I was doing some research today on the priestly lineages, basically just looking at the evidence in the Old Testament.  My reason for doing this is because I have been working on the material pertaining to the priests in Ezekiel 40-48, where priesthood is limited to the descendants of Zadok.  I got to wondering what would have happened to all the Aaronids who were not descendants of Zadok.  What was their status after the exile?

It is interesting to note that nowhere in the Old Testament is there any indication of descendants of Aaron other than the Zadok line.  The Pentateuch gives us information about the four sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar (Exod.6:23).  Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unholy fire (Lev.10:1-2).  Eleazar’s line is traced one more generation down to Phinehas.  None of the other descendants of Eleazar are mentioned.  Ithamar is given no line.

We do get a line of Eleazar given in 1 Chronicles 6, which gives one male ancestor per generation, tracing Eleazar all the way down to Zadok (and beyond).  No lineage is given for Ithamar there, but it notes that Ahimelech was in the line of Ithamar.  This means that by the time of David [insert minimalist / maximalist debate here] the only two lines are Eleazar and Ithamar, who are represented by only one person in the period, namely Zadok and Ahimelech respectively.  Ahimelech and all his sons save one are all killed by Saul at Nob (1 Sam.22).  The remaining son, Abiathar, was one of David’s priests, but he supported Adonijah instead of Solomon and was banished to Anathoth (1 Kngs 2:26-27).  From that point on, all priests are Zadokites.

In other words, by the time we get to Ezekiel, there is no such thing as a Aaronid who was not a descendant of Zadok.  So when Ezekiel divides the priests into Zadokites and Levites, there is no one left out.  The difference is that before the exile, both Zadokites and Levites may be priests, though only Zadokites can be priests in Jerusalem, except in the reforms of Deuteronomy.  After the exile, because of the work of Ezekiel and the reformulation of the laws by HS, Zadokites are priests, while the Levites are only temple servants.

This probably means that we should read Aaron as a cipher for all Zadokite priests during the monarchic period.  Since these would have been the only priests acceptible to the group that wrote the P layer of the Pentateuch, at least in Jerusalem.  If so, it is interesting that there is not a more negative view of the Levites serving in the countryside.  Of course, the view of the Priestly layer that only Aaron’s descendants can be priests (i.e., Zadokites) sort of leaves out the Levites without having to directly mention them.  It in only in HS that we get a direct prohibition of Levites serving as priests.

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