High Priest (Judaism) - Post-Exilic Conditions

Post-Exilic Conditions

After the Babylonian Exile, Joshua appears vested with the prominence that P ascribes to the high priest (Zech. iii.; Hag. vi. 13). In Ezra and Nehemiah, again, but little consideration is shown for the high priest. The post-exilic high priests traced their pedigree back to Zadok, appointed as chief priest at Jerusalem by Solomon (I Kings ii. 35), and Zadok was held to be a descendant of Eleazar, the son of Aaron (II Chron. v. 34). Immediately after the return from the Captivity, as is clearly to be inferred from Zechariah and Haggai, political authority was not vested in the high priest. Political (Messianic) sovereignty was represented by, or attributed to, a member of the royal house, while religious affairs were reserved to the high-priesthood, represented in the Book of Zechariah by Joshua. But in the course of time, as the Messianic hope, or even the hope of autonomy under foreign (Persian, Greek, Egyptian,or Syrian) suzerainty became weaker, the high priest also became a political chief of the congregation, as much, perhaps, through the consideration shown him by the suzerain powers and their viceroys as through the effect of the increasingly thorough acceptance of the Levitical code by pious Judeans. In this connection the report (I Macc. vii. 14) that the rigorists received Alcimus, the high priest, with confidence because he was "a priest of the seed of Aaron" is significant.