Communal Organization and Leadership: The High Priest
In the biblical period, the term high priest typically referred to the descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses and head of the Israelite cult, who was anointed and sanctified with holy oil (Leviticus 21:10). In the First Temple period, the high priest was always a religious and cultic leader separate from—and sometimes at odds with—the monarch. From the beginning of the Second Temple period, however, the office of the high priest became increasingly powerful, achieving its apex under the Hasmonean priest-kings (see Key Events in the History of the Priesthood).
In the course of the Second Temple period, the high priest continued to be responsible for the spiritual and religious lives of the Jews of Judaea while also becoming the diplomatic representative of his community and the chief administrator of the region. These powers explain why this office became a political tool in the hands of the Romans and later Herod, as they awarded it to those whom they thought would support their own power. Josephus recounts, for example, that when Pompey intervened in Judean affairs and ultimately took control of Jerusalem in 63 BCE, rendering Judaea a client state of the Roman Empire, he put to rest the civil war being fought over the Hasmonean throne by factions supporting one or the other of the Hasmonean brothers, Hyrcanus II or Aristobulus II. Josephus recounts that Pompey reinstated Hyrcanus as high priest as a reward for his “unreserved support.”
By the end of the Second Temple period, the high priest was considered a mere religious functionary subject to the Roman administration. This context illuminates why, upon their seizure of Jerusalem in 68 CE, the Zealots demonstrated their assumption of power by installing a new high priest.
Over time, the power and stature of the high priests deteriorated, and rabbinic texts record derision of the office. The office of the high priest was often held by a Sadducee, and so it is likely that the rabbinic record of that derision was motivated by sectarian rivalry between the Sadducees and the Pharisees (see PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES).