PHANNIAS, or Phanasus, Son of Samuel, of the Race of the Priests, a Native of the Town of Aphtasi. He1 was a brutish and ignorant Person, who was not only unworthy of the High Priesthood, but did not so much as know as he ought, what this Office was. After the Faction had made themselves Masters of the Temple, they usurped the Power of setting up and deposing the High Priests. Matthias the Son of Theophilus, was then in Possession of this Dignity. They pretended to appoint him a2 Successor, and because that heretofore, according to their3 Notions, the High Priesthood had been given by Lot, they proceeded by the same Way to the Election of an High Priest. They cast Lots upon the Sacerdotal Family of Eniakim, (which is probably the same as the Family of Jakim, 1 Chron. xxiv. 12. which was the Twelfth of the Sacerdotal Families) and the Lot fell upon Phannias. ‘Twas under his Pontificate that the Temple was destroy’d by the Romans, in the 70th Year of the vulgar Era.
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Footnotes
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Joseph. de Bello. l. 4. c. 5. p. 872. Antiq. l. 20. c. 8. p. 700. B. C. ↩
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About the Year 68 of the vulgar Era. ↩
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It is true that the Order and Succession of the Sacerdotal Families was established by Lot; but it is false to say that the Priesthood was ever given in this Manner. See 1 Chron. xxiv. 7. Luke i. 9. ↩