Prophets and priests are always spoken of in scripture as separate and distinct roles or titles (1 Kings 1:32; Jeremiah 6:13; Jarom 1:11). While they work together in tandem, they are not conflated. A man may be one or the other exclusively.
This is different from current LDS understanding, wherein a priest isn’t necessarily a prophet, but there is one “Prophet” who is necessarily the head priest of the church’s priestly body. There are then 14 other priests titled as “prophets,” among other things, helping the “Prophet” run the priestly hierarchy of the church. Any others claiming prophetic calls must fit a rigid formula of hierarchal oversight or they are doubted, marginalized, denounced or discharged. If your prophetic claims don’t meet the priestly criteria of correlation, they are not even worthy of consideration. But examination of the scriptures proves this view to be problematic.
Priests belong to and maintain a hierarchal religious organization.
Priests are administrators within a religious organization. If one is a priest, one is necessarily a part of a larger religious body, which they serve in that capacity. It is an official role, recognized by the religious body they serve. In the modern church, every office is to be filled by the common consent of the church membership (D&C 26:2; 28:13), meaning the consent of the members at least plays an important role in empowering the priests to hold and exercise authority within the church.
Duties of a priest include things like teaching, exhorting, and administering certain rites of the religion (D&C 20:46-52). High priests are specifically given responsibility concerning the higher, spiritual teachings and ordinances, while regular (Aaronic/Levitical) priests are to handle the lesser, temporal teachings and ordinances (D&C 107).
Righteous examples of priests would include, for instance, Jacob and Joseph (2 Ne. 5:26), or Alma (Mosiah 18:18), along with the many unnamed priests they ordained and worked with. Wicked examples would include King Noah's clan (Mosiah 11-17), the Nehors (Alma 14:18), Caiaphus, and many members of the Sadducees and Pharisees. All these men belonged to a greater religious institution, and played a role within that institution.
Prophets don't necessarily hail from or fit neatly within a hierarchal religious organization.
King Noah was the presiding high priest of his people, with a council of subordinate priests. However, he didn't call Abinadi, or authorize his working among the people (Mosiah 11:27). Abinadi was an outsider, and if he belonged in some religious hierarchy somewhere, he was offending jurisdictional lines with his ministry. But Abinadi was a valid prophet of God (Mosiah 11:20).
Samuel the Lamanite came from a separate people entirely (Helaman 13:2). The people of Zarahemla at that time had Nephi, a righteous man and a prophet, serving as a legitimate spiritual leader (Helaman 11:18; 16:1). This could be at least compared to a bishop from another stake coming to our ward in our stake to prophesy to us.
John the Baptist operated outside the rigorous controls of the Jewish authorities, prompting them to interrogate him as to the source of his authority (John 1:19-26).
There was no organized, authoritative priestly body on the earth when Joseph Smith was called (JSH 1:18-20). Therefore his prophetic call necessarily occurred without any priestly hierarchy to attempt to lay claim or regulation upon that title.
And then there was Christ Himself. He never sat in a single chief seat of any sort, never functioned as a priest in the temple, and those who occupied the chief seats waged war against Him unto His very death.
As part of a body, priests identify with a community.
Priests not only belong to a community, but to an exclusive one. To hold a priestly office, one must be chosen, which requires one be "worthy" of that call, fitting a checklist of requirements (e.g. Leviticus 21:16-23; 1 Timothy 3:2; Alma 13:2-3). By meeting these qualifications and receiving the call, they join a brotherhood of priestly office—a priesthood—and are no longer alone. The priesthood is their crowd, and it is one generally recognized and respected by the people.
Prophets have no such organized, temporal brotherhood to join, with a set of qualifications that must be met. Other than having their call come directly from the Lord, one could argue that prophets are generally called from among the unpopular (Enoch and Saul/Paul), noted sinners (both Almas), uneducated laborers (Joseph Smith), and other such "weak" things of the world.
Prophets usually identify with loners, outsiders and outcasts.
John the Baptist was a voice crying out of the wilderness (John 1:23). He literally lived outside civilization and society, and those seeking his words or services had to go out into the fringe to find him.
Abraham was a lone repenter from amidst a family and culture of corruption (Abraham 1:5), who joined no priestly organization or congregation as far as our records show. He only had his family and a single recorded interaction with the high priest Melchizedek, who then departed the scene.
Christ wasn't a member of the Jewish priestly authorities at any point during his ministry (Isaiah 53:2). He instead spent His time among the outcasts, the harlots and publicans and sinners, to the chagrin of the priestly body (Matthew 9:10-12).
Moses was working alone as a shepherd for his father-in-law when he was called (Exodus 3:1-2), having fled Egypt and the Israelites (Exodus 2:11-15). Perhaps he believed he'd been rejected by the Israelites as the prophesied Moses (JST Gen. 50:29), when they failed to join his insurrection when he killed the slave master.
Priests can be called or advanced in the hierarchy by men.
Priests should be called of God (e.g. D&C 52:38), but they receive their ordination to office within the religious body from another man (2 Nephi 5:26; Mosiah 23:17; D&C 18:32; 20:39). The exception to being ordained into a hierarchy by men would be founders of a new religious body, for example Joseph Smith (D&C 21:1-3) or Alma (Mosiah 18:18). The body didn’t exist yet for them to be ordained into, so they were responsible for its inception.
Alternatively, priests may also be called or advanced by men who are merely higher up the priestly food chain, and without a connection to heaven. When this occurs, the spiritual standing of the organization deteriorates into darkness (Matthew 26:59; Mosiah 11:1-5).
Prophets are always called directly by God.
Prophets are never called by men, or seniority, or assumed titles.
Joseph Smith’s prophetic call came by faith, according to the will of God. None but God called Moses from the burning bush, nor gave him his authority to prophesy and perform miracles and deliver the people in the name of God. The same stands for Enoch (Moses 6:27-36), Samuel (1 Samuel 3:10), and all those called as prophets. None received their prophetic call by an intermediary voice of man, or by virtue of a priestly office. Men may extend to prophets priestly callings, but the prophetic calling is always from God directly.
Priests tend to command the respect of their people.
Some priests earn the respect of the people they serve, by their diligent and righteous service. Some are beneficiaries of respect for their office, rather than the earned respect for themselves (Matthew 23:1-3; Acts 23:3-5). Some command respect for themselves literally, threatening the people that they must be revered or they will use their priestly authority to cut the people off from spiritual blessings, such as entrance to the temple or church membership.
Prophets tend to be marginalized and despised by their fellow men.
Joseph Smith was, and is, marginalized and demonized by all non-Mormon Christianity. He was, and is, marginalized by his own Mormon people as well. Marginalizations include(d) our neglect of the Book of Mormon he brought forth, contributing to his murder, altering and discarding of many of his teachings, and attributing to him evils perpetrated by other men.
Enoch said all the people hated him, and was called a wild man before he ever saw any success (Moses 6:31, 37-38).
And of course, Christ was marginalized throughout His ministry by His own people (Mark 6:4). Whether they doubted anything good could come from Nazareth (John 1:46), or only saw in him the son of Joseph the carpenter (Matthew 13:55), or being murdered by His chosen people (Zechariah 13:6), who were unwilling to receive Him (3 Nephi 9:16).
Prophets frequently chastise the priestly body.
Christ certainly admonished the Jews (Matthew 23), His declarations of their sins driving them to their murderous rage. Abinadi was sent not only to the people, but evidently also to the religious leadership made up of King Noah and his chosen priests (Mosiah 13:3), against whom he bore witness and testimony (Mosiah 12-16). Also Malachi (Malachi 2-3), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 50:6), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 44:5-13), and of course many more.
Prophets may be called from among the priests.
Examples of this would include Paul (Saul of Tarsus), who was called by Jesus personally while a member of the Sanhedrin (Acts 9). Nephi's brother Jacob was called as a priest by Nephi, but obtained his prophetic errand from the Lord (Jacob 1:17-18). Samuel was raised among the priestly class, being groomed as one of them, when he received his prophetic call from God (1 Samuel 1-3).
This also begs the question that if the priestly calling was in itself enough, as we treat it today with the highest priestly offices, why did God interfere with His direct voice or appearance? Was their priestly calling perhaps insufficient to constitute grounds for claiming a prophetic mantle? Because the two are in fact different?
Priests may be called from among the prophets.
This seems more common. Nephi functioned as a prophet, receiving revelation and instruction from the Lord directly before he supplanted his father and became the presiding high priest among the Nephites. Alma was called directly by the Lord, being invested with divine authority while teaching Abinadi's prophetic words and performing rites, before organizing a church and priestly body. Moses was called in the burning bush before he ever became the presiding high priest over the delivered children of Israel. Joseph Smith was a prophet for years before organizing the church and becoming part of that priestly body. And Melchizedek was approved by the Lord through displays of divine power as a prerequisite to being ordained a high priest (JST Genesis 14:26-29). All these men displayed a prophetic connection to heaven before becoming members of a priestly body.
Prophets and priests are both valuable.
Some people marginalize prophets because their pattern appears too unruly, disorganized, or unregulated. It doesn't match the homogenized priestly pattern. As a result, those preferring the priestly pattern of order over power may reject prophets, whether intentionally or inadvertently. Unfortunately, when you reject the Lord's servants carrying His messages or performing His works, He takes it as a personal rejection of Him (1 Samuel 8:7). Amos concisely described the value of prophets (Amos 3:7).
Some marginalize priests, saying that their callings and works are external, carnal or temporal, while it is the inner man that must change. As a result they start to obsess over the esoteric or symbolic meanings of things, deciding that the practical and literal are without value, or are even beneath them. They think ordinances and other works are all dead, and perhaps wholly unnecessary. Mental gymnastics transform commandments of action to purely symbolic dramas of the "inner man," with no obligation to external works or efforts.
This kind of thinking denies the plain and precious nature of the gospel, which is so simple in nature that we must reduce ourselves to become as a little child to engage it (3 Nephi 11:37-38). Little children are not esoteric beings. It denies faith as a principle of action (LoF, Lecture 1 vv. 10-12), making it only a principle of understanding.
While it is true that the ordinances without the inner changes are dead (Joseph said you might as well baptize a bag of sand in those circumstances), the carnal, external, temporal works are considered “living” if approached correctly, and are required. Nephi couldn't have made the necessity of keeping the outward ordinances more plain (2 Nephi 31:5), nor could Christ with His step-by-step walkthrough to the Nephites (3 Nephi 11). And if we need the ordinances, as well as any other organized efforts (e.g. building temples), then a priestly body ideally serves to correctly organize, execute and maintain them.
Prophets and priests in a single man
At times a single individual fulfills both roles of prophet and priest. I bring up the possibility that perhaps this is when we get what the scriptures refer to as "high priests". Alma 13 makes clear that a high priest's calling is to come from heaven, even foreordained before the foundation of the world. They are ordained of God (it arguably doesn't say anything about an intermediary man), but the title makes clear that they are intended to be a part of the priestly body. All the examples of crossovers between prophets and priests are named as high priests. So this begs the question, is Alma 13 explaining that high priests are, among other qualifications, those called to wear the mantle of both prophet and priest?
Joseph and Hyrum, President and Presiding Patriarch of the Church of Christ.
Some further fodder concerning this topic is what Joseph Smith was doing in the church in his day. Joseph (and the Lord) groomed Hyrum with the intent that Hyrum would join Joseph at the head of the church, as the church's prophet and Presiding Patriarch, while Joseph would maintain his role as President of the Church (see Denver Snuffer's Hyrum Smith series, beginning at http://denversnuffer.com/2012/07/hyrum-smith/). Joseph was to be the presiding high priest, Hyrum the presiding prophet. Two roles, working together in a co-presidency. The offices were established for the church as a co-presidency, but correlation has since swept one of these (perhaps the greater one) under the rug.
Modern prophets rising from obscurity
There are prophets today following the scriptural pattern, emerging from obscurity and raising their voices in a call for repentance, and exposing issues within the priestly body. As prophets have always done. The priests can choose to either repent, or see the prophets as threats and become defensive and effectively “stone” them. As priests have always done. And in harmony with this pattern, the prophets initially suffer at the hands of the defensive priests, until God will either salvage or destroy the priests and their people. We are watching history unfold in the same cycle it always has, it's just been a little while since we were last at this phase.
More interesting is that perhaps we are seeing the prophesied “fullness of the Gentiles,” rejecting the fulness of the gospel sufficiently for it to be taken from them and given back to the remnant of the house of Israel (3 Nephi 16:10-12). This would point to the time of the Lord’s return being yet one prophetic step closer to fulfillment.
Are you watching? Are you seeing? Do you know what is happening right before your eyes? Time may be shorter than we think.
