GREEK CONTROL OF JUDAEA AND THE MACCABAEAN REVOLT

By 327 BCE, Alexander the Great of Macedonia and his armies had conquered and taken control of the entire Persian Empire – from Egypt to northwestern India. After Alexander died at Babylon in 323 BCE, apparently leaving no heir to the throne, his empire was “divided up” amongst his generals. One of these generals, Seleucus I, took control of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia eastward through Iran to northern India. Another general, Ptolemy I took control of Egypt and Judah-Israel, or Judaea.

In 201 BCE, after a decade of battles, the grandson of General Seleucus, Antiochus III, who was then king of Greek Syria, finally defeated the Greek-Egyptian army of Ptolemy V, and as a result, brought Judaea under the control of his rebuilt Seleucid empire. Thirty-three years later, after another Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, occupied Jerusalem in 168 BCE to quell yet another Jewish rebellion, the Samaritans, as a final cultural revenge for their rejection and isolation by the returning Jews of “the Exile,” dedicated their temple – built at Mount Gerizim at Shechem (modern day Nablus on the West Bank) – to the supreme Greek god, Zeus. As the new Overlord of Judaea, Antiochus IV in 167 BCE tried to impose Hellenistic culture, customs, and religious practices upon the Jews, even re-dedicating the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to Zeus. These policies, as you might imagine, did not sit very well with many, and a priest named Mattathias, along with his five sons, went into the mountains and organized a rebellion against the Greeks. After Mattathias’ death around 166 BCE, his group of Jewish fighters, under the leadership of one of his five sons, Judas Maccabaeus, revolted in an organized guerilla campaign against the Seleucid Greeks and their Syrian army in Judaea. Maccabaeus and his forces were able to wrest Jerusalem from Greek control and re-consecrate the Temple in 164 BCE. These events are now celebrated in the festival of Hannukah.(16) The victory over the Seleucid Greeks by Judas Maccabaeus and his men initiated the century-long, priest-king, Hasmonean Dynasty of the Maccabees, which lasted until 63 BCE, when a political group of scholars known as the Pharisees begged the Roman General Pompey to bring Roman rule to Judea in order to restore order to a land of warring Jewish princes.

Circa 160 BCE, Judas Maccabaeus was killed in battle against Seleucid Greeks in Syria. His brother Jonathan Maccabaeus then became High Priest in Jerusalem and officially established the Hasmonean Dynasty. Jonathan was assassinated around 142 BCE and was succeeded by his brother Simon, who was then recognized as the High Priest of all Judaea. In 134 BCE, Simon was also assassinated, and his son John (later to call himself Hyrcanus I) ascended the priestly throne of a prosperous kingdom. He became, however, seduced by desires for empire, and he also decided, for the first time in the history of religion, to spread his faith by the sword. He persecuted the Samaritans and destroyed their temples to Zeus. He also attacked the Semitic tribal confederation of the Edomites and gave them the choice of exile and deportation, or conversion to Judaism. Hyrcanus I’s son, Aristobulus, like his father, consolidated and expanded the Hasmonean kingdom of Judaea by conquering the territory of the former northern kingdom of Israel into the Galilee.

During this time, a political organization of religious scholars known as the Pharisees, who had come together in the 2nd century BCE to oppose the pagan influences of Hellenistic culture on Jewish society, voiced their protest against the now militant imperialism of the Hasmonean monarchy. This Jewish priest-king dynasty, which had, over a century, come to control most of Israel-Judah, or Judaea, was supported in its program of expansionism and religious persecution by a group of conservative, priestly social elites known as the Sadducees. As to the supreme authority in Jewish law, the Sadducees rejected the Oral Law (the Talmud) in favor of the Torah only. The Pharisees, on the other hand, accepted both the Torah and the Oral Law.(17) This, however, was not the primary reason why a civil war broke out between the supporters of these two groups during the reign of Aristobulus’ brother and successor, Alexander Jannaeus. The reason for this conflict was that the Pharisees saw the imperial and religious persecution policies of the Hasmonean rulers as detrimental to Judaism and the Jewish people, and the Sadducees, being quite comfortable with their social positions within the Palace power structure, naturally supported and endorsed its policies. For their opposition to royal policy, the Jewish, Hasmonean king, Alexander Jannaeus, put 6,000 Pharisees to death, exiled another 8,000 to Egypt, and CRUCIFIED the 800 Pharisee rebels who had captured one of his forts. As they hung from their crosses and slowly perished, the throats of their wives and children were slit before their eyes. As Jewish kings went, Jannaeus was certainly a far cry from the wise King Solomon of the 10th century BCE. Upon his death, Jannaeus’ queen, Alexandra, succeeded him. It was she who then favored the Pharisees. Of course, now that they were the ones favored by the Palace and the Queen, the Pharisees then started a persecution campaign against some of their old enemies. This campaign began with a series of judicial murders, and finally, in 63 BCE, it was the Pharisees who appealed to the Roman General Pompey to abolish the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty over the country; to stop the dynastic warring of its princes; and to place the country’s management under that of Rome.(18)