The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (19 page)

While the Ptolemies had gained control of Egypt, another Greek dynasty, the Seleucids, attained supremacy in Babylon. Seleucus I Nicator, the son of the Macedonian Antiochus, was the first of the rulers
(diadochoi)
to govern Syria.
²⁸
His heirs expanded the territory to the east and west.
²⁹
Their influence covered part of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), Palestine, and parts of Mesopotamia. Originally, Seleucia had three nerve centers: Ionia (Sardis in Asia Minor), Syria (Antioch), and Babylonia. Eventually, the kingdom was reduced to Syria. The Seleucids and the Ptolemies engaged in constant battles over Palestine. In the end, Ptolemy V lost Israel in 198 BC at Paneas to Antiochus III of Syria. After this battle control of Palestine passed from Egyptian to Syrian hands, never to return.

The Seleucid or Syrian Period (198–167 BC)
Syrian control over Palestine lasted only 31 years.
³⁰
The tenuous nature of this control is seen in their defeat at Magnesia by the Romans. Here Antiochus III had “made a poor decision and a bad enemy.”
³¹
Not only was heavy tribute enacted, but his son, Antiochus IV, was sent to Rome as a hostage. The Romans imposed an exorbitant monthly tribute, which partially explains Antiochus IV's leadership over the region when he took the empire from his elder brother, Seleucus IV.
³²
The large tax burden impacted the way in which Antiochus chose the Jewish high priest in Jerusalem, accepting bribes in exchange for awarding the office.

Antiochus IV called himself “Epiphanes”—“the Glorious One”—implying he was the incarnation of Zeus on earth. But the Jews coined a play on words and dubbed him “Epimanes”—“the Madman.” His program of aggressive Hellenization outraged the Jews.
³³
The desire for the spread of Greek culture and the need for great amounts of money to pay Rome led Antiochus IV to look to the Jerusalem temple treasures with ever-increasing
avarice.
³⁴
This desire for cultural expansion and the need for additional financial resources presented an opportunity for Jason—the brother of the high priest Onias III, who was possibly pro-Egyptian and a theological conservative—to suggest Onias's removal as high priest. Jason promised Antioch some 440 talents of silver and offered to aid in the further Hellenization of Israel through the building of a gymnasium and granting citizenship to the men of Israel as citizens of Antioch (2 Macc 4:7–13).

Three years later, now as the high priest, Jason sent Menelaus with the yearly tribute to Antioch. Menelaus seized the opportunity and increased the bribe by 300 talents of silver, taking the high priesthood from Jason. Selling the priesthood to Jason had been an unrighteous thing to do, but selling it to the non-Zadokite Menelaus showed a blatant disregard for the customs of the Jews. Consequently, sedition, brutality, and murder characterized Menelaus's reign.

Antiochus attempted to annex Egypt with some early success. However, in 168 BC the Ptolemies enlisted the aid of the new world power on the horizon—Rome. Confronting Antiochus outside of Alexandria, the Roman Legate Popilius Laenas insisted that Antiochus retreat or face the wrath of Rome. Antiochus agreed to consider the request. But Laenas drew a circle around the Syrian monarch and, in essence, said, “Take all the time you need—but you must answer before you leave that circle.” Antiochus withdrew, humiliated (Polybius,
Hist.
6.36).

While Antiochus was gone, Jason—who thought Antiochus was dead—briefly ousted Menelaus. Antiochus savagely crushed the attempt—on a Sabbath—murdering men, women, and children. He confiscated the golden temple furniture (perhaps planning another attempt at securing Egypt), built a fortress on the western hill of Jerusalem, and filled it with his loyal troops. Not the least of his outrageous actions was Menelaus's admittance of a Gentile (Antiochus) into the temple.

Antiochus, perhaps seeing the pious as the main source of the opposition, repressed the cultic practices of Israel.
³⁵
His
attempt to ban Judaism
represented the
third great crisis
that affected the Jews and indelibly imprinted him in the social and religious consciousness of Judaism. In instituting the ban, he prohibited possession of the Torah, circumcision, festivals, and offerings to Yahweh. Perhaps the most devastating of all of Antiochus' measures was the dedication of the Jerusalem temple to Zeus, the head of the Greek pantheon. In so doing, Antiochus erected a statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar.

Those families who resisted and clung to Judaism were horribly treated. Men and women were beaten with rods. Mothers who circumcised their children were crucified with their babies hung around their necks, and the sacred books were confiscated and those holding them executed (Josephus,
Ant.
12.250–56; 1 Macc 1:61). These atrocities clearly outraged pious Jews.

The conflict came to a head when an emissary of Antiochus came to the village of Modein to gain the loyalty of its citizens (Josephus,
Ant.
12.265–78). An old priest named Mattathias was offered the prestige of being a friend of the king plus gold and silver if he made an offering to the gods.
³⁶
Mattathias refused. When a fellow Jew offered to take the money and make the sacrifice, Mattathias killed him and the envoy and then fled into the wilderness, sparking a Jewish resistance movement (1 Macc 2:15–28).

Jewish Self-Rule (167–63 BC)

The Maccabees (167–135 BC)
The Maccabean period is named for the third son of Mattathias, Judas.
³⁷
Nicknamed “Maccabeus,” “the hammer,”
³⁸
he led a guerilla war against the Seleucids. Although Judas was a brilliant tactician, leader, and diplomat, the Maccabees' success was due as much to Syria's problems with the Eastern Parthian Empire as to Judas's leadership. The Maccabees ultimately rose from a country priesthood to overthrow the metropolitan aristocracy and eventually replaced it with their own.
³⁹

Due to Judas Maccabeus's efforts, in 165 BC Antiochus's representative, Lysias, rescinded the ban on Judaism. The next year Judas led in a cleansing of the temple, commemorated to this day as the December Feast of Lights, an eight-day feast known as Hannukah that falls in late December. Menelaus was still the high priest, however, and the condition for the restoration was continued loyalty to the Syrian Empire (2 Macc 11:16–21).

Nevertheless, the Maccabees wanted national autonomy. When Antiochus died in 163 BC, the struggle over his kingdom aided the Jewish quest for independence. Lysias, regent for Antiochus V, was too distracted by rivals on the home front to eliminate successfully Judas's army. Demetrius I took control of Syria soon afterwards.
⁴⁰
Eventually, Judas won back the state of affairs before Antiochus IV had taken the throne. Judas died in battle in 160 BC at the hands of Nicanor, one of Demetrius's colonels.

Judas's brother, Jonathan, won further freedom from the Syrians in 157 BC. He masterfully worked the levers of political gamesmanship to secure a better position for Israel. However, in violation of the commands of Scripture, he accepted the office of high priest
from one of the other claimants to the Syrian throne in 153/52 BC. There is no record of local opposition to this irregularity, though many believe that Jonathan's action prompted the exodus of the group that formed the Qumran community to the area near the Dead Sea.
⁴¹
In the continuing struggle Jonathan was captured by Trypho and executed in 143 BC even though a ransom had been paid (1 Macc 13:23).

The youngest and only surviving brother, Simon, continued the resistance and achieved the benchmark of national autonomy. The political theater that was Syria continued to play into the Hasmoneans' favor (named after Hasmon, great-grandfather of Mattathias).
⁴²
In order to secure his support, Simon demanded release from tribute (taxation) from Demetrius II in return for military support against other claimants. Demetrius, desperate for help, agreed. In 142 BC, after securing the outer areas of the city, Simon captured the Syrian citadel in Jerusalem (called the Akra). This marks the beginning of national autonomy for Israel.

The Jewish nation gave Simon the high priesthood and vested in him military, religious, and executive privileges. Simon's installation in the executive and religious branches of government (a departure from the biblical teachings) marked the slide into despotism. From here, the descendants of the Maccabees declined into a selfish group of Hellenizing despots. After a reign characterized by economic prosperity and relative peace, Simon and two of his sons were murdered by his son-in-law Ptolemy. The surviving son, Hyrcanus, escaped and defeated Ptolemy (Josephus,
Ant.
20.240;
Jewish War
1.54).

The Hasmoneans (135–63 BC)
Despite Simon's breakthrough, the years between 142 and 135 BC continued to be unsettled. John Hyrcanus (135/34–104 BC) was the first of the Hasmonean rulers. The Syrians briefly gained control of some coastal cities for four or five years but were pushed back eventually. Hyrcanus led an expansion of Judean territories into Moab and Idumea. He forced the circumcision of the Idumeans and thus paved the way for Herod the Great in NT times. While Hyrcanus is generally regarded as a theological conservative, he switched his association from the Pharisees to the Sadducees (Josephus,
Ant.
13.296).

Upon the death of Hyrcanus I, his son Aristobulus I (104–103 BC) proclaimed himself king, becoming the first of the Hasmonean rulers to take that title. He conquered Galilee and founded Jewish settlements there. Aristobulus died of an unknown disease after only one year of rule (Josephus,
Ant.
13.301–17). Upon Aristobulus's sudden death in 103 BC, his widow, Salome Alexandra, appointed Alexander Janneus, Aristobulus's older brother, as high priest and king and then promptly married him.

Alexander Janneus (103–76 BC) ruled as a Hellenistic king.
⁴³
He expanded the country to Solomonic proportions with the use of foreign mercenaries but cared nothing for the spiritual duties of a high priest. He alienated the populace and had to quell a popular rebellion with the use of his foreign mercenaries. The rebels, ironically, called on Demetrius III (a Syrian king!) to help them against the Hasmonean ruler. Alexander was on the verge of defeat, but at the last minute, for unknown reasons, 6,000 Jews reverted to Alexander and helped avert a certain rout.
⁴⁴
Alexander took gruesome revenge on his opponents. While he was feasting with his concubines, 800 of his most die-hard opponents were crucified while their wives' and children's throats were slit at their feet.
⁴⁵
Alexander continued his
expansionist policies until he died from an alcohol-induced illness. Upon his death he gave the kingdom to his wife Salome Alexandra, who reigned from 76 until 67 BC (Josephus,
Ant.
13.407).

SIDEBAR 2.2: THE ORIGINS OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES

Sometime during the Maccabean/Hasmonean reign the Pharisees came to prominence. They were “the most clearly recognizable and socially active group over the entire span of time.”
¹
Exactly when the Pharisees and Sadducees arose is unknown.
²
Josephus first mentioned them as established groups during the reign of Jonathan but did not explain their origins
(Ant.
13.171-73). By the time of the reign of Hyrcanus, the two groups were clearly in opposition. Politically, the Pharisees were lay leaders who were the power brokers between the masses and the aristocracy. They were scrupulous about the law and viewed themselves as separate from those who were lax about keeping it.
³

The Sadducees are even more shrouded in mystery. The derivation of the name
Sadducee
is uncertain. It is possible that it comes from the name
Zadok
, but this is far from certain; others trace the name back to the term
tsedek
, “righteousness.” They were more connected to the aristocracy and observed only the Pentateuch. Josephus attributed to them a denial of divine sovereignty. The major discussion in the NT involving the Sadducees involves the resurrection, which they denied (Matt 22:23–33 and parallels; Acts 23:6–8). No known Sadducean document exists. The Sadducees were the major supporters of the Hasmonean dynasty.

The Hasidim, on the other hand, a pious Jewish group that had initially been supportive of the Hasmoneans, eventually turned against them. They split into two main groups: the Pharisees, who remained in Jerusalem; and the Essenes, who withdrew and most likely produced the Qumran sectarian literature known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
⁴
Except for the reign of Salome Alexandra (see below), none of the Hasmoneans enjoyed the support of the Pharisees.

__________________________

¹
R. Deines, “The Pharisees Between ‘Judaisms’ and ‘Common Judaism,’” in
Justification and Variegated Nomism
, vol. 1:
The Complexities of Second Temple Judaism
, ed. D. A. Carson, P. T. O'Brien, and M. A. Seifrid (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 447.

²
So much so that in a recent book on the Pharisees the question is not addressed in detail: see J. Neusner and B. D. Chilton, eds.,
In Quest of the Historical Pharisee
s
(Waco: Baylor Univ. Press, 2007).

³
See S. Mason, “Pharisees,” in
Dictionary of New Testament Backgroun
d
, 786.

⁴
See further below.

Salome Alexandra was the only queen of the Hasmonean line. She appointed her oldest son Hyrcanus II as high priest, and her youngest son Aristobulus II commanded the armies. She repaired the relationship with the Pharisees, who during her reign dominated the Sanhedrin. Salome Alexandra reigned relatively peacefully for nine years. Upon her death in 67 BC, her heirs contended for the kingdom.