A Cardinal Function

“All too often one assumes that the taproot of Christian preaching goes back to the ministry of the prophets; preaching is thought of as the religious concern of the prophets, over against the liturgical concerns of the priesthood. There may have been circles in which this was true, but those who gave us the book of Deuteronomy saw teaching and preaching as a cardinal function of the priesthood” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, p. 30).