The priesthood as you did not know it - Chapter XNUMX: There is life after Herod

After the death of Herod, Judah lost its political independence and therefore the clergy - the priests - were the ones who actually controlled them

The penultimate list (the ninth in number) explained to us the events of The High Priesthood in the days of Herod, one that was shaken several times due to the nature of the king and the conduct of his centralized rule, and it was only a matter of time when the priesthood would strengthen again after the days of Herod, when the answer was given in the last list - The priesthood and the Christian Jesus - while this was involved in the removal, literally, of Jesus from the stage of Jewish history.

Archelaius, the eldest son of Herod, who was supposed to inherit his father's position and the territory of his rule, waited for the approval of the royal will by the Romans as accepted in the imperial procedure, and in the meantime avoided being called by the name of king and of course from placing a crown on his head. This interim period was taken advantage of by various senior officials in Judea, who demanded that the heir, among other things, depose the high priest appointed by his father, Herod, "and choose a man more worthy according to the Torah and also pure to serve as high priest" (Antiquities of the Jews 207, XNUMX). Archilaeus, who was on his way to sail to Rome, chose to delay his answer until his return, strengthened as king by the approval of the Romans.

Archelaius returned from Rome with half of his lust in his hand - the Romans did not confirm his kingship but appointed him as Atanarchis (a kind of president) and cut about half of the territory of his father Herod's sovereignty. These moves reflected Rome's concern about the internal security situation at the time and the lack of proper leadership skills (so similar, compared to Herod's). Various elements in Judea, with a lust for power in one guise or another, ideological and religious-messianic, apocalyptic, provoked foci of rebellion here and there and required immediate Roman involvement. No one imagined that these moves would finally lead to the outbreak of the great revolt among the Romans, otherwise a united front of Archelaius with the Jerusalem aristocracy and the high priesthood would have been organized in Judea, and this to remove the evil of the "decree".

At the time when Archelaius returned to Judea from Rome with the tiara of the Athenarchy (presidency) hanging over his head, he "took the high priesthood from Yoezer ben Baytus, accusing him of joining the rebels and appointing his brother Eleazar under him" (Kedmoniot Ha'Yudu 339, XNUMX). Eleazar did not last long in his position either. He was deposed by Archelaius and under him was appointed Jesus ben Shay.

Archelaius ends his life chapter in 6 AD, and the Romans, who were not ready to renew the days of the Herodian monarchy, appointed under him a senior official on their behalf, a former consul, a Roman of the cavalry class, named Quirionius, from whom the period of the Roman commission would begin in Judea. This move symbolized the transformation of Judah into a province directly subordinate to the Roman Empire. The first action that the Roman commissioner was asked to perform in Judea was to prepare a census (cansus) in order to obtain the population estimate and the amount of assets in order to properly plan the collection of taxes from the locals and to emphasize their adherence to the empire.

This move, as expected, provoked opposition among the public due to fear of worsening their economic situation, but in favor of implementing the condemned Roman procedure, the High Priesthood, headed by Yozer ben Baytus, stood up, and thanks to her intercession and appeal to the public, the spirits calmed down and the Jews prepared for the command. The anti-Roman spirits were fanned and excited by zealots, led by Judas the Galilean, or Judas the man of the Golan, and with him Zadok the Pharisee. These sought to incite the people against the Romans on the grounds that the command was nothing more than a shameful act of enslavement and that even the deity was opposed to it. Yehuda the Galilean was not an unknown figure, whose anti-Roman fanaticism was further absorbed by his father, Hezekiah the Galilean, who at the time rebelled against Herod (the governor of the Galilee), and paid for it with his head, literally.

Yehuda the Galilean, or the Golani, was the head of an extreme sect called by Josephus the "Fourth Philosophy" (a group that seceded from the Pharisees) and which developed a deep hatred for the Romans and, in fact, for any rule of flesh and blood. She occasionally called for a rebellion against the Romans and the establishment of absolute Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The revered figures of that group were the biblical Pinchas (the father of fanaticism) and the Hasmonean Eliyahu and Jorosham Mattathias. Submission to Roman rule was perceived by the zealots of Judas the Galilean and Zadok the Pharisee as a religious sin that amounted to nothing less than apostasy.

In a much broader perspective, one can see the beginnings of the ideological and practical conflict between the sect of the Sadducees, whose members were the priests, and the sect of the Pharisees. While the miracle of the Maccabean rebellion, as a legacy of the zeal of Phinehas and Elijah, was borne by the zealous priests, and the Greek high priests stood before them, and after the first the kings left-held the Hasmonean house, they continue now, in the post-Herodian Roman era, to support the Romans from a pragmatic and practical consideration. Opposing them are the Pharisees, who over time formulated an anti-Roman and rebellious ideology. These two channels will operate simultaneously until the outbreak of the Roman revolt in 66 CE.

The first Roman commissioner, the one entrusted with the Cansus, behaved unwisely when he made a male exchange in the High Priesthood - he deposed Yoezer ben Baytus and appointed Hanan ben Sheth to the High Priesthood. Yosef ben Matatihu justifies the move in the dispute that broke out between the residents of Jerusalem regarding the involvement of Yoezer ben Baytus in the issue of the commandant, in order, it seems, to achieve industrial peace in the public. And perhaps the impeachment took place simultaneously with the dramatic changes in Herod's inheritance, the result of a Roman decision "from on high".
In any case, the commissioner's intervention in the appointment of the high priests indicates a significant change from the practice that was accepted in the days of King Herod, who is the one who enthroned the high priests and excommunicated them. This step of the commissioner therefore expressed a further devaluation of Judah's position.

During the days of Quirinius' successor, the commissioner Coponius, an alarming event took place, which symbolized the tensions between the Jews and the Samaritans. It was customary on the days of Passover to open the temple gates at midnight, which allowed a group of Samaritan provocateurs to secretly sneak into the temple and scatter human bones in the chambers in order to defile the holy site. As a result, the temple gates were locked and the priests were allowed to increase the conversion on the spot.

One of the following commissioners, Valerius Gratus (26-15 AD), made several frequent exchanges, four in number, in the High Priesthood, and Joseph ben Matatiyahu tells us about this in his composition: "He (the Commissioner) put an end to Hanan's great priesthood and appointed Ishmael ben Piabi Not long after, he deposed that too and appointed Eleazar ben Hanan as high priest The great priesthood for Shimon ben Kamchit. No more than one year had passed (since then), and Yosef, who is Caiphas, succeeded him" (Kadmoniot Ha-Jewidis 35:34-XNUMX). On the face of it, this move seems clear in terms of the Commission's control over the priesthood, and from that in Jewish society, another reason arising from this is that the exchange of priests was carried out against the background of the examination of each mother commissioner and to what extent the candidate priest serves the Roman interests.

Another motive was financial - the priesthood became a position that was bought with money, and therefore, by the way, belonged to the Sadducees and Baytus, and from this the frequency of the exchange of candidates could flow cash into the commissioner's pocket. These exchanges were laughable in the eyes of the Pharisees who formulated a clear anti-Roman position and their fight against the Sadducees and the Beatos was in any case for nothing in those days.

The next commissioner, Pontius Pilate (36-26 BC), was the hardest and worst of all the official officials who preceded him. He brought, provocatively, the protomes (face and iconography) of the Roman emperor that were attached to the miracles of the legions, to Jerusalem. Pilate asked to install a new aqueduct to Jerusalem with forced funding from the Temple's funds and to place in Herod's palace gold shields dedicated to the honor of the emperor Tiberius, which raised objections in principle because of the fear (albeit unjustified) that it was a "photograph" and a "picture".
In the works of Yosef ben Matthieu nothing and a half is said about the reaction of the priests on the subject of these provocations, and that is with the exception of popular opposition, somewhat specific. The lack of priestly reaction indicates the continuation of the path of the Sadducean priesthood which pragmatically examined the power relations and came to the necessary conclusion that any confrontation with the Romans would only bring about a turn for the worse both in its status and in the status of Judah in general. This policy is well illustrated with regard to the case of Jesus and his crucifixion, as it appears in the New Testament. The high priest Caiaphas is the one who supports the harsh Roman response to the phenomenon of messianism and prophecies.

Pilate's harsh moves on the one hand and the priestly support for the Romans on the other hand similarly brought the Roman High Commissioner in Syria, Vitellius, to visit Judea and command Jerusalem as a gesture of goodwill and to show a different face to the locals. Vitellius visits Jerusalem at the time of Passover, taking advantage of the large presence of pilgrims in Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire. The commissioner is greeted with greetings and festivities and immediately announces a waiver of the taxation from the sale of the fruits and a renewed delivery of the high priest's vestment to the vigil and supervision of the priests as was customary many years ago. Until that time, the high priest's clothes were kept by the commissioner in the Antonia fortress next to the temple, considering the symbolism of Roman enslavement in general and the conversion of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem in particular. It all began in the days of Yohanan Hyrcanus the First, the Hasmonean king, who was considered, as his ancestors, the son of the high priesthood (and in Josephus ben Mattathias he appears as a "mere" priest - "when his son was one of the priests, Hyrcanus the First"), and it was he who established the "capital" (Baris) near the temple - and he "sat in it most of the time and in it he placed and held the garment (the surviving garment of the high priest), because he was its keeper, since it was given to him alone and when he went down to the city he put on a layman's garment. This his sons and sons endeavored to do. And when King Herod built this capital, which is situated in a convenient place, he named it Antonia after his friend, and kept the garment as much as was deposited here. , because he believed that the people would not rebel against him because of this. Similar to Herod's act, Archilaeus also did his son, who was appointed king After him, the Romans took over the high priest's garment, which was placed in a stone-built room under the seal of the priests and the treasure guards, and the commander of the fort would light a candle there every day The fortress, and the high priest used it after it was purified, and one day after the holiday they returned it to the house, where it had been laid before It is done in the three habits of every year and year and fasting. Vitilius placed the garment (in our hands as was the custom of our ancestors), and commanded the commander of the fortress not to watch over where the garment was placed and when it was to be used. After he did this for the benefit of the people and removed from the priesthood the high priest called Kaifa, he appointed Yonatan ben Hanan the high priest. Then he set out on his way back to Antioch" (The Jewish Antiquities 95:90-XNUMX).

The control over the vestments of the high priest was therefore of great significance beyond any external effect, and it was not without reason that the Hasmoneans and Herod wanted to control the clothing. Commissioner Vitellius continues like his predecessors to appoint and fire high priests as an integral part of the effect of control and enslavement, beyond the nature of the priests' behavior, but this time he decides as a noble step of gesture to place the garment in the hands of the Jews as an indication of the degree of their loyalty and the silence they demonstrate towards the Roman presence. This step dropped the basis of the religious-ritual freedom of the Romans over the Jewish one and in any case strengthened the position of the priests, both in the eyes of their people and in the eyes of the Romans. The priests usually cooperated with the Romans and were considered a moderate factor in Jewish society, and this in the face of the Pharisaic opposition, and especially the fanaticism that grew out of it, which endangered the Roman presence in the region in terms of signs of rebellion.

The series of articles "The Priesthood You Didn't Know" by Dr. Yechiam Sorek

• Part I - the end of the First Temple and the exile in Babylon
• Part II - Return to Zion
• Part III - The Hellenistic period
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood in Marumiya
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood makes muscles
• Part XNUMX - Matthew turns over in his grave
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood begins to lose height
• Part VIII - The reign of Hyrcanus
• Part IX - Herod stirs up the priesthood
• Part XNUMX - The Priesthood and the Christian Jesus