Josephus and the Priesthood

Much of the scholarship about Jewish customs, beliefs, and practices in the late Second Temple period tends to center around the role played by four sects. In part, Flavius Josephus has inspired this focus with his various descriptions of the sects and the respective public standing he assigned to each of them (Ant. 18.15, 17). This chapter points out the key ways in which Josephus portrays the role of priesthood. It is divided into five sections: Josephus as a priest; the priesthood in Josephus's narratives; the priesthood and the Jewish Revolt; the excursuses on the high priesthood; and the depiction of the priesthood in Jewish Antiquities 20. For Josephus, the temple and the priests, who had been divinely commissioned to oversee its operation, lay at the heart of his worldview and of the constitution of the Jewish people.

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