^^:
Bepresentation of an idolatrous "High plncp," with its "Grove," altar, and worshippers. (From Paine's Tem- ple of Holomun.)
High-priest {'p'SiJ.hak-'hjke?/', the ordinary word for "priest," with the article, i. e. '-t/ie priest;" and in the books subsequent to the Pentateuch with the fre- quent adtlition h'lvij, the fjrenf, and ^TXItl, "the headf Lev. xxi, 10 seems to exhibit the epithet bna [as iTruJ-
HIGH-PRIEST
242
inGH-PRIEST
KOTToc and SiuKovog in the N. T.] ki a transition state, not yet wholly technical ; and the same may be said of Numb. XXXV," 25, where the explanation at the end of the verse, "which was anointed with the holy oil," seems to show that the epithet ^IS was not yet quite estab- lished as distinctive of the chief priest [comp. ver. 28]. In all other passages of the Pentateuch it is simply " the priest," Exod. xxix, 30, 44; Lev. xvi, 32 ; or yet more frequently '-Aaron," or "Aaron the priest," as Numb, iii, () ; iv, 33 ; Lev. i, 7, etc. So, too, " Eleazar tlie priest," Numb, x^vii, 22; xxxi, 26, 29, 31, etc. Li fact, there could be no such distinction in the time of Moses, since the priesthood was limited to Aaron and his sons. In the Sept. o apxiepiVQ, or itpivQ, where the Heb. has only "ins. So likewise in the N. T. apxiiQivQ, often merely a " chief priest." Vulgate, Sacerdos magnus, or primus pontifex, princejys sacerdotum), the head of the Jewish hierarchy, and a lineal descendant of Aaron.
I. The legal view of the high-priest's office comprises all that the law of Moses ordained respecting it. The first distinct separation of Aaron to the office of the priesthood, which previously belonged to the firstborn, was that recorded in Exod. xxviii. A partial anticipa- tion of this call occurred at the gathering of the manna (Exod. xvi), when IMoses bade Aaron take a pot of man- na, and lay it up before the Lord : which implied that the ark of the Testimony woidd thereafter be under Aa- ron's charge, though it was not at that time in exist- ence. The taking up of Nadab and Abihu with their father Aaron to the Mount, where they beheld the glory of the God of Israel, seems also to have been intended as a preparatory intimation of Aaron's hereditary priest- hood. See also Exod. xxvii, 2L But it was not till the completion of the directions for making the tabernacle and its furniture that the distuict order was given to JMoses, " Take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and liis sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons" (Exod. xxviii, 1). So after the order for the priestly garments to be made '■ for Aaron and his sons," it is added, " and the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute ; and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons," and " I will sanctify both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office," xxix, 9, 44.
We find from the very first the following character- istic attributes of Aaron and the high-priests his suc- cessors, as distinguished from the other priests.
1. Aaron alone was anointed. " He poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him to sanctify him" (Lev. viii, 12) : whence one of the distinc- tive epithets of the high-priest was n^oaii "jfibri, "the anointed priest" (Lev. iv, 3, 5, IG; xxi, 10; see Numb. XXXV, 25). This appears also from Exod. xxix, 29, 30, where it is ordered that the one of the sons of Aaron who succeeds him in the priest's office shall wear the holy garments that were Aaron's for seven days, to lie anointed therein, and to be consecrated in them. Hence Eusebius {Hist. Eccles. i, G ; Dem. Evang. viii) under- stands the Anointed (A. V. " Messiah," or, as the Sept. reads, ^^pi'ajua) in Dan. ix, 2G, the anointing of the Jew- ish high-priests : " It means nothing else than the suc- cession of high-priests, whom the Scripture commonly calls xpK^T'-i'C, anointed:" and so, too, Tertullian and Tlieodoret (Rosenm. ad loc.) The anointing of the sons of Aaron, i. e. the common priests, seems to have been confined to sprinkling their garments with the anoint- ing oil (Exod. xxix, 21 ; xxviii, 41, etc.), though, accord- ing to Kalisch on Exod. xxix, 8, and Lightfoot, follow- ing the Rabbinical interpretation, the difference consists in the abundant pouring of oil (pl^^) on the head of the high-priest, from Avhence it was drawn with the finger into two streams, in the shape of a Greek X, while the priests were merely marked with the finger dipped in 9il on the forehead (ITJ^). But this is probably a late
invention of the Rabbins. The anointing of the high- priest is alluded to in Psa. cxxxiii, 2, " It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments." The composition of this anoint- ing oil, consisting of myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, cassia, and oUve oil, is prescribed Exod. xxx, 22-25 ; and its use fur any other purpose but that of anointing the priests, the tabernacle, and the vessels, was strictly prohibited, on pain of being " cut off from his people." The manu- factiu-e of it was intrusted to certain priests, called apoth- ecaries (Neh. iii, 8). But this oil is said to have been wanting imder the second Temple (Prideaux, i, 151; Selden, cap. ix). See Anointing Oil,