Category:Ananus ben Ananus--history (subject)

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Survey of scholarly works on the High Priest Ananus ben Ananus.

Overview

Scholarly debate has focused on three major issues: (a) the relationship between the Sadducees and Ananus (and the House of Annas in general); (b) the episode of the killing of James; and (c) the pro-Roman or anti-Roman attitude of Ananus during the Jewish War.

Some scholars take the reference to Ananus the Sadducee as evidence of the Sadducean membership of the entire House of Annas; some caution that "we have no evidence for such a conclusion" (VanderKam).

Tessa Rajak maintains that the reference to James is a Christian interpolation, with no historical value; others (Poehlmann, VanderKam) give credibility to the episode.

According to Smallwood, Ananus was consistently anti-Roman since his act of defiance in executing James, and urged moderation only when he finally realized the futility of the resistance. Horsley instead suggests that Ananus joined the revolt only reluctantly and remained always pro-Roman. Others point out at the difficulty to provide any historical reconstruction as Josephus' account is too much influenced by his own apologetic concerns.

References

• High Priests and Politics in Roman Palestine / E. Mary Smallwood / JTS 13 (1962) / pp.14-34

• High Priests and the Politics of Roman Palestine / Richard A. Horsley / JSJ 17 (1986) / pp.23-55

• The Sadducees as Josephus Presents Them; or, The Curious Case of Ananus / W. Poehlmann / All Things New (1992 Hulltgren, et al.), edited volume / pp.87-100

• The Jewish Leadership in Jerusalem in the First Part of the Great Revolt (66-68 BE) / Uriel Rappaport / The Congregation of Israel (2001 Gafni), edited volume / pp.75-83 <Hebrew>

• From Joshua to Caiaphas (2004 VanderKam), book / pp.476-482