What, however, for a time saved the Jewish institu- tions, infused a new life and consistencj' into the priest- hood and the national religion, and enabled them to fulfil their destined course till the advent of Christ, was the cruel and impolitic persecution of Antiochus Epiph-. anes. This thoroughly aroused the piety and national spirit of the Jews, and drew together in defence of their Temple and country all who leared God and were at- tached to their national institutions. The result was that after the high-priesthood had been brought to the lowest degradation bj' the apostasy and crimes of the last Onias or ]\Ienelaus, and after a vacancy of seven years had followed the brief pontificate of Alcimus, his no less infamous successor, a new and glorious succes- sion of high-priests arose in the Asmonaaan family, who united the dignity of civil riders, and for a time of in- dependent sovereigns, to that of the high-priesthoocL Josephus, who is followed by Lightfoot, Selden, and others, calls Judas Maccabfeus " high-priest of the na- tion of Judah" (^Ant. xii, 10, 6), but, according to the far better authority of 1 Mace, x, 20, it was not till after the death of Judas INIaccabaeus that Alcimus himself died, and that Alexander, king of SjTia, made Jonathan, the brother of Judas, high-priest. Josephus himself, too, calls Jonathan the " first of the sons of Asmonaeus, who was high-priest" {Life, 1). It is possible, however, that Judas maj' have been elected by the people to the office of high-priest, though never confirmed in it by the Syrian kings. The Asmonrean family were priests of the c nu-se of Joiarib, the first of the twenty-four courses (1 Cliron. xxiv, 7), whose return from captivity is re- corded 1 Chron. ix, 10; Neh. xi, 10. They were prob- ably of the house of Eleazar, though this cannot be af- firmed with certainty; and Josephus tells us that he himself was related to them, one of his ancestors hav- ing married a daughter of Jonathan, the first high- priest of the house. The Asmon^an dynasty lasted from B.C. 153 till the family was damaged by intestine divisions, and then destroyed by Herod the Great. Ar- . istobulus, the last high-priest of his line, brother of Jla- riamne, was murdered by order of Herod, his brother-in- law, B.C. 35. The independence of Judfea, under the priest-kings of this race, had lasted till Pompcy took Jerusalem, and sent king Aristobidus II (who had also taken the high-priesthood from his brother Hyrcanus) a prisoner to Rome. Pompey restored Hyrcanus to the high-priesthood, but forbad him to wear the diadem. Everything Jewish was now, however, hastening to de- cay. " Herod made men of low birth high-priests, de- posed them at his will, and named others in their room. In this he was followed by Archclaus, and by the Ko- mans when they took the government of JucUca into their own hands; so that there were no fewer than tv.enty-eight high-priests from the reign of Herod to the destruction of the Temple by Titus, a period of 107 years. (Josephus tells us of one Ananus and his five sons who all filled the ottice of high-priest in turn. One of these, Ananus the younger, was deposed by king Agrip- pa for the part he took in causing " James, the brother of Jesus who was called Christ," to be stoned [.4??!". xx, 9, 1].) The N. T. introduces us to some of these later and oft-changing high-priests, viz. Annas and Caiaphas —the former high-priest at the commencement of John Baptist's ministry, with Caiaphas as second priest; and the latter high-priest himself at our Lord's crucifixion (see Sommei, De Anna et Cuiaplia. Lund. 1772) — and Ananias (erroneously thought to be the Ananus who was murdered by the Zealots just before the siege of Jerusa- lem), before whom Paul was tried, as we read Acts xxiii, and of whom he said, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall." The same Caiaphas was the high-priest from whom Saul received letters to the synagogue at
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Damascus (Acts ix, 1, 14). Both he and Ananias seem certainly to have presided in tlie >Sanhedrim, and that officially; nor is Lightfoot's explanation (viii, 4o0 and 484) of the mention of the high-priest, tliough Gamaliel and his son Simeon were respectively presidents of the Sanliedrim, at all probable or satisfactory (see Acts v, 17, etc.). Tlie last high-priest was appointed by lot by the Zealots from the course of priests called by Josephus Eniachim (probably a corrupt reading for Jachim). He is thus described by the Jewish historian. "His name was I'hannias : he was the son of Samuel, of the village of Aphtha, a man not only not of the number of the chief priests, but who, such a mere rustic was lie, scarce- ly knew what the high-priesthood meant. Yet did they drag him reluctant from the country, and, setting him forth in a borrowed character as on the stage, they put the sacred vestments on him, and instructed him how to act on tlie occasion. This shocking impiety, which to them was a subject of merriment and sport, drew tears from the other priests, who beheld from a distance their law turned into ridicule, and groaned over the sub- version of the sacred honors" ( Woj; iv, 3, 8). Thus ig- nominiously ended the series bf high-priests which had stretched in a scarcely broken line through more than seventeen, or, according to the common chronologj', six- teen centuries. The Egvqitian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which the Jewish high-priests had seen in turn overshadowing the world, had each, except the last, one by one withered away and died — and now the last successor of Aaron was stripped of his sacerdotal robes, and the temple which he served laid level with the ground, to rise no more. But this did not happen till the true High-priest and King of Israel, the Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man, hatl offered his one sacrifice, once for all, and had taken his place at the right hand of the jNIajesty in tlie heav- ens, bearing on his breast the judgment of his redeemed people, and continuing a Priest forever, in the sanctuary which shall never be taken down ! — Smith, s. v.