Ananus ben Ananus
Sadducean high priest who had James, the brother of Jesus, condemned and stoned in AD 62 and was deposed after three months. He later led the opposition to the Zealots in Jerusalem during the revolt and was killed by the Idumaeans.
Ananus was one of the five sons of the elder Ananus, all of whom, Josephus says, held the high priesthood as their father had. King Herod Agrippa II appointed him in the interval after the death of the governor Festus. Josephus calls him bold and insolent and a Sadducee. He convened a council, had James the Just and others condemned as breakers of the law and stoned, and was removed from office after three months when the new governor and the king learned of it (Josephus, Antiquities 20.197–203).
Josephus wrote of him twice, and differently. In the Jewish War Ananus is the senior high priest who rallies the people of Jerusalem against the Zealots in the temple (Josephus, Jewish War 4.151–161). When the Idumaeans entered the city they killed him and threw out his body unburied. Josephus there praises him as a just man and a lover of peace, and says that the fall of the city began with his death (Josephus, Jewish War 4.314–325).
In the timeline
- AD 62, firm dateThe Death of James, the Brother of the Lord
While Judaea is between Roman governors, the high priest Ananus has James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, condemned and stoned. Josephus records it within a generation; Christian writers a century later tell a fuller story.
Primary sources
Jewish Antiquities
- Josephus, Antiquities 20.197–203lexundria.com
The Jewish War
- Josephus, Jewish War 4.151–161lexundria.com
- Josephus, Jewish War 4.314–325lexundria.com