The three highest ranks in Egypt were the divine, the royal, and the noble, and the three were distinguished from each other by their peculiar type of beard. Thus the loftiest rank was spiritual, and this primacy originated not in men becoming bishops, but in their possessing those spiritual powers and faculties which have been repudiated and expurgated by the Churches of orthodox Christianity, but which were looked upon of old as verily divine – Gerald Massey (Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World)
The Egyptian priesthood was hereditary, and formed one of the three classes into which the nation was divided--namely, the priests, the soldiers, and the cultivators of the soil. They held their estates free from the land tax or rent of one-fifth of the crop, as mentioned in Gen. xlvii. 26. They were the only learned or educated people in the kingdom, and consequently they filled every post and office which needed any education. Not only every clergyman, sexton, and undertaker, but every physician and druggist; every lawyer, writing-clerk, schoolmaster, and author; every sculptor, painter, and land-measurer; every conjuror, ventriloquist, and fortune-teller, belonged to the priestly order. Even those posts in the army which required an education, such as secretaryships and clerkships, were held by priests. Much of the skilled labour of the country was under their control. The linen manufactories in the Delta, and the stone quarries between the first and second cataracts, were both managed by the priests – Samuel Sharpe (Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity)From the word Ovate (from the Gaelic Faidh) come such roots and words as Faith, Fate and Vatican. So when Christians pontificate about having "faith," they do so without realizing the word and idea come from the Druids, the true "Men of Faith." The Ovates were judges. The word judge comes from the same roots as Judah (from Yahud) and Jew. In all cases these titles come from Irish roots. They refer to the "Men of the Yews," the Arya, or Servants of Truth who appeared in pre-dynastic Egypt as the blue-eyed, fair-skinned Shemsu Hor.