Literally one officiating , a priest ; also (by courtesy) an acting priest (although a layman)
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כֹּהֵן (kōhēn) is the Hebrew word for priest — the person who serves in the sanctuary, mediates between the holy God and the people, offers sacrifices, teaches the law, and maintains the purity of the covenant community. The etymology is disputed but the functional definition is consistent throughout the OT: the priest is the one who draws near (qārab) to God on behalf of the people and who brings the people near to.
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Full entry for כֹּהֵן (H3548) · Open the biblical lexicon
כֹּהֵן (kōhēn) is the Hebrew word for priest — the person who serves in the sanctuary, mediates between the holy God and the people, offers sacrifices, teaches the law, and maintains the purity of the covenant community. The etymology is disputed but the functional definition is consistent throughout the OT: the priest is the one who draws near (qārab) to.
The BSB source-word alignment has 750 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the priest (245), the priests (104), priest (47), priests (44), of the priests (27).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 14:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (194), 2 Chronicles (89), Numbers (69), 2 Kings (44).
כֹּהֵן (kōhēn) is the Hebrew word for priest — the person who serves in the sanctuary, mediates between the holy God and the people, offers sacrifices, teaches the law, and maintains the purity of the covenant community. The etymology is disputed but the functional definition is consistent throughout the OT: the priest is the one who draws near (qārab) to God on behalf of the people and who brings the people near to God through the sacrificial system.
The Aaronic priesthood (the sons of Aaron, bĕnê ʾahărôn) was the specific priestly line instituted at Sinai, with the high priest (hakkōhēn haggādôl) as its head. The priestly functions included: offering sacrifices (both for sin and for communion), maintaining the tabernacle/temple, pronouncing the Aaronic blessing (Num 6:24-26), teaching the law (Deut 17:8-11; Mal 2:7: 'the lips of a priest guard knowledge'), and discerning clean and unclean (Lev 10:10-11).
The high priest uniquely entered the Most Holy Place on Yom Kippur to make atonement for the whole people (Lev 16). The NT's high priesthood Christology — Christ as the great high priest (Hebrews) — is the direct fulfillment of the kōhēn institution. Christ is the priest who is also the sacrifice, who enters the heavenly Most Holy Place not with the blood of bulls and goats but with his own blood, making a once-for-all atonement that does not need to be repeated.
The OT kōhēn is the necessary background without which the NT priestly Christology is incomprehensible.
כֹּהֵן occurs approximately 750 times in the OT. The term covers the Aaronic/Levitical priests, the high priest (with the definitive Yom Kippur text in Lev 16), the pre-Sinai figures who function as priests (Melchizedek, Jethro), the prophetic critique of corrupt priesthood, and the eschatological promise of a renewed priestly ministry.
“Tell Aaron and his sons: This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The commissioning of the priestly blessing: the kōhēn's most public function is the Aaronic blessing (vv. 24-26: 'the Lord bless you and keep you...') The blessing is not the priest's invention; it is given word-for-word by God. The concluding explanation (v. 27: 'so they shall put my name on the people of Israel, and I will bless them') shows the theology: the priest's role is to be the instrument through whom the divine name — the divine presence and character — is placed on the people.
The blessing is effective because it is divine speech through a human mediator.
This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) as the climax of the priestly year: once a year, the high priest enters the Most Holy Place with the blood of atonement for the entire people. The 'everlasting statute' language establishes this as the permanent covenant mechanism — until something better arrives. Hebrews 9:11-12 makes the replacement explicit: Christ entered the heavenly Most Holy Place once for all, not annually, with his own blood, securing an eternal redemption.
For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.
The teaching dimension of the kōhēn: 'the lips of the priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger (malʾāk) of the Lord of hosts.' This text identifies the priest not only as the sacrificial mediator but as the teacher of Torah — the person whose knowledge of the covenant law makes him a messenger of the Lord.
Malachi's critique that follows (the priests are teaching falsely) shows how high the standard is: the kōhēn is meant to be the living link between the covenant and the people.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine—since he was priest of God Most High—
Melchizedek: kōhēn lĕ-ʾēl ʿelyôn — priest of God Most High. This pre-Aaronic priestly figure — king and priest in one — becomes the basis of Psalm 110:4 ('you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek') and the entire Hebrews Christology (chs. 5-7). The significance is that Melchizedek's priesthood is prior to, independent of, and greater than the Aaronic line: Abraham receives a blessing from him and pays him tithes.
The 'order of Melchizedek' is the typological category that allows Christ to be priest without being from the tribe of Levi.
And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”
The corporate priestly identity of Israel: mamleket kōhănîm — a kingdom of priests. Before the specific Aaronic priesthood is instituted, the entire nation is called to be a priestly kingdom. The significance is twofold: Israel's vocation is to mediate the knowledge of the Lord to the nations (as a priest mediates between God and the people), and the Aaronic priesthood serves the nation that is itself called to be priestly before the world.
The NT applies this text to the church: 'a royal priesthood' (1 Pet 2:9; Rev 1:6; 5:10).
The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”
The divine oath of an eternal, Melchizedekan priesthood: 'you are a priest forever.' The psalm is messianic (Jesus cites it in Matt 22:44), and this verse's divine oath is quoted four times in Hebrews (5:6; 5:10; 6:20; 7:17,21) to establish that Christ's priesthood is: (a) divinely sworn, therefore unbreakable; (b) Melchizedekan in order, therefore not contingent on Aaronic lineage; and (c) 'forever,' therefore complete and unrepeatable. This is the OT's own provision for the surpassing of the Aaronic system.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. One who stands before God in intermediary role; functionally defined by cultic action, not merely status.
One who stands before God in intermediary role; functionally defined by cultic action, not merely status.
literally one officiating, a priest; also (by courtesy) an acting priest (although a layman) BDB: priest Usage: chief ruler, × own, priest, prince, principal officer.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 750 lexical occurrence verses.
כֹּהֵן is built from this root:
Priestly continuity safeguards covenant worship and points forward to Christ’s ultimate priesthood. Nehemiah 12:1-26
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The kōhēn institution answers a question that every human religious instinct asks: how does a mortal approach a holy God? The OT's answer is: through a mediator who is authorized to draw near on your behalf, who knows the protocols of holiness, who carries your sin through sacrifice, and who represents you before the divine presence. The kōhēn is not a spiritual professional or a religious bureaucrat; he is the covenant solution to the problem of the holy-human interface.
The theological importance of the kōhēn for NT preaching is that Hebrews' high-priesthood Christology makes no sense without it. Why does it matter that Christ is a priest? Because the OT established that access to God requires a mediator, and the Aaronic mediators were temporary, mortal, and repetitive — they had to keep offering the same sacrifices year after year because those sacrifices could not actually remove guilt.
The greatness of the new priesthood is measured against the old: Christ is the priest who is also the sacrifice, who enters the real Most Holy Place (not a copy), who offers not animal blood but his own blood, and whose sacrifice is once for all rather than annually repeated. The congregation that understands kōhēn understands why Christ's priestly work is not a subset of his work but its center — the means by which sinners actually have access to the holy God.
Ps.110.4
The verb form kāhan (to act as priest) and the abstract noun kĕhunnāh (priesthood, office of the priest) complete the kōhēn word group. The title hakkōhēn haggādôl (the great priest, the high priest) or hakkōhēn hārōʾš (the chief priest) designates the high priest. The title kōhēn appears for non-Israelite priests (the priests of Baal, the priest of Midian Jethro) and for pre-Sinai figures (Melchizedek, Gen 14:18), establishing that the concept of priestly mediation is not unique to Israel but that the Aaronic institution provides the specific covenant form.
The identification of the kōhēn as messenger (malʾāk) of the Lord in Malachi 2:7 is significant: the same word used for angels and prophetic messengers is applied to the priest as teacher.
The NT's most sustained engagement with kōhēn is Hebrews 4:14-10:25, which builds the entire Christological argument on the priestly institution. The argument proceeds: (1) Jesus is qualified as high priest by the divine oath (Ps 110:4), being a priest according to the order of Melchizedek rather than Aaron; (2) Jesus' sympathy with human weakness qualifies him as an effective mediator (4:15-16); (3) his once-for-all sacrifice surpasses the annual Yom Kippur of the Aaronic system (9:11-14); (4) he entered the heavenly sanctuary, not a copy (9:24); (5) his sacrifice secures a new covenant (9:15), making him the mediator of what the Aaronic priesthood pointed toward.
The corporate priestly identity of the church — 'a royal priesthood' (1 Pet 2:9) — takes the Exod 19:6 text and applies it to the new covenant community: the church mediates the knowledge of God to the nations as Israel was called to do, through its proclamation and embodied life.
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