Those dues of the priests which did not consist of portions of the offerings, and which were not therefore necessarily brought to Jeru.salem, were paid 'every^vhere where there was a priest,' i.e. on the spot to any priest who happened to be present, and this was enjoined to be continued even after the destruction of the temple (Schiirer, p. 257).
c. The duties and offices of the priests. — The enactments concerning the priests were in later tinii;s simply made more precise, upon the basis of the Priests' Code ; for instance, tlie laws about their marriacie (Schiirer, p. 227 f.), and the requirements of freedom from bodily blemish (ib. p. 230f. ). It would appear that in later times it was, not indeed a law liut a custom that the principal priests ni.arrie'l only the daughters of priests (Biichler, Priester, p. 88 fl". ). A particular aqe for admittance to the priestly service was no more fixed in the period following the OT than is done by the Priests' Code in the case of the Aaronites ; but, as a matter of practice, those admitted required apparently to have passed their twentieth year (Schiirer, p. 231).
Among the priestly duties, the bloirlyii/ of triim pets takes a wider scope than in the Priests' Code or the statements of the Chronicler, according to which this ceremony was practised only in war and at the regular festivals and on special festive occa sions. In later times it took jilace also in connexion with the sabbatical and daily oH'erings (.Jos. Ant.
III. xii. 6), and to announce the beginning of the Sabbath from the battlements of the temple (BJ
IV. ix. 12; cf. Schiirer, p. 278 f.). In addition tc the washing, required in the Priests' Code, of hands and feet in the urazen laver before performing the sacred office (on the mode of performing this wash- ing see Biichler, Prie.^tcr, p. 74, note 1), the priests had in later times to take a plunge-bath every morning before commencing the work of the day (Schiirer, p. 283). In the last days of the temple it wouM appear that the higher ranks of jiriests took no jiart in the work of sacrifice, with the excejition of the ollcrings presented by the high priest on the feast (lays, as this non-particii)ation in sacrilicial work is to all appearance to be assumed in the case of the priest Ilavius Josephus (Biichler, Prie«<er, p. 70 If.).
The 24 divitions of priests, of which we know as early as Chronicles, served for the performance of the cultus to which they attended in turn. The 21 divisions are distinguished, in the literature pos- terior to the OT, as the mis/imdri'th, from the sub- divisions not mentioned in the OT, the btlttU'dbCth. Each principal division included, accoriling to tra- dition, from five to nine subdivisions (Schiirer, p. 235 f.). A principal division is called in Greek irarpio (Jos. Ant. VII. xiv. 7), or i<prifj.epla (Lk 1'- ■•>. or iip-nnepls (Jos. Vita, 1); a sulidivision, 0kXt) (Jos. ]'ita, 1). I'2ach of the 24 divisions went on duty for a week, the exchange with the next division taking place on the Sabbath. At the throe great annual festivals all the 24 divisions olliciated simul- taneously (Schiirer, p. 279 f.).
96
PRIESTS AND LEVITES
PRIESTS AND LEVITES
The position of the high priest undenvent a change towards the close of the Jewish hierareliy through respect being no longer paid to the office as one that was to he held for life and to he lieredi- tary. The elevation of the Hasmona'ans to the high-priestly dignity had already marked a break- ing \vith tne past, for thereby the hereditary succession of high priests was interrupted. The Hasnionaeans sprang from the priestly class of Joiarib (1 Mac 2' 14="). Whether the latter was reckoned to the Zadokites or not, cannot be deter- mined. In the lists contained in the Book of Nehemiah (12^"'-'="") it holds a subordinate posi- tion ; a list, perhaps not earlier than the time of the Hasmonajans (cf. above, § 9), found in 1 Ch 24"-, assigns to it the first place. In one of the recently discovered fragments of the Hebrew original text of Jesus Sirach, namely 51'^°<°', the house of Zadok is highly exalted : ' O give thanks unto Him that chose tlie sons of Zadok to be priests ' (S. Schechter and C. Taylor, The Wisdom of Ben Sira, Portions of the Book Ecdesiasticus, Cam- bridge, 1899). The whole hymn to which this passage belongs, namely vv.'==i')"''=('"', is omitted in the Greek translation of the grandson of Jesus Ben Sira, perhaps as Schechter (p. 35 f. ) suggests (cf. Th. Noldeke, ZATW, 1900, p. 92), because in the inten-al between the composition of the original text and that of the translation (i.e. between c. 200 and 130 B.C.) the family of the previous Zadokite high priests had been superseded by the Has- inon.-eans. But after this latter event the high priesthood again became hereditary in the Has- momean line. At a later period Herod and the Romans set up and deposed high priests at their pleasure. From these non-acting high priests arose the group kno^vn as d/jx^peis. But the custom was always rigidly adhered to of select- ing the high priests only from certain special priestly families (Schiirer, p. 215 £f.). The anoint- ing of the high priest, which is ordained in the Priests' Code, was not in later times carried out in the case of all high priests, perhaps it was in general omitted ; the Mishna knows of high priests who were installed in office simply by clothing them with the official robes (Horajoth, iii. 4 ; cf. Gesch. p. 140 ; Schurer, p. 232, note 26 ; AVeinel, ZATW, 1898, p. 66 f. ; Van Hoonacker, Sacerdoce, etc. p. 351 f.). The high priest, who, during the period of Jewish independence, was the head also of the State, was at least in later times president of the Sanhedrin, and in so far also the representative of the people in political matters in dealing with the Romans. As regards his partici- pation in the performance of the cultus, it was a later custom for him to ofl'er the daily ofl'ering during the week preceding the Day of Atonement ; any other share he might take in the work of sacrifice was simply according to his pleasure {Joma i. 2). Joseidms states tnat the higli priest offered as a rule on the Sabbath, at the new moon, and at the yearly festivals {BJ V. v. 7 ; Biicliler, Pricster, p. 68 ff., doubts whether in later times the high priest oflered except at the yearly festivals). The (laily minhdh, which according to the original intention of Lv 6'^"- he had to offer (see above, S 8 c), was not always offered by the high priest in person, but he defrayed the cost of it (Jos. Ant. in. x. 7, where Up(v% can be none but tlie high priest), a duty wliich Ezekiel imposed upon the 'prmce.' In the Roman period a conflict arose on tlie question of the kee])ing of the high priest's robes (Jos. Ant. XV. xi. 4, XVIII. iv. 3, XX. 1. 1, 2) ; wlien Jerusalem was taken, his robe of state fell into the hands of the Romans (BJ VI. viii. 3).