Most Powerful and Evil Bloodlines of the 1st Century CE: Annas

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Background

The House of Hanan (Annas) is arguably one of the most powerful Sadducee Jewish priest families of history. This one family dominated the Temple and Jewish religion from around 6 CE to 60 CE, the time of Jesus.

The Patriarch and founder of the family was High Priest Annas, born to Seth of Syria, a powerful Sadducee with estates outside Antioch. The date of birth of Annas (Ananus) us not clear, but is probably around 39/40 BCE.

Annas was appointed High Priest in AD 6 by the Roman legate Quirinius just after the Romans had deposed Archelaus, Ethnarch of Judaea, thereby putting Judaea directly under Roman rule as part of Iudaea Province. Annas served in the office for ten years, until the new procurator Valerius Gratus dismissed him in AD 16.

After that, Annas saw several members of his family succeed him as High Priests:

Eleazar ben Ananus (16–17)
Joseph Caiaphas (18–36), who had married the daughter of Annas (John 18:13)
Jonathan ben Ananus (36–37 and 44)
Theophilus ben Ananus (37–41)
Matthias ben Ananus (43)
Ananus ben Ananus (63)

There is every indication at the beginning that High Priest Annas and Joseph Ha Rama Theo, the blood descendent of King Zedekiah (through Tephi) and rightful Messiah were friends.

Annas, presumably saw such an alliance as beneficial with such a powerful (yet maverick) King. The writings uncovered from the Qumran settlement and home of Zecharaiah and his successor Simon clearly shows there was no lover between the Essenes and the Nazarenes after the birth of John the Baptist and then Jesus.

In 16 CE, when the new Governor Valerius Gratus took control and dismissed Annas from his position, it is almost certain that the Sadducee High Priest had some influence in requesting Joseph return to the Middle East from England with his "Holly/Holy Family".

Around 18/19 CE Annas and the newly appointed High Priest Joseph Caiaphas through the financial support of Joseph commissioned one of the largest Scriptorium in the East to be built. The ruins near the former Temple have been known for centuries and largely ignored.

At its height, the Scriptorium would have housed over one and fifty hundred scribes and would have easily been able to produce multiple copies of sacred scripture within a matter of months. The Scriptorium of the House of Annas therefore should be regarded as one of the earliest examples of a Publishing House in history.

Around 30 CE, after the falling out of Joseph and the House of Annas on account of the sermons of Jesus and the formation of his Gnostic Gospels, it is probable some of the scribes from the Scriptorium of the House of Annas left and joined the Nazarenes- the first faith of Jesus.

However, by 43/44 CE after the double agent mission of Paul of Tarsus had successfully obtained original copies of the Nazarene scriptures, the Scriptorium of the House of Annas and its stockpile of Greek translations of the Jewish Scripture was used to mass produce the new religious scriptures of Paul of Tarsus and the counter movement known as Christianity.

It is conservatively estimated that between 44 CE and 55/56 CE, the Scriptorium of Annas produced no less than 50 complete volumes of the earliest Christian Bible in Greek- a feat that in no small way contributed to the strength and growth of Christianity under Paul and the Sadducee nobles.


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