A dynasty of high priests, the first being Zadok who lived at the time of David and Solomon. The line lasted throughout the period of the First Temple and most of the Second Temple period. It reached the peak of its influence toward the end of the Persian rule, about the fourth and third centuries BCE, when it had formal political leadership of the autonomous province of Judea. One of them at least, Hezekiah, minted coins bearing his name. The family continued to enjoy the esteem of the people and to lead Judea under the Hellenistic rule. However, some members of the family joined the Hellenizers and this aroused the hostility of the people, and the family lost its position. The revolt against the Graeco-Syrians was led by another family of priests, the Hasmoneans, who took control of the political leadership of the Jewish state and of the high priesthood. Apparently priests of the Zadok family played an important role in the formation of the Dead Sea sect whose texts were discovered in the 1950s. The sect had to flee the country and settle in Damascus. The Book of the Damascene Covenant, which sets out the rules of the members of the sect, testifies to this. A popular view connects the Zadokites with the Sadducees, in Hebrew Tzaddukim, and they were actually involved with the organization of the Sadducees. A branch of the Zadok family served as priests in the Temple of Onias in Egypt until it was destroyed soon after the destruction of the Second Temple.
