Phanni

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Phanni or Phanasos (bl. 67/68 AD) was the last Jewish high priest in the Jerusalem temple . He was installed in his office by the insurgents during the Jewish War , although he did not belong to the Jerusalem priestly aristocracy. In the Jewish antiquity, Flavius ​​Josephus handed down a list of high priests that ranges from Aaron (as the ideal) to Phanni. The choice of the latter marks the absolute low point in Josephus' history.

Name variants

In the Greek text of Josephus there are different spellings of the name: Φαννιας Phannias or Φαννι Phanni in the Jewish War , Φανασος Phanasos in the Jewish antiquities. In any case, the person bears the biblical Hebrew name Pinchas ( Septuagint : Phinees ). In rabbinical literature his name is Pinchas from Chabbata .

Family background

Phanni, the son of Simeon, came from an otherwise unknown priestly family Eniachin (Ενιαχιν), who had provided high priests in earlier times. It could be a different spelling for the 21st order of priesthood Jachin called 1 Chr 24.17  ZB . Phanni was probably of Zadokid descent. According to the criteria that Josephus applied, he was nevertheless not suitable for the office of high priest. Apparently Josephus meant that this office should only be passed on from father to son.

According to Josephus, Phanni lived as a farmer in the village Aphtha / Aphthia (Αφθα, variant Αφθια), which cannot be reliably located until his investiture. This corresponds to the place name Chabbata (חבתא) in Tosefta Yoma 1.6. The non-aristocratic origin of the last high priest is also discussed in the Tosefta . According to this source, he was a stone mason and son-in-law of Rabbi Chanina ben Gamaliel. If this marriage note is historically useful, then Phanni was by no means of as low an origin as Josephus portrays it. Seth Schwartz sees two competing traditions connected in this text: according to one, he was a simple stone cutter, according to the other, a gentleman farmer .

Choice by lot

The Zealot Party reformed the office of high priest and abolished the practice of electing the high priest from one of four aristocratic Jerusalem families since the time of Herod . Instead, the high priest was chosen by lot from among the members of the Eniachin family . A model for this practice could be 1 Chr 24.5  ZB . It is described here that the priestly families were organized by lot. According to Martin Hengel, this is not something scandalously new, as Josephus describes the process, but a reform that is important to the Zealots, the attempt to reconnect with the older tradition of the high priesthood.

Since Josephus certainly would not have omitted the murder or otherwise forcible removal of his predecessor Matthias in his pronounced anti-Zealotic portrayal of the Jewish War , it can be assumed that the office of high priest was vacant. According to Schwartz, Matthias may have died or fled Jerusalem.

Josephus describes the inauguration as follows: The Zealots had brought the reluctant Phanni from the country. As if for a play, the man, who knew hardly anything about the duties of the high priest, was clad in sacred robes and instructed in how to behave during his investiture. Priests who observed this process from afar would have responded with tears.

It can be assumed that Phanni remained in office until Roman soldiers captured the temple in August 70 and set it on fire, and that he was also killed in the process. Josephus reports nothing about it.

literature

  • Oliver Gussmann: The priestly understanding of Flavius ​​Josephus. (= Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism . Volume 124). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149562-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities , 20: 126-127.
  2. ↑ Tosefta Yoma 1.6.
  3. ↑ Oliver Gussmann: The Understanding of Priests by Flavius ​​Josephus , Tübingen 2008, p. 429. James VanderKam: From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile , p. 489.
  4. ↑ Götz Schmitt: Settlements of Palestine in Greco-Roman Times , Wiesbaden 1995. P. 59.
  5. ↑ James VanderKam: From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile , p. 489.
  6. ^ Seth Schwartz: Josephus and Judaean Politics , Brill, Leiden 1990, p. 70.
  7. ↑ James VanderKam: From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile , p. 488.
  8. ↑ Martin Hengel: The Zealots. Studies on the Jewish freedom movement in the period from Herod I to 70 AD , Brill, Leiden 1976, p. 225f.
  9. ^ Seth Schwartz: Josephus and Judaean Politics , Brill, Leiden 1990, p. 74.
  10. ^ Flavius ​​Josephus: Jewish War , 4: 155–157.
personal data
SURNAME Phanni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Phanasos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish high priest in the Jerusalem temple
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century