The Presbyters of the bible were the functioning priests. Also according to the bible some priests converted to the new faith and would have continued in their capacity as the new faith regarded itself as a correction, a reform of Judaism.
Thank you. I'll have to do some reading on this. It's not something I ever picked up on in my reading. But, that's the neat thing about the Bible--you can read it for years and years and still find things you've never seen before. Of course, whenever I share these "new" things with my husband, he has always seen them, lol.