Note 190 — Chapter VII · The Pharisees and Sadducees

There is an important passage in Ecclesiasticus (xlv. 23-25, Hebr.) which must be referred to here; in this passage Phinehas is set beside Moses and Aaron as “the third ... and he made atonement for the children of Israel. Therefore for him too, He [i.e. God] established an ordinance, a covenant of peace to maintain the sanctuary; that to him and to his seed should appertain the High-priesthood for ever.” Then reference is made to David and to Aaron; the mention of these here in a chronological list of Israel’s great ones is quite out of place, and therefore there must be some special purpose in referring to them; that purpose is plain enough, for in speaking of David it is said that “the inheritance of the king is his son’s alone,” while in speaking of Aaron it is said that “the inheritance of Aaron belongs to his seed.” A differentiation is thus made between the royal line and the priestly line; and as the royal line had ceased, and only the priestly one continued, and the High-priest (the descendant of the house of Zadok) was both ecclesiastical and political leader, it was from this line that the Messiah would be expected to come. In Ecclesiasticus (see pp. 334 ff.) the Sadducæan standpoint is represented. See also 1 Maccabees ii. 54, “Phinehas our father ... obtained the covenant of an everlasting priesthood” (cp. 4 Macc. xviii. 12).