Proposed Identifications
Since the time of de Vaux, the default assumption has been that the Wicked Priest is a single individual, if only because of the appealing parallelism to the Teacher of Righteousness. The consensus time period for the founding of Qumran (150-140 BCE) includes five High Priests: three Hellenized and two Maccabean: Jason, Menelaus, Alcimus, Jonathan, and Simon, and also the various figures potentially associated with the intersacerdotium.
Various early theories situated the Wicked Priest within time periods running the full gamut from the pre-Hasmonaean period, to that of early Christianity, to that of the Crusades. However, that the Wicked Priest "ruled over Israel" (1QpHab 8.10) and was able to partake in "plundering" (9.7) has persuaded most scholars to exclude from consideration the predecessors of the Hasmonean High Priests, who did not share their ability to attack other nations militarily, having been militarily subjugated to Egypt or Syria, and their successors, who were dominated by the Romans. To a lesser extent, that the Wicked Priest was once called "by the name of the truth" (8.8-9) is used to disqualify the pre-Maccabean, Hellenized High Priests, who were not held in high regard by their coreligionists.
Similarly, post-Hasmonean High Priests have not received much serious attention because the "Kittim" (identifiable as the Romans due to the distinct practice of "sacrifice to their standards" attested to in 1QpHab 6.6) are referred to in the imperfect and none of the characters associated with the beginning of the Qumran community would have come into contact with the Romans
The "Maccabean theory"—as advanced by Cross, Milik, and Vermes—traditionally identifies the Wicked Priest as either Jonathan or Simon.
| Passage | Proposed identification(s) | Relevant external sources | Proposed excluded identification(s) | "Groningen" High Priest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "called by the name of truth when he first arose" |
Jonathan | c.f. "King Jonathan Fragment" | Hellenized, pre-Hasmonean High Priests | Judas |
| Simon | 1 Macc. 13: 1-9, 34-40 | |||
| John Hyrcanus I | JA 13: 10.5-6 | |||
| "ruled over Israel" |
Any Hasmonean | 1 and 2 Macc. | Non-Hasmoneans | |
| "robbed the men of violence who rebelled against God, and the peoples" |
John Hyrcanus I | JA 43: 10.2 | ||
| "rebelled and violated the precepts " |
c.f. 1QpHab 11.5-8 | Alcimus | ||
| "disease and took vengeance upon his body of flesh" |
Aristobulus I | JA 13: 11.3 | John Hyrcanus I John Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II |
|
| Alexander Jannaeus | JA 13: 15.5 | |||
| Alcimus | 1 Macc. 9.54 JA 12: 10.6 |
|||
| "last Priests of Jerusalem delivered into the hands of the army of the Kittim" |
John Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II |
JA 14: 2.3, 3.1, 14: 4.5, 7.1 | Post-Hasmoneans | |
| "delivered into the hands of his enemies" |
Jonathan | 1 Macc. 13 | Simon (1 Mac. 16:14-16) Jason (2 Mac. 5.7-9) Alcimus (1 Mac. 9.54-56) |
Jonathan |
| Alexander Jannaeus | JA 13:13.5 | |||
| "stones might be laid in oppression and the beam of its woodwork in robbery" |
Alexander Jannaeus | JA 13: 13.5, 15.1 | Simon | |
| John Hyrcanus I | JA 18: 4.3 | |||
| "pursued the Teacher of Righteousness to his house of exile for the Day of Atonement" |
Alexander Jannaeus | JA 13: 13.5 c.f. 4Q171 4.7-10 |
John Hyrcanus I | |
| "walked in the ways of drunkenness" |
Alexander Jannaeus | JA 13: 15.5 | Alexander Jannaeus | |
| Simon | 1 Macc. 16: 11-17 | |||
| "defiled the Temple of God robbed the Poor" |
Alexander Jannaeus | JA 13: 13.5, 14.1-2 | ||
| "that he might put him to death and the law which he sent him" |
Alexander Jannaeus | c.f. 1QpHab 11.5-8 | ||
| "delivering him into the hand of the violent of the nations" |
Jonathan | c.f. 1QpHab 9.8-9 | All but John Hyrcanus I, Aristobulus I, and Alexander Jannaeus | |
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