According to the Jewish historian Josephus the last priest was the unworthy Phannias the son of Samuel, who was killed at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Secular history tells us that the son of Simon Maccabee, John Hyrcanus I, was both king and priest. Simon was murdered in 134 BCE by his son-in-law Ptolemy, and was succeeded as high priest and king by his son John Hyrcanus I. There are no other king/priest combinations recorded in the Bible. In the […]
No, King David was not a priest. The priests were from the tribe of Levi. David was from Judah. When David sent for the ephod to inquire of the LORD, he asked Abiathar the high priest to bring it. Presumably the inquiry was through Abiathar, if the precedent of the instruction given to Joshua, the […]
Priests certainly existed before the law was given: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) (Gen 14:18) Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came […]
For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever. (Jeremiah 33:17-18) On the face of it, this seems […]
… and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw […]
I’m afraid this is a myth which is perpetuated in the NIV Study Bible notes on Exodus 28:35. The notes say According to Jewish tradition, one end of a length of rope was tied to the high priest’s ankle and the other end remained outside the tabernacle. If the bells on his robe stopped tinkling […]