Corruption Among The High Priesthood: A Matter Of Perspective

Abstract

This chapter reviews the case for depicting the high priests as corrupt officials who lacked support in order to consider what implications, it has for Sean Freyne's broad line of argument regarding the Galilee-temple connection. While much of the argument is expressed through a process of accumulating as many citations of corruption as possible, it stands or falls on information contained in three key sources: Testament of Moses ; Josephus; and early rabbinic traditions. The first is deemed to date to the time of Jesus and the other two, although post 70 C.E., provide corroborating testimony of actual corruption in the middle part of the first century C.E. The chapter discusses in detail the relevant passages from these three sources in order to determine their value as evidence of a general public perception of corruption among high priests. Keywords: corrupt officials; early rabbinic tradition; high priest; Josephus; Sean Freyne; Testament of Moses