Conflict within the Priesthood

Around this time, King Agrippa granted the high priesthood to Ismael, the son of Fabi. And then hostility and internal division were ignited between the chief priests, on one side, and the priests and principal men among the Jerusalem masses on the other, with each of the factions mustering a company of the most reckless and rebellious sorts of men, over which they became leaders. And when they confronted one another, they would both cast aspersions and pelt one another with stones. Yet there was no one to censure them, and these disturbances were being executed in the absence of any guardian in the city, as if no authority existed. Such was the impudence and recklessness that had overtaken the chief priests that they were audacious enough to send their servants onto the threshing floors with the aim of taking away the tithes that were owed to the priests, with the result that the poorest of the priests perished at the hands of poverty. Under these conditions, the violence of the seditious factions prevailed over all right and justice.

Translated byWilliam Whiston, adapted byAaron Samuels.