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Samaritan High Priest


The Samaritan High Priest is the high priest (kohen gadol) of the remaining Samaritan community in the Levant. According to the Samaritan's tradition, the office has existed continuously since the time of Aaron, the brother of Moses, and has been held by 132 priests in the last thirty-four centuries. However, the historicity of this claim is disputable; the office itself may go back into the Hellenistic period, which would still make it the oldest, constantly occupied, religious office in the world. One account by Josephus suggests that its office holders are an offshoot of the Zadokite high priests of Jerusalem from around the time of Alexander the Great.

It appears, based upon the larger gaps in time between high priests, that several names might be missing, or that there were long period of vacancy between priests.

The continuous lineage of Samaritan High Priests, descending directly from Aaron, through his son Eleazar, and his son Phinehas, was however disrupted in the early 17th century. In 1624, the last Samaritan High Priest of the line of Eleazar son of Aaron died without male succession, but descendants of Aaron's other son, Ithamar, remained and took over the office.



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