ANNAS ('Aci-ot, ijo ' merciful.' Josephus'Ai'OFot),
100
ANNAS
ANOINTING
— 1. Son of Seth, appointed high priest A.D. 6 or 7 l>y the legate Quirinius, and deposed A.D 15 by the procurator Valerius Gratus (Jos. Ant. xvill. ii. 1, 2). He thus lost office, but not power. ' They say that this elder An anus was most fortunate ; for he had five sons, and it happened tliat they all held the office of high priest to God, and he had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests' (Jos. Ant. XX. ix. 1). We learn also from bt. John (18'^) that Joseph Caiaphas, hi^h priest A.D. 18-3(i, was his son-in-law. The immense wealth of these Sadducean aristocrats was, in part at least, derived from ' the booths of the sons of Annas,' which monopolised the sale of all kinds of materials for sacrifice. These booths, according to Edersheim {Life and Times of the Messiah, iii. 5), occupied part of the temple court; D6renbourg {Essai sur I'histoire, etc.,de la Palestine, 'p. 465 sqq.) with more probability identifies them with four booths on the Mount of Olives, a branch establish- ment of which might have been beneath the temple porches. It was the sons of Annas who made God's house ' a den of robbers ' ; and the Talmudic curse, ' Woe to the house of Annas 1 woe to their serpent- like hissings!' (or whisperings) (Pes. 57a), almost re-echoes the Saviour's denunciations. Josephus, too (Ant. XX. ix. 2-4), gives a vivid picture of the insolent rapacity and violence of the younger Ananus. Moreover, ' forty years before the de- struction of the temple tne Sanhedrin banished itself from the chamber of hewn stone (n'ljn njf'p), and established itself in the booths ' (nVijn) (D6ren- bourg, p. 465), subsequently moving ' from the booths to Jerusalem' (Rosh ha-Sh. 31a), perhaps when the booths were destroyed, three years before the destruction of the temple, in the same year in which the yoimger Ananus was murdered. Such and so powerful was the faction of which Annas was the head. The NT consistently reflects this state of things. Jesus, when arrested, is brought to Annas first (Jn 18''). He takes the leading part in the trial of the apostles (Ac 4'). That Annas is styled ' the high priest ' (Ac 4', and probably Jn 18"- ^) is not remarkable, since it is quite in accordance with the usage of Josephus, who applies the title, not only to the actual holder of the office, but also to all his living predecessors ( VU. 38 ; BJ II. xii. 6 ; IV. iii. 7, 9, 10 ; IV. iv. 3). And in both Josephus and NT the more in- fluential members of those families from which high priests were chosen are all called dpxiepcis. But the phrase ' irl ipxtepfut 'kova xal KaC6.<pa, in the high priesthood of A. and C (Lk 3"), seems unparalleled. Ewald (H.I. vol. vi. p. 430, n. 3) conjectures that it is due to the fact that when the author wrote, ' they had become memorable in this association through the history of Christ's death.' The chief interest in Annas centres in the notice of him in Jn 18, which is complementary to the narrative of St. Luke, and corrects an apparent mistake made by St. Matthew and St. ^Ja^k. The first two evangelists obscurely indicate two stages in the trial of Jesus (Mt 26" 27', Mk U"" 15'), but they transfer the events of the morning meeting of the Sanhedrin to the previous night. St. Luke avoids this apparent mistake, and leaves room (22") for such an informal inquiry as that of Annas really was.
When we bear in mind the predominant influence of the man, and the unscrupulousness of the whole proceeding, it seems unnecessary to suppose that Annas was either deputy (sagan) of the high priest (Lightfoot, Temple Service, \. 1) or president (k"»:) of the Sanhedrin (liaronius. Annals, followed by Selden, de Success. Pontif. i. 12) or chief examining judge, n n'3 3N (Ewald, ff.I. vol. ^^. p. 430).
The interview of Jesus with Annas is described
Jn 18"'^. It could have only one issue. Jesoa was sent as a condemned prisoner for a more formal trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, as described by the Synoptists, but merely implied by St. John. (This is obscured In the Received text of v.'^, and still more in the AV, which renders the aorist as a pluperfect ; odr is read by B C* L X 1. 33.) We have seen that the Sanhedrin at this time met in the headquarters of the Annas faction, so that it may have been when passing through the court from the apartments of Annas to the council chamber that ' the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter,' Lk 22«' (Westcott on Jn 18"). 2.
1 Es 9^', see Harim. N. J. D. White.
ANNIS ('Ayi'tts B, 'Afyids A, AV Ananias, RVm Annias). — The eponym of a faniUy that returned with Zerubbabel (1 Es 5'"). Omitted in parallel passages of Ezr and Neh. J. A. Selbib.
ANNUS (A 'AvTOi/s, B 'ApnoilB, AV Anus).— A Levite, 1 Es 9«=Neh 8' [Bani].
ANNDDS (A 'Avyowot, B omits), 1 Es 8« (47, LXX). — The name does not occur in Ezr 8" ; it may be due to reading 'iFixi (AV ' and with him)' there as um. H. St. J. Thackeray.