g, 17,
and following.]

[Footnote 2: John xii. 9, 10, 17, 18.]

[Footnote 3: John xii. 10.]

[Footnote 4: John xi. 47, and following.]

"The high priest of that same year," to use an expression of the
fourth Gospel, which well expresses the state of abasement to which
the sovereign pontificate was reduced, was Joseph Kaiapha, appointed
by Valerius Gratus, and entirely devoted to the Romans. From the time
that Jerusalem had been under the government of procurators, the
office of high priest had been a temporary one; changes in it took
place nearly every year.[1] Kaiapha, however, held it longer than any
one else. He had assumed his office in the year 25, and he did not
lose it till the year 36. His character is unknown to us, and many
circumstances lead to the belief that his power was only nominal. In
fact, another personage is always seen in conjunction with, and even
superior to him, who, at the decisive moment we have now reached,
seems to have exercised a preponderating power.

[Footnote 1: Jos., _Ant._, XV. iii. 1, XVIII. ii. 2, v. 3, XX. ix. 1,
4.]

This personage was Hanan or Annas,[1] son of Seth, and father-in-law
of Kaiapha. He was formerly the high priest, and had in reality
preserved amidst the numerous changes of the pontificate all the
authority of the office. He had received the high priesthood from the
legate Quirinius, in the year 7 of our era. He lost his office in the
year 14, on the accession of Tiberius; but he remained much respected.
He was still called "high priest," although he was out of office,[2]
and he was consulted upon all important matters. During fifty years
the pontificate continued in his family almost uninterruptedly; five
of his sons successively sustained this dignity,[3] besides Kaiapha,
who was his son-in-law. His was called the "priestly family," as if
the priesthood had become hereditary in it.[4] The chief offices of
the temple were almost all filled by them.[5] Another family, that of
Boethus, alternated, it is true, with that of Hanan's in the
pontificate.[6] But the _Boethusim_, whose fortunes were of not very
honorable origin, were much less esteemed by the pious middle class.
Hanan was then in reality the chief of the priestly party. Kaiapha did
nothing without him; it was customary to associate their names, and
that of Hanan was always put first.[7] It will be understood, in fact,
that under this _regime_ of an annual pontificate, changed according
to the caprice