PHINEES. - Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, third high priest of Israel. His mother was a daughter of Phutiel, whom the Targun of Pseudo-Jonathan identifies with the Midianite Iethro (Ex. 6, 25). While still young, P. distinguished himself by the zeal he showed in punishing the unfaithful Jews who at Settim took part Beelphegor (v.), or the idol of Phegor, an impure Moabite divinity. Moses, in God's name, commanded that the guilty be put to death, and P., seeing that “a man of the children of Israel,” Zambrì son of Salù, had brought “the Midianite Cozbi into the midst of his brethren, before the eyes of Moses and in the presence of the whole community ... entered the tent and pierced them both” (Num. 25, 6-8).
Consequently, the high priesthood was promised to him and to his descendants. His zeal was glorified from age to age (Ps. 105 [106], 30 sg.; Eccl. 45, 23-25). Mathathia, the father of the Maccabees, was inspired by this example to undertake war against Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Mach. 2, 26-54). In the struggle against the Midianites, Moses sent a thousand men from each tribe, and with them P., “who took with him the sacred vessels and the sounding trumpets” (Num. 31, 6). He was invited, together with ten leading men, to settle a religious question with the tribes of Ruben, Gad, and eastern Manasse, who had raised an altar near the Jordan (Ios. 22, 11-33). In the division of the territory, the city of Gabaon on Mount Ephraim was assigned to him. In the war against the Benjaminites he remained at Bethel to exercise the high priesthood (Iud. 20, 28). He was also the COREA (v.). Vincenzo M. Jacono