La représentation des modes de financement des cultes polythéistes dans les traditions juives et chrétiennes : le cas de l’adjudication des sacerdoces

By examining an episode in Jewish history that records the attempt to sell the priesthood of the Temple of Jerusalem, this study seeks to analyze the reactions reflected in Jewish and later Christian traditions regarding the procedures established at that time for assigning the priesthood. In order to highlight the evolution of representations related to this event, the analysis shifts to the explicit rejection of such monetization of worship in the discourse of the early Christian apologists, who used the innovations introduced by ancient communities in religious economy as an argument to demonstrate the vanity of these forms of religiosity. This study thus aims to show how this episode from the Maccabees, along with the commen- taries it has generated regarding the sale of the Jewish priesthood, origi- nally served to distance Jewish identity from Greek influence, before later becoming embedded in an anti-polytheistic discourse reflecting Christian polemics.