He appointed to the most important posts obscure
individuals, of priestly descent, from Babylon and Alexandria,
and thus replaced with creatures of his own the old aristocracy.
Nor did he rest content with this; in order to preclude the
possibility of any independent authority ever arising alongside
of his own, he abolished the life-tenure of the high-priestly
office, and brought it completely under the control of the secular
power. By this means he succeeded in relegating the Sadducees to
utter insignificance. They were driven out of their native
sphere--the political--into the region of theoretical and
ecclesiastical discussion, where they continued, but on quite
unequal terms, their old dispute with the Pharisees.
It was during the period of Herod's activity that the Pharisees,
strictly speaking, enjoyed their greatest prosperity (Sameas and
Abtalion, Hillel and Shammai); in the synedrium they became so
numerous as almost to equal the priests and elders. Quite
consistently with their principles they had abstained from
taking any part in the life and death struggle for the existence
of the national state.
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