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Hasmonean dynasty

The Hasmonean dynasty[4] (/ˌhæzməˈnən/; Hebrew: חַשְׁמוֹנָאִים Ḥašmōnaʾīm) was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity, from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea. Some modern scholars regard the Hasmonean realm as an independent Israel.[5] The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king" or "emperor"). Forces of the Roman Republic conquered the Hasmonean kingdom in 63 BCE and made it into a client state; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE.

Hasmonean dynasty
ממלכת החשמונאים
Mamleḵeṯ haḤašmona'īm
140 BCE–37 BCE
StatusSeleucid Empire vassal (140–110 BCE)
Independent kingdom (110–63 BCE)
Client state of the Roman Republic (63–40 BCE)
Client state of the Parthian Empire (40–37 BCE)[1][2]
CapitalJerusalem
Common languagesOld Aramaic (official),[3]
Koine Greek (official)
Biblical Hebrew (liturgical)
Religion
Second Temple Judaism
GovernmentSemi-constitutional theocratic monarchy
Prince, later Basileus 
• 140–134 BCE
Simon Thassi
• 134 (110)–104 BCE
John Hyrcanus
• 104–103 BCE
Aristobulus I
• 103–76 BCE
Alexander Jannaeus
• 76–67 BCE
Salome Alexandra
• 67–66 BCE
Hyrcanus II
• 66–63 BCE
Aristobulus II
• 63–40 BCE
Hyrcanus II
• 40–37 BCE
Antigonus
LegislatureEarly Sanhedrin
Historical eraHellenistic Age
167 BCE
• Dynasty established
140 BCE
• Full independence
110 BCE
• Pompey intervenes in Hasmonean civil war
63 BCE
40 BCE
• Herod overthrows the Hasmoneans
37 BCE
CurrencyHasmonean coinage
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Today part of

Simon Thassi established the dynasty in 141 BCE, two decades after his brother Judas Maccabeus (יהודה המכבי Yehudah HaMakabi) had defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt of 167 to 141 BCE. According to 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and the first book of The Jewish War by historian Flavius Josephus (37 CE–c. 100),[6] the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV (r. 175–164) moved to assert strict control over the Seleucid satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia[7] after his successful invasion of Ptolemaic Egypt (170–168 BCE) was turned back by the intervention of the Roman Republic.[8][9] He sacked Jerusalem and its Temple, suppressing Jewish and Samaritan religious and cultural observances,[7][10] and imposed Hellenistic practices (c. 168–167 BCE).[10] The steady collapse of the Seleucid Empire under attacks from the rising powers of the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire allowed Judea to regain some autonomy; however, in 63 BCE, the kingdom was invaded by the Roman Republic, broken up and set up as a Roman client state.

Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, Simon's great-grandsons, became pawns in a proxy war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. The deaths of Pompey (48 BCE) and Caesar (44 BCE), and the related Roman civil wars, temporarily relaxed Rome's grip on the Hasmonean kingdom, allowing a brief reassertion of autonomy backed by the Parthian Empire, rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Augustus.

The Hasmonean dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE. The installation of Herod the Great (an Idumean) as king in 37 BCE made Judea a Roman client state and marked the end of the Hasmonean dynasty. Even then, Herod tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess, Mariamne, and planning to drown the last male Hasmonean heir at his Jericho palace. In 6 CE, Rome joined Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea into the Roman province of Judaea. In 44 CE, Rome installed the rule of a procurator side by side with the rule of the Herodian kings (specifically Agrippa I 41–44 and Agrippa II 50–100).

Etymology

The family name of the Hasmonean dynasty originates with the ancestor of the house, whom Josephus Flavius called by the Hellenised form Asmoneus or Asamoneus (Greek: Ἀσαμωναῖος),[11] said to have been the great-grandfather of Mattathias, but about whom nothing more is known.[12] The name appears to come from the Hebrew name Hashmonay (חַשְׁמוֹנַאי Ḥašmōnaʾy).[13] An alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmona'i is linked with the village of Heshmon, mentioned in Joshua 15:27.[12] Gott and Licht attribute the name to "Ha Simeon," a veiled reference to the Simeonite Tribe.[14]

Background

 
At the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, the Seleucid Empire (in yellow) expanded into Judea at the expense of Ptolemaic Egypt (blue).

The lands of the former Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah (c. 722–586 BCE), had been occupied in turn by Assyria, Babylonia, the Achaemenid Empire, and Alexander the Great's Hellenic Macedonian empire (c. 330 BCE), although Jewish religious practice and culture had persisted and even flourished during certain periods. The entire region was heavily contested between the successor states of Alexander's empire, the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt, during the six Syrian Wars of the 3rd–1st centuries BCE: "After two centuries of peace under the Persians, the Hebrew state found itself once more caught in the middle of power struggles between two great empires: the Seleucid state with its capital in Syria to the north and the Ptolemaic state, with its capital in Egypt to the south...Between 319 and 302 BC, Jerusalem changed hands seven times."[15]

Under Antiochus III, the Seleucids wrested control of Judea from the Ptolemies for the final time, defeating Ptolemy V Epiphanes at the Battle of Panium in 200 BCE.[16][17] Seleucid rule over the Jewish parts of the region then resulted in the rise of Hellenistic cultural and religious practices: "In addition to the turmoil of war, there arose in the Jewish nation pro-Seleucid and pro-Ptolemaic parties; and the schism exercised great influence upon the Judaism of the time. It was in Antioch that the Jews first made the acquaintance of Hellenism and of the more corrupt sides of Greek culture; and it was from Antioch that Judea henceforth was ruled."[18]

Historical sources

The major source of information about the origin of the Hasmonean dynasty is the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, held as canonical scripture by the Catholic, Orthodox, and most Oriental Orthodox churches and as apocryphal by Protestant denominations, although they do not comprise the canonical books of the Hebrew Bible.[19]

The books cover the period from 175 BCE to 134 BCE during which time the Hasmonean dynasty became semi-independent from the Seleucid empire but had not yet expanded far outside of Judea. They are written from the point of view that the salvation of the Jewish people in a crisis came from God through the family of Mattathias, particularly his sons Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan Apphus, and Simon Thassi, and his grandson John Hyrcanus. The books include historical and religious material from the Septuagint that was codified by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The other primary source for the Hasmonean dynasty is the first book of The Wars of the Jews and a more detailed history in Antiquities of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, (37–c. 100 CE).[6] Josephus' account is the only primary source covering the history of the Hasmonean dynasty during the period of its expansion and independence between 110 to 63 BCE. Notably, Josephus, a Roman citizen and former general in the Galilee, who survived the Jewish–Roman wars of the 1st century, was a Jew who was captured by and cooperated with the Romans, and wrote his books under Roman patronage.

Seleucid rule over Judea

Hellenisation

 
Wojciech Stattler's Machabeusze (Maccabees), 1844

The continuing Hellenization of Judea pitted traditional Jews against those who eagerly Hellenized.[20] The latter felt that the former's orthodoxy held them back.[21] Jews were divided both between those favoring Hellenization and those opposing it and over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids.

In 175 BCE, conflict broke out between High Priest Onias III (who opposed Hellenisation and favoured the Ptolemies) and his son Jason (who favoured Hellenisation and the Seleucids). A period of political intrigue followed, with both Jason and Menelaus bribing the king to win the High Priesthood, and accusations of murder of competing contenders for the title. The result was a brief civil war. The Tobiads, a philo-Hellenistic party, succeeded in placing Jason into the powerful position of High Priest. He established an arena for public games close by the Temple.[22] Author Lee I. Levine notes, "The 'piece de resistance' of Judaean Hellenisation, and the most dramatic of all these developments, occurred in 175 BCE, when the high priest Jason converted Jerusalem into a Greek polis replete with gymnasium and ephebeion (2 Maccabees 4). Whether this step represents the culmination of a 150-year process of Hellenisation within Jerusalem in general, or whether it was only the initiative of a small coterie of Jerusalem priests with no wider ramifications, has been debated for decades."[23] Hellenised Jews are known to have engaged in non-surgical foreskin restoration (epispasm) in order to join the dominant Hellenistic cultural practice of socialising naked in the gymnasium,[24][25][26] where their circumcision would have carried a social stigma;[24][25][26] Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman culture found circumcision to be a cruel, barbaric and repulsive custom.[24][25][26]

Antiochus IV against Jerusalem

 
Coin with portrait of Antiochus IV. Reverse shows Apollo seated on an omphalos. The Greek inscription reads ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ (King Antiochus, the divine Epiphanus, Bringer of Victory.

In spring 168 BCE, after successfully invading the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, Antiochus IV was humiliatingly pressured by the Romans to withdraw. According to the Roman historian Livy, the Roman senate dispatched the diplomat Gaius Popilius to Egypt who demanded Antiochus to withdraw. When Antiochus requested time to discuss the matter Popilius "drew a circle round the king with the stick he was carrying and said, 'Before you step out of that circle give me a reply to lay before the senate.'"[27]

While Antiochus was campaigning in Egypt, a rumor spread in Judah that he had been killed. The deposed high priest Jason took advantage of the situation, attacked Jerusalem, and drove away Menelaus and his followers. Menelaus took refuge in Akra, the Seleucids fortress in Jerusalem. When Antiochus heard of this, he sent an army to Jerusalem to sort things out. Jerusalem was taken, Jason and his followers were driven out, and Menelaus reinstated as high priest.[28]

He then imposed a tax and established a fortress in Jerusalem. Antiochus tried to suppress public observance of Jewish laws, apparently in an attempt to secure control over the Jews. His government set up an idol of Zeus[29] on the Temple Mount, which Jews considered to be desecration of the Mount; it also forbade both circumcision and possession of Jewish scriptures, on pain of death. According to Josephus,

"Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar."[30]

He also outlawed observance of the Sabbath and the offering of sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple and required Jewish leaders to sacrifice to idols; punitive executions were also instituted. Possession of Jewish scriptures was made a capital offence. The motives of Antiochus are unclear. He may have been incensed at the overthrow of his appointee, Menelaus,[31] he may have been responding to a Jewish revolt that had drawn on the Temple and the Torah for its strength, or he may have been encouraged by a group of radical Hellenisers among the Jews.[32]

Maccabean Revolt

 
Mattathias of Modi'in killing a Jewish apostate, engraving by Gustave Doré

The author of the First Book of Maccabees regarded the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against the Jews who supported him. The author of the Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism", words that he was the first to use.[32] Modern scholarship tends to the second view.

Most modern scholars argue that the king was intervening in a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenised Jews in Jerusalem.[33][34][35] According to Joseph P. Schultz, modern scholarship, "considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp."[36] In the conflict over the office of High Priest, traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contested against Hellenisers with Greek names like Jason or Menelaus.[37] Other authors point to social and economic factors in the conflict.[38][39] What began as a civil war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenising Jews against the traditionalists.[40] As the conflict escalated, Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists, thereby, in a departure from usual Seleucid practice, banning the religion of an entire people.[39] Other scholars argue that while the rising began as a religious rebellion, it was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation.[41]

The two greatest twentieth-century scholars of the Maccabean revolt, Elias Bickermann and Victor Tcherikover, each placed the blame on the policies of the Jewish leaders and not on the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but for different reasons.
Bickermann saw the origin of the problem in the attempt of "Hellenised" Jews to reform the "antiquated" and "outdated" religion practised in Jerusalem, and to rid it of superstitious elements. They were the ones who egged on Antiochus IV and instituted the religious reform in Jerusalem. One suspects that [Bickermann] may have been influenced in his view by an antipathy to Reform Judaism in 19th- and 20th-century Germany. Tcherikover, perhaps influenced by socialist concerns, saw the uprising as one of the rural peasants against the rich elite.[42]

According to I and II Maccabees, the priestly family of Mattathias (Mattitiyahu in Hebrew), which came to be known as the Maccabees,[43] called the people forth to holy war against the Seleucids. Mattathias' sons Judas (Yehuda), Jonathan (Yonoson/Yonatan), and Simon (Shimon) began a military campaign, initially with disastrous results: one thousand Jewish men, women, and children were killed by Seleucid troops because they refused to fight, even in self-defence, on the Sabbath. Other Jews then reasoned that they must fight when attacked, even on the Sabbath. The institution of guerrilla warfare practices by Judah over several years led to victory against the Seleucids:

It was now, in the fall of 165, that Judah's successes began to disturb the central government. He appears to have controlled the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and thus to have cut off the royal party in Acra from direct communication with the sea and thus with the government. It is significant that this time the Syrian troops, under the leadership of the governor-general Lysias, took the southerly route, by way of Idumea.[44]

Towards the end of 164, Judah felt strong enough to enter Jerusalem and the formal religious worship of Yahweh was re-established. The feast of Hanukkah was instituted to commemorate the recovery of the temple.[45] Antiochus, who was away on a campaign against the Parthians, died at about the same time in Persis.[46] Antiochus was succeeded by Demetrius I Soter, the nephew whose throne he had usurped. Demetrius sent the general Bacchides to Israel with a large army, in order to install Alcimus with the office of high priest. Bacchides subdued Jerusalem and returned to his King.[citation needed]

From revolt to independence

Judah and Jonathan

 
Palestine under the Maccabees according to George Adam Smith

After five years of war and raids, Judah sought an alliance with the Roman Republic to remove the Greeks: "In the year 161 BCE he sent Eupolemus the son of Johanan and Jason the son of Eleazar, 'to make a league of amity and confederacy with the Romans.'"[47]

A Seleucid army under General Nicanor was defeated by Judah (ib. 7:26–50) at the Battle of Adasa, with Nicanor himself killed in action. Next, Bacchides was sent with Alcimus and an army of twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, and met Judah at the Battle of Elasa (Laisa), where this time it was the Hasmonean commander who was killed. (161/160 BCE). Bacchides now established the Hellenes as rulers in Israel; and upon Judah's death, the persecuted patriots, under Jonathan, brother of Judah, fled beyond the Jordan River. (ib. 9:25–27) They set camp near a morass by the name of Asphar, and remained, after several engagements with the Seleucids, in the swamp in the country east of the Jordan.

Following the death of his puppet governor Alcimus, High Priest of Jerusalem, Bacchides felt secure enough to leave the country, but two years after the departure of Bacchides from Israel, the City of Acre felt sufficiently threatened by Maccabee incursions to contact Demetrius and request the return of Bacchides to their territory. Jonathan and Simeon, now more experienced in guerrilla warfare, thought it well to retreat farther, and accordingly fortified in the desert a place called Beth-hogla;[48] there they were besieged several days by Bacchides. Jonathan offered the rival general a peace treaty and exchange of prisoners of war. Bacchides readily consented and even took an oath of nevermore making war upon Jonathan. He and his forces then vacated Israel. The victorious Jonathan now took up his residence in the old city of Michmash. From there he endeavoured to clear the land of "the godless and the apostate".[49] The chief source, 1 Maccabees, says that with this "the sword ceased in Israel", and in fact nothing is reported for the five following years (158–153 BCE).

Seleucid civil conflict

Herod the GreatParthian EmpireJulius CaesarAntipater the IdumaeanAristobulus IIHyrcanus IISalome AlexandraAlexander JannaeusAristobulus IJohn HyrcanusSimon ThassiGnaeus Pompeius MagnusJohn HyrcanusAlexander BalasDemetrius I SoterThe Temple in JerusalemMaccabeeAntiochus IVHasmonean Dynasty

An important external event brought the design of the Maccabeans to fruition. Demetrius I Soter's relations with Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamon (reigned 159–138 BCE), Ptolemy VI of Egypt (reigned 163–145 BCE), and Ptolemy's co-ruler Cleopatra II of Egypt were deteriorating, and they supported a rival claimant to the Seleucid throne: Alexander Balas, who purported to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and a first cousin of Demetrius. Demetrius was forced to recall the garrisons of Judea, except those in the City of Acre and at Beth-zur, to bolster his strength. Furthermore, he made a bid for the loyalty of Jonathan, permitting him to recruit an army and to reclaim the hostages kept in the City of Acre. Jonathan gladly accepted these terms, took up residence at Jerusalem in 153 BCE, and began fortifying the city.

Alexander Balas offered Jonathan even more favourable terms, including official appointment as High Priest in Jerusalem, and despite a second letter from Demetrius promising prerogatives that were almost impossible to guarantee,[50] Jonathan declared allegiance to Balas. Jonathan became the official religious leader of his people, and officiated at the Feast of Tabernacles of 153 BCE wearing the High Priest's garments. The Hellenistic party could no longer attack him without severe consequences. Hasmoneans held the office of High Priest continuously until 37 BCE.

Soon, Demetrius lost both his throne and his life, in 150 BCE. The victorious Alexander Balas was given the further honour of marriage to Cleopatra Thea, daughter of his allies Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II. Jonathan was invited to Ptolemais for the ceremony, appearing with presents for both kings, and was permitted to sit between them as their equal; Balas even clothed him with his own royal garment and otherwise accorded him high honour. Balas appointed Jonathan as strategos and "meridarch" (i.e., civil governor of a province; details not found in Josephus), sent him back with honours to Jerusalem,[51] and refused to listen to the Hellenistic party's complaints against Jonathan.

Hasmoneans under Balas and Demetrius II

In 147 BCE, Demetrius II Nicator, a son of Demetrius I Soter, claimed Balas' throne. The governor of Coele-Syria, Apollonius Taos, used the opportunity to challenge Jonathan to battle, saying that the Jews might for once leave the mountains and venture out into the plain.[52] Jonathan and Simeon led a force of 10,000 men against Apollonius' forces in Jaffa, which was unprepared for the rapid attack and opened the gates in surrender to the Jewish forces. Apollonius received reinforcements from Azotus and appeared in the plain in charge of 3,000 men including superior cavalry forces. Jonathan assaulted, captured and burned Azotus along with the resident temple of Dagon and the surrounding villages.

Alexander Balas honoured the victorious High Priest by giving him the city of Ekron along with its outlying territory. The people of Azotus complained to King Ptolemy VI, who had come to make war upon his son-in-law, but Jonathan met Ptolemy at Jaffa in peace and accompanied him as far as the River Eleutherus. Jonathan then returned to Jerusalem, maintaining peace with the King of Egypt despite their support for different contenders for the Seleucid throne.[53]

Hasmoneans under Demetrius and Diodotus

In 145 BCE, the Battle of Antioch resulted in the final defeat of Alexander Balas by the forces of his father-in-law Ptolemy VI. Ptolemy himself, however, was among the casualties of the battle. Demetrius II Nicator remained sole ruler of the Seleucid Empire and became the second husband of Cleopatra Thea.

Jonathan owed no allegiance to the new King and took this opportunity to lay siege to the Acra, the Seleucid fortress in Jerusalem and the symbol of Seleucid control over Judea. It was heavily garrisoned by a Seleucid force and offered asylum to Jewish Hellenists.[54] Demetrius was greatly incensed; he appeared with an army at Ptolemais and ordered Jonathan to come before him. Without raising the siege, Jonathan, accompanied by the elders and priests, went to the king and pacified him with presents, so that the king not only confirmed him in his office of high priest, but gave to him the three Samaritan toparchies of Mount Ephraim, Lod, and Ramathaim-Zophim. In consideration of a present of 300 talents the entire country was exempted from taxes, the exemption being confirmed in writing. Jonathan in return lifted the siege of the Acra and left it in Seleucid hands.

Soon, however, a new claimant to the Seleucid throne appeared in the person of the young Antiochus VI Dionysus, son of Alexander Balas and Cleopatra Thea. He was three years old at most, but general Diodotus Tryphon used him to advance his own designs on the throne. In the face of this new enemy, Demetrius not only promised to withdraw the garrison from the City of Acre, but also called Jonathan his ally and requested him to send troops. The 3,000 men of Jonathan protected Demetrius in his capital, Antioch, against his own subjects.[55]

As Demetrius II did not keep his promise, Jonathan thought it better to support the new king when Diodotus Tryphon and Antiochus VI seized the capital, especially as the latter confirmed all his rights and appointed his brother Simon (Simeon) strategos of the Paralia (the sea coast), from the "Ladder of Tyre" to the frontier of Egypt.[56]

Jonathan and Simon were now entitled to make conquests; Ashkelon submitted voluntarily while Gaza was forcibly taken. Jonathan vanquished even the strategoi of Demetrius II far to the north, in the plain of Hazar, while Simon at the same time took the strong fortress of Beth-zur on the pretext that it harboured supporters of Demetrius.[57]

Like Judah in former years, Jonathan sought alliances with foreign peoples. He renewed the treaty with the Roman Republic and exchanged friendly messages with Sparta and other places. However, the documents referring to those diplomatic events are of questionable authenticity.

Diodotus Tryphon went with an army to Judea and invited Jonathan to Scythopolis for a friendly conference, where he persuaded him to dismiss his army of 40,000 men, promising to give him Ptolemais and other fortresses. Jonathan fell into the trap; he took with him to Ptolemais 1,000 men, all of whom were slain; he himself was taken prisoner.[58]

Simon assumes leadership

When Diodotus Tryphon was about to enter Judea at Hadid, he was confronted by the new Jewish leader, Simon, ready for battle. Tryphon, avoiding an engagement, demanded one hundred talents and Jonathan's two sons as hostages, in return for which he promised to liberate Jonathan. Although Simon did not trust Diodotus Tryphon, he complied with the request so that he might not be accused of the death of his brother. But Diodotus Tryphon did not liberate his prisoner; angry that Simon blocked his way everywhere and that he could accomplish nothing, he executed Jonathan at Baskama, in the country east of the Jordan.[59] Jonathan was buried by Simeon at Modin. Nothing is known of his two captive sons. One of his daughters was an ancestor of Josephus.[60]

 
Simon Maccabee Made High Priest from Die Bibel in Bildern

Simon assumed the leadership (142 BCE), receiving the double office of High Priest and Ethnarch (Prince) of Israel. The leadership of the Hasmoneans was established by a resolution, adopted in 141 BCE, at a large assembly "of the priests and the people and of the elders of the land, to the effect that Simon should be their leader and High Priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet" (1 Macc. 14:41). Ironically, the election was performed in Hellenistic fashion.

Simon, having made the Jewish people semi-independent of the Seleucid Greeks, reigned from 142 to 135 BCE and formed the Hasmonean dynasty, finally capturing the citadel [Acra] in 141 BCE.[61][62] The Roman Senate accorded the new dynasty recognition c. 139 BCE, when the delegation of Simon was in Rome.[63]

Simon led the people in peace and prosperity, until in February 135 BCE, he was assassinated at the instigation of his son-in-law Ptolemy, son of Abubus (also spelled Abobus or Abobi), who had been named governor of the region by the Seleucids. Simon's eldest sons, Mattathias and Judah, were also murdered.

Hasmonean expansion and civil war

 
JUDAEA, Hasmoneans. John Hyrcanus I (Yehohanan). 135–104 BCE. Æ Prutah (13mm, 2.02 gm, 12h). "Yehohanan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews" (in Hebrew) in five lines within wreath / Double cornucopiae adorned with ribbons; pomegranate between horns; small A to lower left. Meshorer Group B, 11; Hendin 457.

After achieving semi-independency from the Seleucid Empire the dynasty began to expand into the neighboring regions. Perea was conquered already by Jonathan Apphus, subsequently John Hyrcanus conquered Samaria and Idumea, Aristobulus I conquered the territory of Galilee, and Alexander Jannaeus conquered the territory of Iturea. In addition to territorial conquests, the Hasmonean rulers, initially reigning only as rebel leaders, gradually assumed the religious office of High Priest during the reign of Jonathan Apphus in 152 BCE and the monarchical title of Ethnarch during the reign of Simon Thassi in 142 BCE, eventually assuming the title of King (basileus) in 104 BCE by Aristobulus I.

In c. 135 BCE, John Hyrcanus, Simon's third son, assumed the leadership as both the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) and Ethnarch, taking a Greek "regnal name" (see Hyrcania) in an acceptance of the Hellenistic culture of his Seleucid suzerains. Within a year of the death of Simon, Seleucid King Antiochus VII Sidetes attacked Jerusalem. According to Josephus,[64] John Hyrcanus opened King David's sepulchre and removed three thousand talents which he paid as tribute to spare the city. He remained governor as a Seleucid vassal. For the next two decades of his reign, Hyrcanus continued, like his father, to rule semi-autonomously from the Seleucids.

The Seleucid empire had been disintegrating in the face of the Seleucid–Parthian wars and in 129 BCE Antiochus VII Sidetes was killed in Media by the forces of Phraates II of Parthia, permanently ending Seleucid rule east of the Euphrates. In 116 BCE, a civil war between Seleucid half-brothers Antiochus VIII Grypus and Antiochus IX Cyzicenus broke out, resulting in a further breakup of the already significantly reduced kingdom.

This provided opportunity for semi-independent Seleucid client states such as Judea to revolt.[65][66][67] In 110 BCE, John Hyrcanus carried out the first military conquests of the newly independent Hasmonean kingdom, raising a mercenary army to capture Madaba and Schechem, significantly increasing his regional influence.[68][69][full citation needed]

Hyrcanus conquered Transjordan, Samaria,[70] and Idumea (also known as Edom), and forced Idumeans to convert to Judaism:

Hyrcanus ... subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, (25) and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.[71]

He desired that his wife succeed him as head of the government, with his eldest of five sons, Aristobulus I, becoming only the high-priest.

 
Coin of Alexander Jannaeus, BCE 103–76

Upon Hyrcanus' death in 104 BCE, however, Aristobulus I jailed his three brothers (including Alexander Jannaeus) and his mother and allowed her to starve there. By this means he came into possession of the throne and became the first Hasmonean to take the title of King (basileus), asserting the new-found independence of the state. Subsequently he conquered Galilee. Aristobulus I died after a painful illness in 103 BCE.

Aristobulus' brothers were freed from prison by his widow; one of them, Alexander Jannaeus, reigned as a king as well as a high priest from 103–76 BCE. During his reign he conquered Iturea and, according to Josephus, forcibly converted Itureans to Judaism.[72][73] He died during the siege of the fortress Ragaba. In c. 87 BCE, according to Josephus, following a six-year civil war involving Seleucid king Demetrius III Eucaerus, Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 Jewish rebels in Jerusalem.

The Hasmoneans lost the territories acquired in Transjordan during the 93 BC Battle of Gadara, where the Nabataeans ambushed Jannaeus and his forces in a hilly area. The Nabataeans saw the acquisitions as a threat to their interests, and used a large number of camels to push the Hasmonean forces into a deep valley where Jannaeus was "lucky to escape alive". Jannaeus returned to fierce Jewish opposition in Jerusalem after his defeat, and had to cede the acquired territories to the Nabataeans so that he could dissuade them from supporting his opponents in Judea.[74]

Alexander was followed by his wife, Salome Alexandra, who reigned from 76–67 BCE. She was the only regnant Jewish Queen in the Second Temple Era, having followed usurper Queen Athalia who had reigned centuries prior. During Alexandra's reign, her son Hyrcanus II held the office of High Priest and was named her successor.

Pharisee and Sadducee factions

 
Kingdom at its greatest extent under Salome Alexandra

It is difficult to state at what time the Pharisees, as a party, arose. Josephus first mentions them in connection with Jonathan, the successor of Judas Maccabeus ("Ant." xiii. 5, § 9). One of the factors that distinguished the Pharisees from other groups prior to the destruction of the Temple was their belief that all Jews had to observe the purity laws (which applied to the Temple service) outside the Temple. The major difference, however, was the continued adherence of the Pharisees to the laws and traditions of the Jewish people in the face of assimilation. As Josephus noted, the Pharisees were considered the most expert and accurate expositors of Jewish law.

During the Hasmonean period, the Sadducees and Pharisees functioned primarily as political parties. Although the Pharisees had opposed the wars of expansion of the Hasmoneans and the forced conversions of the Idumeans, the political rift between them became wider when Pharisees demanded that the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus choose between being king and being High Priest. In response, the king openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites in the Temple. His actions caused a riot in the Temple and led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees, although at his deathbed the king called for a reconciliation between the two parties. Alexander was succeeded by his widow, Salome Alexandra, whose brother was Shimon ben Shetach, a leading Pharisee. Upon her death her elder son, Hyrcanus, sought Pharisee support, and her younger son, Aristobulus, sought the support of the Sadducees. The conflict between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus culminated in a civil war that ended when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE and inaugurated the Roman period of Jewish history.

Josephus attests that Salome Alexandra was very favourably inclined toward the Pharisees and that their political influence grew tremendously under her reign, especially in the institution known as the Sanhedrin. Later texts such as the Mishnah and the Talmud record a host of rulings ascribed to the Pharisees concerning sacrifices and other ritual practices in the Temple, torts, criminal law, and governance. The influence of the Pharisees over the lives of the common people remained strong, and their rulings on Jewish law were deemed authoritative by many. Although these texts were written long after these periods, many scholars believe that they are a fairly reliable account of history during the Second Temple era.

Civil war

Alexander Jannaeus' son, Hyrcanus II, had scarcely reigned three months when his younger brother, Aristobulus II, rose in rebellion, whereupon Hyrcanus advanced against him at the head of an army of mercenaries and his Pharisee followers: "Now Hyrcanus was heir to the kingdom, and to him did his mother commit it before she died; but Aristobulus was superior to him in power and magnanimity; and when there was a battle between them, to decide the dispute about the kingdom, near Jericho, the greatest part deserted Hyrcanus, and went over to Aristobulus."[75]

Hyrcanus took refuge in the citadel of Jerusalem, but the capture of the Temple by Aristobulus II compelled Hyrcanus to surrender. A peace was then concluded, according to the terms of which Hyrcanus was to renounce the throne and the office of high priest (comp. Emil Schürer, "Gesch." i. 291, note 2), but was to enjoy the revenues of the latter office: "but Hyrcanus, with those of his party who stayed with him, fled to Antonia, and got into his power the hostages (which were Aristobulus's wife, with her children) that he might persevere; but the parties came to an agreement before things should come to extremes, that Aristobulus should be king, and Hyrcanus should resign, but retain all the rest of his dignities, as being the king's brother. Hereupon they were reconciled to each other in the Temple, and embraced one another in a very kind manner, while the people stood round about them; they also changed their houses, while Aristobulus went to the royal palace, and Hyrcanus retired to the house of Aristobulus."[75] Aristobulus ruled from 67–63 BCE).

From 63–40 BCE, the government (by this time reduced to a protectorate of Rome as described below) was in the hands of Hyrcanus II as High Priest and Ethnarch, although effective power was in the hands of his adviser Antipater the Idumaean.

Intrigues of Antipater

The struggle would have ended here but for Antipater the Idumean. Antipater saw clearly that it would be easier to reach the object of his ambition, the control of Judea, under the government of the weak Hyrcanus than under the warlike and energetic Aristobulus. He accordingly began to impress upon Hyrcanus' mind that Aristobulus was planning his death, finally persuading him to take refuge with Aretas, king of the Nabatæans. Aretas, bribed by Antipater, who also promised him the restitution of the Arabian towns taken by the Hasmoneans, readily espoused the cause of Hyrcanus and advanced toward Jerusalem with an army of fifty thousand. During the siege, which lasted several months, the adherents of Hyrcanus were guilty of two acts that greatly incensed the majority of the Jews: they stoned the pious Onias (see Honi ha-Magel) and, instead of a lamb which the besieged had bought of the besiegers for the purpose of the paschal sacrifice, sent a pig. Honi, ordered to curse the besieged, prayed: "Lord of the universe, as the besieged and the besiegers both belong to Thy people, I beseech Thee not to answer the evil prayers of either." The pig incident is derived from rabbinical sources. According to Josephus, the besiegers kept the enormous price of one thousand drachmas they had asked for the lamb.

Roman intervention

Pompey the Great

 
Pompey in the Temple of Jerusalem, by Jean Fouquet

While this civil war was going on the Roman general Marcus Aemilius Scaurus went to Syria to take possession, in the name of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, of the kingdom of the Seleucids. The brothers appealed to him, each endeavouring by gifts and promises to win him over to his side. At first Scaurus, moved by a gift of four hundred talents, decided in favour of Aristobulus. Aretas was ordered to withdraw his army from Judea, and while retreating suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Aristobulus. But when Pompey came to Syria (63 BCE), a different situation arose. Pompey, who had just been awarded the title "Conqueror of Asia" due to his decisive victories in Asia Minor over Pontus and the Seleucid Empire, had decided to bring Judea under the rule of the Romans. He took the same view of Hyrcanus' ability, and was moved by much the same motives as Antipater: as a ward of Rome, Hyrcanus would be more acceptable than Aristobulus. When, therefore, the brothers, as well as delegates of the people's party, which, weary of Hasmonean quarrels, desired the extinction of the dynasty, presented themselves before Pompey, he delayed the decision, in spite of Aristobulus' gift of a golden vine valued at five hundred talents. The latter, however, fathomed the designs of Pompey, and assembled his armies. Pompey defeated him multiple times however and captured his cities. Aristobulus II entrenched himself in the fortress of Alexandrium; but, soon realising the uselessness of resistance, surrendered at the first summons of the Romans, and undertook to deliver Jerusalem to them. The patriots, however, were not willing to open their gates to the Romans, and a siege ensued which ended with the capture of the city. Pompey entered the Holy of Holies; this was only the second time that someone had dared to penetrate into this sacred spot. Judaea had to pay tribute to Rome and was placed under the supervision of the Roman governor of Syria:

In 63 BC, Judaea became a protectorate of Rome. Coming under the administration of a governor, Judaea was allowed a king; the governor's business was to regulate trade and maximise tax revenue.[76]

In 57–55 BCE, Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, split the former Hasmonean Kingdom into Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, with five districts of legal and religious councils known as sanhedrin (Greek: συνέδριον, "synedrion"): "And when he had ordained five councils (συνέδρια), he distributed the nation into the same number of parts. So these councils governed the people; the first was at Jerusalem, the second at Gadara, the third at Amathus, the fourth at Jericho, and the fifth at Sepphoris in Galilee."[77][78]

Pompey and Caesar

 
Coin of Antigonus, BCE 40–37

Julius Caesar initially supported Aristobulus against Hyrcanus and Antipater. Between the weakness of Hyrcanus and the ambition of Aristobulus, Judea lost its independence. Aristobulus was taken to Rome a prisoner, and Hyrcanus was reappointed High Priest, but without political authority. When, in 50 BCE, it appeared that Julius Caesar was interested in using Aristobulus and his family as his clients to take control of Judea from Hyrcanus and Antipater, who were beholden to Pompey, supporters of Pompey had Aristobulus poisoned in Rome and executed Alexander in Antioch.

However, Pompey's pawns soon had occasion to turn to the other side:

At the beginning of the civil war between [Caesar] and Pompey, Hyrcanus, at the instance of Antipater, prepared to support the man to whom he owed his position; but when Pompey was murdered, Antipater led the Jewish forces to the help of Caesar, who was hard pressed at Alexandria. His timely help and his influence over the Egyptian Jews recommended him to Caesar's favour, and secured for him an extension of his authority in Palestine, and for Hyrcanus the confirmation of his ethnarchy. Joppa was restored to the Hasmonean domain, Judea was granted freedom from all tribute and taxes to Rome, and the independence of the internal administration was guaranteed."[79]

The timely aid from Antipater and Hyrcanus led the triumphant Caesar to ignore the claims of Aristobulus's younger son, Antigonus the Hasmonean, and to confirm Hyrcanus and Antipater in their authority, despite their previous allegiance to Pompey. Josephus noted,

Antigonus... came to Caesar... and accused Hyrcanus and Antipater, how they had driven him and his brethren entirely out of their native country... and that as to the assistance they had sent [to Caesar] into Egypt, it was not done out of good-will to him, but out of the fear they were in from former quarrels, and in order to gain pardon for their friendship to [his enemy] Pompey.[80]

Hyrcanus' restoration as ethnarch in 47 BCE coincided with Caesar's appointment of Antipater as the first Roman Procurator, allowing Antipater to promote the interests of his own house: "Caesar appointed Hyrcanus to be high priest, and gave Antipater what principality he himself should choose, leaving the determination to himself; so he made him procurator of Judea."[81]

Antipater appointed his sons to positions of influence: Phasael became Governor of Jerusalem, and Herod Governor of Galilee. This led to increasing tension between Hyrcanus and the family of Antipater, culminating in a trial of Herod for supposed abuses in his governorship, which resulted in Herod's flight into exile in 46 BCE. Herod soon returned, however, and the honours to Antipater's family continued. Hyrcanus' incapacity and weakness were so manifest that, when he defended Herod against the Sanhedrin and before Mark Antony, the latter stripped Hyrcanus of his nominal political authority and his title, bestowing them both upon the accused.

Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE and unrest and confusion spread throughout the Roman world, including Judaea. Antipater the Idumean was assassinated in 43 BCE by the Nabatean king, Malichus I, who had bribed one of Hyrcanus' cup-bearers to poison and kill Antipater. However, Antipater's sons managed to maintain their control over Judea and their father's puppet Hasmonean, Hyrcanus.

Parthian invasion, Antony, Augustus

 
The taking of Jerusalem by Herod the Great, 36 BCE (sic)
 
Parthian Empire at its greatest extent, c. 60 BCE

After Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BCE, Quintus Labienus, a Roman republican general and ambassador to the Parthians, sided with Brutus and Cassius in the Liberators' civil war; after their defeat Labienus joined the Parthians and assisted them in invading Roman territories in 40 BCE. The Parthian army crossed the Euphrates and Labienus was able to entice Mark Antony's Roman garrisons around Syria to rally to his cause. The Parthians split their army, and under Pacorus conquered the Levant from the Phoenician coast through the Land of Israel:

Antigonus... roused the Parthians to invade Syria and Palestine, [and] the Jews eagerly rose in support of the scion of the Maccabean house, and drove out the hated Idumeans with their puppet Jewish king. The struggle between the people and the Romans had begun in earnest, and though Antigonus, when placed on the throne by the Parthians, proceeded to spoil and harry the Jews, rejoicing at the restoration of the Hasmonean line, thought a new era of independence had come.[82]

When Phasael and Hyrcanus II set out on an embassy to the Parthians, the Parthians instead captured them. Antigonus, who was present, cut off Hyrcanus's ears to make him unsuitable for the High Priesthood, while Phasael was put to death. Antigonus, whose Hebrew name was Mattathias, bore the double title of king and High Priest for only three years, as he had not disposed of Herod, the most dangerous of his enemies. Herod fled into exile and sought the support of Mark Antony. Herod was designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE: Antony

then resolved to get [Herod] made king of the Jews...[and] told [the Senate] that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king; so they all gave their votes for it. And when the senate was separated, Antony and Caesar [Augustus] went out, with Herod between them; while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them, in order to offer sacrifices [to the Roman gods], and to lay the decree in the Capitol. Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign.[83]

The struggle thereafter lasted for some years, as the main Roman forces were occupied with defeating the Parthians and had few additional resources to use to support Herod. After the Parthians' defeat, Herod was victorious over his rival in 37 BCE. Antigonus was delivered to Antony and executed shortly thereafter. The Romans assented to Herod's proclamation as King of the Jews, bringing about the end of the Hasmonean rule over Judea.

Herod and the end of the dynasty

Antigonus was not, however, the last Hasmonean. The fate of the remaining male members of the family under Herod was not a happy one. Aristobulus III, grandson of Aristobulus II through his elder son Alexander, was briefly made high priest, but was soon executed (36 BCE) due to Herod's jealousy. His sister Mariamne was married to Herod, but fell victim to his notorious jealousy. Her sons by Herod, Aristobulus IV and Alexander, were in their adulthood also executed by their father.

Hyrcanus II had been held by the Parthians since 40 BCE. For four years, until 36 BCE, he lived amid the Babylonian Jews, who paid him every mark of respect. In that year Herod, who feared that Hyrcanus might induce the Parthians to help him regain the throne, invited him to return to Jerusalem. The Babylonian Jews warned him in vain. Herod received him with every mark of respect, assigning him the first place at his table and the presidency of the state council, while awaiting an opportunity to get rid of him. As the last remaining Hasmonean, Hyrcanus was too dangerous a rival for Herod. In the year 30 BCE, charged with plotting with the King of Arabia, Hyrcanus was condemned and executed.

The later Herodian rulers Agrippa I and Agrippa II both had Hasmonean blood, as Agrippa I's father was Aristobulus IV, son of Herod by Mariamne I, but they were not direct male descendants, unless Herod was understood as a Hasmonean as per the following synthesis:

According to Josephus, Herod was also of Maccabean descent:

  • Eleazar Maccabeus called Auran brother of Judas Maccabeus (Josephus Antiquity of the Jews[84] Book XII/Chapter 9/Section 4)
  • Jason son of Eleazar (Ditto: Book XII/Chapter 10/Section 6)
  • Antipater I son of Jason (Ditto: Book XIII/Chapter 5/Section 8)
  • Antipater II Antipas son of Antipater I (Ditto: Book XIV/Chapter 1/Section 3)
  • Herod

Legacy and scholarship

While the Hasmonean dynasty managed to create an independent Jewish kingdom, its successes were rather short-lived, and the dynasty by and large failed to live up to the nationalistic momentum the Maccabee brothers had gained.

Jewish nationalism

The fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom marked an end to a century of Jewish self-governance, but Jewish nationalism and desire for independence continued under Roman rule, beginning with the Census of Quirinius in AD 6 and leading to a series of Jewish-Roman wars in the 1st–2nd centuries, including the Great Revolt (AD 66–73), the Kitos War (115–117), and Bar Kokhba's revolt (132–135).

During the wars, temporary commonwealths were established, but they ultimately fell to the sustained might of Rome. Roman legions under Vespasian and Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem, looted and burned Herod's Temple (in the year 70) and Jewish strongholds (notably Gamla in 67 and Masada in 73), and enslaved or massacred a large part of the Jewish population. The defeat of the Jewish revolts against the Roman Empire notably contributed to the numbers and geography of the Jewish Diaspora, as many Jews were scattered after losing their state or were sold into slavery throughout the empire.

Jewish religious scholarship

Jewish tradition holds that the claiming of kingship by the later Hasmoneans led to their eventual downfall, since that title was only to be held by descendants of the line of King David.[85] The Hasmonean bureaucracy was filled with men with Greek names, and the dynasty eventually became very Hellenised, to the annoyance of many of its more traditionally-minded Jewish subjects.[86][87] Frequent dynastic quarrels also contributed to the view among Jews of later generations that the latter Hasmoneans were degenerate.[88] One member of this school was Josephus, whose accounts are in many cases our sole source of information about the Hasmoneans.

Historiography

The books of Maccabees use the names "Judea" and "Israel" (or cognates) as geographical descriptors throughout for both the land and people over whom the Hasmoneans would rule. The Talmud includes one of the Hasmonean kings under the description "Kings of Israel". Scholars refer to the state as the Hasmonean Kingdom to distinguish it from the previous kingdoms of Israel. The name "Judaea" has also been used to describe the Hasmonean Kingdom although this name reflects the later designation of the region under the Romans at the time of Josephus' writings in the late 1st century.

Numismatics

Hasmonean coins usually featured the Paleo-Hebrew script, an older Phoenician script that was used to write Hebrew. The coins are struck only in bronze. The symbols include a cornucopia, palm-branch, lily, an anchor, star, pomegranate and (rarely) a helmet. Despite the apparent Seleucid influences of most of the symbols, the origin of the star is more obscure.[89]

Hasmonean leaders

 

Maccabees (rebel leaders)

  1. Mattathias, 170–167 BCE
  2. Judas Maccabeus, 167–160 BCE
  3. Jonathan Apphus, 160–143 BCE (High Priest from 152 BCE)

Monarchs (Ethnarchs and Kings) and High Priests

  1. Simon Thassi, 142–135 BCE (Ethnarch and High Priest)
  2. John Hyrcanus I, 134–104 BCE (Ethnarch and High Priest)
  3. Aristobulus I, 104–103 BCE (King and High Priest)
  4. Alexander Jannaeus, 103–76 BCE (King and High Priest)
  5. Salome Alexandra, 76–67 BCE (only Queen)
  6. Hyrcanus II, 67–66 BCE (King from 67 BCE; High Priest from 76 BCE)
  7. Aristobulus II, 66–63 BCE (King and High Priest)
  8. Hyrcanus II (restored), 63–40 BCE (High Priest from 63 BCE; Ethnarch from 47 BCE)
  9. Antigonus, 40–37 BCE (King and High Priest)
  10. Aristobulus III, 36 BCE (only High Priest)

See also

References

  1. ^ Neusner 1983, p. 911.
  2. ^ Vermes 2014, p. 36.
  3. ^ Muraoka 1992.
  4. ^ From Late Latin Asmonaei from Ancient Greek: Ἀσαμωναῖοι (Asamōnaioi).
  5. ^ For example: Wood, Leon James; O'Brien, David (1986) [1970]. "Between the Testaments". A Survey of Israel's History (revised ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. p. 365. ISBN 9780310347705. Retrieved 5 February 2022. The Hasmoneans would rule over an independent Israel that, for a time, would equal the boundaries of David and Solomon.
  6. ^ a b Louis H. Feldman, Steve Mason (1999). Flavius Josephus. Brill Academic Publishers.
  7. ^ a b "Maccabean Revolt". obo.
  8. ^ Schäfer (2003), pp. 36–40.
  9. ^ . Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2007.
  10. ^ a b Kasher, Aryeh (1990). "2: The Early Hasmonean Era". Jews and Hellenistic cities in Eretz-Israel: Relations of the Jews in Eretz-Israel with the Hellenistic cities during the Second Temple Period (332 BCE – 70 CE). Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum. Vol. 21. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 55–65. ISBN 978-3-16-145241-3.
  11. ^ Jewish Antiquities 12:263 [1]; [2]; [3],
  12. ^ a b Hart, John Henry Arthur (1911). "Asmoneus" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 763.
  13. ^ Kenneth Atkinson (2016). A History of the Hasmonean State: Josephus and Beyond. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 23–. ISBN 978-0-567-66903-2.
  14. ^ P.J. Gott and Logan Licht, Following Philo: The Magdalene, The Virgin, The Men Called Jesus (Bolivar: Leonard Press, 2015) 243.
  15. ^ Hooker, Richard. "Yavan in the House of Shem. Greeks and Jews 332–63 BC". Retrieved 8 January 2006. World Civilizations Learning Modules. Washington State University, 1999.
  16. ^ Schäfer 2003, p. 24.
  17. ^ Schwartz 2009, p. 30.
  18. ^ Ginzberg, Lewis. "Antiochus III The Great". Retrieved 23 January 2007. Jewish Encyclopedia.
  19. ^ "The Books of the Maccabees". www.britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  20. ^ Magness 2012, p. 93: the impact of Hellenization caused deep divisions among the Jewish population. Many of Jerusalem's elite families ... eagerly adopted Greek customs.
  21. ^ Schäfer 2003, pp. 43–44: the "determined Jewish reformers" who saw separation from the pagans as the cause of all misfortune
  22. ^ Ginzberg, Lewis. "The Tobiads and Oniads". Retrieved 23 January 2007. Jewish Encyclopedia.
  23. ^ Levine, Lee I. Judaism and Hellenism in antiquity: conflict or confluence? Hendrickson Publishers, 1998. pp. 38–45. Via "The Impact of Greek Culture on Normative Judaism." [4]
  24. ^ a b c Rubin, Jody P. (July 1980). "Celsus' Decircumcision Operation: Medical and Historical Implications". Urology. Elsevier. 16 (1): 121–124. doi:10.1016/0090-4295(80)90354-4. PMID 6994325. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  25. ^ a b c Jewish Encyclopedia: Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature: "Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved nudity], made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm ("making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; Tosef., Shab. xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a). All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus IV Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision (I Macc. i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons."; Hodges, Frederick M. (2001). "The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme" (PDF). Bulletin of the History of Medicine. Johns Hopkins University Press. 75 (Fall 2001): 375–405. doi:10.1353/bhm.2001.0119. PMID 11568485. S2CID 29580193. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
  26. ^ a b c Fredriksen, Paula (2018). When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation. London: Yale University Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-300-19051-9.
  27. ^ Stuckenbruck & Gurtner 2019, p. 100.
  28. ^ Grabbe 2010, p. 15.
  29. ^ "Antiochus IV Epiphanes". virtualreligion.net.
  30. ^ "Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book I, Whiston chapter pr". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  31. ^ Oesterley, W.O.E., A History of Israel, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1939
  32. ^ a b Nicholas de Lange (ed.), The Illustrated History of the Jewish People, London, Aurum Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85410-530-2[page needed]
  33. ^ Telushkin, Joseph (1991). Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History. W. Morrow. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-688-08506-3.
  34. ^ Johnston, Sarah Iles (2004). Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide. Harvard University Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-674-01517-3.
  35. ^ Greenberg, Irving (1993). The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays. Simon & Schuster. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-671-87303-5.
  36. ^ Schultz, Joseph P. (1981). Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-8386-1707-6. Modern scholarship on the other hand considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppresion than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp
  37. ^ Gundry, Robert H. (2003). A Survey of the New Testament. Zondervan. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-310-23825-6.
  38. ^ Freedman, David Noel; Allen C. Myers; Astrid B. Beck (2000). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 837. ISBN 978-0-8028-2400-4.
  39. ^ a b Tcherikover, Victor Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews, New York: Atheneum, 1975
  40. ^ Wood, Leon James (1986). A Survey of Israel's History. Zondervan. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-310-34770-5.
  41. ^ Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings by Louis H. Feldman, Meyer Reinhold, Fortress Press, 1996, p. 147
  42. ^ Doran, Robert. "Revolt of the Maccabees". September 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2007. The National Interest, 2006, via The Free Library by Farlex.
  43. ^ The name may be related to the Aramaic word for "hammer", or may be derived from an acronym of the Jewish battle cry "Mi Kamocha B'elim, YHWH" ("Who is like you among the heavenly powers, GOD!" (Exodus 15:11), "MKBY" (Mem, Kaf, Bet and Yud).
  44. ^ Bickerman, Elias J. Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees. Schocken, 1962. Via [5]
  45. ^ Morkholm 2008, p. 290.
  46. ^ Morkholm 2008, pp. 287–90.
  47. ^ 1 Maccabees 7:7, via Bentwich, Norman. Josephus, The Jewish Publication Society of America. Philadelphia, 1914.
  48. ^ ("Bet Ḥoglah" for Βηθαλαγά in Josephus; 1 Macc. has Βαιδβασὶ, perhaps = Bet Bosem or Bet Bassim ["spice-house"], near Jericho)
  49. ^ 1 Maccabees 9:55–73; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 1, §§ 5–6.
  50. ^ 1 Maccabees 10:1–46; Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 2, §§ 1–4
  51. ^ 1 Maccabees 10:51–66; Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 4, § 1
  52. ^ Gottheil, Richard. Krauss, Samuel. "Jonathan Apphus". Retrieved 3 March 2017. Jewish Encyclopedia.
  53. ^ 1 Maccabees 10:67–89, 10:1–7; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 4, §§ 3–5
  54. ^ 1 Maccabees 9:20; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 4, § 9
  55. ^ 1 Maccabees 9:21–52; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 4, § 9; 5, §§ 2–3; "R. E. J." xlv. 34
  56. ^ 1 Maccabees 11:52–59
  57. ^ 1 Maccabees 9:53–74; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 5, §§ 3–7
  58. ^ 1 Maccabees 12:33–48; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 5, § 10; 6, §§ 1–3
  59. ^ 143 BCE; 1 Maccabees 13:12–30; Josephus, l.c. xiii. 6, § 5
  60. ^ Josephus, "Vita," § 1
  61. ^ 1 Maccabees 14:36
  62. ^ Mazar, Benjamin (1975). The Mountain of the Lord. Doubleday & Company, Inc. pp. 70–71, 216. ISBN 978-0-385-04843-9.
  63. ^ 1 Maccabees 8:17–20
  64. ^ Josephus The Jewish Wars (1:61)
  65. ^ Niebuhr, Barthold Georg; Niebuhr, Marcus Carsten Nicolaus von (1852). Lectures on Ancient History. Taylor, Walton, and Maberly. p. 465 – via Internet Archive. Grypus Cyzicenus.
  66. ^ Josephus. The Antiquities of the Jews. Book XIII, Chapter 10.
  67. ^ Gruen, Erich S. (1998). Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520929197 – via Google Books.
  68. ^ Fuller, John Mee (1893). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Bible. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-8172680954 – via Google Books.
  69. ^ Sievers, 142
  70. ^ On the destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim by John Hyrcanus, see for instance: Menahem Mor, "The Persian, Hellenistic and Hasmonean Period," in The Samaritans (ed. Alan D. Crown; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1989) 1–18; Jonathan Bourgel (2016). "The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration". Journal of Biblical Literature. 135 (153/3): 505. doi:10.15699/jbl.1353.2016.3129. See also idem, "The Samaritans during the Hasmonean Period: The Affirmation of a Discrete Identity?" Religions 2019, 10(11), 628.
  71. ^ Josephus, Ant. xiii, 9:1., via
  72. ^ Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, in Flavii Iosephi opera, ed. B. Niese, Weidmann, Berlin, 1892, book 13, 9:1
  73. ^ Seán Freyne, 'Galilean Studies: Old Issues and New Questions,' in Jürgen Zangenberg, Harold W. Attridge, Dale B. Martin, (eds.)Religion, Ethnicity, and Identity in Ancient Galilee: A Region in Transition, Mohr Siebeck, 2007 pp. 13–32, p. 25.
  74. ^ Jane, Taylor (2001). Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-1860645082. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  75. ^ a b Lyons, George. "Josephus, Wars Book I".
  76. ^ Hooker, Richard. "The Hebrews: The Diaspora". Retrieved 8 January 2006. World Civilizations Learning Modules. Washington State University, 1999.
  77. ^ "Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Whiston chapter pr". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  78. ^ "Josephus uses συνέδριον for the first time in connection with the decree of the Roman governor of Syria, Gabinius (57 BCE), who abolished the constitution and the then existing form of government of Palestine and divided the country into five provinces, at the head of each of which a sanhedrin was placed ("Ant." xiv 5, § 4)." via Jewish Encyclopedia: Sanhedrin
  79. ^ Bentwich, Josephus, Chapter I, "The Jews and the Romans.
  80. ^ http://www.interhack.net/projects/library/wars-jews/b1c10.htmlM[permanent dead link]
  81. ^ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, William Whiston translation, xiv 140; at [6]
  82. ^ Bentwich, Chapter I.
  83. ^ "Josephus, Wars Book I". earlyjewishwritings.com.
  84. ^ "The Works of Flavius Josephus". www.ccel.org.
  85. ^ Catherwood, Christopher (2011). A Brief History of the Middle East. Hachette Book Group. ISBN 978-0762441020.
  86. ^ Eyal, Regev (2013). The Hasmoneans: Ideology, Archaeology, Identity. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 18. ISBN 978-3647550435.
  87. ^ Elon Gilad (23 December 2014). "Meet the Hasmoneans: A Brief History of a Violent Epoch". Haaretz.
  88. ^ Harkabi, Yehoshafat (1983). The Bar Kokhba Syndrome: Risk and Realism in International Politics. Rossel Books. p. 72. ISBN 978-0940646018.
  89. ^ Finkelstein, Louis. The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–28.

Sources

  • Morkholm, Otto (2008). "Antiochus IV". In William David Davies; Louis Finkelstein (eds.). The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 2, The Hellenistic Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 278–291. ISBN 978-0-521-21929-7.
  • Grabbe, Lester L. (12 August 2010). An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism: History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel, and Jesus. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-567-55248-8.
  • Stuckenbruck, Loren T.; Gurtner, Daniel M. (2019). T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism Volume One. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 100–. ISBN 978-0-567-65813-5.
  • Flavius Josephus (1895). Whiston, William (ed.). The Complete Works of Flavius-Josephus the Celebrated Jewish Historian. Philadelphia: John E. Potter & Company.
  • Schäfer, Peter (2003). The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World, Second Edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-30587-X
  • Muraoka, T. (1992). Studies in Qumran Aramaic. Peeters. ISBN 978-9068314199.
  • Neusner, J. (1983). "Jews in Iran". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3 (2); the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521246934.
  • The Hasmoneans in Jewish Historiography Samuel Schafler, Diss, DHL, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, 1973
  • Vermes, Géza (2014). The True Herod. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0567488411.
  • Schäfer, Peter (2003). The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-30585-3.
  • Magness, Jodi (2012). The Archaeology of the Holy Land: From the Destruction of Solomon's Temple to the Muslim Conquest. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-12413-3.
  • Schwartz, Seth (2009). Imperialism and Jewish Society: 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-2485-4.

Further reading

  • Atkinson, Kenneth. A History of the Hasmonean State: Josephus and Beyond. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016.
  • Berthelot, Katell . In Search of the Promised Land?: The Hasmonean Dynasty between Biblical Models and Hellenistic Diplomacy.Göttingen Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2017. 494 pp. ISBN 978-3-525-55252-0.
  • Davies, W. D, Louis Finkelstein, and William Horbury. The Cambridge History of Judaism. Vol. 2: Hellenistic Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
  • Derfler, Steven Lee. The Hasmonean Revolt: rebellion or revolution? Lewiston: E Mellen Press, 1989.
  • Eshel, Hanan. Dead Sea scrolls and the Hasmonean state. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Pr., 2008.
  • Schäfer, Peter. The History of the Jews In the Greco-Roman World. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2003.

External links

  • Jewish Encyclopedia: Hasmoneans
  • The Reign of the Hasmoneans 21 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine – Crash Course in Jewish History
  • "Under the Influence: Hellenism in Ancient Jewish Life" 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine – Biblical Archaeology Society

hasmonean, dynasty, hebrew, מו, ים, Ḥašmōnaʾīm, ruling, dynasty, judea, surrounding, regions, during, classical, antiquity, from, between, dynasty, ruled, judea, semi, autonomously, seleucid, empire, from, roughly, with, empire, disintegrating, judea, gained, . The Hasmonean dynasty 4 ˌ h ae z m e ˈ n iː en Hebrew ח ש מו נ א ים Ḥasmōnaʾim was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity from c 140 BCE to 37 BCE Between c 140 and c 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi autonomously in the Seleucid Empire and from roughly 110 BCE with the empire disintegrating Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea Samaria Idumea Galilee and Iturea Some modern scholars regard the Hasmonean realm as an independent Israel 5 The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus king or emperor Forces of the Roman Republic conquered the Hasmonean kingdom in 63 BCE and made it into a client state Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client ruler in 37 BCE Hasmonean dynastyממלכת החשמונאים Mamleḵeṯ haḤasmona im140 BCE 37 BCEStatusSeleucid Empire vassal 140 110 BCE Independent kingdom 110 63 BCE Client state of the Roman Republic 63 40 BCE Client state of the Parthian Empire 40 37 BCE 1 2 CapitalJerusalemCommon languagesOld Aramaic official 3 Koine Greek official Biblical Hebrew liturgical ReligionSecond Temple JudaismGovernmentSemi constitutional theocratic monarchyPrince later Basileus 140 134 BCESimon Thassi 134 110 104 BCEJohn Hyrcanus 104 103 BCEAristobulus I 103 76 BCEAlexander Jannaeus 76 67 BCESalome Alexandra 67 66 BCEHyrcanus II 66 63 BCEAristobulus II 63 40 BCEHyrcanus II 40 37 BCEAntigonusLegislatureEarly SanhedrinHistorical eraHellenistic Age Maccabean Revolt167 BCE Dynasty established140 BCE Full independence110 BCE Pompey intervenes in Hasmonean civil war63 BCE Parthian invasion40 BCE Herod overthrows the Hasmoneans37 BCECurrencyHasmonean coinagePreceded by Succeeded byCoele Syria Herodian kingdomToday part ofIsraelPalestineJordanSyriaSimon Thassi established the dynasty in 141 BCE two decades after his brother Judas Maccabeus יהודה המכבי Yehudah HaMakabi had defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt of 167 to 141 BCE According to 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees and the first book of The Jewish War by historian Flavius Josephus 37 CE c 100 6 the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV r 175 164 moved to assert strict control over the Seleucid satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia 7 after his successful invasion of Ptolemaic Egypt 170 168 BCE was turned back by the intervention of the Roman Republic 8 9 He sacked Jerusalem and its Temple suppressing Jewish and Samaritan religious and cultural observances 7 10 and imposed Hellenistic practices c 168 167 BCE 10 The steady collapse of the Seleucid Empire under attacks from the rising powers of the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire allowed Judea to regain some autonomy however in 63 BCE the kingdom was invaded by the Roman Republic broken up and set up as a Roman client state Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II Simon s great grandsons became pawns in a proxy war between Julius Caesar and Pompey The deaths of Pompey 48 BCE and Caesar 44 BCE and the related Roman civil wars temporarily relaxed Rome s grip on the Hasmonean kingdom allowing a brief reassertion of autonomy backed by the Parthian Empire rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Augustus The Hasmonean dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE The installation of Herod the Great an Idumean as king in 37 BCE made Judea a Roman client state and marked the end of the Hasmonean dynasty Even then Herod tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess Mariamne and planning to drown the last male Hasmonean heir at his Jericho palace In 6 CE Rome joined Judea proper Samaria and Idumea into the Roman province of Judaea In 44 CE Rome installed the rule of a procurator side by side with the rule of the Herodian kings specifically Agrippa I 41 44 and Agrippa II 50 100 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Background 3 Historical sources 4 Seleucid rule over Judea 4 1 Hellenisation 4 2 Antiochus IV against Jerusalem 4 3 Maccabean Revolt 5 From revolt to independence 5 1 Judah and Jonathan 5 2 Seleucid civil conflict 5 2 1 Hasmoneans under Balas and Demetrius II 5 2 2 Hasmoneans under Demetrius and Diodotus 5 3 Simon assumes leadership 6 Hasmonean expansion and civil war 6 1 Pharisee and Sadducee factions 6 2 Civil war 6 3 Intrigues of Antipater 7 Roman intervention 7 1 Pompey the Great 7 2 Pompey and Caesar 7 3 Parthian invasion Antony Augustus 7 4 Herod and the end of the dynasty 8 Legacy and scholarship 8 1 Jewish nationalism 8 2 Jewish religious scholarship 9 Historiography 10 Numismatics 11 Hasmonean leaders 11 1 Maccabees rebel leaders 11 2 Monarchs Ethnarchs and Kings and High Priests 12 See also 13 References 13 1 Sources 14 Further reading 15 External linksEtymology EditThe family name of the Hasmonean dynasty originates with the ancestor of the house whom Josephus Flavius called by the Hellenised form Asmoneus or Asamoneus Greek Ἀsamwnaῖos 11 said to have been the great grandfather of Mattathias but about whom nothing more is known 12 The name appears to come from the Hebrew name Hashmonay ח ש מו נ אי Ḥasmōnaʾy 13 An alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmona i is linked with the village of Heshmon mentioned in Joshua 15 27 12 Gott and Licht attribute the name to Ha Simeon a veiled reference to the Simeonite Tribe 14 Background Edit At the beginning of the 2nd century BCE the Seleucid Empire in yellow expanded into Judea at the expense of Ptolemaic Egypt blue The lands of the former Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah c 722 586 BCE had been occupied in turn by Assyria Babylonia the Achaemenid Empire and Alexander the Great s Hellenic Macedonian empire c 330 BCE although Jewish religious practice and culture had persisted and even flourished during certain periods The entire region was heavily contested between the successor states of Alexander s empire the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt during the six Syrian Wars of the 3rd 1st centuries BCE After two centuries of peace under the Persians the Hebrew state found itself once more caught in the middle of power struggles between two great empires the Seleucid state with its capital in Syria to the north and the Ptolemaic state with its capital in Egypt to the south Between 319 and 302 BC Jerusalem changed hands seven times 15 Under Antiochus III the Seleucids wrested control of Judea from the Ptolemies for the final time defeating Ptolemy V Epiphanes at the Battle of Panium in 200 BCE 16 17 Seleucid rule over the Jewish parts of the region then resulted in the rise of Hellenistic cultural and religious practices In addition to the turmoil of war there arose in the Jewish nation pro Seleucid and pro Ptolemaic parties and the schism exercised great influence upon the Judaism of the time It was in Antioch that the Jews first made the acquaintance of Hellenism and of the more corrupt sides of Greek culture and it was from Antioch that Judea henceforth was ruled 18 Historical sources EditThe major source of information about the origin of the Hasmonean dynasty is the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees held as canonical scripture by the Catholic Orthodox and most Oriental Orthodox churches and as apocryphal by Protestant denominations although they do not comprise the canonical books of the Hebrew Bible 19 The books cover the period from 175 BCE to 134 BCE during which time the Hasmonean dynasty became semi independent from the Seleucid empire but had not yet expanded far outside of Judea They are written from the point of view that the salvation of the Jewish people in a crisis came from God through the family of Mattathias particularly his sons Judas Maccabeus Jonathan Apphus and Simon Thassi and his grandson John Hyrcanus The books include historical and religious material from the Septuagint that was codified by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians The other primary source for the Hasmonean dynasty is the first book of The Wars of the Jews and a more detailed history in Antiquities of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus 37 c 100 CE 6 Josephus account is the only primary source covering the history of the Hasmonean dynasty during the period of its expansion and independence between 110 to 63 BCE Notably Josephus a Roman citizen and former general in the Galilee who survived the Jewish Roman wars of the 1st century was a Jew who was captured by and cooperated with the Romans and wrote his books under Roman patronage Seleucid rule over Judea EditHellenisation Edit Wojciech Stattler s Machabeusze Maccabees 1844 The continuing Hellenization of Judea pitted traditional Jews against those who eagerly Hellenized 20 The latter felt that the former s orthodoxy held them back 21 Jews were divided both between those favoring Hellenization and those opposing it and over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids In 175 BCE conflict broke out between High Priest Onias III who opposed Hellenisation and favoured the Ptolemies and his son Jason who favoured Hellenisation and the Seleucids A period of political intrigue followed with both Jason and Menelaus bribing the king to win the High Priesthood and accusations of murder of competing contenders for the title The result was a brief civil war The Tobiads a philo Hellenistic party succeeded in placing Jason into the powerful position of High Priest He established an arena for public games close by the Temple 22 Author Lee I Levine notes The piece de resistance of Judaean Hellenisation and the most dramatic of all these developments occurred in 175 BCE when the high priest Jason converted Jerusalem into a Greek polis replete with gymnasium and ephebeion 2 Maccabees 4 Whether this step represents the culmination of a 150 year process of Hellenisation within Jerusalem in general or whether it was only the initiative of a small coterie of Jerusalem priests with no wider ramifications has been debated for decades 23 Hellenised Jews are known to have engaged in non surgical foreskin restoration epispasm in order to join the dominant Hellenistic cultural practice of socialising naked in the gymnasium 24 25 26 where their circumcision would have carried a social stigma 24 25 26 Classical Hellenistic and Roman culture found circumcision to be a cruel barbaric and repulsive custom 24 25 26 Antiochus IV against Jerusalem Edit Coin with portrait of Antiochus IV Reverse shows Apollo seated on an omphalos The Greek inscription reads BASILEWS ANTIOXOY 8EOY EPIFANOYS NIKHFOROY King Antiochus the divine Epiphanus Bringer of Victory In spring 168 BCE after successfully invading the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt Antiochus IV was humiliatingly pressured by the Romans to withdraw According to the Roman historian Livy the Roman senate dispatched the diplomat Gaius Popilius to Egypt who demanded Antiochus to withdraw When Antiochus requested time to discuss the matter Popilius drew a circle round the king with the stick he was carrying and said Before you step out of that circle give me a reply to lay before the senate 27 While Antiochus was campaigning in Egypt a rumor spread in Judah that he had been killed The deposed high priest Jason took advantage of the situation attacked Jerusalem and drove away Menelaus and his followers Menelaus took refuge in Akra the Seleucids fortress in Jerusalem When Antiochus heard of this he sent an army to Jerusalem to sort things out Jerusalem was taken Jason and his followers were driven out and Menelaus reinstated as high priest 28 He then imposed a tax and established a fortress in Jerusalem Antiochus tried to suppress public observance of Jewish laws apparently in an attempt to secure control over the Jews His government set up an idol of Zeus 29 on the Temple Mount which Jews considered to be desecration of the Mount it also forbade both circumcision and possession of Jewish scriptures on pain of death According to Josephus Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking the city or with its pillage or with the great slaughter he had made there but being overcome with his violent passions and remembering what he had suffered during the siege he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country and to keep their infants uncircumcised and to sacrifice swine s flesh upon the altar 30 He also outlawed observance of the Sabbath and the offering of sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple and required Jewish leaders to sacrifice to idols punitive executions were also instituted Possession of Jewish scriptures was made a capital offence The motives of Antiochus are unclear He may have been incensed at the overthrow of his appointee Menelaus 31 he may have been responding to a Jewish revolt that had drawn on the Temple and the Torah for its strength or he may have been encouraged by a group of radical Hellenisers among the Jews 32 Maccabean Revolt Edit Main article Maccabean Revolt Mattathias of Modi in killing a Jewish apostate engraving by Gustave Dore The author of the First Book of Maccabees regarded the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against the Jews who supported him The author of the Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between Judaism and Hellenism words that he was the first to use 32 Modern scholarship tends to the second view Most modern scholars argue that the king was intervening in a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenised Jews in Jerusalem 33 34 35 According to Joseph P Schultz modern scholarship considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp 36 In the conflict over the office of High Priest traditionalists with Hebrew Aramaic names like Onias contested against Hellenisers with Greek names like Jason or Menelaus 37 Other authors point to social and economic factors in the conflict 38 39 What began as a civil war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenising Jews against the traditionalists 40 As the conflict escalated Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists thereby in a departure from usual Seleucid practice banning the religion of an entire people 39 Other scholars argue that while the rising began as a religious rebellion it was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation 41 The two greatest twentieth century scholars of the Maccabean revolt Elias Bickermann and Victor Tcherikover each placed the blame on the policies of the Jewish leaders and not on the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes but for different reasons Bickermann saw the origin of the problem in the attempt of Hellenised Jews to reform the antiquated and outdated religion practised in Jerusalem and to rid it of superstitious elements They were the ones who egged on Antiochus IV and instituted the religious reform in Jerusalem One suspects that Bickermann may have been influenced in his view by an antipathy to Reform Judaism in 19th and 20th century Germany Tcherikover perhaps influenced by socialist concerns saw the uprising as one of the rural peasants against the rich elite 42 According to I and II Maccabees the priestly family of Mattathias Mattitiyahu in Hebrew which came to be known as the Maccabees 43 called the people forth to holy war against the Seleucids Mattathias sons Judas Yehuda Jonathan Yonoson Yonatan and Simon Shimon began a military campaign initially with disastrous results one thousand Jewish men women and children were killed by Seleucid troops because they refused to fight even in self defence on the Sabbath Other Jews then reasoned that they must fight when attacked even on the Sabbath The institution of guerrilla warfare practices by Judah over several years led to victory against the Seleucids It was now in the fall of 165 that Judah s successes began to disturb the central government He appears to have controlled the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem and thus to have cut off the royal party in Acra from direct communication with the sea and thus with the government It is significant that this time the Syrian troops under the leadership of the governor general Lysias took the southerly route by way of Idumea 44 Towards the end of 164 Judah felt strong enough to enter Jerusalem and the formal religious worship of Yahweh was re established The feast of Hanukkah was instituted to commemorate the recovery of the temple 45 Antiochus who was away on a campaign against the Parthians died at about the same time in Persis 46 Antiochus was succeeded by Demetrius I Soter the nephew whose throne he had usurped Demetrius sent the general Bacchides to Israel with a large army in order to install Alcimus with the office of high priest Bacchides subdued Jerusalem and returned to his King citation needed From revolt to independence EditJudah and Jonathan Edit Palestine under the Maccabees according to George Adam Smith After five years of war and raids Judah sought an alliance with the Roman Republic to remove the Greeks In the year 161 BCE he sent Eupolemus the son of Johanan and Jason the son of Eleazar to make a league of amity and confederacy with the Romans 47 A Seleucid army under General Nicanor was defeated by Judah ib 7 26 50 at the Battle of Adasa with Nicanor himself killed in action Next Bacchides was sent with Alcimus and an army of twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry and met Judah at the Battle of Elasa Laisa where this time it was the Hasmonean commander who was killed 161 160 BCE Bacchides now established the Hellenes as rulers in Israel and upon Judah s death the persecuted patriots under Jonathan brother of Judah fled beyond the Jordan River ib 9 25 27 They set camp near a morass by the name of Asphar and remained after several engagements with the Seleucids in the swamp in the country east of the Jordan Following the death of his puppet governor Alcimus High Priest of Jerusalem Bacchides felt secure enough to leave the country but two years after the departure of Bacchides from Israel the City of Acre felt sufficiently threatened by Maccabee incursions to contact Demetrius and request the return of Bacchides to their territory Jonathan and Simeon now more experienced in guerrilla warfare thought it well to retreat farther and accordingly fortified in the desert a place called Beth hogla 48 there they were besieged several days by Bacchides Jonathan offered the rival general a peace treaty and exchange of prisoners of war Bacchides readily consented and even took an oath of nevermore making war upon Jonathan He and his forces then vacated Israel The victorious Jonathan now took up his residence in the old city of Michmash From there he endeavoured to clear the land of the godless and the apostate 49 The chief source 1 Maccabees says that with this the sword ceased in Israel and in fact nothing is reported for the five following years 158 153 BCE Seleucid civil conflict Edit An important external event brought the design of the Maccabeans to fruition Demetrius I Soter s relations with Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamon reigned 159 138 BCE Ptolemy VI of Egypt reigned 163 145 BCE and Ptolemy s co ruler Cleopatra II of Egypt were deteriorating and they supported a rival claimant to the Seleucid throne Alexander Balas who purported to be the son of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and a first cousin of Demetrius Demetrius was forced to recall the garrisons of Judea except those in the City of Acre and at Beth zur to bolster his strength Furthermore he made a bid for the loyalty of Jonathan permitting him to recruit an army and to reclaim the hostages kept in the City of Acre Jonathan gladly accepted these terms took up residence at Jerusalem in 153 BCE and began fortifying the city Alexander Balas offered Jonathan even more favourable terms including official appointment as High Priest in Jerusalem and despite a second letter from Demetrius promising prerogatives that were almost impossible to guarantee 50 Jonathan declared allegiance to Balas Jonathan became the official religious leader of his people and officiated at the Feast of Tabernacles of 153 BCE wearing the High Priest s garments The Hellenistic party could no longer attack him without severe consequences Hasmoneans held the office of High Priest continuously until 37 BCE Soon Demetrius lost both his throne and his life in 150 BCE The victorious Alexander Balas was given the further honour of marriage to Cleopatra Thea daughter of his allies Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II Jonathan was invited to Ptolemais for the ceremony appearing with presents for both kings and was permitted to sit between them as their equal Balas even clothed him with his own royal garment and otherwise accorded him high honour Balas appointed Jonathan as strategos and meridarch i e civil governor of a province details not found in Josephus sent him back with honours to Jerusalem 51 and refused to listen to the Hellenistic party s complaints against Jonathan Hasmoneans under Balas and Demetrius II Edit In 147 BCE Demetrius II Nicator a son of Demetrius I Soter claimed Balas throne The governor of Coele Syria Apollonius Taos used the opportunity to challenge Jonathan to battle saying that the Jews might for once leave the mountains and venture out into the plain 52 Jonathan and Simeon led a force of 10 000 men against Apollonius forces in Jaffa which was unprepared for the rapid attack and opened the gates in surrender to the Jewish forces Apollonius received reinforcements from Azotus and appeared in the plain in charge of 3 000 men including superior cavalry forces Jonathan assaulted captured and burned Azotus along with the resident temple of Dagon and the surrounding villages Alexander Balas honoured the victorious High Priest by giving him the city of Ekron along with its outlying territory The people of Azotus complained to King Ptolemy VI who had come to make war upon his son in law but Jonathan met Ptolemy at Jaffa in peace and accompanied him as far as the River Eleutherus Jonathan then returned to Jerusalem maintaining peace with the King of Egypt despite their support for different contenders for the Seleucid throne 53 Hasmoneans under Demetrius and Diodotus Edit In 145 BCE the Battle of Antioch resulted in the final defeat of Alexander Balas by the forces of his father in law Ptolemy VI Ptolemy himself however was among the casualties of the battle Demetrius II Nicator remained sole ruler of the Seleucid Empire and became the second husband of Cleopatra Thea Jonathan owed no allegiance to the new King and took this opportunity to lay siege to the Acra the Seleucid fortress in Jerusalem and the symbol of Seleucid control over Judea It was heavily garrisoned by a Seleucid force and offered asylum to Jewish Hellenists 54 Demetrius was greatly incensed he appeared with an army at Ptolemais and ordered Jonathan to come before him Without raising the siege Jonathan accompanied by the elders and priests went to the king and pacified him with presents so that the king not only confirmed him in his office of high priest but gave to him the three Samaritan toparchies of Mount Ephraim Lod and Ramathaim Zophim In consideration of a present of 300 talents the entire country was exempted from taxes the exemption being confirmed in writing Jonathan in return lifted the siege of the Acra and left it in Seleucid hands Soon however a new claimant to the Seleucid throne appeared in the person of the young Antiochus VI Dionysus son of Alexander Balas and Cleopatra Thea He was three years old at most but general Diodotus Tryphon used him to advance his own designs on the throne In the face of this new enemy Demetrius not only promised to withdraw the garrison from the City of Acre but also called Jonathan his ally and requested him to send troops The 3 000 men of Jonathan protected Demetrius in his capital Antioch against his own subjects 55 As Demetrius II did not keep his promise Jonathan thought it better to support the new king when Diodotus Tryphon and Antiochus VI seized the capital especially as the latter confirmed all his rights and appointed his brother Simon Simeon strategos of the Paralia the sea coast from the Ladder of Tyre to the frontier of Egypt 56 Jonathan and Simon were now entitled to make conquests Ashkelon submitted voluntarily while Gaza was forcibly taken Jonathan vanquished even the strategoi of Demetrius II far to the north in the plain of Hazar while Simon at the same time took the strong fortress of Beth zur on the pretext that it harboured supporters of Demetrius 57 Like Judah in former years Jonathan sought alliances with foreign peoples He renewed the treaty with the Roman Republic and exchanged friendly messages with Sparta and other places However the documents referring to those diplomatic events are of questionable authenticity Diodotus Tryphon went with an army to Judea and invited Jonathan to Scythopolis for a friendly conference where he persuaded him to dismiss his army of 40 000 men promising to give him Ptolemais and other fortresses Jonathan fell into the trap he took with him to Ptolemais 1 000 men all of whom were slain he himself was taken prisoner 58 Simon assumes leadership Edit When Diodotus Tryphon was about to enter Judea at Hadid he was confronted by the new Jewish leader Simon ready for battle Tryphon avoiding an engagement demanded one hundred talents and Jonathan s two sons as hostages in return for which he promised to liberate Jonathan Although Simon did not trust Diodotus Tryphon he complied with the request so that he might not be accused of the death of his brother But Diodotus Tryphon did not liberate his prisoner angry that Simon blocked his way everywhere and that he could accomplish nothing he executed Jonathan at Baskama in the country east of the Jordan 59 Jonathan was buried by Simeon at Modin Nothing is known of his two captive sons One of his daughters was an ancestor of Josephus 60 Simon Maccabee Made High Priest from Die Bibel in Bildern Simon assumed the leadership 142 BCE receiving the double office of High Priest and Ethnarch Prince of Israel The leadership of the Hasmoneans was established by a resolution adopted in 141 BCE at a large assembly of the priests and the people and of the elders of the land to the effect that Simon should be their leader and High Priest forever until there should arise a faithful prophet 1 Macc 14 41 Ironically the election was performed in Hellenistic fashion Simon having made the Jewish people semi independent of the Seleucid Greeks reigned from 142 to 135 BCE and formed the Hasmonean dynasty finally capturing the citadel Acra in 141 BCE 61 62 The Roman Senate accorded the new dynasty recognition c 139 BCE when the delegation of Simon was in Rome 63 Simon led the people in peace and prosperity until in February 135 BCE he was assassinated at the instigation of his son in law Ptolemy son of Abubus also spelled Abobus or Abobi who had been named governor of the region by the Seleucids Simon s eldest sons Mattathias and Judah were also murdered Hasmonean expansion and civil war EditSee also Hasmonean Civil War JUDAEA Hasmoneans John Hyrcanus I Yehohanan 135 104 BCE AE Prutah 13mm 2 02 gm 12h Yehohanan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews in Hebrew in five lines within wreath Double cornucopiae adorned with ribbons pomegranate between horns small A to lower left Meshorer Group B 11 Hendin 457 After achieving semi independency from the Seleucid Empire the dynasty began to expand into the neighboring regions Perea was conquered already by Jonathan Apphus subsequently John Hyrcanus conquered Samaria and Idumea Aristobulus I conquered the territory of Galilee and Alexander Jannaeus conquered the territory of Iturea In addition to territorial conquests the Hasmonean rulers initially reigning only as rebel leaders gradually assumed the religious office of High Priest during the reign of Jonathan Apphus in 152 BCE and the monarchical title of Ethnarch during the reign of Simon Thassi in 142 BCE eventually assuming the title of King basileus in 104 BCE by Aristobulus I In c 135 BCE John Hyrcanus Simon s third son assumed the leadership as both the High Priest Kohen Gadol and Ethnarch taking a Greek regnal name see Hyrcania in an acceptance of the Hellenistic culture of his Seleucid suzerains Within a year of the death of Simon Seleucid King Antiochus VII Sidetes attacked Jerusalem According to Josephus 64 John Hyrcanus opened King David s sepulchre and removed three thousand talents which he paid as tribute to spare the city He remained governor as a Seleucid vassal For the next two decades of his reign Hyrcanus continued like his father to rule semi autonomously from the Seleucids The Seleucid empire had been disintegrating in the face of the Seleucid Parthian wars and in 129 BCE Antiochus VII Sidetes was killed in Media by the forces of Phraates II of Parthia permanently ending Seleucid rule east of the Euphrates In 116 BCE a civil war between Seleucid half brothers Antiochus VIII Grypus and Antiochus IX Cyzicenus broke out resulting in a further breakup of the already significantly reduced kingdom This provided opportunity for semi independent Seleucid client states such as Judea to revolt 65 66 67 In 110 BCE John Hyrcanus carried out the first military conquests of the newly independent Hasmonean kingdom raising a mercenary army to capture Madaba and Schechem significantly increasing his regional influence 68 69 full citation needed Hyrcanus conquered Transjordan Samaria 70 and Idumea also known as Edom and forced Idumeans to convert to Judaism Hyrcanus subdued all the Idumeans and permitted them to stay in that country if they would circumcise their genitals and make use of the laws of the Jews and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers that they submitted to the use of circumcision 25 and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living at which time therefore this befell them that they were hereafter no other than Jews 71 He desired that his wife succeed him as head of the government with his eldest of five sons Aristobulus I becoming only the high priest Coin of Alexander Jannaeus BCE 103 76 Upon Hyrcanus death in 104 BCE however Aristobulus I jailed his three brothers including Alexander Jannaeus and his mother and allowed her to starve there By this means he came into possession of the throne and became the first Hasmonean to take the title of King basileus asserting the new found independence of the state Subsequently he conquered Galilee Aristobulus I died after a painful illness in 103 BCE Aristobulus brothers were freed from prison by his widow one of them Alexander Jannaeus reigned as a king as well as a high priest from 103 76 BCE During his reign he conquered Iturea and according to Josephus forcibly converted Itureans to Judaism 72 73 He died during the siege of the fortress Ragaba In c 87 BCE according to Josephus following a six year civil war involving Seleucid king Demetrius III Eucaerus Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 Jewish rebels in Jerusalem The Hasmoneans lost the territories acquired in Transjordan during the 93 BC Battle of Gadara where the Nabataeans ambushed Jannaeus and his forces in a hilly area The Nabataeans saw the acquisitions as a threat to their interests and used a large number of camels to push the Hasmonean forces into a deep valley where Jannaeus was lucky to escape alive Jannaeus returned to fierce Jewish opposition in Jerusalem after his defeat and had to cede the acquired territories to the Nabataeans so that he could dissuade them from supporting his opponents in Judea 74 Alexander was followed by his wife Salome Alexandra who reigned from 76 67 BCE She was the only regnant Jewish Queen in the Second Temple Era having followed usurper Queen Athalia who had reigned centuries prior During Alexandra s reign her son Hyrcanus II held the office of High Priest and was named her successor Pharisee and Sadducee factions Edit Kingdom at its greatest extent under Salome Alexandra It is difficult to state at what time the Pharisees as a party arose Josephus first mentions them in connection with Jonathan the successor of Judas Maccabeus Ant xiii 5 9 One of the factors that distinguished the Pharisees from other groups prior to the destruction of the Temple was their belief that all Jews had to observe the purity laws which applied to the Temple service outside the Temple The major difference however was the continued adherence of the Pharisees to the laws and traditions of the Jewish people in the face of assimilation As Josephus noted the Pharisees were considered the most expert and accurate expositors of Jewish law During the Hasmonean period the Sadducees and Pharisees functioned primarily as political parties Although the Pharisees had opposed the wars of expansion of the Hasmoneans and the forced conversions of the Idumeans the political rift between them became wider when Pharisees demanded that the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus choose between being king and being High Priest In response the king openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites in the Temple His actions caused a riot in the Temple and led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees although at his deathbed the king called for a reconciliation between the two parties Alexander was succeeded by his widow Salome Alexandra whose brother was Shimon ben Shetach a leading Pharisee Upon her death her elder son Hyrcanus sought Pharisee support and her younger son Aristobulus sought the support of the Sadducees The conflict between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus culminated in a civil war that ended when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE and inaugurated the Roman period of Jewish history Josephus attests that Salome Alexandra was very favourably inclined toward the Pharisees and that their political influence grew tremendously under her reign especially in the institution known as the Sanhedrin Later texts such as the Mishnah and the Talmud record a host of rulings ascribed to the Pharisees concerning sacrifices and other ritual practices in the Temple torts criminal law and governance The influence of the Pharisees over the lives of the common people remained strong and their rulings on Jewish law were deemed authoritative by many Although these texts were written long after these periods many scholars believe that they are a fairly reliable account of history during the Second Temple era Civil war Edit Alexander Jannaeus son Hyrcanus II had scarcely reigned three months when his younger brother Aristobulus II rose in rebellion whereupon Hyrcanus advanced against him at the head of an army of mercenaries and his Pharisee followers Now Hyrcanus was heir to the kingdom and to him did his mother commit it before she died but Aristobulus was superior to him in power and magnanimity and when there was a battle between them to decide the dispute about the kingdom near Jericho the greatest part deserted Hyrcanus and went over to Aristobulus 75 Hyrcanus took refuge in the citadel of Jerusalem but the capture of the Temple by Aristobulus II compelled Hyrcanus to surrender A peace was then concluded according to the terms of which Hyrcanus was to renounce the throne and the office of high priest comp Emil Schurer Gesch i 291 note 2 but was to enjoy the revenues of the latter office but Hyrcanus with those of his party who stayed with him fled to Antonia and got into his power the hostages which were Aristobulus s wife with her children that he might persevere but the parties came to an agreement before things should come to extremes that Aristobulus should be king and Hyrcanus should resign but retain all the rest of his dignities as being the king s brother Hereupon they were reconciled to each other in the Temple and embraced one another in a very kind manner while the people stood round about them they also changed their houses while Aristobulus went to the royal palace and Hyrcanus retired to the house of Aristobulus 75 Aristobulus ruled from 67 63 BCE From 63 40 BCE the government by this time reduced to a protectorate of Rome as described below was in the hands of Hyrcanus II as High Priest and Ethnarch although effective power was in the hands of his adviser Antipater the Idumaean Intrigues of Antipater Edit The struggle would have ended here but for Antipater the Idumean Antipater saw clearly that it would be easier to reach the object of his ambition the control of Judea under the government of the weak Hyrcanus than under the warlike and energetic Aristobulus He accordingly began to impress upon Hyrcanus mind that Aristobulus was planning his death finally persuading him to take refuge with Aretas king of the Nabataeans Aretas bribed by Antipater who also promised him the restitution of the Arabian towns taken by the Hasmoneans readily espoused the cause of Hyrcanus and advanced toward Jerusalem with an army of fifty thousand During the siege which lasted several months the adherents of Hyrcanus were guilty of two acts that greatly incensed the majority of the Jews they stoned the pious Onias see Honi ha Magel and instead of a lamb which the besieged had bought of the besiegers for the purpose of the paschal sacrifice sent a pig Honi ordered to curse the besieged prayed Lord of the universe as the besieged and the besiegers both belong to Thy people I beseech Thee not to answer the evil prayers of either The pig incident is derived from rabbinical sources According to Josephus the besiegers kept the enormous price of one thousand drachmas they had asked for the lamb Roman intervention EditPompey the Great Edit Pompey in the Temple of Jerusalem by Jean FouquetWhile this civil war was going on the Roman general Marcus Aemilius Scaurus went to Syria to take possession in the name of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus of the kingdom of the Seleucids The brothers appealed to him each endeavouring by gifts and promises to win him over to his side At first Scaurus moved by a gift of four hundred talents decided in favour of Aristobulus Aretas was ordered to withdraw his army from Judea and while retreating suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Aristobulus But when Pompey came to Syria 63 BCE a different situation arose Pompey who had just been awarded the title Conqueror of Asia due to his decisive victories in Asia Minor over Pontus and the Seleucid Empire had decided to bring Judea under the rule of the Romans He took the same view of Hyrcanus ability and was moved by much the same motives as Antipater as a ward of Rome Hyrcanus would be more acceptable than Aristobulus When therefore the brothers as well as delegates of the people s party which weary of Hasmonean quarrels desired the extinction of the dynasty presented themselves before Pompey he delayed the decision in spite of Aristobulus gift of a golden vine valued at five hundred talents The latter however fathomed the designs of Pompey and assembled his armies Pompey defeated him multiple times however and captured his cities Aristobulus II entrenched himself in the fortress of Alexandrium but soon realising the uselessness of resistance surrendered at the first summons of the Romans and undertook to deliver Jerusalem to them The patriots however were not willing to open their gates to the Romans and a siege ensued which ended with the capture of the city Pompey entered the Holy of Holies this was only the second time that someone had dared to penetrate into this sacred spot Judaea had to pay tribute to Rome and was placed under the supervision of the Roman governor of Syria In 63 BC Judaea became a protectorate of Rome Coming under the administration of a governor Judaea was allowed a king the governor s business was to regulate trade and maximise tax revenue 76 In 57 55 BCE Aulus Gabinius proconsul of Syria split the former Hasmonean Kingdom into Galilee Samaria and Judea with five districts of legal and religious councils known as sanhedrin Greek synedrion synedrion And when he had ordained five councils synedria he distributed the nation into the same number of parts So these councils governed the people the first was at Jerusalem the second at Gadara the third at Amathus the fourth at Jericho and the fifth at Sepphoris in Galilee 77 78 Pompey and Caesar Edit Coin of Antigonus BCE 40 37 Julius Caesar initially supported Aristobulus against Hyrcanus and Antipater Between the weakness of Hyrcanus and the ambition of Aristobulus Judea lost its independence Aristobulus was taken to Rome a prisoner and Hyrcanus was reappointed High Priest but without political authority When in 50 BCE it appeared that Julius Caesar was interested in using Aristobulus and his family as his clients to take control of Judea from Hyrcanus and Antipater who were beholden to Pompey supporters of Pompey had Aristobulus poisoned in Rome and executed Alexander in Antioch However Pompey s pawns soon had occasion to turn to the other side At the beginning of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey Hyrcanus at the instance of Antipater prepared to support the man to whom he owed his position but when Pompey was murdered Antipater led the Jewish forces to the help of Caesar who was hard pressed at Alexandria His timely help and his influence over the Egyptian Jews recommended him to Caesar s favour and secured for him an extension of his authority in Palestine and for Hyrcanus the confirmation of his ethnarchy Joppa was restored to the Hasmonean domain Judea was granted freedom from all tribute and taxes to Rome and the independence of the internal administration was guaranteed 79 The timely aid from Antipater and Hyrcanus led the triumphant Caesar to ignore the claims of Aristobulus s younger son Antigonus the Hasmonean and to confirm Hyrcanus and Antipater in their authority despite their previous allegiance to Pompey Josephus noted Antigonus came to Caesar and accused Hyrcanus and Antipater how they had driven him and his brethren entirely out of their native country and that as to the assistance they had sent to Caesar into Egypt it was not done out of good will to him but out of the fear they were in from former quarrels and in order to gain pardon for their friendship to his enemy Pompey 80 Hyrcanus restoration as ethnarch in 47 BCE coincided with Caesar s appointment of Antipater as the first Roman Procurator allowing Antipater to promote the interests of his own house Caesar appointed Hyrcanus to be high priest and gave Antipater what principality he himself should choose leaving the determination to himself so he made him procurator of Judea 81 Antipater appointed his sons to positions of influence Phasael became Governor of Jerusalem and Herod Governor of Galilee This led to increasing tension between Hyrcanus and the family of Antipater culminating in a trial of Herod for supposed abuses in his governorship which resulted in Herod s flight into exile in 46 BCE Herod soon returned however and the honours to Antipater s family continued Hyrcanus incapacity and weakness were so manifest that when he defended Herod against the Sanhedrin and before Mark Antony the latter stripped Hyrcanus of his nominal political authority and his title bestowing them both upon the accused Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE and unrest and confusion spread throughout the Roman world including Judaea Antipater the Idumean was assassinated in 43 BCE by the Nabatean king Malichus I who had bribed one of Hyrcanus cup bearers to poison and kill Antipater However Antipater s sons managed to maintain their control over Judea and their father s puppet Hasmonean Hyrcanus Parthian invasion Antony Augustus Edit The taking of Jerusalem by Herod the Great 36 BCE sic Parthian Empire at its greatest extent c 60 BCEAfter Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BCE Quintus Labienus a Roman republican general and ambassador to the Parthians sided with Brutus and Cassius in the Liberators civil war after their defeat Labienus joined the Parthians and assisted them in invading Roman territories in 40 BCE The Parthian army crossed the Euphrates and Labienus was able to entice Mark Antony s Roman garrisons around Syria to rally to his cause The Parthians split their army and under Pacorus conquered the Levant from the Phoenician coast through the Land of Israel Antigonus roused the Parthians to invade Syria and Palestine and the Jews eagerly rose in support of the scion of the Maccabean house and drove out the hated Idumeans with their puppet Jewish king The struggle between the people and the Romans had begun in earnest and though Antigonus when placed on the throne by the Parthians proceeded to spoil and harry the Jews rejoicing at the restoration of the Hasmonean line thought a new era of independence had come 82 When Phasael and Hyrcanus II set out on an embassy to the Parthians the Parthians instead captured them Antigonus who was present cut off Hyrcanus s ears to make him unsuitable for the High Priesthood while Phasael was put to death Antigonus whose Hebrew name was Mattathias bore the double title of king and High Priest for only three years as he had not disposed of Herod the most dangerous of his enemies Herod fled into exile and sought the support of Mark Antony Herod was designated King of the Jews by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE Antonythen resolved to get Herod made king of the Jews and told the Senate that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king so they all gave their votes for it And when the senate was separated Antony and Caesar Augustus went out with Herod between them while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them in order to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods and to lay the decree in the Capitol Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign 83 The struggle thereafter lasted for some years as the main Roman forces were occupied with defeating the Parthians and had few additional resources to use to support Herod After the Parthians defeat Herod was victorious over his rival in 37 BCE Antigonus was delivered to Antony and executed shortly thereafter The Romans assented to Herod s proclamation as King of the Jews bringing about the end of the Hasmonean rule over Judea Herod and the end of the dynasty Edit Antigonus was not however the last Hasmonean The fate of the remaining male members of the family under Herod was not a happy one Aristobulus III grandson of Aristobulus II through his elder son Alexander was briefly made high priest but was soon executed 36 BCE due to Herod s jealousy His sister Mariamne was married to Herod but fell victim to his notorious jealousy Her sons by Herod Aristobulus IV and Alexander were in their adulthood also executed by their father Hyrcanus II had been held by the Parthians since 40 BCE For four years until 36 BCE he lived amid the Babylonian Jews who paid him every mark of respect In that year Herod who feared that Hyrcanus might induce the Parthians to help him regain the throne invited him to return to Jerusalem The Babylonian Jews warned him in vain Herod received him with every mark of respect assigning him the first place at his table and the presidency of the state council while awaiting an opportunity to get rid of him As the last remaining Hasmonean Hyrcanus was too dangerous a rival for Herod In the year 30 BCE charged with plotting with the King of Arabia Hyrcanus was condemned and executed The later Herodian rulers Agrippa I and Agrippa II both had Hasmonean blood as Agrippa I s father was Aristobulus IV son of Herod by Mariamne I but they were not direct male descendants unless Herod was understood as a Hasmonean as per the following synthesis According to Josephus Herod was also of Maccabean descent Eleazar Maccabeus called Auran brother of Judas Maccabeus Josephus Antiquity of the Jews 84 Book XII Chapter 9 Section 4 Jason son of Eleazar Ditto Book XII Chapter 10 Section 6 Antipater I son of Jason Ditto Book XIII Chapter 5 Section 8 Antipater II Antipas son of Antipater I Ditto Book XIV Chapter 1 Section 3 HerodLegacy and scholarship EditWhile the Hasmonean dynasty managed to create an independent Jewish kingdom its successes were rather short lived and the dynasty by and large failed to live up to the nationalistic momentum the Maccabee brothers had gained Jewish nationalism Edit The fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom marked an end to a century of Jewish self governance but Jewish nationalism and desire for independence continued under Roman rule beginning with the Census of Quirinius in AD 6 and leading to a series of Jewish Roman wars in the 1st 2nd centuries including the Great Revolt AD 66 73 the Kitos War 115 117 and Bar Kokhba s revolt 132 135 During the wars temporary commonwealths were established but they ultimately fell to the sustained might of Rome Roman legions under Vespasian and Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem looted and burned Herod s Temple in the year 70 and Jewish strongholds notably Gamla in 67 and Masada in 73 and enslaved or massacred a large part of the Jewish population The defeat of the Jewish revolts against the Roman Empire notably contributed to the numbers and geography of the Jewish Diaspora as many Jews were scattered after losing their state or were sold into slavery throughout the empire Jewish religious scholarship Edit Jewish tradition holds that the claiming of kingship by the later Hasmoneans led to their eventual downfall since that title was only to be held by descendants of the line of King David 85 The Hasmonean bureaucracy was filled with men with Greek names and the dynasty eventually became very Hellenised to the annoyance of many of its more traditionally minded Jewish subjects 86 87 Frequent dynastic quarrels also contributed to the view among Jews of later generations that the latter Hasmoneans were degenerate 88 One member of this school was Josephus whose accounts are in many cases our sole source of information about the Hasmoneans Historiography EditThe books of Maccabees use the names Judea and Israel or cognates as geographical descriptors throughout for both the land and people over whom the Hasmoneans would rule The Talmud includes one of the Hasmonean kings under the description Kings of Israel Scholars refer to the state as the Hasmonean Kingdom to distinguish it from the previous kingdoms of Israel The name Judaea has also been used to describe the Hasmonean Kingdom although this name reflects the later designation of the region under the Romans at the time of Josephus writings in the late 1st century Numismatics EditHasmonean coins usually featured the Paleo Hebrew script an older Phoenician script that was used to write Hebrew The coins are struck only in bronze The symbols include a cornucopia palm branch lily an anchor star pomegranate and rarely a helmet Despite the apparent Seleucid influences of most of the symbols the origin of the star is more obscure 89 Hasmonean leaders Edit Maccabees rebel leaders Edit Mattathias 170 167 BCE Judas Maccabeus 167 160 BCE Jonathan Apphus 160 143 BCE High Priest from 152 BCE Monarchs Ethnarchs and Kings and High Priests Edit Simon Thassi 142 135 BCE Ethnarch and High Priest John Hyrcanus I 134 104 BCE Ethnarch and High Priest Aristobulus I 104 103 BCE King and High Priest Alexander Jannaeus 103 76 BCE King and High Priest Salome Alexandra 76 67 BCE only Queen Hyrcanus II 67 66 BCE King from 67 BCE High Priest from 76 BCE Aristobulus II 66 63 BCE King and High Priest Hyrcanus II restored 63 40 BCE High Priest from 63 BCE Ethnarch from 47 BCE Antigonus 40 37 BCE King and High Priest Aristobulus III 36 BCE only High Priest Territorial expansion of the kingdom 167 80 BCE Judea under Judas Maccabeus Judea under Jonathan Apphus after conquest of Perea Hasmonean Kingdom under Simon Thassi Hasmonean Kingdom under John Hyrcanus after conquest of Samaria and Idumea Hasmonean Kingdom under Aristobulus I after conquest of Galilee Hasmonean Kingdom under Alexander Jannaeus after conquest of Iturea Hasmonean Kingdom under Salome Alexandra Roman Judea under Hyrcanus IISee also EditHasmonean coinage History of ancient Israel and Judah Hasmonean royal winter palaces List of Jewish states and dynasties Siege of Jerusalem 37 BC Temple in JerusalemReferences Edit Neusner 1983 p 911 Vermes 2014 p 36 Muraoka 1992 From Late Latin Asmonaei from Ancient Greek Ἀsamwnaῖoi Asamōnaioi For example Wood Leon James O Brien David 1986 1970 Between the Testaments A Survey of Israel s History revised ed Grand Rapids Michigan Zondervan p 365 ISBN 9780310347705 Retrieved 5 February 2022 The Hasmoneans would rule over an independent Israel that for a time would equal the boundaries of David and Solomon a b Louis H Feldman Steve Mason 1999 Flavius Josephus Brill Academic Publishers a b Maccabean Revolt obo Schafer 2003 pp 36 40 Livy s History of Rome Archived from the original on 19 August 2017 Retrieved 25 January 2007 a b Kasher Aryeh 1990 2 The Early Hasmonean Era Jews and Hellenistic cities in Eretz Israel Relations of the Jews in Eretz Israel with the Hellenistic cities during the Second Temple Period 332 BCE 70 CE Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum Vol 21 Tubingen Mohr Siebeck pp 55 65 ISBN 978 3 16 145241 3 Jewish Antiquities 12 263 1 2 3 a b Hart John Henry Arthur 1911 Asmoneus In Chisholm Hugh ed Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 2 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 763 Kenneth Atkinson 2016 A History of the Hasmonean State Josephus and Beyond Bloomsbury Publishing pp 23 ISBN 978 0 567 66903 2 P J Gott and Logan Licht Following Philo The Magdalene The Virgin The Men Called Jesus Bolivar Leonard Press 2015 243 Hooker Richard Yavan in the House of Shem Greeks and Jews 332 63 BC Retrieved 8 January 2006 World Civilizations Learning Modules Washington State University 1999 Schafer 2003 p 24 Schwartz 2009 p 30 Ginzberg Lewis Antiochus III The Great Retrieved 23 January 2007 Jewish Encyclopedia The Books of the Maccabees www britannica com Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 22 January 2021 Magness 2012 p 93 the impact of Hellenization caused deep divisions among the Jewish population Many of Jerusalem s elite families eagerly adopted Greek customs Schafer 2003 pp 43 44 the determined Jewish reformers who saw separation from the pagans as the cause of all misfortune Ginzberg Lewis The Tobiads and Oniads Retrieved 23 January 2007 Jewish Encyclopedia Levine Lee I Judaism and Hellenism in antiquity conflict or confluence Hendrickson Publishers 1998 pp 38 45 Via The Impact of Greek Culture on Normative Judaism 4 a b c Rubin Jody P July 1980 Celsus Decircumcision Operation Medical and Historical Implications Urology Elsevier 16 1 121 124 doi 10 1016 0090 4295 80 90354 4 PMID 6994325 Retrieved 30 January 2019 a b c Jewish Encyclopedia Circumcision In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature Contact with Grecian life especially at the games of the arena which involved nudity made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists or antinationalists and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm making themselves foreskins I Macc i 15 Josephus Ant xii 5 1 Assumptio Mosis viii I Cor vii 18 Tosef Shab xv 9 Yeb 72a b Yer Peah i 16b Yeb viii 9a All the more did the law observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus IV Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision I Macc i 48 60 ii 46 and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law even at the risk of their lives by themselves circumcising their sons Hodges Frederick M 2001 The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos Circumcision Foreskin Restoration and the Kynodesme PDF Bulletin of the History of Medicine Johns Hopkins University Press 75 Fall 2001 375 405 doi 10 1353 bhm 2001 0119 PMID 11568485 S2CID 29580193 Retrieved 30 January 2019 a b c Fredriksen Paula 2018 When Christians Were Jews The First Generation London Yale University Press pp 10 11 ISBN 978 0 300 19051 9 Stuckenbruck amp Gurtner 2019 p 100 Grabbe 2010 p 15 Antiochus IV Epiphanes virtualreligion net Flavius Josephus The Wars of the Jews Book I Whiston chapter pr www perseus tufts edu Oesterley W O E A History of Israel Oxford Clarendon Press 1939 a b Nicholas de Lange ed The Illustrated History of the Jewish People London Aurum Press 1997 ISBN 1 85410 530 2 page needed Telushkin Joseph 1991 Jewish Literacy The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion Its People and Its History W Morrow p 114 ISBN 978 0 688 08506 3 Johnston Sarah Iles 2004 Religions of the Ancient World A Guide Harvard University Press p 186 ISBN 978 0 674 01517 3 Greenberg Irving 1993 The Jewish Way Living the Holidays Simon amp Schuster p 29 ISBN 978 0 671 87303 5 Schultz Joseph P 1981 Judaism and the Gentile Faiths Comparative Studies in Religion Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press p 155 ISBN 978 0 8386 1707 6 Modern scholarship on the other hand considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppresion than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp Gundry Robert H 2003 A Survey of the New Testament Zondervan p 9 ISBN 978 0 310 23825 6 Freedman David Noel Allen C Myers Astrid B Beck 2000 Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible Wm B Eerdmans Publishing p 837 ISBN 978 0 8028 2400 4 a b Tcherikover Victor Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews New York Atheneum 1975 Wood Leon James 1986 A Survey of Israel s History Zondervan p 357 ISBN 978 0 310 34770 5 Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans Primary Readings by Louis H Feldman Meyer Reinhold Fortress Press 1996 p 147 Doran Robert Revolt of the Maccabees September 2006 Retrieved 7 March 2007 The National Interest 2006 via The Free Library by Farlex The name may be related to the Aramaic word for hammer or may be derived from an acronym of the Jewish battle cry Mi Kamocha B elim YHWH Who is like you among the heavenly powers GOD Exodus 15 11 MKBY Mem Kaf Bet and Yud Bickerman Elias J Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees Schocken 1962 Via 5 Morkholm 2008 p 290 Morkholm 2008 pp 287 90 1 Maccabees 7 7 via Bentwich Norman Josephus The Jewish Publication Society of America Philadelphia 1914 Bet Ḥoglah for Bh8alaga in Josephus 1 Macc has Baidbasὶ perhaps Bet Bosem or Bet Bassim spice house near Jericho 1 Maccabees 9 55 73 Josephus l c xiii 1 5 6 1 Maccabees 10 1 46 Josephus Ant xiii 2 1 4 1 Maccabees 10 51 66 Josephus Ant xiii 4 1 Gottheil Richard Krauss Samuel Jonathan Apphus Retrieved 3 March 2017 Jewish Encyclopedia 1 Maccabees 10 67 89 10 1 7 Josephus l c xiii 4 3 5 1 Maccabees 9 20 Josephus l c xiii 4 9 1 Maccabees 9 21 52 Josephus l c xiii 4 9 5 2 3 R E J xlv 34 1 Maccabees 11 52 59 1 Maccabees 9 53 74 Josephus l c xiii 5 3 7 1 Maccabees 12 33 48 Josephus l c xiii 5 10 6 1 3 143 BCE 1 Maccabees 13 12 30 Josephus l c xiii 6 5 Josephus Vita 1 1 Maccabees 14 36 Mazar Benjamin 1975 The Mountain of the Lord Doubleday amp Company Inc pp 70 71 216 ISBN 978 0 385 04843 9 1 Maccabees 8 17 20 Josephus The Jewish Wars 1 61 Niebuhr Barthold Georg Niebuhr Marcus Carsten Nicolaus von 1852 Lectures on Ancient History Taylor Walton and Maberly p 465 via Internet Archive Grypus Cyzicenus Josephus The Antiquities of the Jews Book XIII Chapter 10 Gruen Erich S 1998 Heritage and Hellenism The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition University of California Press ISBN 978 0520929197 via Google Books Fuller John Mee 1893 Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Bible Concept Publishing Company ISBN 978 8172680954 via Google Books Sievers 142 On the destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim by John Hyrcanus see for instance Menahem Mor The Persian Hellenistic and Hasmonean Period in The Samaritans ed Alan D Crown Tubingen Mohr Siebeck 1989 1 18 Jonathan Bourgel 2016 The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus A Reconsideration Journal of Biblical Literature 135 153 3 505 doi 10 15699 jbl 1353 2016 3129 See also idem The Samaritans during the Hasmonean Period The Affirmation of a Discrete Identity Religions 2019 10 11 628 Josephus Ant xiii 9 1 via Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews in Flavii Iosephi opera ed B Niese Weidmann Berlin 1892 book 13 9 1 Sean Freyne Galilean Studies Old Issues and New Questions in Jurgen Zangenberg Harold W Attridge Dale B Martin eds Religion Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Galilee A Region in Transition Mohr Siebeck 2007 pp 13 32 p 25 Jane Taylor 2001 Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans London I B Tauris pp 46 47 ISBN 978 1860645082 Retrieved 23 July 2016 a b Lyons George Josephus Wars Book I Hooker Richard The Hebrews The Diaspora Retrieved 8 January 2006 World Civilizations Learning Modules Washington State University 1999 Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews Book 1 Whiston chapter pr www perseus tufts edu Josephus uses synedrion for the first time in connection with the decree of the Roman governor of Syria Gabinius 57 BCE who abolished the constitution and the then existing form of government of Palestine and divided the country into five provinces at the head of each of which a sanhedrin was placed Ant xiv 5 4 via Jewish Encyclopedia Sanhedrin Bentwich Josephus Chapter I The Jews and the Romans http www interhack net projects library wars jews b1c10 htmlM permanent dead link Josephus Antiquities of the Jews William Whiston translation xiv 140 at 6 Bentwich Chapter I Josephus Wars Book I earlyjewishwritings com The Works of Flavius Josephus www ccel org Catherwood Christopher 2011 A Brief History of the Middle East Hachette Book Group ISBN 978 0762441020 Eyal Regev 2013 The Hasmoneans Ideology Archaeology Identity Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht p 18 ISBN 978 3647550435 Elon Gilad 23 December 2014 Meet the Hasmoneans A Brief History of a Violent Epoch Haaretz Harkabi Yehoshafat 1983 The Bar Kokhba Syndrome Risk and Realism in International Politics Rossel Books p 72 ISBN 978 0940646018 Finkelstein Louis The Cambridge History of Judaism Volume 1 Cambridge University Press pp 32 28 Sources Edit Morkholm Otto 2008 Antiochus IV In William David Davies Louis Finkelstein eds The Cambridge History of Judaism Volume 2 The Hellenistic Age Cambridge University Press pp 278 291 ISBN 978 0 521 21929 7 Grabbe Lester L 12 August 2010 An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah the Maccabees Hillel and Jesus A amp C Black ISBN 978 0 567 55248 8 Stuckenbruck Loren T Gurtner Daniel M 2019 T amp T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism Volume One Bloomsbury Publishing pp 100 ISBN 978 0 567 65813 5 Flavius Josephus 1895 Whiston William ed The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus the Celebrated Jewish Historian Philadelphia John E Potter amp Company Schafer Peter 2003 The History of the Jews in the Greco Roman World Second Edition London Routledge ISBN 0 415 30587 X Muraoka T 1992 Studies in Qumran Aramaic Peeters ISBN 978 9068314199 Neusner J 1983 Jews in Iran In Yarshater Ehsan ed The Cambridge History of Iran Volume 3 2 the Seleucid Parthian and Sasanian periods Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521246934 The Hasmoneans in Jewish Historiography Samuel Schafler Diss DHL Jewish Theological Seminary of America New York 1973 Vermes Geza 2014 The True Herod Bloomsbury ISBN 978 0567488411 Schafer Peter 2003 The History of the Jews in the Greco Roman World Psychology Press ISBN 978 0 415 30585 3 Magness Jodi 2012 The Archaeology of the Holy Land From the Destruction of Solomon s Temple to the Muslim Conquest Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 12413 3 Schwartz Seth 2009 Imperialism and Jewish Society 200 B C E to 640 C E Princeton University Press ISBN 978 1 4008 2485 4 Further reading EditAtkinson Kenneth A History of the Hasmonean State Josephus and Beyond New York Bloomsbury T amp T Clark 2016 Berthelot Katell In Search of the Promised Land The Hasmonean Dynasty between Biblical Models and Hellenistic Diplomacy Gottingen Vandenhoek amp Ruprecht 2017 494 pp ISBN 978 3 525 55252 0 Davies W D Louis Finkelstein and William Horbury The Cambridge History of Judaism Vol 2 Hellenistic Age Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1989 Derfler Steven Lee The Hasmonean Revolt rebellion or revolution Lewiston E Mellen Press 1989 Eshel Hanan Dead Sea scrolls and the Hasmonean state Jerusalem Yad Ben Zvi Pr 2008 Schafer Peter The History of the Jews In the Greco Roman World 2nd ed London Routledge 2003 External links EditJewish Encyclopedia Hasmoneans The Impact of Greek Culture on Normative Judaism from the Hellenistic Period through the Middle Ages c 330 BC AD 1250 The Reign of the Hasmoneans Archived 21 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine Crash Course in Jewish History Under the Influence Hellenism in Ancient Jewish Life Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Biblical Archaeology Society Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hasmonean dynasty amp oldid 1136336009, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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