
- c. 96 ADClement of Rome First use of “layman” (laikos) as a separate class.
- c. 200 ADTertullian Calls church leaders a priesthood (sacerdotium).
- 1215Fourth Lateran Council Requires every believer to confess to a priest.
- TodayBoth camps Ordained clergy and the laity — whether called priest or pastor.
What it built
- A priest between the believer and Yahuah.
- The laity — the people of Yahuah reduced to an audience.
The Protestant priest
Poimēn “pastors”
The verse
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Ephesians 4:11 (KJV)
What you were taught
Every church needs a pastor — the man God called to lead it. He preaches, counsels, marries, buries, and decides. People say “my pastor says” the way Catholics say “Father says.” Protestants left Rome because a priest stood between God and the people. But the pastor now stands in that same place under another title. This verse is read as his job description.
What the Greek brought in
Poimēn (G4166) means shepherd. Homer, the old Greek poet, called kings like Agamemnon poimēn laōn, “shepherd of the people” — the title of a ruler over the crowd. That is how the word came to sound in the church: one man over the people. But this is the only verse in the Greek text where poimēn is used for a leader in the assembly. It sits in a list of gifts, and it is plural — “pastors.” Paul never put “Pastor” in front of a man’s name, and he never made one man the head of an assembly.
The Hebrew beneath it
Paul’s words echo the prophet Jeremiah: “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15). Yahuah gives them; Paul says, “he gave some.” The Hebrew word is ro’eh (H7462), a shepherd — one who feeds. And the first Shepherd is Yahuah Himself: “Yahuah is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).
The prophets also warned about shepherds who rule for themselves: “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!” (Ezekiel 34:2). Yahuah’s answer was to take the flock back: “Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11).
Read it again
Now read it again the way Paul meant it: He gave gifts to His people: some sent out, some prophets, some who carry the good news, and some who feed the flock and teach it.
Then Paul tells us why: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). The shepherds get the saints ready, and the saints do the work of the ministry. The gift was given so the people would grow up — “That we henceforth be no more children” (Ephesians 4:14). Not so they would spend their lives saying, “my pastor says.”
How it grew
- c. 750 BCHomer Kings are poimēn laōn — shepherds over the people.
- c. 60 ADPaul Lists “pastors and teachers” as one of several gifts (Ephesians 4:11).
- 1517The Reformation Protestants break from Rome and reject the priest as mediator.
- 1541Calvin’s Geneva The Ecclesiastical Ordinances make the pastor the first office of the church.
- TodayThe pew “My pastor says” — the priest’s authority under a Protestant title.
What it built
- The senior pastor — one man over the assembly, as the priest was over the parish.
- “My pastor says” — the people of Yahuah repeating a man instead of testing the Scripture (Acts 17:11).
The curse
Anathema “accursed”
The verse
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8 (KJV)
What you were taught
This verse guards the creeds. Whoever denies what the church has defined — the Trinity, the sacraments, the authority of the church — is preaching “another gospel” and is accursed. The great councils closed their creeds with that very word, anathema. Today a church board can still put a member out for questioning what the pulpit teaches.
What the Greek brought in
Anathema (G331) first meant an offering hung up in a Greek temple — a gift set apart for a god. From the fourth century, church councils turned it into a sentence. The Council of Nicaea (325) closed its creed with one: whoever said otherwise than the council was declared anathema — cut off and cursed. The word became the bishops’ weapon against anyone who questioned them.
The Hebrew beneath it
Beneath it is the Hebrew cherem (H2764), something devoted to Yahuah — given over wholly to Him, often for destruction. The Greek Old Testament uses anathema for it at Jericho: “And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to Yahuah” (Joshua 6:17).
Paul’s warning comes straight out of the Torah. Moses wrote that even a prophet whose signs and wonders come true must not be followed if he says, “Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known” (Deuteronomy 13:1–3). Paul says the same: not even “we, or an angel from heaven.” The test was never a council. The test was what Yahuah had already spoken.
Read it again
Now read it again the way Paul meant it: If anyone — even I, even an angel — brings you a different good news from the one you first received, let him be devoted to destruction.
Paul says it twice: “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9). The measure is the message already given — “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). That measure judges the councils too. When a council adds a creed the apostles never preached and curses everyone who will not sign it, Paul’s anathema does not fall on the believer. It falls on the council.
How it grew
- c. 400 BCGreek temples Anathēmata — votive offerings hung up for the gods.
- 325 ADNicaea Councils begin closing their creeds with anathemas.
- 1054East and West Bishops of Rome and Constantinople anathematize each other.
- TodayChurch discipline Leadership can declare a member “outside the church.”
What it built
- Excommunication by office — the clergy holding the keys over the people.
- Creeds enforced by curse in place of Scripture tested by every reader (Acts 17:11).
The Old Path
The assembly needs elders who teach and watch — but as brothers, not as a priesthood above the brethren. “One is your Master, even Messiah; and all ye are brethren” (Matthew 23:8).
Revelation names the only priesthood that remains: “Thou… hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Us — not them; not the priest, and not the pastor.