Phineas Priesthood

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PHINEAS PRIESTHOOD

The Phineas Priesthood is not an actual organization; it has no leaders, meetings, or any other institutional apparatus.

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The “priesthood” is a concept. A Phineas Priest is any individual who commits a “Phineas action,” a reference to an Old Testament story in which an interfaith couple is slain by a Hebrew man named Phineas who is then rewarded by

God. Typically, white supremacists describe Phineas actions as the slaying of interracial couples, but they have included attacks on Jews, non-whites, multiculturalists and others seen as enemies.

The idea of the Phineas Priesthood, sometimes referred to simply as Phineas Priests, originates in Vigilantes of

Christendom: The Story of the Phineas Priesthood, a 1990 book by white supremacist Richard Kelly Hoskins. Hoskins describes Phineas Priests as individuals who, through the ages, have felt called upon by God to murder “race-mixers” and their fellow travelers. He bases his idea on a story in

Numbers 25:6, in which Phineas uses a single spear thrust to kill both a Hebrew man and his lover, a Midianite woman. God is then said to reward Phineas, granting him and his descendants a permanent priesthood, because the Midianites worshipped Baal and were sowing their beliefs among the Hebrews. White supremacists read the story as saying that God has decreed the death penalty for so-called race-mixers.

Hoskins was a follower of the theology of Christian Identity, a warped reading of the Bible that claims that the Jews of today are biological descendants of Eve and Satan, that people of color are not human beings and do not have souls, and that whites are the real descendants of the biblical

Hebrews. The concept of a Phineas Priesthood that Hoskins developed is essentially a particular form of Christian Identity.

Many people mistakenly believe that there is an actual organization called the Phineas Priesthood, probably because there was a group of four men in the 1990s who called themselves Phineas Priests. The men carried out bank robberies and a series of bombings in the Pacific Northwest before being sent to prison. But there is no evidence that their organization was any larger than those four individuals.

Others have apparently carried out actions that would presumably qualify them as Phineas Priests. In 1999, a longtime white supremacist from Idaho named Buford Furrow went on a rampage, wounding five people at a Jewish community center in California and also killing a Filipino- American mail carrier. Officials found a book by Hoskins in the van driven by Furrow during his rampage.

In 2012, Pastor Drew Bostwick replaced August B. Kreis III as the leader of a splinter faction of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, renaming the organization “Tabernacle of the Phineas Priesthood-Aryan Nations”.

More recently, in 2014, Larry McQuilliams fired more than 100 shots at the Austin, Texas, Police Department, the nearby U.S. Courthouse and the Mexican consulate before being shot and killed by police. Officials found a copy of

Vigilantes of Christendom in McQuilliams’ vehicle. In a search of his apartment, they found multiple weapons, ammunition, a water supply and a map of 34 downtown buildings along with writings suggesting he considered himself a “High Priest.” Although his motives remain somewhat unclear, it is possible that he came in contact with the Phineas philosophy from his time in federal prison, where some white supremacists promote the ideology. Friends said McQuilliams was upset about immigrants and the fact that he couldn’t find a job, and apparently was acting on that anger.

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, ּפִנְ ָחס :According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas or Phineas (/ˈfɪniəs/; Hebrew Modern: Pinəḥas, Tiberian: Pineḥās) was a priest during the Israelites' Exodus journey, the grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (Exodus 6:25). He distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with his zeal against the Heresy of Peor. He was displeased with the immorality with which the Moabites and Midianites had successfully tempted the Israelites (Numbers 25:1–9) to inter-marry and to worship Baal-peor, so he personally executed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman while they were together in the man's tent, running a javelin or spear through the man and the belly of the woman, bringing to an end the plague Zimri and Cozbi are slain by sent by God to punish the Israelites for sexuallyintermingling with the Midianites. Phinehas

Phinehas is commended for having stopped Israel's fall to idolatrous practices brought in by Midianite women, as well as for stopping the desecration of God's sanctuary. After the entry to the land of Israel and the death of his father, he was appointed the third High Priest of Israel, and served at the sanctuary of Bethel (Judges 20:28).[1] He is commemorated as a saint in theEastern Orthodox Church on September 2.

Contents

Name Heresy of Peor Later activities In Jewish culture References Sources External links

Name

The Oxford Companion to the Bible and Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew and English Lexicon identify "Phinehas" as a variant of the Egyptian name Pa-nehasi, Panehesy (Coptic: ). According to the former, "the Bible also uses Egyptian and Nubian names for the land and its people ... For the Egyptians used to these color variations, the term for their southern neighbors was Neḥesi, 'southerner', which eventually also came to mean 'the black' or 'the Nubian'. This Egyptian root (nḥsj, with the preformative pʾ as a definite article) appears in Exodus 6.25 as the personal name of Aaron's grandson, Phinehas (= Pa-neḥas)".[2] The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament interprets the name to mean "the bronze-colored one".[3]

Heresy of Peor

The account appears immediately after the story of Balaam, who had been hired by the Moabite chieftain, Balak, to curse the Israelites. Balaam failed to do so, as God had put words in his mouth of blessing for Israel, instead (the first prayer said by Jews as part of their daily prayer service comes from this exact text). Having failed to curse them, Balaam left for his own country. The Book of Numbers asserts a direct connection between Balaam and the events at Peor, stating that the Moabites "caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor".[4] Moses gave orders to kill all the idolaters, yet Zimri, the son of the Israelite prince Salu from the Tribe of Simeon, openly defied Moses and publicly showed his opinion to those standing at the Tabernacle entrance with Moses by going in to Cozbi, the daughter of the Midianite prince Sur. In a moment of great strength born of holy zeal, Phinehas went after them and ran them through with a spear. He thus "stayed the plague" that had broken out among the people, and by which twenty-four thousand of them had already perished.[5] God noticed that Phinehas showed loyalty and bravery for God. God decided not to destroy all of the children of Israel in anger because Phinehas had made atonement for their sins. God declared that Phinehas, and his sons' sons for all eternity, would receive divine recognition for this; a covenant of peace and the covenant of an everlasting hereditary priesthood.[6]

The Christian book of Revelation mirrors this sentiment.[7] Revelation describes Jesus as speaking to one of seven Christian churches: "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed toidols and by committing sexual immorality."

Giving a more elaborated version of events, the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus asserts that Balaam sent for Balak and the princes of Midian and told them that, if they wished to bring evil upon Israel, they would have to make the Israelites sin. Balaam advised that they send the most beautiful women to seduce the Israelites to idolatry. This strategy succeeded, and soon many of the Israelites had been seduced.[8]

Later activities

Phinehas later led a 12,000-strong Israelite army against the Midianites to avenge this occasion. Among those slain in the expedition were five Midianite kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, and also Balaam, son of Beor. According to the Israelite roll-calls, the Israelites did not lose a man in the expedition.[9]

Phinehas son of Eleazar appears again in the book of Joshua. When the tribes of Reuben and Gad, together with the half-tribe of Manasseh, depart to take possession of their lands beyond the Jordan, they build a great altar on the other side; the remainder of the Israelites mistake this for a separatist move to set up a new religious centre, and send Phinehas to investigate.[10]

According to Joshua 24:33, Phinehas owned land in the mountains of Ephraim, where he buried his father.

In addition to these episodes, Phinehas appears as the chief adviser in the war with the Benjamites. He is commemorated in Psalm 106:28–31.

According to 1 Chronicles 6:4–8, his relation to Zadok is the following: Phinehas begat Abishua, Abishua begat Bukki, Bukki begat Uzzi, Uzzi begat Zerahiah, Zerahiah begat Meraioth, Meraioth begat Amariah, Amariah begatAhitub , and Ahitub begat Zadok.

According to I Maccabees, he is an ancestor ofMatitiyahu .

In Jewish culture

Pinchas is the name of the 41st weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the eighth in the book of Numbers. The beginning of this parshah tells the judgement of Phinehas son of Eleazar; the end of the previous parshah tells of his zealous act.

עושה מעשה זמרי ומבקש שכר) "The Hebrew expression "One who acts like Zimri and asks for a reward as if he were Phinehas .refers to hypocrites who ask for undeserved rewards and honours. It derives from the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah, Ch.22, p ( כפנחס עושה מעשה זמרי ומבקש שכר:where it is attributed to the Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus (see Hebrew Wikipedia he ,(2 .(כפנחס

In some traditions (for example in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan)[11] Phinehas is identified with Elijah. This identification apparently arose during the first century A.D.[12]

References

1. Baruchi Unna A. (2015), 'The Story of the Zeal of Phinehas and Congregational Weeping at Bethel', Vetus Testamentum 65, pp. 505–15 2. Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael D. (1993).Oxford Companion to the Bible. p. 11. 3. Archer, Gleason; Harris, R. Laird; Waltke, Bruce (2003). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Chicago. 4. Numbers 31:16 (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0431.htm#16) 5. Numbers 25 (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0425.htm#1) 6. Numbers 25:12–13 7. cf. Rev 2:14 (https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:Revelation.2:14–2:14) 8. Flavius Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV, Chapter VI, Paragraphs 6–12 (http://www.gutenberg.org/catalo g/world/readfile?fk_files=2359&pageno=114) 9. Numbers 31 (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0431.htm#1) 10. Joshua 22:9–34 (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0622.htm#9) 11. Richard Bauckham (2007-11-01).The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple: Narrative, History, and Theology in the Gospel of John (https://books.google.com/books?id=OdAVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA210). Baker Publishing Group. pp. 210–11. ISBN 978-1-4412-0079-2. 12. Martin Hengel (1989). "Zeal for the Law in Connection with the Tradition of Phineas". The Zealots: Investigations into the Jewish Freedom Movement in the Period from Herod I until 70 A.D. (https://archive.org/details/TheZealotsInvesti gationIntoTheJewishFreedomMovementInThePeriodFromHerodIUntil70A.D) Translated by David Smith. Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd. p. 168. ISBN 0-567-09372-7.

Sources

Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Phinehas". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.

External links

Phinehas at Jewish Encyclopedia

Israelite religious titles Preceded by High Priest of Israel Succeeded by Eleazar Years unknown Abishua

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Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Phineas Priesthood

The Phineas Priesthood or Phineas Priests (also spelled Phinehas) are American domestic terrorists who follow the ideology set forth in the 1990 book, Vigilantes of Christendom: The Story of the Phineas Priesthood by Richard Kelly Hoskins.[1]

Contents

Ideology and activity Name See also References External links

Ideology and activity

The ideology set forth in Hoskins' book includesChristian Identity beliefs which oppose interracial relationships, the mixing of races, homosexuality, and abortion. It is also marked by anti-Semitism, and anti-multiculturalism.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), "Many people mistakenly believe that there is an actual organization called the Phineas Priesthood, probably because there was a group of four men in the 1990s who called themselves Phineas Priests. The men carried out bank robberies and a series of bombings in the Pacific Northwest before being sent to prison. But there is no evidence that their organization was any larger than those four individuals."

The Phineas Priesthood is not considered an organization because it is not led by a governing body, its members do not hold gatherings, and it does not have a membership process. One simply becomes a Phineas Priest by adopting the Priesthood's beliefs and acting upon them. Adherents of the Phineas Priesthood ideology are considered terrorists because among other things, their crimes include numerous abortion clinic bombings in 1996, the 1996 bombing of The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, bank robberies, and plans to blow up FBI buildings.[2] Four members of this organization were convicted of crimes including bank robbery and bombing, with each sentenced in 1997 and 1998 to life in prison.[3]

On November 28, 2014, 49-year-old Larry Steven McQuilliams fired more than 100 rounds at a federal courthouse, a Mexican consulate building (which he also tried to set on fire), and a police station in Austin, Texas; he was shot in the heart by a police officer firing from some 300 feet away.[4] A copy of Hoskins' book was found in McQuilliams' home.[5]

Name

The Phineas Priesthood is named for the Israelite Phinehas, grandson of Aaron (Numbers 25:7). According to Numbers 25, Phineas personally executed Zimri, an Israelite man, and a Midianite woman while they were together in the man's tent, running a spear through the two and ending a plague sent by God to punish the Israelites for intermingling sexually and religiously with the Midianite Baal-worshipers. Phineas is commended for having stopped Israel's fall to idolatrous practices brought in by Midianite women, as well as for stopping the desecration of God's sanctuary. Yahweh commends Phineas throughMoses as zealous, gives him a "covenant of peace," and grants him and "his seed" an everlasting priesthood. This passage was cited in Hoskins' book as a justification for using violent means against interracial relationships and other forms of allegedimmorality .

See also Byron De La Beckwith, the assassin of NAACP and civil rights leader Medgar Evers who became a Phineas Priest Larry Gene Ashbrook, a mass murderer who allegedly was a self-professed Phineas Priest List of white nationalist organizations

References

1. "Extremism in America: Richard Kelly Hoskins" (http://www.adl.org/Learn/ext_us/Hoskins.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremis m&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=2&item=Hoskins). Anti-Defamation League. 2005. Retrieved November 28, 2015. 2. "Phineas Priests Arrested in Spokane Robberies" (https://www.webcitation.org/5x9xBRDR4). MHRN. Montana Human Rights Network. 1996. Archived fromthe original (http://www.mhrn.org/newsarchive/1096phineas.html) on March 13, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 3. Morlin, Bill (November 1, 1997)."Sentencing Delayed For Valley Bomber, But No Third Trial Charles H. Barbee Faces Mandatory Life Imprisonment" (http://preps.spokesman.com/stories/1997/nov/01/sentencing-delayed-for-valle y-bomber-but-no-third/). The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved September 14, 2014. 4. Tolbert, Patrick; Sadeghi, Chris (December 1, 2014). "Chief on Austin gunman: 'Hate was in his heart' " (http://kxan.c om/2014/12/01/chief-on-austin-gunman-hate-was-in-his-heart/). KXAN. Retrieved June 6, 2016. 5. Ohlheiser, Abby; Izadi, Elahe (December 1, 2014). "Police: Austin shooter was a 'homegrown American extremist' " (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/01/police-austin-shooter-belonged-to-an-ultra-conse rvative-christian-hate-group/). The Washington Post. Retrieved June 6, 2016.

External links

The Order and Phineas Priesthood by the Anti-Defamation League Overview by the Southern Poverty Law Center Anthony Rees, [Re]Reading Again: A Mosaic Reading of Numbers 25, A thesis submitted to Charles Sturt University for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, 2013. Chapter "A Violent Turn. The Phinehas Priesthood" (p. 126ff). Accessed 15 August 2018

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