📖 Biblical Definition
Domestic priesthood is the household head's function as priest of the household — offering sacrifices for the family, leading family worship, blessing the household. Before Aaron, every patriarch served this office: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job all built altars and offered sacrifices for their households. Under the New Covenant's priesthood of all believers, the function returns to every Christian family head, expressed now in family worship rather than literal sacrifice.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Composite.) The household head's function as priest of the family; pre-Aaronic and again post-Pentecost.
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Genesis is full of patriarchal priesthood: Noah's post-flood altar, Abraham's repeated altars, Job's sacrifices for his children (Job 1:5: thus did Job continually).
1 Peter 2:9 grounds New Covenant priesthood in every saint: ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. Family worship is the household's daily exercise of this priesthood.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 8:20 — "And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."
Job 1:5 — "And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all... thus did Job continually."
1 Peter 2:9 — "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people."
Revelation 1:6 — "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity has largely lost the language of domestic priesthood; the office is biblical, dignified, and the head of the household's most important regular work.
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Job's practice in Job 1:5 is striking: he sanctified his children and offered burnt offerings continually, every time their feasting cycled around, against the possibility that they had cursed God in their hearts. The patriarch's domestic priesthood was constant.
The New Covenant equivalent is constant family worship and intercession. The father (or, in his absence, the head of the household) prays for each child by name, applies the gospel, blesses, instructs, brings the household before God daily. The office is real; the priesthood is genuine; the work is the household head's most important.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew kohen (priest) and Greek hierateuma (priesthood).
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Hebrew kohen — priest; the office before and during the Levitical period.
Greek hierateuma — priesthood; the saints corporately (1 Pet 2:9).
Usage
"Job sanctified his children continually."
"The patriarch's domestic priesthood was constant; the saint's mirror is family worship."
"The household head's most important regular work."