Matthew 2:4

All the chief priests. We should expect only one chief priest to be mentioned; but the office had become a lucrative one, and frequently changed hands. A rabbit is quoted as saying that the first temple, which stood about four hundred and ten years, had only eighteen high - priests from first to last; while the second temple, which stood four hundred and twenty years, had more than three hundred high - priests. The reference here is not to a meeting of the Sanhedrim, since the elders, who are not mentioned, belonged to this; but to an extraordinary convocation of all the high - priests and learned men. Besides the high - priest in actual office, there might be others who had been this predecessors, and who continued to bear the name, and in part the dignity. It may possibly have included the heads of the twenty - four courses of priests.