The redescribing project has often involved the necessary move of calling into question commonly assumed presuppositions that have long underwritten scholarship on early Christianity. This paper addresses common misconceptions about the origins of the Christian priesthood that continue to shape modern scholarship. I use the example of Origen of Alexandria as someone who is frequently labeled a priest without question or qualification to argue that the Christian priesthood was not a Christian office that naturally developed through a process of apostolic succession, but one that evolved incrementally over time roughly from the middle of the third century to the end of the fourth century. This redescriptive project contextualizes the Christian appropriation of the “priesthood” as a strategic move to claim traditional forms of religious authority through a process of mythmaking that imaginatively connected Christian offices to the Israelite priesthood. In doing so, it not only calls into question traditional scholarship on the Christian priesthood, but also problematizes the category of “priest” as it is generally conceptualized. Additionally, through redescribing the Christian priesthood and its “origins”, this paper also highlights the problematic usage of common myths of the Christian priesthood in debates over the priesthood in various Christian communities today.