PHINEHAS fĭn’ ĭ əs (commonly פִּֽינְחָ֑ס, but in 1 Sam 1:3 פִּ֣נְחָ֔ס; LXX generally has φινεές, but Φεινεές [1 Esd 8:2], and Φινόε [1 Esd 5:21], meaning indeterminable; but if, as appears, of Egyp. origin, the Nubian, a name found esp. during Egypt’s New Kingdom, 16th-12th centuries b.c.). 1. A son of Eleazar, and a grandson of Aaron (Exod 6:25; 1 Chron 6:4, 50; 9:20; 1 Esd 8:2). He was once superindendent of certain Korahite gate keepers (1 Chron 9:20). He is shown to have been an ancestor of Ezra (Ezra 7:5); also he is noted as the father of Gershom (8:2), one of the heads of fathers’ houses who went up from Babylon with Ezra. The number of occasions that called him into special activity indicate that he was a man of integrity and dependability, one in whom flamed deep moral passion.
The first of these instances was at Shittim at the end of the wilderness journey before crossing the Jordan (Num 25:1), and following Balaam’s notable prophecies (chs. 22-24). Balaam was forbidden of God to curse Israel, but counseled seduction to licentiousness by the daughters of Moab (Num 25:3; 31:16; Mic 6:5). When Moses commanded to slay the guilty, in such a moral and spiritual crisis, the plague for the people’s sin was stayed following Phinehas’ exploit in transfixing Zimri and Cozbi, his paramour, with one spear-thrust, because of which he was given the covenant of an everlasting priesthood (Num 25:7-13; Ps 106:30; 1 Macc 2:54). Except for a brief interregnum under Eli of Ithamar’s line, Phinehas’ descendants held the office until Jerusalem was razed in a.d. 70.
It was Phinehas who accompanied the 1000 from each tribe in the move to avenge Israel, when he carried certain “vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for alarm in his hand” (Num 31:6). He seems to have been installed as high priest later; Eleazar is noted as still in the office (3:13, 21, 26, etc.).
Again Phinehas was commissioned to inquire into the apparent violation of divine law by the E Jordan tribes, which were exonerated and praised when it was found that the altar raised was simply for reminder in times to come (Josh 22:9-34).
Once more, following the outrage of the concubine of the sojourning Levite at Gibeah of Benjamin, it was Phinehas who at that time ministered before the Ark, who gave divine endorsement and promise of success for the third attempt in avenging the crime (Judg 20:28). Presumably he was buried in the hill of Ephraim where his father was laid to rest (Josh 24:33).
2. A recreant son of Eli the priest (1 Sam 1:3), who along with his brother Hophni, demanded reversal of sacrificial regulations, engaged in gross immorality, and were condemned by a “man of God” (1 Sam 2:11ff.). The brothers connived at taking the Ark into battle, but were killed, and the Ark was taken by the Philistines (1 Sam 4).
3. The father of a priest, Eleazar, who with others made accounting for certain valuables that the returnees brought from Babylon (Ezra 8:33; 1 Esd 8:63).
4. The last high priest before Titus’ destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 (Jos. War IV. iii. 8).
5. The last treasurer of the Temple, who when the city fell, handed the Romans some of its treasures (Jos. War VI. viii. 3).
Bibliography J. Bright, History of Israel (1959), 165, 421, 427.