B
BartholomewB
Guest
David appointed Zadok, the first high priest after Jerusalem became an Israelite city. David wasn’t a pagan, but he was the temporal ruler. In the Hasmonean period, several of the kings, beginning with Jonathan, appointed themselves as high priest. By the time Judea became a Roman province, it was a long established practice that the temporal ruler appointed the high priest. The only restriction was the genealogical qualification: the high priest had to have the right ancestry.