12. A Christian of Damascus (Acts ix, 10; xxii, 12), held in high repute, to whom the Lord appeared
: in a vision, and bade him proceed to " the street which j is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus ; for, behold, he praycth." | Ananias had difficulty in giving credence to the mes- sage, remembering how much evil Paul had done to the saints at Jerusalem, and knowing that he had come to Damascus with authority to la)' waste the Church of Christ there. Receiving, however, an assurance I that the persecutor had been converted, and called to the work of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, An- anias went to Paul, and, putting his hands on him, bade him receive his sight, when immediately there fell from his e3'es as it had been scales; and, recover- ing the sight which he had lost when the Lord appear- ed to him on his way to Damascus, Paul, the new con- I vert, arose, and was baptized, and preached Jesus j Christ (see Walch, Dissert, in A ct. Apost. ii, 78 sq.), I A.D. 30.
Tradition (Menolog. Grcecor. i, 79 sq.) represents An- | anias as the first that published the Gospel in Damas- ' cus, over which placebo was subsequently made bish- op; but having roused, by his zeal, the hatred of the Jews, he was seized by them, scourged, and finally stoned to death in his own church. — Kitto, s. v.
13. A son of Nebedanis (Josephus, Ant. xx, 5, 2),
' was made high-priest in the time of the procurator Ti- berius Alexander, about A.D. 48, by Herod, king of Chalcis, who for this purpose removed Joseph, son of Camydus, from the high-priesthood (Josephus, Ant.
| xx, 1, 3). He held the office also under the procu- rator Cumanus, who succeeded Tiberius Alexander, A.D. 52. Being implicated in the quarrels of the Jews and Samaritans, Ananias was, at the instance of the latter (who, lieiug dissatisfied with the conduct of Cu- manus, appealed to Ummidius Quadratus, president of Syria), sent in bonds to Borne, together with Ids asso- ciate Jonathan and a certain Ananus (Josephus, War, ii, 12, 6), to answer for his conduct before Claudius CsBsar (Josephus, Ant. xx, 6, 2). The emperor de- cided in favor of the accused part}'. Ananias appears to have returned with credit, and to have remained in his priesthood until Agrippa gave his office to Ismael, the son of Phabi (Josephus, Ant. xx, 8, 8), who suc- ceeded (Wieseler, Chronol. Synopsis, p. 187 sq.) a short time before the departure of the procurator Felix (Jo-
ANANIEL
216
ANASTASIUS
sephus, Ant. xx, 8, 5), and occupied the station also under his successor Festus (Josephus, Ant. xx. 6, 3). Ananias, after retiring from his high-priesthood, " in- creased in glory every day" (Josephus, Ant. xx, 9, 2), and obtained favor with the citizens, and with Albi- nus, the Roman procurator, by a lavish use of the great wealth he had hoarded. His prosperity met with a dark and painful termination. The assassins (sicarii) who played so fearful a part in the Jewish war, set fire to his house in the commencement of it, and compelled him to seek refuge by concealment; but, being discovered in an aqueduct, he was captured and slain, together with his brother Hezekiah (Jose- phus, War, ii, 17, 9), A.D. 67.— Kitto, s. v.
It was this Ananias before whom Paul was brought, in the proeuratorship of Felix (Acts xxiii), A.D. 55. The noble declaration of the apostle, "I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day," so dis- pleased him that he commanded the attendant to smite him on the face. Indignant at so unprovoked an insult, the apostle replied, " God shall smite thee, thou whited wall" — a threat which the previous de- tails serve to prove wants not evidence of having taken effect. Paul, however, immediately restrained his an- ger, and allowed that he owed respect to the office which Ananias bore. After this hearing Paul was sent to Csesarea, whither Ananias repaired in order to lay a formal charge against him before Felix, who postponed the matter, detaining the apostle mean- while, and placing him under the supervision of a Ro- man centurion (Acts xxiv). Paul's statement, "I wist not (ovk i,cin'), brethren, that he was the high- priest" (Acts xxiii, 5), has occasioned considerable difficulty (see Cramer, Be Paulo in Synedrio verba fa- ciente, Jen. 1735 ; Brunsmann, A n Paulus vere ignorant Ananiam esse summum sacerdotem, in his Hendecad. Diss. Hafn. 1691, p. 44 sq.), since he could scarcely have been ignorant of so public a fact, and one indi- cated by the very circumstances of the occasion; but it seems simply to signify that the apostle had at the moment overlooked the official honor due to his parti- san judge (see Kuinol, Comment, in loc). See Paul.
14. An eminent priest, son of Masambalus, slain by Simon during the final siege of Jerusalem (Josephus, War, v, 13, 1).
Anan'iel QAvaviri\ i. q. Hananeel, q. v.), the son of Aduel, father of Tobiel, and grandfather of Tobit (Tob. i, 1).
Ananus {"Ai'avoc, prob. a Greek form of JTanan, q. v.), the name of several men in Josephus.
1. The senior of that name, whose five sons all en- joyed the office of high-priest (Josephus, Ant. xx, 9, 1), an office that he himself filled with the greatest fidelity {War, iv, 3, 7). He is probably the same as Ananus, the son of Seth, who was appointed high- priest by Cyrenius {Ant. xxiii, 2, 1), and removed by Valerius Gratus {ib. 2). He is apparently the Annas (q. v.) mentioned in the Gospels.