Continuing: Nora, I like your idea of the importance of blood lineage because I think part of the legitimacy of Paul’s new savior (so similar to the dying and rising young Lords in Pagan tradition), was Jesus’ supposed fulfillment of prophesy and his heritage in the glorious tradition of Jewish kings and their ‘covenant’ with Yahweh. So yeah, Gentiles, while benefiting from the Jewish ‘rejection’ of Christianity (and why wouldn’t they reject Paul’s remake of Pagan motifs?), had no part in the Jewish heritage which yielded 12 apostolic judges on thrones to judge Israel. Israel would not/ will not be judged by Gentiles. So Paul was not making Jesus ordain priests (Paul knew nothing of Christian priests as there were none then or he did not accept them as such??); rather, Paul and Gospel author(s) were intent on making Jesus into the divine and legitimate heir of a Jewish tradition of kings, covenants, judges, that was at least in popular imagination already 1,000 years old