appointed service offered to God, above all the formal work of a priest in worship, and by extension gifts or lives presented to him like a sacrifice
This word began far from the temple. In the Greek city it named a wealthy citizen's public gift: paying to outfit a warship, fund a festival, or sponsor a chorus. It was work done at one's own expense for the good of the whole community, counted as both a duty and an honor.
When Greek-speaking Jews translated the Hebrew Scriptures, they narrowed the word almost entirely to one thing: the official service of priests and Levites in the tabernacle and temple. By the time of the New Testament, both backgrounds are alive at once, and the writers use them together. The result is a word that always means service, but a weighty, appointed, God-directed kind of service, closer to a sacred office than to an ordinary favor.
The New Testament's uses gather into three closely related groups. The first is the plain priestly one: the rota of duty a priest carries out in the sanctuary. The second lifts that same idea to Christ, who serves as priest in the true sanctuary in heaven. The third stretches the word outward, so that a believer's faith-shaped life, or a gift of money sent to fellow Christians, can be described as an offering presented to God. In each case the core holds: service rendered to God, or on his behalf, as something offered up.
Nuances
Whether Christ's leitourgia in Hebrews 8:6 denotes a completed, once-for-all sacrificial act or an ongoing, perpetual ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.
- majorityThe perfect-tense verb marks a decisive terminus: Christ's sacrificial offering is finished at his enthronement, and his subsequent heavenly activity is intercession distinct from the sacrifice itself.; Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989); Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC, 1993); Nicholas J. Moore, 'Sacrifice, Session and Intercession,' JSNT 42.4 (2020): 521-41
- minorityChrist's leitourgia is coextensive with his heavenly presence: presenting his atoning offering to the Father is an enduring reality as long as he remains before God, not a punctual past event.; David M. Moffitt, Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews (NovTSup 141, 2011)