Within Hebrew tradition, the High Priest held the greatest authority over the temple priests and was the only one allowed to perform the holiest and most sacred rite of the year. On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the High Priest would enter the most sacred room in the Temple – the Holy of Holies – and sprinkle the Ark of the Covenant with goat’s blood to atone for the sins of Israel.
The High Priest was an elected, life-time position reserved only for first-born descendents of Zadok – who was himself a descendent of Aaron – and a priest from when Solomon built the first Temple (c. 960 BC).
Like other priests, the High Priest had to be free from physical defects, but was held to a much stricter standard of ritualistic purity. He could not touch corpses, rend his clothing in grief, or touch impure things. His garments also set him apart from the other priests because, besides wearing the traditional white robes, he also wore a blue outer robe fringed with golden bells, a breastplate with stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and a ceremonial headpiece with a golden band.
In modern parlance we might consider the High Priest of the Jewish tradition as an archetype of bishops in the Christian Church. Even the ancient trappings of the High Priest’s vesture seem to correspond very keenly to the Mantiya, Panagia, and Mitre, which are still worn by our bishops to this day.
