high priest

See also: highpriest

English

Alternative forms

Noun

high priest (plural high priests)

  1. (religion) A clergyman with a higher function than a normal priest.
  2. In the Bible, the male individual who was responsible for making the annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur); always a descendant of Aaron, the older brother of Moses. See Kohen Gadol.
  3. (Christianity) Jesus Christ.
  4. (Mormonism) The second-lowest office in the Melchizedek priesthood.
    Jake was ordained a high priest when he was called to be a counselor in a bishopric.
  5. (figurative) A person holding a position of power or influence; an authority in a field of study, doctrine, art or a movement.
    • 2011, Robert Skidelsky, The Keynes-Hayek Rematch:
      The global economic collapse of 2007-2008 discredited “rational expectations” economics (though its high priests have yet to recognize this) and brought both Keynes and Hayek back into posthumous contention.
    • 2020 [2019 September 17], Edward Snowden, Permanent Record (autobiography; paperback), Pan Books, →ISBN:
      He perorated in a distinctly disturbed, and disturbing, manner, at least for a CIA high priest: “Technology is moving faster than government or law can keep up. It’s moving faster … than you can keep up: you should be asking the question of what are your rights and who owns your data.”
    • 2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 172:
      The high priest of US arms controllers
  6. (Wicca) A second or third degree male witch in Wicca.

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Translations

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Translations to be checked

References

"High Priest," Bible Dictionary, The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2006.

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