The Wicked Priest is an individual the Qumran New Covenanters believed was referred to in Scripture, like the Kittim in the preceding article. He is the one who unjustly put the Teacher of Righteousness to death. He is mentioned several times in the pesharim, but most descriptively in the Habakkuk Pesher. Like Eisenman, I propose he was the High Priest Ananus ben Ananus, who put Ya'akov to death in 62 CE and met his own later at the hands of his enemies in the Uprising in 68, his dead body tossed out of Jerusalem without burial. Let's take a look at what this pesher says regarding the Wicked Priest, and see if it might be any match with what we know about the life and death of Ananus from the works of Josephus (Ant. 20.9.1, Life 38-39, War 4.3.9-13, 4.4.1-3[238], 4.4.6-4.5.2). This will also relate to groups the Dead Sea Scrolls and other sources refer to as the Last Priests of Jerusalem (below; Ant. 20.8.8, 20.9.2[205], 20.10.1[250]) and the Men of Violence, the latter being all but indistinguishable from those Josephus called "Idumeans" (War 4.4.1-6.1, 7.8.1[267]). Much of this work is by necessity conjecture. But I believe it is not only a sensible and respectable theory (to whom all credit goes to R. Eisenman), but that it is also more sensible and more attentive to detail than any other being offered.

 Following a brief, incomplete (and unremarked) introduction of the Wicked Priest, we learn of his sins.

 Habakkuk} ["For the wicked man hems in] the righteous man" (1:4b).

 Pesher} [The "wicked man" refers to the Wicked Priest, and "the righteous man"] is the Teacher of Righteousness [...].

 H} "And indeed, riches betray the arrogant man and he will not last; he who has made his throat as wide as Hades, and who, like Death, is never satisfied. All the Gentiles will flock to him, and all the peoples will gather to him. Look, all of them take up a taunt against him, and invent sayings about him, saying 'You who grow large on what is not yours, how long will you burden yourself down with debts?" (2:5-6).

 P} This refers to the Wicked Priest who had a reputation for reliability at the beginning of his term of service; but when he became ruler over Israel, he became proud and forsook God and betrayed the commandments for the sake of riches. He amassed by force the riches of the lawless [better, "men of violence"] who had rebelled against God, seizing the riches of the people, thus adding to the guilt of his crimes, and he committed abhorrent deeds in every defiling impurity.


 There are two pictures of Ananus in the works of Josephus. In the earlier account in the Jewish War (c. 75 CE; 4.5.3) -written not long after the events it describes- he tells us Ananus was, "on other accounts," a "venerable, and very just man, and besides the grandeur of that nobility, and dignity, and honor of which he was possessed, he had been a lover of equality, even with regard to the lowest of people...and did ever prefer the public welfare before his own advantage." But after twenty years of an easy and secure life as an adopted member of the Flavian Imperial family for his shameless betrayal of the Jews and for writing the Jewish War (which chronicled the rise of the Flavian emperors Vespasian and Titus the conquerors of Jerusalem -hence his name, Flavius Josephus), he revealed Ananus was rather "CORRUPTED BY BRIBES," misappropriated public funds to further his schemes, and was "a bold man in his temper, and very insolent." He says that while Ananus was in this mood he unjustly tried Ya'akov and (sadly for us) condemned him to death, as "[the Roman procurator] Festus [60-62 CE] was now dead, and [the new procurator] Albinus [62-64 CE] was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, whose name was James, AND SOME OF HIS COMPANIONS," and sentenced them to be stoned, something which "the most equitable of the citizens and those most uneasy at the BREACH OF THE LAWS disliked," for which reason King Agrippa II took the high priesthood away from him, "after he had ruled but three months" (Life 38-40, Ant. 20.9.1).

 One might argue that the reason the account of Ananus in the Jewish War is so one-sided is because it was written when the war was still fresh in people's minds, for as a rule it consistently praises the Roman Empire and its administrators, and heaps scorn on Jewish resistance fighters, and not even once mentions Yeshua, Yohanan or Ya'akov, strange omissions considering he admits the war was messianic, with its roots going back to the same time as the birth of 'Jesus' according to the gospels (6.5.4[312]; c.f. Ant. 18.1.1, Lk 2:1-7). This type of cautious writing is understandable when one considers that his captor Titus personally signed every first edition of the Jewish War (Life 65[363]).

And whether it was due to some misguided sense of security, or the newer sources he may have acquired (Life 65[366]), Josephus IS willing to be more forthcoming in his later works, for they do not suffer as much from any need to put such a positive spin on Roman-loving establishment figures like Ananus.
 
 I contend that both accounts of Ananus are true, but that Josephus, for reasons of self preservation, was only willing (or able) to tell us half the story (the "other account" above) the first time. If this was the case, it could not be unreasonable to contend that the two faces of Ananus we're seeing in Josephus,  taken together, might read something like what is delineated here in the Habakkuk Pesher (which had no desire to please Romans): "[He] had a reputation for reliability in the beginning of his term of service, but when he became ruler over Israel, he became proud and forsook God and betrayed the commandments for the sake of riches." These riches, which should be seen as including Ananus' bribes and misuse of public funds as well as those stolen from the "poor" and the "peoples" by the "last priests" below, would soon be taken up into the hands of the all-conquering Kittim according to the Community:
 
 H} "Look, suddenly your creditors will appear, your enemies will rouse themselves and you will become booty for them. Yes, you yourself have plundered many nations, now the rest of the peoples will plunder you" (2:7-8a).

 P} [This refers to] the priest who rebelled [and violated] the commandments of [God ... they mis]treated him ...] inflicting upon him the punishments due to such horrible wickedness, perpetrating upon him painful diseases [better, "pollutions": diseases are not "inflicted" "on anyone by anyone" (Eisenman)], acts of retaliation against his mortal body. But the verse that says, "Yes, you yourself have plundered many nations, now the rest of the peoples will plunder you," refers to the later [or better, 'last': ha'acharonim] priests of Jerusalem, who will gather ill-gotten riches from the peoples, but in the Last Days [acharit hayamim] their riches and plunder alike will be handed over to the army of the Kittim, for they are "the rest of the peoples."
 

 Below and in 4Q171 Frags. 1-2 Col. 4 we learn that those who destroyed the Wicked Priest after the murder of the Righteous Teacher were a group of violent gentiles -similar to the ones Josephus called Idumeans- called simply the "violent ones of the gentiles," or "men of violence" (arizei go'im, anshey chamas), a group Yeshua may even be referring to in Mt 11:12.

 What the pesher says above (and below) IS remarkably similar to the death of Ananus as pictured by Josephus (War 4.5.2), for he says the Idumeans, fair weather friends of the zealots, "plundered every house and killed everyone they met; and for the multitude [of the people], they esteemed it needless to go on killing them, but they sought the high priests, and generally went with the greatest zeal against them," a perfect match with the "men of violence" above, for you can certainly say they inflicted "punishments," "pollutions," and "acts of retaliation against" Ananus' "mortal body": "And as soon as they caught [Ananus and Jesus] they killed them, and then, standing upon their dead bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to the people, and Jesus with his speech made to them from the wall [in 4.4.3]. Nay, they proceeded to that degree of impiety as to cast away their dead bodies without burial..."


 H} "For the murder of human beings and injustice in the land and all who live in it" (2:8b).

 P} This refers to the Wicked Priest. Because of the crime he committed against the Teacher of Righteousness and the members of his party [or, "men of his council"], God handed him over to his enemies, humiliating him with consuming affliction with despair, because he had done wrong to His chosen.


 We were told Ananus put Ya'akov to death ALONG WITH SOME OF HIS COMPANIONS. This is an important detail which matches perfectly the actions of the Wicked Priest, who tried and condemned the Righteous Teacher along with the "men of his council" (or "members of his party").
 

 H} "Woe to the one who gets his friend drunk, pouring out his anger, making him drink, just to get a look at their holy days" (2:15).

 P} This refers to the Wicked Priest, who pursued the Teacher of Righteousness to destroy him in the heat of his anger at [or "in" or "with"] his place of exile [abeit galuto]. At the time set aside for the repose of the Day of Atonement he appeared to them to destroy them to ruin on the fast day, the Sabbath intended for their repose.


 That the context of the Wicked Priest's "crime"  against the Righteous Teacher is a trial is made clear in the Psalm 37 Pesher (4Q171 Frags. 1-2 Col. 4): "This refers to the Wicked [Pri]est who ob[serv]es the [Teach]er of Righteous[ness and seeks] to kill him [...] and the Law that he sent to him, but God will not le[ave him in his power] and will not [condemn him when] he comes to trial. But to the [wicked God will give] his just [de]serts, BY PUTTING HIM INTO THE POWER OF THE CRUEL GENTILES [arizei go'im] TO DO WITH HIM [WHAT THEY WANT]" (c.f. Frags. 1-2 Col. 1).
 
 That this crime was a trial is also reinforced by the phrase "abeit galuto" used in the Habakkuk Pesher, meaning "his house of exile" or "house of his exile" -for not only do we know from the nt that the Sanhedrin convened for the trial of Yeshua in "the high priest's house" (Lk 22:54; c.f. Mt 26:58, Mk 14:54, Jo 18:15), but the Talmud tells us the reason for this was because for forty years before the destruction the death penalty was not legally enforceable because "the Sanhedrin was exiled [->GALTAH<-] [from the Temple Mount] and took up residence" outside it (b Shab. 15a, R.H. 31a-b, A.Z. 8b). This is enough reason to suggest "his" house of exile being referred to here IS THE WICKED PRIEST'S, and not the Righteous Teacher's as many believe. This is probably why the pesher says the Wicked Priest "pursued the Teacher of Righteousness TO DESTROY HIM in the heat of his anger [again, Ananus was "a bold man in his temper" above] IN HIS HOUSE OF EXILE."
 
 We don't know for sure why Ya'akov was tried and condemned by Ananus (nor why the Righteous Teacher was by the Wicked Priest), and though we don't know if they used different calendars (like the latter), it's theoretically possible, and makes sense, for we do know Ya'akov was stoned to death (Ant. 20.9.1, EH 2.23, Vir. Ill. 2), and that this was the punishment for blasphemy according to the Mishnah, to which one could only be sentenced for pronouncing the Divine Name (San. 7.4-5),  something traditionally allowed only of a high priest in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur (reflected in M. Yoma 6.2): "And when the priests and the people which stood in the Temple Court heard the Expressed Name come forth from the mouth of the High Priest [in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur], they used to kneel and bow themselves and fall down on their faces and say,
 'Baruch shem kavod malchuto l'olam vaed.'"

 We also know from early church sources like Hegesippus, Epiphanius and Jerome that Ya'akov actually entered the Holy of Holies and prayed for the sins of Israel, what is certainly a Yom Kippur-like ritual (EH 2.23; Haer. 29.4.1-3, 78.13.5-8; Vir. Ill. 2): "He alone was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, for his garments were not of wool but linen [as required of priests]. He used to enter the Sanctuary alone, and was often found on his knees beseeching forgiveness for the people, so that his knees grew hard like a camel's from his continually bending them in worship of God and beseeching forgiveness for the people."

 If Ya'akov actually did enter the Holy of Holies -perhaps in the capacity of a high priest of perfect righteousness- to pray for the Jewish people on Yom Kippur, he may have, as the Mishnah leads one to believe, pronounced the Name of God. And if he used a  different calendar than the ruling elites (which is not hard to imagine) and was heard to say the Divine Name on the 'wrong' day -and with questionable legitimacy in the eyes of the establishment- his trial and punishment might well have been for 'blasphemy,' pursued by a "bold" Ananus during the interregnum between Festus and Albinus, to bring about his and his "companions'" elimination. This makes a LOT of sense, fits the data we have, and gives new meaning to the statement that the Wicked Priest "appeared to them [the Righteous Teacher and the "members of his party"] to destroy them to ruin on the fast day, the Sabbath intended for their repose."
   

 H} "You are satisfied with disgrace, not honor? So go ahead and drink until you stagger; the cup of the Lord's right hand will come around for you, and then shame will cover your honor" (2:16).

 P} This refers to the priest whose disgrace became greater than his honor, because he had not circumcized his heart's foreskin, and he lived extravangantly to bring to naught those who had but little. But the Cup of God's wrath will destroy him, increas[ing only his dis]honor and pain [...] [...]


 Josephus was one of the literal "last priests of Jerusalem," and was himself the victim of Ananus' extravagance, as he relates in his autobiography:

 "Now, when they [Ananus and his friends] had given Jonathan [a Pharisee leader] and his companions these instructions [to destroy Josephus], they gave them FORTY THOUSAND [DRACHMAS] OUT OF THE PUBLIC MONEY; and when they heard that there was a certain Galilean...who had about him six hundred armed men, they sent for him, AND GAVE HIM THREE MONTHS PAY, and gave him orders to follow Jonathan and his companions and be obedient to them. They also gave money to THREE HUNDRED MEN that were citizens of Jerusalem, to maintain them all, and ordered them also to follow the ambassadors" (Life 40).

 And this was only Josephus' experience of Ananus' corruption by bribes and misuse of public money. He and other high priests also made life miserable for the poor, as Josephus documents:

 "And now arose a rebellion between the high priests and the principal men of the multitude of Jerusalem ... And such was the impudence and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they had the hardiness to send their servants into the threshing floors, to take away those tithes that were due to the priests, insomuch that it so fell out that the poorest sort of the priests died for want. To this degree did the violence of the rebellious prevail over all right and justice" (Ant. 20.8.8).

Ananus learned from his father, who was "a great hoarder of money [who] cultivated the friendship of Albinus, and of the high priest [Jesus], by making them presents; he also had servants who were very wicked, who joined themselves to the boldest sort of the people, and went to the threshing floors, and took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence, and did not refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them. So the other high priests acted in the like manner, as did those his servants, without anyone being able to prohibit them; so that [some of the] priests, that of old were accustomed to be supported with those tithes, died for want of food" (Ant. 20.9.2).
 
 When we consider that some of these priests may have been part of Ya'akov's community (Acts 6:7: "The word of God increased, and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a GREAT COMPANY OF PRIESTS were obedient to the faith"), and that these accounts of their destruction immediately preceed and follow Josephus' account of the death of Ya'akov, it's hard to think it does not somehow relate to what is being described in the Habakkuk Pesher concerning the death of the Righteous Teacher. There are too many coincidences, and its use of the expression "last priests of Jerusalem" also lends credence to a first century CE provenence.


 It is patent Ananus tried to destroy the poor, first their leader, Ya'akov, then by stealing from the poorest of the priests. This is what Josephus is telling us, and this is what the Habakkuk Pesher says; the only difference is no one's naming names in the Dead Sea Scrolls, probably because their authors, being revolutionaries, were in no position to give them. I believe with this point of view the final commentary can be clear without my commentary.

 H} "For the crimes perpetrated against Lebanon he will bury you, for the robbery of beasts, he will smite you; because of murder and injustice in the land, the city and all who live in it" (2:17).

 P} The passage refers to the Wicked Priest, that he will be paid back for what he did to the poor, for "Lebanon" refers to the society of the Yachad, and "beasts" refers to the simple-hearted of Judah, who obey the Law. God will condemn him to utter destruction, just as he planned to destroy the poor. As for the verse that says, "because of murder in the city and injustice in the land," the "city" refers to Jerusalem, where the Wicked Priest committed his abhorrent deeds, defiling the Temple of God. "Injustice in the land" refers to the cities of Judah where he stole the assets of the poor.

Hanan