The priests and Levites were about their work in New Testament times. They are familiar in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:31).

Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, was the priest on duty in the Holy Place when he was told about the forthcoming birth of John (Luke 1:8-9). Jesus told the leper who had been healed to go and show himself to the priest (Matthew 8:4; read Leviticus 14:2). In New Testament times, the members of the high priestly families were all called high priests or chief priests and were constantly in conflict with Jesus and the early Christians.

As the Jewish people became familiar with the work of the high priests, priests, and Levites, they would have grasped the idea that lay behind it all-representation. On the one hand the priests and Levites represented the people before God as they led in worship and at the altar, and on the other, they represented God before the people as they taught and explained his laws.