... on Second Temple Priesthood

The untold reason why Jewish people do not believe Jesus is the Messiah!
ONE FOR ISRAEL Ministry | 2.IV.2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP_JGRHvsE8

I

8:52 - 9:05 "is proof of the poor condition the temple priesthood was in. According to Elior, scrolls written by the Zadokian priesthood describe how they had to flee for their lives and hide from the new priests"

Now read II Maccabees 12 from 42 up to the end.

[42] And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes what had happened, because of the sins of those that were slain. [43] And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, [44] (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) [45] And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. [46] It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.

Now, re-read verse 44, it is a parenthesis, with the words in previous verse to which this parenthesis refers:

thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,)

As we know it, the priesthood in the temple in Jesus' time were in fact what we call "Sadducees" - deniers of the resurrection (among some other key concepts). This would mean that the author could be one of those fleeing from the new priests, or, at the very least, one who noted the difference.

And who preferred it the old way.

II

What do you think would have happened if in Our Lord's time there was one cohen, not John the Baptist (Yohanan ben-Zakhariah ha-Kohen, right?), but someone else, who actually also was against the corruption of Sadducee priests?

Would he have been a disciple of Our Lord?

What would Our Lord have thought of him?

Since St Irenaeus, most Church Father's have considered "John" and "the beloved disciple" as being John the son of Zebedee and the brother of James the greater. Look here at two texts from Gospels of St and of St John:

1) Now all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then the disciples all leaving him, fled. (Matthew 26:56)

2) And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. And that disciple was known to the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the court of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door without. The other disciple therefore, who was known to the high priest, went out, and spoke to the portress, and brought in Peter. (John 18:15,16)

We see a disciple who doesn't exactly look like fleeing. And one whom St Matthew, writing very early after the events, does not mention. Both say Peter (later a saint and martyr) was at the occasion half-brave, only one (the later writer) dares say how he even came in ...

Also, Matthew and Luke in Acts seem to contradict each other about how Judas Ischariot died - the John who was known to people in Asia Minor where St Irenaeus had spent early years (and perhaps misunderstood sth which early Church Fathers writing back there understood better) was able to tell what had happened. Judas didn't die from hanging, he was cut down. But he died from burst stomach when ploughing on Aceldama, trying obviously to "get things together" after a failed suicide and this not pleasing God. Or the guys who cut him down and saved him also killed him by giving him really too much comfort food. These explanations are not mutually exclusive.

How did this John know what had happened to Judas? Was he a fisherman - or a priest?

One man from Asia Minor, also an early Church Father, speaks of one John who had worn the "golden head plate".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestly_golden_head_plate