> With respect to your suggestion that it is unlikely that
> high priests prior to the Hellenistic Crisis would have
been
> vilified, I agree. Shimeon "ha-Zedek" is praised in all
> available sources (Sirach and Talmudic). Onias III is
given
> high praise in 2 Macc. 3.1: "The holy city was inhabited
in
> unbroken peace and the laws were strictly observed because
of
> the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of
wickedness."
> (The underlying Greek does not connect with the phrase
"doers of
> the law" -- the Greek here for "observed" is suntereo,
which
> never translates the Hebrew 'oseh="do" [see LXX].
Nevertheless,
> the spirit of this passage is close to the loyalty to the
Torah
> and hatred of wickedness seen in Qumran texts.) However,
the
> emergence of partisanship in Judaism is seen in the
conflict
> of Onias III and his temple captain Simon (2 Macc. 3:4,
etc.)
> and in the ouster of Onias III and replacement as high
priest
> by Jason (175-173 BCE) and then by Menelaus (173-163 BCE),
both
> of whom are roundly condemned in 2 Maccabees. Simon the
Just
> and Onias III were the last legitimate Zadokite high
priests (the
> so-called high priest of the intersacerdotium is a
chimera),
> and I think sectarian partisanship first arose out of the
> struggle for the high priesthood during the Hellenistic
Crisis
> and ensuing Maccabean War.
Yet Josephus, to the extent that he is actually relating
true events,
speaks of a conflict between hellenists and Oniads as far
back as the mid
third century when Tobias and his son Joseph engaged in a
power struggle
with Onias II. And even these conflicts have echoes in the
earlier conflicts between Nehemiah and the Tobiah and
Samaritans of that day. For every Ben Sirah praising Simon
the Just or other writing Onias III there were surely
Tobiads or others like them condemning these individuals.
But their voices were not saved by later generations of
writers and copyists.
And the Penteteuch contains all sorts of embedded hints of
power struggles between rival groups within the Jerusalem
community: one thinks of the power struggles between
Aaronides and Levites, for example. Ezekiel adds to this by
favoring a particular line of priests above all others, the
Zadokites. And Malachi and other early post-exilic prophetic
writers speak loudly against the priests while favoring
other kinds of religious authorities (e.g. prophets).
It seems to me that power conflicts, schisms and
partisanship among the Jewish religious community are as
sold as Judaism itself and that the events of the second
century that gave rise to the Hasmonean government and the
parties of that period are just the end result of conflicts
and rivalries that had been brewing for centuries.
Bruce Wildish
mississauga, Ontario
For private reply, e-mail to "Bruce Wildish" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the
message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web
site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.
