A Royal Priesthood: Literary and Intertextual Perspectives on an Image of Israel in Exodus 19:6

This thesis explores the background, literary setting, meaning and significance within its wider canonical context of the image of God’s people as a ‘kingdom of priests’ in the divine declaration of Exodus 19:6. Most recent interpreters have argued for (or assumed) either a passive understanding of the word translated ‘kingdom’ (Israel is God’s realm) or an active-elite understanding (Israel is a nation with a ruling priestly caste). Adopting a final form or literary approach to the text, this thesis argues on syntactic and contextual grounds for a view no longer fashionable—the active-corporate interpretation. On this view, God’s commitment to Israel is seen as a declaration of the privileged position of the elect nation. God’s people are his treasure— that is, in distinction to other nations, they enjoy the status of royalty and priesthood, depicted in terms of access to his heavenly court. This active-corporate interpretation is one which underlies many ancient renderings and interpretations of the passage (including those in the New Testament). The words of the declaration speak of relationship rather than function. They indicate primarily the people’s standing before God, rather than their obligation towards the other nations as is often supposed (intercession, service, mission), though it is not denied that there may be implications for human relationships of what it means to be the chosen people of God. This royal-priestly designation of Israel draws on a rich world of ideology and symbolism, much of it common to the ancient Near East, where access to the divine realm is the prerogative of kings or their priests who acted as their surrogates. This rich symbolism has generally been all but overlooked, and occasionally explicitly denied,