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Maccabean Revolt (Biblical Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. In 167 BCE the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reign from 175–164 BCE) ordered the religious persecution of the Jews living in the satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia. The Seleucid ruler banned the Jewish cult in an attempt to force the Jews (and the Samaritans) to forsake their belief in the God of Israel. Instead, the worship of foreign gods and goddesses was imposed on them. Antiochus’s persecution of the Jewish religion and his attempt to eradicate a cult of a people inhabiting their ancestral land were unprecedented in the ancient world. Had his policy succeeded, Judaism would have ceased to exist, and Christianity would never have had the climate from which it would later evolve. However, passive resistance to the religious persecutions immediately surfaced, and some Jews preferred to die as martyrs rather than abandon their faith and transgress their laws. These martyrs were to serve as a model for other followers of the monotheistic faiths, be they Jews or not. Armed opposition to the king’s policy began almost immediately afterward, under the leadership of Mattathias the Hasmonean and his sons. Thus a new period in the history of the Jewish people was inaugurated, a period that was to last for more than half a century. In those years, Mattathias’s heirs headed a military as well as a political struggle. Mattathias’s original goal was to secure religious freedom for the Judean Jews, but his son, Judas the Maccabee, and other members of the Hasmonean family sought to achieve military, administrative, and political control in an expanded Judea, crowning their success with the achievement of independence. In this struggle, the Hasmoneans clashed with the Hellenistic Kingdom of the Seleucids and the Greek cities around Judea, yet at the same time the Maccabean state acquired some of the Hellenistic cultural traits of its adversaries. One can offer alternative dates for the Maccabean Revolution. However, several achievements undoubtedly symbolize the heights reached by the Hasmoneans: the reconquest of the Jerusalem temple and its rededication (164 BCE); the signing of a compact with Rome (161 BCE); the appointment of Jonathan as high priest (153 BCE); the conquest of the Acra, the Hellenistic stronghold in Jerusalem, and Simon’s declaration of Judea’s independence (142 BCE); the official stamp given to Simon’s powers as high priest, military commander, and political leader by his people; and the military conquests of John Hyrcanus I, especially those achieved toward the end of his reign (c. 112 BCE). These made Judea a military power roughly equal in strength to that of its Seleucid opponents; the self enthronement of the Hasmoneans was first undertaken either by Judas Aristobulus (reigned 104–103 BCE) or by his brother, Alexander Janneus (reigned 103–76 BCE). All these landmarks reflect a sharp change in the standing of the Jews and the state of Judea. However, while the reign of Alexander Janneus may be perceived as the high point of the Jewish state, his reign witnessed not only foreign wars of expansion but also a bloody civil war waged by the king against the Pharisees. No wonder, then, that soon after his death (76 BCE), increasing divisions within the royal house coupled with the rivalry between the Pharisees and Sadducees eroded the remaining strength of the Hasmonean Kingdom. The advent of Rome, first to Syria and then to Judea, soon brought about the subjugation of the Jews (63 BCE). Thus, the edifice of a Jewish state enjoying political and military power was to last for less than a century before its collapse.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. The persecution of the Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Jewish reactions to this are often studied against their background. Thus, several scholars offer a study of Judea since its occupation by Alexander the Great (Tcherikover 1959), or since the beginning of the contention between the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid Kingdoms over the mastery of that country (Hengel 1974). The question of the early Hellenization of various groups inhabiting Judea is also a major concern of these two scholars, Victor Tcherikover and Martin Hengel. Some of the other studies prefer to open their investigation with the annexation of Coele Syria and Phoenicia, Judea included, to the Seleucid Kingdom (Bickerman 1979). Still others select the reign of Antiochus IV as their starting point (Sievers 1990).
  8.  
  9. Bickerman, Elias. The Maccabees: An Account of Their History from the Beginnings to the Fall of the House of the Hasmoneans. Translated by Moses Hadas. Schocken Library 6. New York: Schocken, 1947.
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  11. The running thread in this booklet is the process by which the Hasmonean ruling family, and Jewish society as a whole, absorbed Hellenistic culture yet maintained the supremacy of Jewish Law above all else. Judaism was thus saved from stagnation, and its existence was ensured for generations to come. The author’s wish was that this modest volume would serve “as a nucleus for a future extended work on the subject.” Reprinted in Bickerman’s From Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees: Foundations of Post-biblical Judaism (New York: Schocken, 1962), pp. 91–186, with minor changes.
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  13. Bickerman, Elias. The God of the Maccabees: Studies on the Meaning and Origin of the Maccabean Revolt. Translated by Horst R. Moehring. Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 32. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1979.
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  15. Bickerman’s conclusion that Epiphanes’ ban on Jewish religion was influenced by Jewish Hellenizers contradicts the essence of Hellenistic kingship. The book’s motto comes from Augustine of Hippo, who questioned why God abandoned the Maccabees, and this leads not only to the main topic, but also to Nazi Germany, from which Bickerman escaped and in which this book was originally published. Against this background, his hypothesis seems paradoxical. Reprinted in Bickerman’s Studies in Jewish and Christian History, Vol. 2, edited by Amram Tropper (Boston: Brill, 2007), pp. 1025–1149.
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  17. Bringmann, Klaus. Hellenistische Reform und Religionsverfolgung in Judäa: Eine Untersuchung zur jüdisch-hellenistischen Geschichte (175–163 v. Chr.). Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften, philologisch-historische Klasse 3.132. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983.
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  19. Bringmann offers a new chronological framework for the events discussed, which was not universally received. He further dwells on the monetary undertakings of Jason and Menelaus to the king. Their need for cash and the plundering of the temple created unrest in Jerusalem. This escalation was a key factor for Antiochus’s decision to launch a new policy of replacing the Jewish cult with a pagan one.
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  21. Dąbrowa, Edward. The Hasmoneans and Their State: A Study in History, Ideology, and the Institutions. Electrum: Studies in Ancient History 16. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2010.
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  23. The book’s first half discusses the political and military history of the Hasmoneans, from the early days until Judea’s submission to Roman power in 63 BCE. In the second half, Dąbrowa analyzes the Hasmonean state’s institutions, including subjects that have habitually received little attention, such as local government and finances. Finally, there is an attempt to delineate the various strands of Judean society, and their attitude toward the ruling family.
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  25. Gera, Dov. Judaea and Mediterranean Politics, 219 to 161 B.C.E. Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies 8. Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill, 1998.
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  27. An outsider’s view of Judean history is attempted, providing critical assessment of the Jewish sources. Internal Jewish struggles were apparently not motivated by support for, or opposition to, the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. Overall, Antiochus IV’s interest in Judea was marginal, and the king was busy forging together a balanced court, comprising his own partisans and those who supported the cause of the future Demetrius I.
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  29. Hengel, Martin. Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine during the Early Hellenistic Period. 2 vols. 2d ed. Translated by John Bowden. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974.
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  31. In many ways, this book owes much to Bickerman’s thesis (Bickerman 1979) assigning responsibility for the persecution to the Jewish Hellenizers. The author assumes that the co-habitation in the citadel of Jerusalem (the Acra) of the Jewish reform party and non-Jewish military settlers led to a syncretistic cult in which there was one supreme deity, identified with the Phoenician Ba’al Shamin and the Greek Zeus Olympius. The new cult was to totally replace the Jewish Law. It may be noted, however, that the literary sources referring to Antiochus’s persecution of the Jews speak only of Greek deities.
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  33. Momigliano, Arnaldo. Alien Wisdom: The Limits of Hellenization. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
  34. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583773Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35. Within the framework of a lecture titled “Greeks, Jews and Romans from Antiochus III to Pompey” (pp. 97–122), Momigliano presents a sweeping, but at the same time detailed, survey of the Maccabean period. Attention is directed to the lacunae in our knowledge and perception of the chain of events that led to an unprecedented ban on the Jewish cult. The points of strength of the sources, as well as their limitations, are admirably presented.
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  37. Sievers, Joseph. The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 6. Atlanta: Scholars, 1990.
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  39. A good discussion of the political and religious developments in Judea from the beginning of the Maccabean revolt. Sievers emphasizes the pivotal role played by Jonathan the Hasmonean in laying the foundations for the Hasmonean state. At every stage, an attempt is made to identify the groups supporting the Hasmoneans, a vexed question not sufficiently clarified by the ancient sources.
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  41. Stern, Menahem. “The Hasmonean Revolt and Its Place in the History of Jewish Society and Religion.” Journal of World History 11 (1968): 92–106.
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  43. A map of Jewish society is delineated, focusing on the aristocratic families who played an active role in the Hellenizing movement. These families found themselves sliding down the social ladder, while the star of new families was on the rise. One may think here of the future royal family of Herod, of proselyte stock, but also of lowly priests and of sages of humble origins. Reprinted in Jewish Society through the Ages, edited by Haim H. Ben-Sasson and Samuel Ettinger (London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1971), pp. 92–106.
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  45. Tcherikover, Victor. Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews. Translated by S. Applebaum. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1959.
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  47. The first part of the book, titled “Hellenistic Civilization in Palestine” (pp. 1–265), is as much a social history of the Jews as it is a political history. Tcherikover’s original idea that a Jewish non-Hasmonean rebellion pushed Antiochus Epiphanes into retaliation—the launching of religious persecutions in Judea—has found adherents among later scholars, who often refashion his hypothesis. Republished as recently as 2011 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic).
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  49. Will, Edouard, and Claude Orrieux. Ioudaïsmos-hellènismos: Essai sur le judaïsme judéen à l’époque hellénistique. Nancy, France: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1986.
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  51. The book’s premise is the similarity between the Hellenistic world and the modern era’s colonial powers. In both periods, foreign powers conquered the natives, employing colonists from the home country who secured their holding, which was effected through the establishment of urban and agricultural settlements. The new elite brought their own dominant culture. However, a process of acculturation began, affecting both the indigenous population and the colonial ruling class.
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  53. Literary Sources
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  55. The major literary sources to the Maccabean revolt and to the early history of the Maccabean state are Jewish. These include the biblical book of Daniel, the first and second books of Maccabees, and Josephus. The latest historical references in the book of Daniel probably belong to the year 165 BCE, and its author is considered a witness to the inauguration of the persecution by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The author’s cryptic language is a major obstacle to our ability to understand his objectives and descriptions fully. 1 Maccabees seems to have been written in the time of John Hyrcanus I (135/4–104 BCE), although some scholars would place the book’s date a little later, in the reign of Alexander Janneus (103–76 BCE). The author was apparently close to the Hasmonean court. Josephus used 1 Maccabees as a source for the early Hasmonean period, but his reliance on this book dwindles when describing the events in Simon’s time, and from then onward he employed other sources, now lost. 2 Maccabees is generally dated after 125 BCE; however, the book’s date is still unclear (Doran 2012). Admittedly, other Jewish books were written in Judea in the course of the 2nd century BCE, but these do not describe the events under discussion. They may however be of use as reflecting the moods and beliefs in Judaea within the 2nd century (Mendels 1987). We also possess a few references to Antiochus’s persecution and the Maccabean revolt, written in Greek or Latin. These can be accessed through the wide compilation of pagan texts written in these two languages, which focus on Jews and Judaism (Stern 1974–1984).
  56.  
  57. Doran, Robert. 2 Maccabees: A Critical Commentary. Edited by Harold W. Attridge. Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2012.
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  59. A sensible, well-informed commentary of moderate size. Doran highlights the importance of rhetorics in 2 Maccabees and is often illuminating when discussing the book’s style.
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  61. Feldman, Louis H. “Josephus’ Portrayal of the Hasmoneans Compared with 1 Maccabees.” In Josephus and the History of the Greco-Roman Period: Essays in Memory of Morton Smith. Proceedings of the Josephus Colloquium, held Nov. 2–5, 1992, in San Miniato, Italy. Edited by Fausto Parente and Joseph Sievers, 41–68. Studia Post-biblica 41. Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill, 1994.
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  63. 1 Maccabees discusses the Hasmonean family’s first two generations. Feldman deals with Josephus’s later treatment of them. Josephus often glorifies the early Hasmoneans by concentrating on their achievements, while leaving out references, mentioned in 1 Maccabees, of the part played by the soldiers and the people. Josephus ascribes his Hasmonean heroes with ideas of piety and freedom, because of the appeal such ideals held for Josephus’s intended non-Jewish readers.
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  65. Fuks, Gideon. “Josephus and the Hasmoneans.” Journal of Jewish Studies 41.2 (1990): 166–176.
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  67. Josephus’s attitude toward the Hasmoneans is exemplified through his description of three of their later rulers. While these were dealt with both in the Jewish War and the Jewish Antiquities, Josephus’s later treatment seems to be the more favorable. This was due, contends Fuks, to the years that have passed since 70 CE. The Jewish revolt receded from collective memory, allowing the historian to express his feelings more freely.
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  69. Goldstein, Jonathan A. I Maccabees: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 41. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
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  71. One wishes for more full-scale English commentaries of 1 Maccabees. The Septuagint-style Greek of 1 Maccabees does not afford Goldstein to exploit in full his command of the Ancient Greek.
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  73. Goldstein, Jonathan A. II Maccabees: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 41A. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
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  75. This volume, as well as the commentary on 1 Maccabees, Goldstein 1976, is suffused with theories, some of which “are impaired by . . . dependence on improbable hypotheses” (by the author’s own admission; p. 37). Goldstein’s tome is far from being user friendly, but his impeccable Greek often comes in handy, especially in his translation and understanding of the relatively difficult text of the Second Book of Maccabees.
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  77. Mendels, Doron. The Land of Israel as a Political Concept in Hasmonean Literature: Recourse to History in Second Century B.C. Claims to the Holy Land. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 15. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1987.
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  79. Mendels’s aim is to delineate the way Jewish perceptions concerning Judea changed in the 2nd century BCE. This touches on the nature of Jewish government, the ways non-Jews were viewed, and the mental maps of Israel’s land. The discussed writings are chronologically arranged and are seen as representing the views prevalent in Judea in a specific decade or two within the period under discussion.
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  81. Millar, Fergus. “Hellenistic History in a Near Eastern Perspective: The Book of Daniel.” In Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and Historiography. Edited by Paul Cartledge, Peter Garnsey, and Erich S. Gruen, 89–104. Hellenistic Culture and Society 26. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
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  83. Despite the variegated construction of Daniel, its parts present an integrated picture that reflects the trials of the Jews under Epiphanes. This is hardly surprising in those parts that deal with Antiochus’s religious notions and the abolition of the daily sacrifice. However, in the earlier section there is a clear message to Jews to abstain from non-kosher food and to refuse to take part in any foreign cult. Reprinted in Millar’s Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 3, The Greek World, the Jews, and the East, edited by Hannah M. Cotton and Guy M. Rogers (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 51–66.
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  85. Nickelsburg, George W. E. 1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1–36; 81–108. Edited by Klaus Baltzer. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2001.
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  87. The Ethiopic Enoch is an apocalyptic text envisioning a final judgment in which the sinners would be exterminated, leaving the rest of humanity under the Lord’s guidance. This unifying idea of the text’s five separate books is central for the understanding of the Maccabean revolt’s background. Less significant is a passage alluding to the battles of Judas Maccabaeus (chapter 90), since its full meaning is unclear.
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  89. Schwartz, Daniel R. 2 Maccabees. Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
  90. DOI: 10.1515/9783110211207Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  91. A commentary brimming with original ideas. Schwartz believes that 2 Maccabees expresses the ideas and concepts of a Diasporan Jew, the Epitomator, who is to be considered the book’s virtual author. The belittling of Jason of Cyrene, the declared source for the Epitomator’s composition, is justified. However, the Jerusalem temple plays a central role in 2 Maccabees, and this stands in the way of the view that the author was of Diasporan origins and cared little for the Jerusalem shrine.
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  93. Stern, Menahem, ed. and trans. Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism. 3 vols. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974–1984.
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  95. The purpose of this book is to record, translate, and comment on all pagan texts in Greek and Latin that discuss the various aspects of Judaism. However, one can access all the sections related to Antiochus’s persecution of the Jews, and all those that refer to the various members of the Hasmonean dynasty, through the use of the indexes, which may be found toward the end of the third volume.
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  97. Preliminaries to the Reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes
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  99. The persecution of the Jews initiated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes is cardinal to our understanding of the Maccabean revolt. However, the first Seleucid to conquer Judea was Antiochus III the Great, father of Epiphanes. Jewish support for the father, as well as opposition to him, is important for our understanding of Seleucid-Jewish relations. So too are the measures undertaken by Antiochus III to regulate the affairs of the people of Judea. The state of affairs existing under Seleucus IV, Antiochus the Great’s son and heir, is also of relevance (Bickerman 2007a, Bickerman 2007b, Bickerman 2007c). Part of the study of the preliminaries to the Seleucid-Jewish confrontation focuses on the so called pro-Seleucid and pro-Ptolemaic Jewish parties and the question of their Hellenization. The Tobiad family forms a central but not exclusive part of this discussion. A story involving two of its members is told by Josephus. Scholars are, however, divided between those who view it as essentially true (Tcherikover 1959, cited under General Overviews) and those who stress its fanciful character (Gera 1998, cited under General Overviews). A treatment of the Tobiads needs also to relate to Araq el Emir, the archaeological site to the east of the Jordan that has been identified as the Tobiad family estate (e.g., Will, et al. 1991, cited under Archaeology).
  100.  
  101. Bickerman, E. J. “The Seleucid Charter for Jerusalem.” In Studies in Jewish and Christian History: A New Edition in English including The God of the Maccabees. Vol. 1. By E. J. Bickerman, 315–356. Edited by Amram Tropper. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 68. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2007a.
  102. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004152946.i-1242.112Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103. First published in French in Revue des Études Juives 100 (1935): 4–35. A brilliant paper, which like many of the author’s works was later updated in the first edition of Bickerman’s collected Studies in Jewish and Christian History (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1976–1986). The author proves the authenticity of an epistle of Antiochus III the Great quoted by Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews [Ant]. 12.138–144). The privileges accorded by the king to the leadership of Jerusalem highlight the city’s conservative constitution.
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  105. Bickerman, E. J. “A Seleucid Proclamation concerning the Temple in Jerusalem.” In Studies in Jewish and Christian History: A New Edition in English including The God of the Maccabees. Vol. 1. By E. J. Bickerman, 357–375. Edited by Amram Tropper. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 68. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2007b.
  106. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004152946.i-1242.118Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  107. First published in French in Syria 25 (1946–1948): 67–85. Another document from Josephus, attributed by him to the time of Antiochus III (Ant. 12.145–146). The text is concerned with the purity of the temple courts and also with that of the city of Jerusalem as a whole. Bickerman’s knowledge of comparable sacral laws from the Greek world and elsewhere is dazzling, but he falls short in his thesis that the document’s injunctions foreshadow the halakha of the rabbis.
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  109. Bickerman, E. J. “Heliodorus in the Temple in Jerusalem.” In Studies in Jewish and Christian History: A New Edition in English including The God of the Maccabees. Vol. 1. By E. J. Bickerman, 432–464. Edited by Amram Tropper. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 68. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2007c.
  110. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004152946.i-1242.147Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  111. First published in French in Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves 7 (1939–1944): 5–40. Chapter 3 of 2 Maccabees tells of an unsuccessful attempt by the Seleucid minister Heliodorus to ransack the treasures of the Jerusalem temple. However, angelic creatures stood in the way of the minister and kept the treasures safe. The whole miraculous scene can be better understood nowadays, as a result of a publication of a new inscription from Maresha (see Cotton and Wörrle 2007 and Gera 2009, both cited under Greek Epigraphy).
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  113. Goldstein, Jonathan A. “The Tales of the Tobiads.” In Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults: Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty. Vol. 3, Judaism before 70. Edited by Jacob Neusner, 85–123. Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 12. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1975.
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  115. The author recognizes that the story concerning the Tobiad Joseph and his son Hyrcanus found in Josephus (Ant. 12.156–222, 228–236) contains many “puzzling” elements, and seeks to explain these by assuming that it was written by Onias IV and was later adopted by Josephus.
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  117. Johnson, Sara Raup. Historical Fictions and Hellenistic Jewish Identity: Third Maccabees in Its Cultural Context. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
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  119. Johnson considers Joseph the Tobiad and his son Hyrcanus as historical figures but thinks that the stories about them are largely fictional. Josephus’s source presented both father and son in a favorable light and stressed their close attachment to the Ptolemaic royal house in order to promote a close relationship between the Jews of Palestine living under Maccabean rule and their Ptolemaic neighbor in the South. See especially pp. 76–92 within the chapter “Josephus.”
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  121. Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Persecution of the Jews
  122.  
  123. It is not surprising that the unprecedented nature of the persecutions against the Jews served to focus much interest in the personality of the king reportedly responsible for initiating them. Furthermore, we possess a devastating portrait of that king as characterized by the highly regarded Achaean historian Polybius. If this characterization is trustworthy, then the king’s abnormal behavior would go some way toward explaining the persecution (Gruen 1993). However, modern favorable assessments of the king’s personality (Mørkholm 1966), or disbelief in Polybius’s objectivity (Gera 1998, cited under General Overviews), would turn us away from this line of thinking. Still, the powers habitually concentrated in the hands of the Hellenistic kings would direct us toward Antiochus IV for a solution of this historical problem (Millar 1978).
  124.  
  125. Aperghis, G. G. “Antiochus IV and His Jewish Subjects: Political, Cultural and Religious Interaction.” Paper presented at the conference “Seleukid Dissolution: The Sinking of the Anchor, Fragmentation and Transformation of Empire,” held at the University of Exeter, Exeter, UK, on 14–17 July 2008. In Seleucid Dissolution: The Sinking of the Anchor. Edited by Kyle Erickson and Gillian Ramsey, 67–83. Philippika: Marburger altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 50. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011.
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  127. The narrative of the persecution of the Jews is deconstructed. This is done by comparing the sources continually and by giving credit at times to one source, and at others to another. The procedure seems arbitrary and ignores the character of our two principal witnesses. Furthermore, the repeated use of an argument based on the silence of one of our sources hardly furthers the understanding of the historical problem.
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  129. Doran, Robert. “The Persecution of Judeans by Antiochus IV: The Significance of ‘Ancestral Laws.’” In The “Other” in Second Temple Judaism: Essays in Honor of John J. Collins. Edited by Daniel C. Harlow, Karina Martin Hogan, Matthew Goff, and Joel S. Kaminsky, 423–433. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2011.
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  131. Hellenistic rulers could abolish the laws of a conquered city, replacing them with a new constitution. Since rituals were closely linked to the ancestral laws, they too could be made extinct. Doran suggests that Jason’s rebellion effected such a response. The king replaced the ancestral laws with a “Greek” code, not realizing the fact that he was forcing the Jews to transgress God’s commands in fundamental matters such as circumcision.
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  133. Gruen, Erich S. “Hellenism and Persecution: Antiochus IV and the Jews.” In Hellenistic History and Culture. Edited by Peter Green, 238–264. Hellenistic Culture and Society 9. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
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  135. Antiochus Epiphanes’ unstable personality is suggested to have pushed the king to persecute the Jews. Gruen suggests, however, a specific trigger for Antiochus’s unhinging. He was presented with an ultimatum by Rome, forcing him to relinquish all the territorial, military, and political gains that he had acquired in Egypt and Cyprus. However, the time gap between the ultimatum and the beginning of the persecution does not support the offered explanation.
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  137. Millar, Fergus. “The Background to the Maccabean Revolution: Reflections on Martin Hengel’s ‘Judaism and Hellenism.’” Journal of Jewish Studies 29.1 (1978): 1–21.
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  139. A thoughtful publication insisting on the un-Hellenized character of Judea right up to 175 BCE, the date of Antiochus Epiphanes’ ascendancy to the throne. The author focuses on the responsibility of the king, not the Jewish Hellenizing party, for the repressive measures against the Jews, noting that these steps were aimed at uprooting the Jewish Law and replacing the House of God with a temple dedicated to Zeus Olympius. Reprinted in Millar’s Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 3, The Greek World, the Jews, and the East, edited by Hannah M. Cotton and Guy M. Rogers (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), pp. 67–90.
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  141. Mittag, Peter Franz. Antiochos IV. Epiphanes: Eine politische Biographie. Klio: Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte, Beihefte Neue Folge 11. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2006.
  142. DOI: 10.1524/9783050048499Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  143. An up-to-date, methodically researched book on Antiochus IV.
  144. Find this resource:
  145. Mørkholm, Otto. Antiochus IV of Syria. Classica et Mediaevalia Dissertationes 8. Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1966.
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  147. A judicious and balanced biography of Antiochus IV, a personality to which the most far-flung motives have been attached. However, as far as Antiochus’s Jewish policy is concerned, Mørkholm probably goes too far in excusing the king. He concedes that Antiochus exhibited a “lack of understanding [that was] disastrous,” yet he excuses him by saying that he “was presumably neither worse nor better than the majority of the Greeks . . . [in] contact with the Jews” (p. 144–145). The king’s father, however, was reciprocated in kind for his benevolence toward the Jews.
  148. Find this resource:
  149. Weitzman, Steven. “Plotting Antiochus’s Persecution.” Journal of Biblical Literature 123.2 (2004): 219–234.
  150. DOI: 10.2307/3267943Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151. An analogy is offered between traditions about Babylonian kings who caused disruptions to the cult and the various acts of religious persecution attributed to Antiochus Epiphanes. In the Babylonian world, later monarchs then appear, restoring the cult to its former glory. In the Jewish sources it is Judas who brings about a similar result. Weitzman contends that just as the Babylonian traditions were designed to discredit former kings and to legitimize their successors, so too the Jewish traditions about the persecution were meant not only to malign Antiochus Epiphanes, but also to legitimize the Hasmonean family.
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  153. Jewish Responses to Seleucid Rule
  154.  
  155. A different line of approach to the persecution of the Jews is to deflect the responsibility from the central government and to redirect it toward the Hellenizing party (Bickerman 1979, cited under General Overviews). The rise of a Hellenized group from the ranks of the Jerusalem aristocracy rocked the foundations of Jewish society and increased the frictions between Hellenizers and conservative Jews opposing a reform within Judaism. This rising tension forced the hand of the king and his officials to intervene, leading to a full-scale confrontation between the Seleucid government and the Jews (Tcherikover 1959, cited under General Overviews; Habicht 2006). The memorandum addressed to Antiochus IV Epiphanes affords a parallel to the supposed behavior of the Jerusalem Hellenizers. In their request, the Sidonians of Shechem asked the king to install a cult for Zeus and not to be considered as loyal to the God of Israel (Bickerman 2007). If the document is authentic, as was strongly maintained by E. J. Bickerman, then there was a Samaritan or a Sidonian group in Shechem that requested permission from the king to adopt a Greek cult. Conversely, this grouping in Shechem, although later than that of the Hellenizers in Jerusalem, suggests that the unique role attributed by scholars to the Jerusalem Hellenists was perhaps not so special. One should also draw attention to another response to the laws against Judaism, which came from circles who remained loyal to Judaism yet chose to exhibit passive resistance to the king’s laws by dying as martyrs (van Henten 1997).
  156.  
  157. Aperghis, G. G. “Jewish Subjects and Seleukid Kings: A Case Study of Economic Interaction.” In The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries BC. Edited by Zofia H. Archibald, John K. Davies, and Vincent Gabrielsen, 19–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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  159. A survey is offered of the tribute, taxes, and other payments that were exacted from the Jews by the Seleucid authorities. These payments, it is suggested, were identical to what was demanded of other population groups within the realm. But the Seleucid kings not only exacted money from the Jews, they also provided them with benefits, when there was a political necessity to do so. Grants of territory were promised, and reductions in tribute and taxes were made.
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  161. Bickerman, E. J. “A Document concerning the Persecution by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.” In Studies in Jewish and Christian History: A New Edition in English including The God of the Maccabees. Vol. 1. By E. J. Bickerman, 376–407. Edited by Amram Tropper. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 68. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2007.
  162. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004152946.i-1242.129Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163. First published in French in Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 115 (1937): 188–223. A study of several documents quoted by Josephus. These include a memorandum sent to Antiochus IV by “the Sidonians in Shechem,” and the king’s various bureaucratic responses to that dispatch. Bickerman’s ingenious treatment ensures us, it would seem, of the documents’ authenticity. The diplomatic exchange reveals that the persecution was in effect in Samaria (“the Sidonians in Shechem” are probably the Samaritans), and not just in Judea. This is at odds with the attempt to blame the Hellenizing party in Jerusalem with the persecution (Bickerman 1979, cited under General Overviews).
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  165. Collins, John J. “Cult and Culture: The Limits of Hellenization in Judea.” In Hellenism in the Land of Israel. Edited by John J. Collins and Gregory E. Sterling, 38–61. Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity 13. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.
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  167. A rethinking of the ideas concerning the Hellenizing reform and persecution; Collins distinguishes between the two phases. The reform phase shows that the upper echelons of Jerusalem society were receptive to ideas coming from the Hellenistic world, yet Hellenization did not mean the abandonment of Judaism. Afterward, it was Antiochus IV who took the initiative in forcing the Jews to abandon their ancestral cult. Later developments within Jewish society show that the upper stratum of Jewish society remained open to Hellenistic culture, but that separatism in matters relating to cult and worship was strictly adhered to. Reprinted in Collins’s Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture: Essays on the Jewish Encounter with Hellenism and Roman Rule (Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2005), pp. 21–43.
  168. Find this resource:
  169. Doran, Robert. “The High Cost of a Good Education.” In Hellenism in the Land of Israel. Edited by John J. Collins and Gregory E. Sterling, 94–115. Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity 13. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.
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  171. Self-admitted speculative insights on the possible nature of the Jerusalem gymnasium founded by Jason. Doran assumes that the result was a blend of characteristics of the Hellenistic institution with the ways Jews identified themselves in the Hellenistic period.
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  173. Habicht, Christian. “Hellenism and Judaism in the Age of Judas Maccabaeus.” In The Hellenistic Monarchies: Selected Papers. By Christian Habicht, 91–105. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.
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  175. The original German paper appeared in Jahrbuch der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften für das Jahr 1974 (1975): 97–110. The Jews of the Hellenistic period were torn between those wishing to keep Judaism apart and isolated and those attracted to the outside world. The latter tendency peaked with the advent of the Hellenizing party in the time of Antiochus IV. Divisions led to violence, which the king interpreted as rebellion; hence, his decision to ban the Jewish cult. In doing so, the king unwittingly strengthened Jewish devotion for the Law and the belief in one god. Thus, an inner conflict led to an increase in the power of the separatists within Jewish society.
  176. Find this resource:
  177. Ma, John. “Relire les institutions des Séleucides de Bikerman.” In Rome, a City and Its Empire in Perspective: The Impact of the Roman World through Fergus Millar’s Research. Edited by Stéphane Benoist, 59–84. Impact of Empire 16. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2012.
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  179. Ma accepts Bickerman’s thesis that the persecution of the Jews was initiated by their Hellenizing compatriots. Their drive in establishing a polis effected the Jewish-Seleucid confrontation. However, some of our Greek sources furnish Antiochus Epiphanes with a motive for the abolition of the Jewish cult and credit him personally for doing just that (Vol. 1 of Stern 1974–1984, cited under Literary Sources; fragments 44 and 63). Explanations that distance the king from involvement in the persecution of the Jews do not account for these sources.
  180. Find this resource:
  181. Schwartz, Seth. “The Hellenization of Jerusalem and Shechem.” In Jews in a Graeco-Roman World. Edited by Martin Goodman, 37–45. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.
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  183. Jerusalem and Shechem, as with other eastern cities, underwent a process of Hellenization. As a result, they became Greek in their public as well as their formal character. This very process, argues Schwartz, relegated their eastern (or Jewish) aspects to the private domain, ensuring their continued existence. However, because this side of the two cities became nonpublic, it remains mostly hidden from our view.
  184. Find this resource:
  185. van Henten, Jan Willem. The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People: A Study of 2 and 4 Maccabees. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 57. Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill, 1997.
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  187. One form of opposition to the religious persecution was through pacific disobedience, regardless of torture and death. Stories of defiance, resulting in martyrdom, appear in 2 and 4 Maccabees. Van Henten stresses these stories’ relative late date. Because 2 Maccabees seems to antedate Christianity, these narratives offer a valuable corrective to Jewish and Christian perceptions concerning martyrdom.
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  189. Judea’s Foreign Relations
  190.  
  191. The first two books of Maccabees, as well as Josephus, attest to the existence of diplomatic relations between the Jews and other states, most notably the Seleucid Kingdom, Rome, and Sparta. Accompanying documents are meant to buttress the claim for such connections. However, little outside evidence may be found to support the assertion of the Jewish sources to the existence of such ties. The compact between Judea and Rome, dated to 161 BCE, is an exception to the rule. The very fact of the existence of relations between the Jews and Rome at this time is corroborated by a Roman source, Justin’s Epitome to the Historiae Philippicae of Pompeius Trogus (Vol. 1 of Stern 1974–1984, cited under Literary Sources; fragment 137). In addition, Josephus supplies us (quite unintentionally) with an independent proof for the presence of Jewish ambassadors in the city of Rome in that very year. Finally, the text of the treaty between the two parties, reproduced in chapter 8 of 1 Maccabees, may be studied and compared to similar Roman contractual agreements that have been preserved on stone. In spite of this impressive collection of variegated evidence, not all scholars would accept the historicity of the alliance between Rome and Judas Maccabaeus in 161 BCE. Naturally, other reports relating to the foreign affairs of the Hasmoneans, as well as the diplomatic documents accompanying some of them, were more vigorously suspected. Since independent confirmation in such cases is hard to come by, the best one can do is to portray a picture of the historical setting and an exact-as-possible chronology of the events. Here, Greek and Roman sources are of help, and the contribution of numismatics (the study of coins) is vital. It is also important to note that the group of documents originating from 1 Maccabees is doubly deficient. The documents, if authentic, were first translated from the original Greek into Hebrew for their inclusion in the Hebrew book of 1 Maccabees (now lost). Later on, when that book was translated into Greek, the documents too acquired a Greek veneer, but one that was different than the original form. Furthermore, it would seem that the 1 Maccabees author did not want to include in his book documents that might offend his Hebrew readers. Therefore, changes may have been introduced, in a manner similar to the corrections adopted in the text of the Roman-Jewish treaty of 161 BCE (Gera 1998, cited under General Overviews). Such documents may therefore be regarded as forgery, yet authentic documentation may have been employed by the author-forger. Hence, the inadmissibility of some components in the documents of 1 Maccabees should not bring about an automatic denial of the fact of diplomatic relations between Judea and the other contractual party. Here, considerations of the historical background, unsafe as they may be, are of paramount importance.
  192.  
  193. Curty, Olivier. “À propos de la parenté entre Juifs et Spartiates.” Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 41.2 (1992): 246–248.
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  195. Cities of the Hellenistic world commonly based their relations with other cities on a pretense of blood kinship. The testimony of 2 Maccabees that speaks of such kinship between the Spartans and the Jews is therefore feasible, even credible (chapter 5). However, the Spartans would never have claimed direct descent from Abraham the Jew, as maintained in Jonathan’s letter of 1 Maccabees (chapter 12).
  196. Find this resource:
  197. Giovannini, Adalberto, and Helmut Müller. “Die Beziehungen zwischen Rom und den Juden im 2. Jh. v. Chr.” Museum Helveticum 28 (1971): 156–171.
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  199. The analysis of Roman-Jewish relations during John Hyrcanus’s rule deserves a new treatment. The authors’ discussion assumes that the death of Antiochus VII in 129 BCE left Hyrcanus free to reconquer territories that he had previously lost (Antiquities of the Jews 13.254–257; Bellum 1.62–63). However, archaeological finds now suggest that Hyrcanus’s reoccupation occurred considerably later, c. 112/111 BCE (Barag 1992–1993, cited under Numismatics; Finkielsztejn 1998, cited under Archaeology).
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Gruen, Erich S. “The Purported Jewish-Spartan Affiliation.” In Transitions to Empire: Essays in Greco-Roman History, 360–146 B.C., in honor of E. Badian. Edited by Robert W. Wallace and Edward M. Harris, 254–269. Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture 21. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
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  203. The authenticity of all reports, whether in letter form or otherwise, concerning kinship relations between the Spartans and the Jews is denied. All were invented by Jews, desirous to become part of the surrounding Greek world. Nevertheless, those responsible for the legend chose to incorporate the Spartans into their world, rather than to adopt a Greek god or hero as their progenitor.
  204. Find this resource:
  205. Habicht, Christian. “Royal Documents in Maccabees II.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 80 (1976): 1–18.
  206. DOI: 10.2307/311229Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. Habicht discusses the authenticity of five documents quoted in 2 Maccabees. A letter presumed to have been written by the dying Antiochus IV is judged a forgery (chapter 9), while another four are declared authentic (chapter 11). Through a careful study of the wording of each of the last four letters, Habicht identifies the parties and the personalities mentioned, and he establishes the chronological sequence of the epistles. A reconstruction of the diplomatic negotiations in 164–163 BCE follows. Reprinted in Habicht’s The Hellenistic Monarchies: Selected Papers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006), pp. 106–123.
  208. Find this resource:
  209. Katzoff, Ranon. “Jonathan and Late Sparta.” American Journal of Philology 106.4 (1985): 485–489.
  210. DOI: 10.2307/295199Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. Katzoff suggests that in the Hellenistic period both the Spartan educational system and the Jewish one were un-Greek in character. In his letter, Jonathan sought to highlight this common feature and to capitalize on Sparta’s much-respected standing at the time. By fostering similar esteem toward Judea, Jonathan was hoping to convince the Hellenized Jewry of the Diaspora to accept Judea’s leading position.
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  213. Sherwin-White, A. N. Roman Foreign Policy in the East, 168 B.C. to A.D. 1. London: Duckworth, 1984.
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  215. See especially pp. 70–79. The documents alluding to diplomatic ties between the Romans and the Jews during John Hyrcanus I’s rule are considered trustworthy. Not so is Sherwin-White’s attitude toward the earlier compacts between the two peoples under Judas Maccabaeus, Jonathan, and Simon. However, at the very least, the treaty of 161 BCE deserves more credence (Timpe 1974; Gera 1998, cited under General Overviews).
  216. Find this resource:
  217. Timpe, Dieter. “Der römische Vertrag mit den Juden von 161 v. Chr.” Chiron 4 (1974): 133–152.
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  219. An important corrective to the fundamental work of Eugen Täubler (Imperium Romanum, Leipzig: Teubner, 1913). Täubler’s view that the Roman-Jewish alliance in 1 Maccabees (chapter 8) was a treaty adopted by the Senate and not by the people is rejected. Timpe stresses that the text of this pact has undergone a double translation, from Greek to Hebrew and back again to Greek. This would account for some of the text’s peculiarities.
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  221. Warfare and Conquest in Judea
  222.  
  223. The wars waged by the Hasmoneans may be studied from various points of view. One may try to reconstruct the actual battles fought on the ground, in an attempt to explain the ultimate success of the Hasmoneans to withstand the powerful Seleucid army (Bar-Kochva 1989). Similarly, the organizational skills of the Hasmoneans may offer us a key to their achievements (Shatzman 1991). Fighting methods and the composition of the Hasmonean army may also enlighten us on the adoption of Hellenistic war techniques by Jewish army commanders. It seems unavoidable that military successes, as well as failures, would have prompted them to look for ways to improve their fighting technique, and to adopt some of the methods at work in the Seleucid army. The changing battle terrain, the result of the initial military successes of the Jews, may have also contributed to the adoption of Hellenistic fighting methods. Thus, the study of the Jewish army touches on questions of acculturation, and these ought to be looked at within a wider framework, involving, for instance, the Jewish attitude toward their enemies (Schwartz 1991, Shatzman 2007).
  224.  
  225. Bar-Kochva, Bezalel. Judas Maccabaeus: The Jewish Struggle against the Seleucids. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  226. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511518522Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227. Although our literary sources maintain that the Seleucid army enjoyed numerical superiority over its Jewish opponent, the book claims the opposite; namely, that it was Judas’s army that had the numerical advantage. However, since it is argued that the figures assigned to the Seleucids are grossly inflated, it is unsound to evaluate the Seleucid army’s numerical strength on the basis of some of those figures, even the lower ones.
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  229. Schwartz, Seth. “Israel and the Nations Roundabout: 1 Maccabees and the Hasmonean Expansion.” Journal of Jewish Studies 42.1 (1991): 16–38.
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  231. The descriptions of Judas Maccabaeus’s battles display unmitigated enmity toward his enemies. Schwartz argues that such descriptions do not tally with the assumed date of 1 Maccabees, c. 100 BCE. By then, John Hyrcanus had already fought against his Samaritan and Idumean enemies, showing relative restraint. Had 1 Maccabees been published then, its pro-Hasmonean author would have been less hostile to the “nations roundabout.” Hence, 1 Maccabees should be dated earlier.
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  233. Shatzman, Israel. The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod: From Hellenistic to Roman Frameworks. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 25. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991.
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  235. See especially pp. 9–125 (part I: The Hasmonean Period). Shatzman dwells on the weaponry used by the Hasmonean army, and on the geographical layout of Jewish fortifications. These contribute much to our understanding of tactical and strategic issues. He also analyzes the Hasmonean conflict with the Hellenistic cities and with the Nabateans, furnishing the reader with a full picture of the territorial aspect of the Hasmonean struggle for supremacy.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Shatzman, Israel. “Jews and Gentiles from Judas Maccabaeus to John Hyrcanus According to Contemporary Jewish Sources.” In Studies in Josephus and the Varieties of Ancient Judaism: Louis H. Feldman Jubilee Volume. Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen and Joshua J. Schwartz, 237–270. Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity 67. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2007.
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  239. In a reply to Schwartz 1991, Shatzman shows that the Hasmonean attitude toward their neighbors fluctuated, and that Jonathan and Simon were more mild in their treatment of their neighbors. In victory, they were content with the forced evacuation of their enemies. Thus, the view in 1 Maccabees of Judea’s neighbors is far from uniform. Shatzman’s discussion of 2 Maccabees and the book of Jubilees show that the hostility displayed in these books to Palestine’s gentiles is closer to that assigned to Judas in 1 Maccabees. He ends his paper with the suggestion that John Hyrcanus’s policy toward his enemies was a partial return to the policies of Judas Maccabeus, but his aggressiveness stopped short of waging a war of extermination against them.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Stern, Menahem. “Judaea and Her Neighbors in the Days of Alexander Jannaeus.” In The Jerusalem Cathedra: Studies in the History, Archaeology, Geography, and Ethnography of the Land of Israel. Vol. 1. Edited by Lee I. Levine, 22–46. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Institute, 1981.
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  243. Alexander Janneus waged incessant wars against the Nabateans in the East and the maritime cities in the West. His showing on the battlefield was mixed, yet he managed to bring the kingdom to a peak of territorial expansion. Stern delineates the interests involved in the execution of such policies, and he dwells on Janneus’s ability to harness Ptolemaic infighting and enrollment of Jews in their armies to his own ends.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Van ‘t Dack, Edmond, Willy Clarysse, Getzel Cohen, Jan Quaegebeur, and Jan K. Winnicki. The Judean-Syrian-Egyptian Conflict of 103–101 B.C.: A Multilingual Dossier concerning a “War of Sceptres.” Collectanea Hellenistica 1. Brussels: Comité Klassieke Studies, Subcomité Hellenisme, Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, 1989.
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  247. An assemblage of papyri and inscriptions in Demotic and in Greek casts light on the participation of Egyptian soldiers in a Palestinian campaign. The documents furnish us with some historical dates and refer to cities that were actually taken by the army of Cleopatra III and her son, Ptolemy X Alexander (Ptolemais-Akko), or were the object of a military expedition by them (Damascus).
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Hellenization and Local Tradition in Judea: The Seleucid and Hasmonean Periods
  250.  
  251. As was previously mentioned, the question of early Hellenization in Judea is part and parcel of the debate about the suspected role of the Hellenizing party in convincing Antiochus Epiphanes to persecute the Jews. Some scholars would assign the members of that group a major role in adopting Greek norms and in drastically changing Jewish society (Tcherikover 1959, cited under General Overviews). Others would admit the receptive attitude of the Hellenizing party to the winds of change yet insist that one could become affected by Hellenism but remain Jewish nevertheless (Collins 2001, cited under Jewish Responses to Seleucid Rule). The nature of 2 Maccabees, our most detailed and elaborate source for the Hellenizing party, is part of the problem. The book is undeniably hostile to the high priest Jason and blames him for turning his compatriots toward the Greek way, and for introducing Greek institutions to the city of Jerusalem. The unmeasured language employed by this source against Jason and his followers should perhaps warn us against the veracity of the accusations mentioned. Be it as it may, the rebellion of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers ultimately marginalized the Hellenizing party (Rappaport 1992). Judas and his brothers could be seen, as they sometimes are, as the champions of Judaism who took on their Hellenistic enemies and prevailed. Yet, the Hasmoneans adopted Greek concepts (Gardner 2007) and issued coins bearing Hellenistic symbols (Schwentzel 2009, cited under Numismatics), and some of them bore Greek names in addition to their biblical Hebrew ones. It may be argued that the Hellenistic face of Hasmonean Judea, as well as the Jewish one (Rajak 1996), reflects the need of its rulers to address different needs. Alternatively, one could claim that the Hellenistic elements adopted by the Hasmoneans did not diminish their Jewish character in any way, but in fact reinforced it (Gruen 1998).
  252.  
  253. Cohen, Shaye J. D. The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties. Hellenistic Culture and Society 31. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
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  255. It is maintained that up to 150 BCE, a person residing in Judea or originating from it was defined as Judean. Later, persons believing in the God of Israel were also considered Judeans, irrespective of their place of residence. The word also acquired a political meaning, argues Cohen, denoting persons who allied themselves with the Judeans. Henceforth, Cos-worshiping Idumeans could also be designated Judeans. See in particular pp. 69–139.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Gardner, Gregg. “Jewish Leadership and Hellenistic Civic Benefaction in the Second Century B.C.E.” Journal of Biblical Literature 126.2 (2007): 327–343.
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  259. In the Greek world, private persons often took the initiative of awarding a city with gifts. A benefactor (euergetes, in singular) such as this would then receive recognition from the city for his generosity, through an honorary decree that would detail the donor’s contributions and the honors awarded him in return. Gardner points out that several members of the Hasmonean dynasty granted benefactions in the manner typical of the Greek euergetes, thus adopting a Hellenistic mode of behavior.
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  261. Goodblatt, David. The Monarchic Principle: Studies in Jewish Self-Government in Antiquity. Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 38. Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1994.
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  263. See in particular chapters 1–4 (pp. 6–130). Much of the book’s earlier part is devoted to the effective authority of the Jewish high priests in Second Temple Judea. This high priestly supremacy is termed by the author “priestly monarchy,” and this concept of priestly predominance is mirrored in the Jewish writings of the period. Their authors sought time and again to legitimize priestly control within Judea, while denying any rival claim to power.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Goodblatt, David. Elements of Ancient Jewish Nationalism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  266. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511499067Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. It is argued that groups of people may be defined as nations provided that they believe in a common ancestry, and that they turn to a shared cultural trove. The Bible and related literature are definitely such a source, replete with common ancestry material. Moreover, the use of Hebrew for biblical and related literature of the Second Temple period is a clear indication of the national character of such compositions.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Gruen, Erich S. “Hellenism and the Hasmonaeans.” In Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition. By Erich S. Gruen, 1–40. Hellenistic Culture and Society 30. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
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  271. Gruen sets out to dispel the notion that the Hasmonean conflict with the Seleucid Kingdom and with the neighbors of the Jews involved a confrontation between Hellenism and Judaism. He further claims, perhaps less convincingly, that the inner struggle in which the Maccabees were immersed was not a clash between those loyal to Judaism and those who adopted Hellenism. By presenting the Hasmoneans as acquiring some facets of the Hellenistic world in order to bolster their Judaism, he suggests that the Hasmoneans did not betray their original mission of fighting Hellenism relentlessly.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Mendels, Doron. The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism. 2d ed. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1997.
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  275. While Mendels is aware that nationalism is a modern concept, he argues that nationalism, or to use a parallel concept, ethnicity, did exist in the ancient world. He intentionally refrains from defining what ancient nationalism is, but he claims that it comprised various nationalistic symbols: kingship, territory, Jerusalem (as capital city, and as home of the temple and its cult), and the army. He offers a study of the history of the Maccabean Revolution through these four criteria. First published in 1992 (New York: Doubleday).
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Rajak, Tessa. “Hasmonean Kingship and the Invention of Tradition.” In Aspects of Hellenistic Kingship. Edited by Per Bilde, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Lise Hannestad, and Jan Zahle, 99–115. Studies in Hellenistic Civilization 7. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1996.
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  279. The salient institutions of the Hasmonean state, the kingship and the high priesthood, are mapped out. These are seen as a blend of biblical heritage and latter-day internal adaptations, which at times rested on nothing but the inventiveness of the ruling Hasmonean dynasty. Rajak consciously minimizes the importance of Hellenization in the construction of the Jewish state. Reprinted in Rajak’s The Jewish Dialogue with Greece and Rome: Studies in Cultural and Social Interaction (Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill, 2001), pp. 39–60.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Rappaport, Uriel. “The Hellenization of the Hasmoneans.” In Jewish Assimilation, Acculturation, and Accommodation: Past Traditions, Current Issues, and Future Prospects. Edited by Menahem Mor, 1–13. Studies in Jewish Civilization 2. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992.
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  283. Hellenization may be defined as an acculturation process by which “a person or a group might be affected by Hellenism.” The characterization applies unsurprisingly to the Hasmonean state. It was normal for the Jewish rebels to borrow some features from the Seleucid colonial power. However, the acculturation process of the Hasmoneans and their supporters did not affect their religious belief and practice in any way.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. van Henten, Jan Willem. “Royal Ideology: 1 and 2 Maccabees and Egypt.” In Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers. Edited by Tessa Rajak, Sarah Pearce, James Aitken, and Jennifer Dines, 265–282. Hellenistic Culture and Society 50. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
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  287. 1 Maccabees brings forth an edict honoring Simon the Hasmonean in which the source of his legitimacy is the benefactions conferred by him upon the people (chapter 14). Similar ideas appear in documents justifying Ptolemaic kingship. However, this correspondence is not exclusive, and the origin for the Jewish edict need not be a Ptolemaic document, since similar ideas may be found in other inscriptions from the Hellenistic world.
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  289. Jewish Groups and Sects
  290.  
  291. Josephus first speaks of the appearance of the three Jewish sects—the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes—in connection with the time of Jonathan the Hasmonean. Later on, he supplies us with some details in connection with the rift between the first two groups in the times of John Hyrcanus I, Alexander Janneus, and Salome-Alexandra, and he tells of the relations of these Hasmonean rulers with them. We do not know, however, if these sects came into being at the time of Jonathan’s rule, or if their beginnings are to be dated earlier. A Jewish group that was active in the 160s was the Hasideans, but it is a matter of supposition if one of the three sects issued from them (Kampen 1988). At any rate, the appearance of the sects requires an explanation, and a learned and wide-ranging attempt to explain their appearance as a result of social changes is available (Baumgarten 1997). While the involvement of the Pharisees and Sadducees in political affairs is recounted by Josephus, almost nothing is known about Essene preoccupation with such matters. Furthermore, while many scholars identify the Dead Sea Scrolls as Essene writings, others deny that connection and count “those who lived at Qumran” as a fourth sect (Baumgarten 1997). The writings of Qumran also pose a serious challenge for those who would like to see a trace of Hasmonean history in them. An attempt to identify an echo of several historical episodes relating to the Hasmonean period may be found in Eshel 2008.
  292.  
  293. Baumgarten, Albert I. The Flourishing of Jewish Sects in the Maccabean Era: An Interpretation. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 55. Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill, 1997.
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  295. As the realities of government became evident following the Hasmonean victory, many were disillusioned, causing some people to isolate themselves. The sectarians created barriers around themselves, demonstrating their dissatisfaction with society. Baumgarten constantly compares these developments within Judea with similar social changes occurring in other countries at different times. These parallels add depth and meaning to the discussion.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Eshel, Hanan. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State. Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2008.
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  299. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, historical figures are usually referred to only by nicknames. Consequently, their identification is often unsafe. In these studies, Eshel attempts to shed light on various Dead Sea texts and to link them with known chapters of Hasmonean history. He demonstrates his expertise in the Dead Sea Scrolls and archaeology and his reading of the historical sources to offer us his understanding of these elusive texts.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Kampen, John. The Hasideans and the Origin of Pharisaism: A Study in 1 and 2 Maccabees. Septuagint and Cognate Studies 24. Atlanta: Scholars, 1988.
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  303. The little that we know concerning the Hasideans is narrated in 1 and 2 Maccabees. They joined the rebellion, lending prestige to Mattathias the Hasmonean, but they later defected from the Maccabean camp, undermining Judas’s legitimacy. It is tempting to view the Hasideans as forerunners to one of the sects that would later appear under Hasmonean rule, but our current state of knowledge does not justify such assumptions.
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  305. Greek Epigraphy
  306.  
  307. Two Greek inscriptions mentioned in this section increase our familiarity with the organization of the satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia (Landau 1966, Cotton and Wörrle 2007, Gera 2009). The one originating from Maresha not only furnishes additional material but also corrects misleading information found in a literary source, 2 Maccabees (Gera 2009). Another inscription, originating from Asia Minor, does not shed a direct light on Judea. However, since it is concerned with the setting up of a Greek polis, an institution existing not only in the Greek world that preceded Alexander the Great but also in the areas conquered by him, it can be relevant to what happened in Judea as well. Thus, the involvement of a king of Pergamon in allowing a local community to raise its status to that of a polis has important ramifications for any discussion involving a similar upgrading to Jerusalem (Ameling 2003).
  308.  
  309. Ameling, Walter. “Jerusalem als hellenistische Polis: 2 Makk 4, 9–12 und eine neue Inschrift.” Biblische Zeitschrift 47 (2003): 105–111.
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  311. Also see “New Light on 2 Maccabees 4:7–15,” by Nigel M. Kennell, in Journal of Jewish Studies 56.1 (2005): 10–24. An inscription first published in 1997 details a grant by Eumenes II of Pergamon to the people of Tyriaion in Phrygia to organize their community into a polis. Both Ameling and Kennell discuss (apparently independent of one another) the similarity in language and institutions between the inscription and the second book of Maccabees, which tells with utter revulsion how Jerusalem became thoroughly Hellenized under Antiochus IV. This makes the supposition that Jerusalem became a polis at this time (Tcherikover 1959, cited under General Overviews) all the more probable.
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  313. Cotton, Hannah M., and Michael Wörrle. “Seleukos IV to Heliodoros: A New Dossier of Royal Correspondence from Israel.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 159 (2007): 191–205.
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  315. The inscription contains a partially preserved royal letter. In it, Seleucus IV expresses his intention to reform Coele Syria’s temple administration. The authors rightly stress the similarity between this inscription and an earlier document relating to the appointment of a Seleucid high priest in Asia Minor. They further link the inscription with a 2 Maccabees story telling of a Seleucid failed attempt to rob the Jerusalem temple of its treasures.
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  317. Gera, Dov. “Olympiodoros, Heliodoros and the Temples of Koilê Syria and Phoinikê.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 169 (2009): 125–155.
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  319. Gera has attributed additional fragments from Maresha to the inscription published in Cotton and Wörrle 2007. These furnish a continuation of Seleucus’s letter, which elaborates on Olympiodorus’s career, leading to the conclusion that he was the high priest of Seleucid Coele Syria. It is further argued that the 2 Maccabees incident concerning the temple’s funds involved Olympiodorus personally, but that the Jewish source transferred the story to the more notorious Heliodorus.
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  321. Isaac, Benjamin. “A Seleucid Inscription from Jamnia-on-the-Sea: Antiochus V Eupator and the Sidonians.” Israel Exploration Journal 41.1–3 (1991): 132–144.
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  323. A stele containing a memorandum addressed to Antiochus Eupator by the Sidonians in Jamnia, and the king’s reply, which grants them financial favors (163 BCE). This group offers a parallel to other Sidonian clusters in Coele Syria, most notably the Sidonians in Shechem, mentioned by Josephus (cf. Bickerman 2007, cited under Jewish Responses to Seleucid Rule). The Sidonians of Coele Syria are viewed as Hellenized Phoenician colonists who thoroughly supported the Seleucid kings. Reprinted with an additional “Postscript” in Isaac’s The Near East under Roman Rule: Selected Papers (Leiden, The Netherlands, and New York: Brill, 1998), pp. 3–20.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Landau, Y. H. “A Greek Inscription Found near Hefzibah.” Israel Exploration Journal 16.1 (1966): 54–70.
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  327. A stele serving as a minuscule archive of letters pertaining to the affairs of the first Seleucid governor of the satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia (Ptolemy, son of Thraseas). The dossier includes memoranda sent by the governor to Antiochus III the Great, the king’s replies to those letters, and missives sent by Antiochus III to other officials. These documents offer a partial picture of the Seleucid organization of the province of Coele Syria and Phoenicia at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
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  329. Numismatics
  330.  
  331. Coins are often seen as a platform for propaganda. At times, unrestrained interpretation of portraits, symbols, and legends found on coins may lead to speculative conclusions. However, the coins of Antiochus IV Epiphanes were subject to a model study that proved invaluable for the correction of earlier views concerning this king’s religious policy (Mørkholm 1963). The coins of the Hasmoneans do not exhibit portraits, a clear indication of their commitment to Judaism. However, some of their coins do employ symbols that are borrowed from previously issued Greek coins. These, and the use of Greek legends, show that one cannot view the Hasmonean state as simply Jewish, and that outside influence, however limited, did bring about some changes there (Meshorer 2001, Schwentzel 2009). The dissemination of certain coins in a given area may indicate the identity of the authority in power there. Such a study is used to mark the end of Seleucid power in Coele Syria and Phoenicia. By inference, that date may signal that the Seleucids’ place had been taken over by the Hasmoneans (Barag 1992–1993).
  332.  
  333. Barag, Dan. “New Evidence on the Foreign Policy of John Hyrcanus I.” Israel Numismatic Journal 12 (1992–1993): 1–12.
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  335. Coin finds from five sites in Israel (Tel Be’er Sheba, Marisa, Samaria, Mount Gerizim, and nearby Shechem) share a common (common) feature. All the dated city coins employing the Seleucid era that were found in those sites are dated before 112/111 BCE. This suggests that John Hyrcanus I occupied these places at about that time. The archaeological finds serve as a corrective to Josephus, whose writings indicate that Marisa, Mount Gerizim, and Shechem were occupied by the Hasmonean ruler considerably earlier, c. 129 BE.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Meshorer, Ya’akov. A Treasury of Jewish Coins from the Persian Period to Bar Kokhba. Translated by Robert Amoils. Nyack, NY: Amphora, 2001.
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  339. A thorough revision of Meshorer’s earlier studies. Hasmonean coinage began with John Hyrcanus and ended with Mattathias Antigonus. However, not all the intervening rulers issued coins. Hasmonean coin legends are mainly in Hebrew (employing paleo-Hebrew script) and Greek, pointing on the one hand to Hasmonean desire to maintain their ancestral tradition, and, on the other, to their wish to integrate themselves with the Hellenistic world. See in particular “Hasmonean Coins” (pp. 23–59).
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  341. Mørkholm, Otto. Studies in the Coinage of Antiochus IV of Syria. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab: Historisk-Filosofiske Meddelelser 40.3. Copenhagen: Kommissioaer Munksgaard, 1963.
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  343. A detailed and careful analysis of some of the coin types of Antiochus Epiphanes is offered. Mørkholm eschews the conclusion that the king identified himself with Zeus the Olympian, and he claims that while the king presented himself as a divine figure, Theos Epiphanes (God Manifest), within the realm, outside it he was known solely as Epiphanes, an epithet that need not imply divinity. Thus, some of the more elaborate and ambitious religious innovations attributed to Antiochus IV are in fact deconstructed.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Schwentzel, Christian-Georges. “Images du pouvoir et fonctions des souverains hasmonéens.” Revue Biblique 116.3 (2009): 368–386.
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  347. Schwentzel examines the powers that were concentrated in the hands of the Hasmoneans, as well as the titles held by them, and sees a reflection of these two components of their authority in their coins. The offered analysis exemplifies the double nature of the Hasmonean rule, drawing on the Hellenistic world around them but also relying on their biblical heritage. This bipolarity is also evident in the symbols the Hasmoneans used on their coins.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Archaeology
  350.  
  351. The striking archaeological remains at Araq el Emir will impress even the unprofessional viewer of the site’s Hellenistic character (Will, et al. 1991). However, exceptional finds such as these do not turn up in every archaeological dig or survey. Thus, attempts to delineate the cultural character of other sites are often fraught with difficulties, as are ventures that aim to depict the cultural identity of larger areas. Thus, a survey of the material culture in Hasmonean Judea comes to a conclusion that the building legacy left by this ruling family was Hellenistic in character (Tal 2009). Conversely, a study of the Hasmonean palaces in Jericho leads its author to the conclusion that the Hasmoneans habitually purified themselves in ritual baths in accordance with the commands of the halakha, that their mansions were austere and largely un-Hellenistic in character, and that Hellenistic sumptuous-looking architectural decorations were incorporated in the Hasmonean gardens at Jericho for the sake of the masses, not for the ruling family or their allied aristocracy (Regev 2011). One may note that these two approaches seem to echo the different opinions found among historians writing on the Hasmonean period. An important result seems to arise from the Maresha lead weights. The fact that two of these were dated to the year 205 of the Seleucid era (108/107 BCE) would suggest that once Maresha was conquered by John Hyrcanus I, at least some of the local population were allowed to go on living there. This conclusion seems to be correct, whether one accepts the deduction that Hyrcanus lost Maresha only a few years after its initial conquest (Finkielsztejn 1998), or not. Thus, the idea that Hyrcanus deported the Hellenized Idumeans of Maresha and Adora, but allowed the rural Idumeans to remain where they were, is not supported by the evidence from the Maresha lead weights (contra Cohen 1999, cited under Hellenization and Local Tradition in Judea: The Seleucid and Hasmonean Periods).
  352.  
  353. Finkielsztejn, Gerald. “More Evidence on John Hyrcanus I’s Conquests: Lead Weights and Rhodian Amphora Stamps.” Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 16 (1998): 33–63.
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  355. It is suggested that life in Maresha did not come to an abrupt end with Hasmonean occupation. Furthermore, this conquest of 112/111 BCE was not final, and the city was temporarily recaptured by Hyrcanus’s enemies shortly after. However, the evidence—Seleucid dated lead weights—may be interpreted as an attempt by the vanquished population to maintain long-held traditions and to express opposition to the Jews through peaceful measures.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Hannestad, Lise. “The Economy of Koile-Syria after the Seleukid Conquest: An Archaeological Contribution.” In The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries BC. Edited by Zofia H. Archibald, John K. Davies, and Vincent Gabrielsen, 251–279. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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  359. A presentation of the archaeological evidence from the various regions of Coele Syria does not show a wide-scale destruction that can be attributed to its conquest by Antiochus III in the Fifth Syrian War. Furthermore, a rise in the number of settlements in the wake of this campaign suggests that the Seleucid king managed to conquer the country while causing minimal destruction to it, and then diverted new resources for agricultural development there. Thus, the period following the war witnessed a rise in the number of the inhabitants of Coele Syria.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Regev, Eyal. “Royal Ideology in the Hasmonaean Palaces in Jericho.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 363 (2011): 45–72.
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  363. The architecture of the Jericho Hasmonean palaces is seen as unimpressive and private. Architectural Hellenistic decorations were kept to a minimum, and it seems that the Hasmoneans wanted to broadcast an idea of a frugal and modest existence. In contrast, the nearby gardens were adorned with Hellenistic decorations and were dotted with water pools. It is therefore maintained that they were destined for the public, conveying a message of prosperity.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Rosenberg, Stephen Gabriel. Airaq al-Amir: The Architecture of the Tobiads. BAR International Series 1544. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges, 2006.
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  367. The most extravagant building found at the Tobiad estate is the Qasr. Views vary concerning the purpose of this building, including that it served as a fortress. This suggestion seems to be unduly influenced by Josephus’s description of the site. Rosenberg regards the Qasr as the Tobiad mausoleum. His discussion aims at giving a wider picture of the site, placing it in its historical, archaeological, and papyrological context.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Tal, Oren. “Hellenism in Transition from Empire to Kingdom: Changes in the Material Culture of Hellenistic Palestine.” In Jewish Identities in Antiquity: Studies in Memory of Menahem Stern. Edited by Lee I. Levine and Daniel R. Schwartz, 55–73. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 130. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2009.
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  371. A sharp decline is observed in the Hellenistic cities of Coele Syria, in roughly the same period as when Hasmonean Jerusalem and Jaffa were built up. Fortresses and palaces were similarly constructed, adorned with Hellenistic-style decorations. In addition, one notes the erection of Greek-styled burial monuments in Jerusalem. Obviously, the acculturation process affected not just the Hasmoneans, but their ruling class as well.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Will, Ernest, François Larché, Fawzi Zayadine, Jacqueline Dentzer-Feydy, and François Queyrel. ʿIraq al Amir: Le château du Tobiade Hyrcan. 2 vols. Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique 132. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1991.
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  375. A richly documented report (Vol. 1, Texte; Vol. 2, Album) on the domain of the Tobiad family, which is situated in Jordan. The remains clearly attest to the degree of Hellenization that affected the members of this princely family. However, the impact of this on life in Jerusalem is questionable, and the connection between the impressive archaeological remains of the family abode and the story found in Josephus’s writings on two members of the family is far from simple. Also see Larché’s ʿIraq al-Amir: Le château du Tobiade Hyrcan, Vol. 2, Restitution et Reconstruction (Beirut, Lebanon: Institut Français du Proche-Orient, 2005).
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