4. The high-priest had a peculiar place in the law of
The Jewish High-priest iu full Costume, according to Braun {ut siq}. p. 047).
HIGH-PRIEST
247
HIGH-PRItST
ihe inanslayer, and his takincj sanctuary in the cities of refuge. The manslayer might not leave the city of refuge during the lifetime of the existing high-priest •who was anointed with the holy oil (Niuiib. xxxv, 25, 28). It was also forbidden to the high-priest to follow a funeral, or rend his clothes for the dead, according to the i)recedeut in Lev. x, 6. See Maxslavki;.
6. The other respects in which the high-priest exer- cised superior functions to the other priests arose rather from his position and opportunities than were distinctly attaclicd to his office, and they consequently varied with the ]icrsonal character and abilities of the high-priest. 8uch were reforms in religion, restorations of the Tem- ple and its service, the preservation of the Temple from intrusion or profanation, taking the lead in ecclesiastical or civil affairs, judging the people, presiding in the San- hedrim (which, however, he is said by Lightfoot rarely to have done), and other similar transactions, in which we tind the high-priest sometimes prominent, sometimes not even mentioned. (See the historical part of this article.) Even that portion of power which most natu- rallj^ and usually fell to his share, the rule of the Tem- ple, and the government of the priests and Levites who ministered there, did not invariabl}' fall to the share of the high-priest. For the title " Ktiler of the House of God," Q'^nsxri-ria nij?, which usually denotes the high-priest, is sometimes given to those who were not high-priests, as to Pashiir, the son of Immer, in Jcr. xx, 1 ; compare 1 Chron. xii, 27. The Kabbins speak very frequently of one second in dignity to the high-priest, whom they call the Sagan, and who often acted in the high-priest's room. He is the same who in the O. T. is called "the second priest" (2 Kings xxiii, 4; xxv, 18). They say that Moses was sagan to Aaron. Thus, too, it is explained of Annas and Caiaphas (Luke iii, 2), that Annas was sagan. Ananias is also thought by some to have been sagan, acting for the high-priest (Acts xxiii, 2). In like manner they say Zadok and Abiathar were high-priest and sagan in the time of David. The sagan is also very frequently called Memunneli, or prefect of the Temple, and upon him chiefly lay the care and charge of the Temple sen-ices (Lightfoot, ^;r(«,<!/?»). If the high-priest was incapacitated Irom otficiating by any accidental uncleanness, the sagan or vice-high- priest took his place. Thus the Jerusalem Talmud tells a storj^ of Simon, son of Kamith, that " on the eve of the day of expiation he went out to speak with the king, and some spittle fell upon his garments and de- filed him : therefore Judali his brother went in on the day of expiation, and served in his stead ; and so their mother Kamith saw two of her sons high-priests in one day. She had seven sons, and they all sen-ed in the high-priesthood" (Lightfoot, ix, 35). It does not ap- pear by whose authority the high-priests were appoint- ed to their office before there were kings of Israel ; but, as we tind it invariably done by the civil power in later times, it is probable that, in the times preceding the monarchy, it was by the elders, or Sanhedrim. The in- stallation and anointing of the high-priest, or clothing him with the eight garments, which ;vas the formal in- vestiture, is ascribed by Maimonides to the Sanhedrim at all times (Lightfoot,"ix, 22).
It should be added that the usual age for entering upon the lunctions of the priesthood, according to 2 Chron. xxxi, 17, is considered to have been twenty years (by the later Jews thirty. Numb, iv, 3 ; 1 Chron. xxiii, 2), though a priest or high-priest was not actually incapacitated if he had attained to puberty, as appears by the example of Aristobulus, who was high-priest at the age of seventeen. Onias, the son of Simon the Just, could not be high-priest, because he was but a child at his father's death. Again, according to Lev. xxi, no one that had a blemish could officiate at the al- tar. Moses enumerates eleven blemishes, which the Talmud expands into 142. Josephus relates that An- tigonus mutilated HjTcanus's ears, to incapacitate him for beiiifc restored to the high-priesthood. Illegitimate
i birth was also a bar to the high-priesthood, and the I subtlety of Jewish distinctions extended this illegitima- cy to being born of a mother who had been taken cap- tive by heathen conquerors (Josephus, c. Ajriim, i, 7). Thus Eleazar said to John Hyrcanus (though, Joscjjhus says, falsely) that if he was a just man, he ought to re- sign the pontificate, because his mother had been a cap- tive, and he was therefore incajiacitatcd. Lev. xxi, 13, 14, was taken as the ground of this and similar disipial- ifications. For a fidl account of this branch of the sub- ject the reader is referred to Selden's learned treatises Be Successlonibns, etc., and De Success, in Pont!/. Ehra- or. ; and to Prideaux, ii, 30G. It was the universal opin- ion of the Jews that the deposition of a high-priest, which became so common, was unlawfid. Josejih. (.1 nt. XV, 3) says that Antiochus Epiphanes was the first who did this, when he deposed Jesus or Jason ; Aristobulus, who deposed his brother Hyrcanus the Second; and Herod, who took away the high-priesthood from Ana- nelus to give it to Aristobulus the Third. See the story of Jonathan, son of Ananus, Ant. xix, 6, 4.