priest: a member of Israel's hereditary priestly order, authorized to run the worship of the Jerusalem temple
This is the Aramaic word for a priest, and it turns up only in the Aramaic stretches of Ezra. Every one of its eight appearances sits inside official paperwork: a decree of Darius, a letter of Artaxerxes, and the short account of the finished temple's dedication. That setting shapes what the word shows us. These priests are not described at prayer or at the altar; they are described as an institution the Persian government has to deal with.
What the documents say about them falls into a pattern:
- they tell the imperial treasury what the daily offerings will require, down to the wheat, salt, wine, and oil
- they are installed in their divisions, with the Levites (לֵוָי) in theirs, to staff the service of God's house
- they head the list of temple personnel, ahead of the singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants, whom the crown exempts from tribute, duty, and toll
The same word also works as a personal title. Twice the king's letter calls Ezra "the priest," and both times it pairs that with a second title, scribe (סָפִר) of the law of the God of heaven. Together the two titles explain why the Persian court is dealing with this man at all: he belongs to the family authorized to run the temple, and he is an expert in the law that governs it.
The Hebrew Bible's own word for a priest (כֹּהֵן) is the same word in the sister language, and it covers the whole office: the altar work, the rulings on what is clean, the teaching. The Aramaic form gives only the slice that imperial officials cared about, the recognized staff of one sanctuary in one province.