Antiquities of the Jews, fit the forty-second

Jewish tradition says that in the last century of the Second Temple, the office of High Priest was corrupt, and was bought for money. These high priests were not spiritually worthy of the office, the story goes, and when they went into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, G-d would strike them dead, and they would have to be pulled out by the rope attached to them.

According to Josephus, the office of High Priest was indeed, transferred to man to man during the Second Temple period, rather than bequeathed from father to son; and he is incensed at the cause of this (XIV.2-3):

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* This is Hyrcanus II, who had been High Priest, but had had his ears cut off by his nephew, Antigonus, rendering him ineligible to serve as High Priest.

However, though the high priesthood was often transferred from person to person afterwards, it was always for political reasons, not money; e.g. (XX.1):

Herod also, the brother of the deceased Agrippa, who was then possessed of the royal authority over Chalcis, petitioned Claudius Caesar for the authority over the temple, and the money of the sacred treasure, and the choice of the high priests, and obtained all that he petitioned for. So that after that time this authority continued among all his descendants till the end of the war Accordingly, Herod removed the last high priest, called Cimtheras, and bestowed that dignity on his successor Joseph, the son of Cantos.

XX.5.115 tells of an incident which is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud (where the perpetrator is named Apustumus), is deemed to have happened on the seventeen of Tammuz and is still counted amongst the incidents mourned on that day (which falls this year this Saturday, though it will be commemorated on Sunday instead):

( A Sefer Torah was ripped up by a Roman soldier )

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