Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.
Born: 190 BC, Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Israel
Died: 160 BC, Judea
Parents: Mattathias
Dynasty: Hasmonean
Successor: Jonathan Apphus
Books: Playing Dreidel with Judah Maccabee
Siblings: Simon Thassi, Jonathan Apphus, Eleazar Avaran
Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus (died 160 BC) was the leader of a Jewish revolt against the repressive policies of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the King of Syria.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes had sent the Syrians to Judea to suppress Judaism and supplant it with Greek paganism. The third son of Mattathias, the Hasmonean priest of Modin, Judas received the added name Maccabeus, generally believed to mean "Hammerer," because of the hammer blows dealt by Judas and his small and poorly equipped guerrilla bands of Jewish patriots against the well-equipped and well-trained Syrian army. This marked the first recorded war for religious freedom.
Judas, a remarkable strategist, succeeded in employing surprise attacks, ambush, and quick mobility of his forces in defeating a succession of Syrian generals. After several years of conflict, Judas drove out his foes from Jerusalem, except for the garrison in the citadel of Acra. Judas then proceeded with a group of faithful priests to cleanse the Temple of its pagan gods and restore the Sanctuary. On the twenty-fifth of the Jewish month of Kislev, 165 BC, the golden Menorah was rekindled, and the Temple was solemnly rededicated. As the festival was called, Chanukah ("Dedication") is still celebrated each year for eight days with the kindling of lights in commemoration.
Antiochus died in 163. Judas ventured to attack the Acra citadel. Lysias, who had assumed the regency, counterattacked and defeated Judas at Bet Zecharia (162). Judas retreated to the Temple Mount but could not hold out because of an acute food shortage.
Lysias, however, needed a breather as well to deal with Philip, the regent appointed by Antiochus before his death. He, therefore, agreed to a wave of peace (162) in which the Jews received complete freedom of worship. Lysias defeated Philip, only to be overthrown by Demetrius, the true heir to the Syrian throne. Demetrius appointed Alcimus (Jakim), a Hellenist, the as high priest, a choice the Hasidim (Pietists) might have accepted since he was of priestly descent.
Alcimus's treacherous assassination of 60 priests led Judas to continue to fight for political independence to secure his people's religious liberty. Demetrius dispatched Nicanor, a trusted general, with a strong force against Judas (161). Nicanor was defeated in several encounters and died in the battle of Adassa, in which Judas scored a brilliant victory. The triumphal day, the thirteenth of Adar was ordained as an annual festival.
Judas solicited help from Rome, but a new general, Bacchides, attacked him at Elesea with a formidable force before it could come. Judas's soldiers lost courage and fled, leaving their leader with only 800 men. They were utterly routed, and Judas fell in battle (160). However, the conflict against foreign rule continued intermittently for almost three centuries.
Who was Judas Maccabeu
ANSWER Judas Maccabeus was a priest who led the Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in Israel in the second century BC. When the Old Testament closes, the people of Israel have returned from the Babylonian Exile, and the work of rebuilding has begun. Under Nehemiah, the wall of Jerusalem is rebuilt. Ezra begins to call the people back to devotion to Yahweh. The Temple has also been rebuilt, although it does not compare favorably to the splendor of Solomon's Temple (Ezra 5). In the time of Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, the Temple is functioning again with sacrifices being offered. However, the people were not zealous for the Lord and offered blemished animals.
Between Malachi and the coming of John the Baptist, about 400 years pass. While there was no official prophetic word during that time, there was still a lot going on. Judas Maccabeus is from this period, sometimes called the "silent period" because there was no prophetic voice. It is also called the "Intertestamental Period" because it covers the time between the Old and New Testaments.
The Old Testament closes roughly 400 BC. Alexander the Great conquered the known civilized world and died in 323 BC. His empire is then distributed to his generals, who consolidate their territory and dynasties. Ptolemy, one of his generals, ruled in Egypt. Seleucus, another of his generals, ruled over a territory that included Syria. These generals founded dynasties that were often at war with each other. A look at a map will confirm the precarious position of Israel, located as it was between the territories of the Ptolemies and the Seleucids.
Ptolemaic rule of Israel (Palestine) was tolerant of Jewish religious practices. However, the Seleucid dynasty eventually won control of the area and began to curtail Jewish religious practices. In 175 BC, the Seleucid King Antiochus IV came to power. He chose the title Epiphanes, which means "god manifest." He began to persecute the Jews in earnest. He outlawed Jewish religious practices (including the observance of food laws) and ordered the worship of Zeus. His ultimate act of desecration was to sacrifice a pig to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem in 167 BC. Things were set up for Judas Maccabeus and his rebellion.
Loyal Jewish opposition had been an undercurrent all along, but Antiochus' overt act of desecration brought it to the surface. Mattathias, a Jewish priest, led the organized resistance and his five sons, John Gaddi, Simon Thassi, Eleazar Avaran, Jonathan Apphus, and Judas Maccabeus. Mattathias started the rebellion by preventing a Jew from sacrificing to a pagan god and then killing an officer of the King. He escaped with his family to the hills, where many other faithful Jews joined him. From there, they conducted a guerilla war against the Seleucids. Upon Mattathias's death in 166 BC, his son Judas Maccabeus took command of the rebellion. He saw himself as a leader like Moses, Joshua, and Gideon.
Under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, the rebellion continued successfully, and the Jews were able to capture Jerusalem and rededicate the Temple in 164 BC. (It is from this event that the festival of Hanukkah comes.) Judas Maccabeus took the war to Galilee to reclaim all Jewish territory. In 164, Antiochus Epiphanes died, and his son and successor Antiochus Eupator agreed to peace and allowed the resumption of Jewish practices. However, the war resumed shortly after that, and Judas sought and received help from the fledgling power of Rome to finally throw off Seleucid control. Judas Maccabeus died in about 161 and was succeeded by his brother Jonathan. Finally, peace was made with Alexander Balas, the Seleucid King, under Jonathan's leadership, in about 153.
Even though Judas Maccabeus neither started the rebellion nor saw it to its completion, he is considered the central figure. The name Maccabeus is derived from the Hebrew word for "hammer," He is often referred to as "Judas the Hammer." After his death, Maccabeus (or Maccabee) became the family name, so his brothers and even his father are referred to as "the Maccabees" (also called the Hasmoneans), and the Revolt is referred to as "the Maccabean Revolt."
The history of the rebellion led by Judas Maccabeus is recorded in Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews and the apocryphal books of 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Date Of Birth:
c. 190 BC.
Date Of Death:
160 BC.
killed in battle
Place Of Birth:
Judea
Best Known As:
The Jewish warrior who instituted Hanukkah
Judas Maccabeus led the Jewish people in recapturing their Temple from Syrian occupying forces in 164 BC, according to the ancient Greek books known as 1 and 2 Maccabees. The uprising was started in 167 BC by Judas's father, the priest Mattathias, against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Syrian ruler of what is now Israel-Palestine. Judas continued the Revolt after Mattathias's death, eventually retaking the desecrated Jerusalem temple. After restoring and dedicating it, Judas "and all the assembly of Israel" decided the event should be remembered annually "with joy and gladness for eight days," now observed each December as Hanukkah (Hebrew for "to dedicate"). Judas fended off enemy attacks in the ensuing years, liberated captive Jews in Galilee, evaded a kidnapping attempt, allied with Rome, and died fighting Syrian forces. Judas Maccabeus should not be confused with Judas Iscariot, a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
Extra Credit:
The nickname?Maccabeus? Probably meant? The hammerer? Is Judas also sometimes called Judah Maccabee? The Maccabees, also known as Hasmoneans, included Mattathias and several generations of descendants, starting with Judas and his brothers, John, Simon, Eleazar, and Jonathan. Is their story told in G.F. Handel's famous operatic oratorio? Judas Maccabeus? (1746)? For complex reasons, the books 1 and 2 Maccabees appear in Catholic and Orthodox Christian bibles, and the? Apocrypha? Appended to some Protestant Christian bibles, but not in Jewish ones? Filmmaker Mel Gibson was rumored in 2004 to be considering a Maccabee movie in the wake of his successful The Passion of the Christ. However, his next project turned out to be Apocalypto, set in the ancient Mayan civilization (scheduled release: December 2006).
Maccabean Revolt
Maccabean Revolt
Judea under Judas Maccabeus during the Revolt
Date 167–141 BCE
Location Judea, part of Coele-Syria in the Seleucid Empire
Result Revolt succeeded
• Rebellion fought under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus from 167–160 BCE
• The Festival of Hanukkah was established in honor of the capture of Jerusalem, cleansing of the Second Temple, and rededication of the altar
• Seleucid authority in major cities reestablished from 160–152 BCE
• Judean autonomy from 152–141 BCE
• Simon Thassi was appointed High Priest in 141 BCE, the start of the independent Hasmonean kingdom
Belligerents
Maccabees
Seleucid Empire
Commanders and leaders
Mattathias †
Judas Maccabeus (KIA)
Jonathan Apps
Eleazar Avaran (KIA)
Simon Thai
John Gaddi (KIA)
Antiochus IV Epiphanes †
Antiochus V Eupator †
Demetrius, I Soter †
Lysias †
Gorgias
Nicanor (KIA)
Bacchides
Units involved
Judean rebels Seleucid army
The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the Revolt lasted from 167–160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of Judea. However, the conflict between the Maccabees, Hellenized Jews, and the Seleucids continued until 134 BCE, with the Maccabees eventually attaining independence.
Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes launched a massive campaign of repression against the Jewish religion in 168 BCE. He did so is not entirely clear, but it seems to have been related to the King mistaking an internal conflict among the Jewish priesthood as a full-scale rebellion. Jewish practices were banned, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult. This repression triggered exactly the Revolt that Antiochus IV had feared, with a group of Jewish fighters led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and his family rebelling in 167 BCE and seeking independence. The rebels would come to be known as the Maccabees, and their actions would be chronicled later in the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
The rebellion started as a guerrilla movement in the Judean countryside, raiding towns and terrorizing Greek officials far from direct Seleucid control. However, it eventually developed an excellent army capable of attacking the fortified Seleucid cities. In 164 BCE, the Maccabees captured Jerusalem, a significant early victory. The subsequent cleansing of the Temple and rededication of the altar on 25 Kislev is the source of the festival of Hanukkah. The Seleucids eventually relented and unbanned Judaism, but the more radical Maccabees, not content with merely reestablishing Jewish practices under the Seleucid rule, continued to fight, pushing for a more direct break with the Seleucids. Judas Maccabeus died in 160 BCE at the Battle of Elasa against the Greek general Bacchides, and the Seleucids reestablished direct control for a time. However, remnants of the Maccabees under Judas's brother Jonathan Apphus continued to resist the countryside. Eventually, internal division among the Seleucids and problems elsewhere in their empire would give the Maccabees their chance for true independence. In 141 BCE, Simon Thassi succeeded in expelling the Greeks from their citadel in Jerusalem. An alliance with the Roman Republic helped guarantee their independence. Simon would go on to establish an independent Hasmonean kingdom. The Revolt significantly impacted Jewish nationalism as an example of a successful campaign to establish political independence and resist governmental anti-Jewish suppression.
Background
Beginning in 338 BCE, Alexander the Great began an invasion of the Persian Empire. In 333–332 BCE, Alexander's Macedonian forces conquered the Levant and Palestine. At the time, Judea was home to many Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon thanks to the Persians. During the partition of Alexander's empire in 323 BCE after Alexander's death, the territory was given to what would become Ptolemaic Egypt. Another of the Greek successor states, the Seleucid Empire, would conquer Judea from Egypt during a series of campaigns from 235–198 BCE. During Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule, many Jews learned Koine Greek, especially upper-class Jews seeking favor with the government and Jewish minorities in towns further afield from Jerusalem and more attached to Greek trading networks. Greek philosophical ideas spread through Palestine as well. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the scriptures, was also created during the third century BCE. Most Jews adopted dual names with Greek and Hebrew names, such as Jason and Joshua. Still, many Jews continued to speak the Aramaic language, which descended from what was spoken during the Babylonian exile.
During this period, the ruling Greek policy was to let Jews manage their affairs and not interfere overtly with religious matters. In the third century BCE, Greek authors who wrote about Judaism did so mostly positively. Cultural change was primarily driven by Jews themselves, inspired by ideas from abroad; Greek rulers did not undertake explicit programs of forced Hellenization. Antiochus IV Epiphanes came to the throne of the Seleucids in 175 BCE and did not change this policy. At first, he appears to have done little to antagonize the region, and the Jews were largely content under his rule. One element that would later become prominent was Antiochus IV replacing the high priest Onias III with his brother Jason after Jason offered a large sum of money to Antiochus. Jason also sought and received permission to make Jerusalem a self-governing polis , albeit with Jason able to control the citizenship lists of who would be able to vote and hold political office. These changes did not immediately appear to rouse any particular complaint from the majority of the citizenry in Jerusalem, and presumably, he still kept the basic Jewish laws and tenets.
Three years later, a newcomer named Menelaus offered an even larger bribe to Antiochus IV for the position of the high priest. Jason, resentful, turned against Antiochus IV; additionally, a rumor spread that Menelaus had sold golden temple artifacts to help pay for the bribe, leading to unhappiness, especially among the city council Jason had established. This conflict was primarily political rather than cultural; at this point, all sides were "Hellenized," content with the Seleucid rule, and primarily divided over Menelaus's alleged corruption and sacrilege.
In 170–168 BCE, the Sixth Syrian War between the Seleucids and the Ptolemaic Egyptians arose for unclear reasons. Antiochus IV led an army to attack Egypt. On his way back through Jerusalem after the successful campaign, High Priest Menelaus allegedly invited Antiochus inside the Second Temple (in violation of Jewish law). He raided the temple treasury for 1800 talents. Tensions with the Ptolemaic dynasty continued, and Antiochus rode out on campaign again in 168 BCE. Jason heard a rumor that Antiochus had perished and launched an attempted coup against Menelaus in Jerusalem. Hearing of this, Antiochus, who was not dead, apparently interpreted this factional infighting as a revolt against his authority and sent an army to crush Jason's plotters. From 168–167 BCE, the conflict spiraled out of control, and government policy radically shifted. Thousands in Jerusalem were killed, and thousands more were enslaved; the city was attacked twice; new Greek governors were sent; the government seized land and property from Jason's supporters; and the Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Greek-Jewish religious group, polluting it in the eyes of the devout Jews. A new citadel garrisoned by Greeks and pro-Seleucid Jews, the Acra, was built in Jerusalem. Antiochus IV issued decrees officially suppressing the Jewish religion; subjects were required to eat pork and violate Jewish dietary law, work on the Jewish Sabbath, cease circumcising their sons, etc. The policy of tolerance of Jewish worship was at an end.
• Map of the Diadochi successor states in 188 BCE. By 167 BCE, the start of the Revolt, the Antigonid Kingdom of Macedonia (independent in 188 BCE) had been shattered and conquered mainly by the Roman Republic. The Kingdom of Pergamon was a close Roman ally directly on the Seleucid border. Rhodes would become "permanent allies" of the Romans in 164 BCE.
• Battles during the Maccabean Revolt. Circles mark battles against Seleucids in Judea, triangles outlying cities attacked by the Maccabees.
The rebellion
For Antiochus, the unexpected conquest of the city (Jerusalem), the looting, and the wholesale slaughter were not enough. His psychopathic tendency was exacerbated by resentment at what the siege had cost him. He tried to force the Jews to violate their traditional codes of practice by leaving their infant sons uncircumcised and sacrificing pigs on the altar. Antiochus had the most prominent recusants butchered; these orders were universally ignored.
In the aftermath of Antiochus IV issuing his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a campaign of land confiscations paired with shrine and altar-building took place in the Judean countryside. A rural Jewish priest from Modein, Mattathias (Hebrew: Matityahu) of the Hasmonean family, sparked the Revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods at Modern's new altar. Mattathias killed a Jew who had stepped forward to take Mattathias' place in sacrificing to an idol and the Greek officer who was sent to enforce the sacrifice. He then destroyed the altar. Afterward, he and his five sons fled to the nearby mountains, directly next to Modein.
Guerrilla campaign (167–164 BCE)
Main articles: Battle of the Ascent of Lebonah, Battle of Beth Horon (166 BC), Battle of Emmaus, and Battle of Beth Zur
After Mattathias' death about one year later, in 166 BCE, his son Judas Maccabeus (Hebrew: Judah Maccabee) led a band of Jewish dissidents that would eventually absorb other groups opposed to Seleucid rule and grow into an army. While unable to directly strike Seleucid power at first, Judas's forces could maraud the countryside and attack Hellenized Jews, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed Greek altars in the villages, forcibly circumcised boys, burnt villages, and drove Hellenized Jews off their land. Judas's nickname "Maccabee," now used to describe the Jewish partisans as a whole, is taken from the Hebrew word for "hammer"; the term "Maccabee" or "Maccabeus" was also used as an honorific for Judas's brothers as well.
Judas's campaign in the countryside became a full-scale revolt. Maccabean forces employed guerrilla tactics emphasizing speed and mobility. While less trained and under-equipped for pitched battles, the Maccabees could control which battles they took and retreat into the wilderness when threatened. They defeated two minor Seleucid forces at the Battle of the Ascent of Lebonah in 167 BCE and the Battle of Beth Horon in 166 BCE. Toward the end of summer in 165 BCE, Antiochus IV departed for Babylonia in the eastern half of his empire and left Lysias in charge of the western half as regent. Shortly afterward, the Maccabees won a more substantial victory at the Battle of Emmaus. The factions attempted to negotiate a compromise but failed; a sizeable Seleucid army was sent to quash the Revolt. After the Battle of Beth Zur in 164 BCE and news of the death of Antiochus IV in Persia, the Seleucid troops returned to Syria. The Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph. They ritually cleansed the Second Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there; 25 Kislev, the date of the cleansing in the Hebrew calendar, would later become the date when the festival of Hanukkah begins. Preoccupied with internal Seleucid affairs, Regent Lysias agreed to a political compromise that revoked Antiochus IV's ban on Jewish practices. This proved a wise decision: many Hellenized Jews had cautiously supported the Revolt due to the suppression of their religion. With the ban retracted, their religious goals were accomplished, and the Hellenized Jews could more easily be potential Seleucid loyalists again. However, the Maccabees did not consider their goals complete and continued their campaign for a starker break from Greek influence and complete political independence. The rebels suffered a loss of support from moderates as a result.
Continued struggle (163–160 BCE)
Main articles: Maccabee campaigns of 163 BCE, Battle of Beth Zechariah, and Battle of Adasa
With the rebels now in control of most of Jerusalem and its environs, a second phase of the Revolt began. The rebellion had additional resources but also additional responsibilities. Rather than being able to retreat to the mountains, the rebels now had territory to defend; abandoning cities would leave their loyalists open to reprisals if the pro-Seleucid forces were allowed to retake control. As such, they focused on being able to win open battles with additional trained heavy infantry. A civil struggle of low-level violence, reprisals, and murders arose in the countryside, especially in more distant areas where Jewish people were in the minority.[21] Judas launched expeditions to these regions outlying Judea to fight non-Jewish Idumeans, Ammonites, and Galileans. He recruited devout Jews and sent them into Judea to concentrate his allies where they could be protected, although this influx of refugees would soon create food scarcity issues in the Maccabees' land.
In 162 BCE, Judas began a long siege of the fortified Acra citadel in Jerusalem, still controlled by Seleucid loyalist Jews and a Greek garrison. Having dealt with rivals back in Antioch, Regent Lysias returned to Judea with an army to aid the Seleucid forces. The Seleucids besieged Beth-zur and took it without a fight, as it was a fallow year and food supplies were meager. Next, they battled Judas's forces in an open fight at the Battle of Beth Zechariah, with the Seleucids defeating the Maccabees. Judas's younger brother Eleazar Avaran died in battle after bravely attacking a war elephant and being crushed. Lysias's army next besieged Jerusalem. With supplies of food short on both sides and reports of a political rival returning from the eastern provinces to Antioch, Lysias decided to sign an agreement with the rebels and confirm the repeal of the anti-Jewish decrees; the rebels, in return, abandoned their siege of the Seleucid Acra. Lysias and his army returned to Antioch with the province officially at peace, but neither the Hellenized Jews nor the Maccabees laid down their arms.
At some point from 163–162 BCE, Lysias ordered the execution of the despised High Priest Menelaus as another gesture of reconciliation to the Jews. Both regent Lysias and 11-year-old king Antiochus V were executed after losing a succession struggle with Demetrius I Soter, who became the new Seleucid King. In the winter of late 162 BCE to early 161 BCE, Demetrius I appointed a new high priest, Alcimus, to replace Menelaus and sent an army led by general Bacchides to enforce Alcimus's station. Judas did not give battle, perhaps still rebuilding after his defeat at Beth Zechariah.[25] Alcimus was accepted into Jerusalem and proved more effective at rallying moderate Hellenists to the pro-Seleucid faction than Menelaus had been. Still, violent tensions between the Maccabees and the Hellenized Jews continued.[26] Bacchides returned to Syria, and a new general, Nicanor, was appointed military governor of Judea. A truce was briefly made between Nicanor and the Maccabees but was soon broken. Nicanor gained the hatred of the Maccabees after reports surfaced that he had blasphemed in the Temple and threatened to burn it. Nicanor took his forces into the field and fought the Maccabees first at Caphar-Salama, and then at the Battle of Adasa in the late winter of 161 BCE. Nicanor was killed early in the fight, and the rest of his army fled afterward.
Judas had been negotiating with the Roman Republic and extracted a preliminary agreement of potential support. While this would be cause for caution to the Seleucid Empire in the long term, it was not a particular concern in the short term, as the Romans would be unlikely to intervene if the Judean unrest could be decisively crushed.
Battle of Elisa (160 BCE)
Main article: Battle of Elisa
In 160 BCE, Seleucid King Demetrius I went on a campaign in the east to fight the rebellious Timarchus. He left his general Bacchides to govern the western part of the empire. Bacchides led an army of 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalries into Judea on a second expedition intending to reconquer the restive province before it grew too used to autonomy. The size of the rebel army facing them is disputed; 1 Maccabees implausibly claims that Judas's army at Elisa was tiny, with 3,000 men of which only 800–1,000 would fight. Historians suspect the actual numbers were more considerable and possibly as many as 22,000 soldiers, and the author downplayed their strength to explain the defeat.
The Seleucid army marched through Judea after carrying out a massacre in Galilee. This tactic would force Judas to respond in open battle, lest his reputation is damaged by inaction and Alcimus's faction gain strength by claiming he was better positioned to protect the people from future killings. Bacchides advanced toward Jerusalem while Judas encamped on the rough terrain at Elisa to intercept the Seleucid army. Judas opted to attack the right flank of the Seleucid army, hoping to kill the commander, similar to the victory over Nicanor at Adasa. The elite horse riders on the right retreated, and the rebels pursued. However, this may have been a tactic from Bacchides to feign weakness and draw the Maccabees in where they could be surrounded and defeated; their retreat cut off. The Seleucids regained their formation and trapped the rebel army with their left flank, regardless of whether it was intentional. Judas was eventually killed, and the remaining Judeans fled.
The Seleucids had reasserted their authority in Jerusalem. Bacchides fortified cities across the land, put allied Greek-friendly Jews in command in Jerusalem and ensured that children of leading families were held as hostages to guarantee good behavior. Judas's younger brother Jonathan Apphus (Hebrew: Yonatan) became the new leader of the Maccabees. A new tragedy struck the Hasmonean family when Jonathan's brother John Gaddi was seized and killed while on a mission in Nabatea. Jonathan fought Bacchides and his troops for a time, but the two eventually made a pact for a cease-fire. Bacchides then returned to Syria in 160 BCE.
Autonomy (160–138 BCE)
See also: Seleucid Dynastic Wars
Territory under Simon's control
While the Maccabees had lost control of the cities, they seem to have built a rival government in the countryside from 160–153 BCE. The Maccabees avoided direct conflict with the Seleucids, but the internal Jewish civil struggle continued: the rebels harassed, exiled, and killed Jews seen as insufficiently anti-Greek. According to 1 Maccabees, "Thus the sword ceased from Israel. Jonathan settled in Michmash and began to judge the people, and he destroyed the godless out of Israel." The Maccabees were handed an opportunity as the Seleucids broke into infighting in a series of civil wars, the Seleucid Dynastic Wars. The Seleucid rival claimants to the throne needed all their troops elsewhere and wished to deny possible allies to other claimants, thus giving the Maccabees leverage. In 153–152 BCE, a deal was struck between Jonathan and Demetrius I. King Demetrius was fending off a challenge from Alexander Balas and agreed to withdraw Seleucid forces from the fortified towns and garrisons in Judea, barring Beth-zur and Jerusalem. The hostages were also released. Seleucid control over Judea was weakened further; Jonathan promptly betrayed Demetrius I after Alexander Balas offered an even better deal. Alexander granted Jonathan the title of High Priest and strategies by acknowledging that the Maccabee faction was a more relevant ally to would-be Seleucid leaders than the Hellenist faction. Jonathan's forces fought against Demetrius I, who would die in battle in 150 BCE.[32]
From 152–141 BCE, the rebels achieved a state of informal autonomy akin to a suzerain. The land was de jure part of the Seleucid Empire, but continuing civil wars gave the Maccabees considerable autonomy. Jonathan was given official authority to build and maintain an army in exchange for his aid. During this period, the legitimized armies of Jonathan fought in these civil wars, and border struggles to maintain the favor of allied Seleucid leaders. The Seleucids did send an army back into Judea during this period, but Jonathan evaded it and refused battle until it eventually returned to the Seleucid heartland. In 143 BCE, regent Diodotus Tryphon, perhaps eager to reassert control over the restive province, invited Jonathan to a conference. The conference was a trap; Jonathan was captured and executed, despite Jonathan's brother Simon raising the requested ransom and sending hostages. This betrayal led to an alliance between the new leader of the Maccabees, Simon Thassi (Hebrew: Simeon), and Demetrius II Nicator, a rival of Diodotus Tryphon and claimant to the Seleucid throne. Demetrius II exempted Judea from payment of taxes in 142 BCE, essentially acknowledging its independence. The Seleucid settlement and garrison in Jerusalem, the Acra, finally came under Simon's control peacefully, as did the remaining Seleucid garrison at Beth-Zur.
Simon was appointed High Priest around 141 BCE, but he did so by acclamation from the Jewish people rather than appointment by the Seleucid King. Both Jonathan and now Simon had maintained diplomatic contact with the Roman Republic; official recognition by Rome came in 139 BCE, as the Romans were eager to weaken and divide the Greek states. This new Hasmonean-Roman alliance was more firmly than Judas Maccabeus's hazy agreement 22–23 years earlier. Continuing strife between rival Seleucid rulers made a government response to the formal independence of the new state difficult. New Seleucid King Antiochus VII Sidetes refused an offer of help from Simon's troops while pursuing their mutual enemy Diodotus Tryphon. They made demands for both tributes and for Simon to cede control of the border towns Joppa and Gazara. Antiochus VII sent an army to Judea between 139 and 138 BCE under the command of a general named Cendebeus, but it was repulsed.
The Hasmonean leaders did not immediately call themselves "king" or establish a monarchy; Simon called himself merely "nasi" (in Hebrew, "Prince" or "President") and "ethnarch" (in Koine Greek, "Governor").
Aftermath
Topographic map of Palestine at the start of the Hasmonean dynasty
Hasmonean dynasty
• In 135 BCE, Simon and two of his sons (Mattathias and Judas) were murdered by his son-in-law, Ptolemy, son of Abubus, at a feast in Jericho. All five sons of Mattathias were now gone, with Simon joining his brothers in death, leaving leadership to the next generation. Simon's third son, John Hyrcanus, became the High Priest of Israel. King Antiochus VII would personally invade and besiege Jerusalem in 134 BCE, but after Hyrcanus paid a ransom and ceded the cities of Joppa and Gazara, the Seleucids left peacefully. The conflict ceased, and Hyrcanus and Antiochus VII joined themselves in an alliance, with Antiochus making a respectful donation of a sacrifice at the Temple. For the reprieve and donation, Antiochus VII was referred to as "Eusebius" ("Pious") by the grateful populace. With the suzerainty briefly reestablished, Judea sent troops to aid Antiochus VII in his campaigns in Persia. After Antiochus VII died in 129 BCE, the Hasmoneans ceased offering aid or tribute to the remnants of the declining Seleucid Empire. John Hyrcanus and his children would go on to centralize power more than Simon had done. Hyrcanus's son Aristobulus I called himself "basileus" (King), abandoning pretensions that the High Priest managing political matters was a temporary arrangement. The Hasmoneans exiled leaders on the council or Persia that they felt might threaten his power. The council of elders - who would later evolve into the Sanhedrin - ceased to be an independent check on the monarchy. After the success of the Maccabean Revolt, leaders of the Hasmonean dynasty continued their conquest of surrounding areas of Judea, especially under Alexander Jannaeus. The Seleucid Empire was too riven with internal unrest to stop this, and Ptolemaic Egypt maintained largely friendly relations. The Hasmonean court at Jerusalem would not make a sharp break from Hellenic culture and language and continued with a blend of Jewish traditions and Greek ones. They continued to be known by Greek names, would use both Hebrew and Greek on their coinage, hired Greek mercenaries, restored Judaism to a place of primacy in Judea, and fostered the new sense of Jewish nationalism that had sprouted during the Revolt.
The dynasty would last until 37 BCE, when Herod the Great, using heavy Roman support, defeated the last Hasmonean ruler to become a Roman client king.
Tactics and technology
Main articles: Hellenistic armies and Seleucid army
Eleazar Avaran trampled by a war elephant
Both sides were influenced by Hellenistic army composition and tactics. The basic Hellenistic battle deployment consisted of heavy infantry in the center, mounted cavalry on the flanks, and mobile skirmishers in the vanguard. The most common infantry weapon used was the sarissa, the Macedonian pike. The sarissa was a powerful weapon; it was held in two hands and had great reach (approximately ~6.3 meters), making it difficult for opponents to approach a phalanx of sarissa-wielding infantry. Hellenistic cavalry also used pikes, albeit slightly shorter ones. The Seleucids also had access to trained war elephants from India, who sported natural armor in their thick hides and could terrify opposing soldiers and horses. Rarely do they also make use of scythed chariots.
In terms of army size, the respected historian Polybius reports that in 165 BCE, a military parade near the Seleucid capital Antioch held by Antiochus IV consisted of 41,000-foot soldiers and 4,500 cavalrymen. These soldiers were preparing to fight in an expedition to the east, not in Judea, but give a rough estimate of the total size of the Seleucid forces in the Western part of their empire capable of being deployed wherever the ruler needed them, not including local auxiliaries and garrisons. Antiochus IV appears to have augmented the size of his army by hiring additional mercenaries at a cost to the Seleucid treasury. Most of the forces at that parade would be deployed on matters more critical to the Seleucid leadership than suppressing the Judean rebellion. As such, only a portion of them likely participated in the battles of the rebellion. They may have been supplemented by local Seleucid-allied militias and garrisons, however.
The Maccabees started as a guerrilla force that likely used the traditional weapons effective in small unit combat in mountainous terrain: archers, slingers, and light infantry peltasts armed with sword and shield. Later writers would romantically portray the Maccabees as ordinary people fighting as irregulars. However, the Maccabees eventually trained a standing army similar to the Seleucids, complete with Hellenic-style heavy infantry phalanxes, horse-mounted cavalry, and siege weaponry. However, while manufacturing the mostly wooden sarissa would have been easy for the rebels, their body armor was lower quality. They likely used simple leather armor due to a paucity of metals and artisans capable of making Greek-style metal armor. It is speculated that diaspora Jews in countries hostile to the Seleucids, such as Ptolemaic Egypt and Pergamon, may have joined the cause as volunteers, bringing their local talents to the rebel army.
The rebel forces grew with time. There were 6,000 men in Judas's army near the start of the Revolt, 10,000 men at the Battle of Beth Zur, and possibly as many as 22,000 soldiers by the defeat at Elisa. In several battles, the rebels may have had numerical superiority to compensate for shortfalls in training and equipment. After Jonathan was legitimized as high priest and governor by the Seleucid rulers, the Hasmoneans had more accessible access to recruitment; 20,000 soldiers were reported as repulsed Cendebeus in 139 BCE.
Much of the combat in the Revolt took place in hilly and mountainous terrain, which complicated warfare. Seleucid phalanxes trained for mountain combat would fight at a somewhat greater distance from each other compared to tight lowland formations and used slightly shorter but more maneuverable Roman-style pikes.
Writings
The most detailed contemporaneous writings that survived were the deuterocanonical books of First Maccabees and Second Maccabees and Josephus's The Wars of the Jews, and Books XII and XIII of The Antiquities of the Jews. The authors were not disinterested parties; the authors of the books of Maccabees were favorable to the Maccabees, portraying the conflict as a divinely sanctioned holy war and elevating the stature of Judas and his brothers heroic levels. Josephus did not want to offend Greek pagan readers of his work and was ambivalent toward the Maccabees.
The book of 1 Maccabees is considered the most reliable, as it was seemingly written by an eyewitness early in the reign of the Hasmoneans, most likely during John Hyrcanus's reign. Its depictions of battles are detailed and seemingly accurate, although it portrays implausibly large numbers of Seleucid soldiers to emphasize God's aid and Judas's talents better. The book also acts as Hasmonean dynasty propaganda in its editorial slant on events. The new rule of the Hasmoneans was not without its internal enemies; the office of High Priest had been occupied for generations by a descendent of the High Priest Zadok. While of, the priestly line (Kohen's) were seen as usurpers, did not descend from Zadok, and had taken office initially via a deal with a Seleucid king. The book emphasizes that the Hasmoneans' actions were in line with heroes of older scripture; they were God's new chosen and righteous rulers. For example, it dismisses a defeat that other commanders named Joseph and Azariah suffered because "they did not listen to Judas and his brothers. However, they did not belong to the family of those men through whom deliverance was given to Israel."
2 Maccabees is an abridgment by an unknown Egyptian Jew of a lost five-volume work by an author named Jason of Cyrene. It is a separate work from 1 Maccabees and not a continuation. 2 Maccabees has a more directly religious focus than 1 Maccabees, crediting God and divine intervention for events more prominently than 1 Maccabees; it also focuses personally on Judas rather than other Hasmoneans. It has a particular focus on the Second Temple: the controversies over the position of the High Priest, its pollution by Menelaus into a Greek-Jewish mix, it is eventual cleansing, and the threats by Nicanor at the Temple. 2 Maccabees also represents an attempt to take the cause of the Maccabees outside Judea, as it encourages Egyptian Jews and other diasporas Jews to celebrate the cleansing of the Temple (Hanukkah) and revere Judas Maccabeus. In general, 2 Maccabees portray the prospects of peace and cooperation more positively than 1 Maccabees. In 1 Maccabees, the only way for the Jews to honorably make a deal with the Seleucids involved first defeating them militarily and attaining functional independence. In 2 Maccabees, intended for an audience of Egyptian Jews who still lived under Greek rule, peaceful coexistence was possible, but misunderstandings or troublemakers forced the Jews into defensive action.
Josephus wrote over two centuries after the Revolt, but his friendship with the Flavian dynasty Roman emperors meant he had access to resources undreamt of by other scholars. Josephus appears to have used 1 Maccabees as one of his primary sources for his history. However, he supplements it with knowledge of events of the Seleucid Empire from Greek histories and unknown other sources. Josephus seems familiar with the work of historians Polybius and Strabo and the mostly lost works of Nicolaus of Damascus.
Daniel
The Book of Daniel appears to have been written during the early stages of the Revolt around 165 BCE. Eventually, it would be included in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. While the book's setting is 400 years earlier in Babylon, the book is a literary response to the situation in Judea during the Revolt (Sitz im Leben); the writer chose to move the setting either for esoteric reasons or to evade scrutiny from would-be censors. It urges its readers to remain steadfast in the face of persecution. For example, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar orders his court to eat the King's rich food; the prophet Daniel and his companions keep kosher and eat a diet of vegetables and water, yet emerge healthier than all the King's courtiers. The message is clear: defy Antiochus's decree and keep Jewish dietary law. Daniel predicts the King will go insane; Antiochus's title, "Epiphanes" ("Chosen of God"), was mocked by his enemies as "Epimanes" ("Madman"), and he was known to keep odd habits. When Daniel and the Jews are threatened with death, they face it calmly and are saved in the end, a relevant message among Jewish opposition to Antiochus IV.
The final chapters of the book of Daniel include apocalyptic visions of the future. One of the motives for the author was to give heart to devout Jews that their victory was foreseen by prophecy 400 years earlier. Daniel's final vision refers to Antiochus Epiphanes as the "king of the north." It describes his earlier actions, such as being repelled and humiliated by the Romans in his second campaign in Egypt, and the King of the north would "meet his end." Additionally, all those who had died under the King of the north would be revived, with those who suffered rewarded while those who had prospered would be exposed to shame and contempt. The main historical items taken away from Daniel are in its depiction of the King of the north desecrating the Temple with an abomination of desolation and stopping the tamid, the daily sacrifice at the Temple; these agree with the depictions in 1 and 2 Maccabees of the changes at the Second Temple.
Related works
Other works that appear to have at least been influenced by the Maccabean Revolt include the Book of Judith, the Testament of Moses, and parts of the Book of Enoch. The Book of Judith is a historical novel that describes Jewish resistance against an overwhelming military threat. While the parallels are not as stark as in Daniel, some of its depictions of oppression seem influenced by Antiochus's persecution, such as General Holofernes demolishing shrines, cutting down sacred groves, and attempting to destroy all worship other than of the King. Judith, the story's heroine, also bears the feminine form of the name "Judas." The Testament of Moses, similar to the Book of Daniel, provides a witness to Jewish attitudes leading up to the Revolt: it describes persecution, denounces impious leaders and priests as collaborators, praises the virtues of martyrdom, and predicts God's retribution upon the oppressors. The Testament is usually considered written in the first century CE. However, it is at least possible it was written much earlier, in the Maccabean or Hasmonean era, and then appended onto with first century CE updates. Even if it was entirely written in the first century CE, it was still likely influenced by the experience of Antiochus IV's reign. The Book of Enoch's early chapters were written around 300–200 BCE, but new sections were appended over time, invoking the authority of Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. One section, the "Apocalypse of Weeks," is hypothesized to have been written around 167 BCE, just after Antiochus's persecution.
Like Daniel, the Apocalypse of Weeks recounts world history up to the point of the persecution; it predicts that the righteous will eventually triumph and encourage resistance. Another section of Enoch, the "Book of Dreams," was likely written after the Revolt had at least partially succeeded; it portrays the events of the Revolt in the form of prophetic dream visions.
Nevertheless, a more uncertain work that has attracted much interest is the Qumran Habakkuk Commentary, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Qumran religious community was not on good terms with the Hasmonean religious establishment in Jerusalem and is believed to have favored the Zadokite line of succession to the High Priesthood. The commentary (pesher) describes a situation wherein a "Righteous Teacher" is unfairly driven from their post and into exile by a "Wicked Priest" and a "Man of the Lie" (possibly the same person). Many figures have been proposed as the identity of the people behind these titles; one theory goes that the Righteous Teacher was whoever held the High Priest position after Alcimus's death in 159 BCE, perhaps a Zadokite. If this person even existed, they lost their position after Jonathan Apphus, backed by his Maccabee army and his new alliance with Seleucid royal claimant Alexander Balas, took over the High Priest position in 152 BCE. Thus, the Wicked Priest would be Jonathan, and the Qumran community of the era would have consisted of religious opposition to the Hasmonean takeover: the first Essenes. The date of the work is unknown, and other scholars have proposed different candidates as possible identities of the Wicked Priest, so the identification with Jonathan is only a possibility, yet an intriguing and plausible one.
Later analysis and historiography
In the First and Second Books of the Maccabees, the Maccabean Revolt is described as a collective response to cultural oppression and national resistance to a foreign power. After the Revolt was complete, the books urged unity among the Jews; they describe little of the Hellenizing faction other than calling them lawless and corrupt and downplaying their relevance and power in the conflict. While many scholars still accept this basic framework, that the Hellenists were weak and dependent on Seleucid aid to hold influence, this view has been challenged. In the revisionist view, the heroes and villains were both Jews: a majority of the Jews cautiously supported Hellenizing High Priest Menelaus; Antiochus IV's edicts only came about due to pressure from Hellenist Jews; and the Revolt was best understood as a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenized Jews in the cities, with only occasional Seleucid intervention. Elias Bickerman is generally credited as popularizing this alternative viewpoint in 1937, and other historians such as Martin Hengel have continued the argument. For example, Josephus's account directly blames Menelaus for convincing Antiochus IV to issue his anti-Jewish decrees. Alcimus, Menelaus's replacement as High Priest, is blamed for instigating a massacre of devout Jews in 1 Maccabees rather than the Seleucids directly. The Maccabees themselves fight and exile Hellenists, most clearly in the final expulsion from the Acra and in the earlier countryside, struggles against the Tobias clan of Hellenist-friendly Jews.
In general, scholarly opinion is that Hellenistic historians were biased. The bias did not result in excessive distortion or fabrication of facts, and they are the most reliable sources once the bias is removed. There exist revisionist scholars who are inclined to discount the reliability of the primary histories more aggressively, however. Daniel R. Schwartz argues that Antiochus IV's initial attacks on Jerusalem from 168–167 BCE were not out of pure malice, as 1 Maccabees depicts, or a misunderstanding as 2 Maccabees depicts (and most scholars accept), but rather suppressing an authentic rebellion whose members were lost to history, as the Hasmoneans wished to show only themselves as capable of bringing victory. Sylvie Honigman argues that the depictions of Seleucid religious oppression are misleading and likely false. She advances the view that the loss of civil rights by the Jews in 168 BCE was an administrative punishment in the aftermath of local unrest over increased taxes; the struggle was fundamentally economic and merely interpreted as religiously driven in retrospect. She also argues that the moralistic slant of the sources means that their depictions of impious acts by Hellenists cannot be trusted as historical. For example, the claim that Menelaus stole temple vessels to pay the bribe is mere slander aimed at delegitimizing opponents. John Ma argues that the Temple was restored in 164 BCE upon petition by Menelaus to Antiochus, not liberated and rededicated by the Maccabees. These views have attracted partial support but have not become a new consensus. Modern defenders of more direct readings of the sources cite that evidence of such an unrecorded popular rebellion is thin-to-nonexistent. Assuming that Antiochus IV would not have started ethnoreligious persecution for irrational reasons is an ahistorical position in this criticism, as many ancient and modern leaders were motivated by religious concerns.
Later, scholars and archaeologists found and preserved various artifacts from the period and analyzed them, which have informed historians on the plausibility of various elements in the books. For a recent example, a stele was discovered and deciphered in 2007, dated around 178 BCE, and gives insight into Seleucid government appointments and policy in the era immediately preceding the Revolt.
The Jewish Hammer
Though the virtues of Hellenism had seduced many Jews, the extreme measures adopted by Antiochus helped unite the people. When a Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a sacrifice to a pagan god, the Jew murdered the man. Predictably, Antiochus began reprisals, but in 167 BCE, the Jews rose behind Mattathias and his five sons and fought for their liberation.
The family of Mattathias became known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for "hammer," because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. Jews refer to the Maccabees, but the family is more commonly known as the Hasmoneans.
Like other rulers before him, Antiochus underestimated the will and strength of his Jewish adversaries and sent a small force to put down the rebellion. He led a more powerful army into battle when that was annihilated, only to be defeated. In 164 BCE, Jerusalem was recaptured by the Maccabees, and the Temple purified, an event that gave birth to the holiday of Chanukah.
Jews Regain Their Independence
It took more than two decades of fighting before the Maccabees forced the Seleucids to retreat from the Land of Israel. By this time, Antiochus had died, and his successor agreed to the Jews' demand for independence. In 142 BCE, after more than 500 years of subjugation, the Jews were again masters of their fate.
When Mattathias died, the Revolt was led by his son Judas, or Judah Maccabee, as he is often called. By the end of the war, Simon was the only one of the five sons of Mattathias to survive, and he ushered in 80 years of Jewish independence in Judea, as the Land of Israel was now called. The kingdom regained boundaries not far short of Solomon's realm, and Jewish life flourished.
The Hasmoneans claimed the throne of Judah and the post of High Priest. This assertion of religious authority conflicted with the tradition of the priests coming from the descendants of Moses' brother Aaron and the tribe of Levi.
It did not take long for rival factions to develop and threaten the kingdom's unity. Ultimately, internal divisions and the appearance of yet another imperial power were to end Jewish independence in the Land of Israel for nearly two centuries.
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1. Polis literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also came to mean the body of citizens under a city's jurisdiction. In modern historiography, the term is normally used to refer to the ancient Greek city-states, such as Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as "city-state". The poleis were not like other primordial ancient city-states like Tyre or Sidon, which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy; rather, they were political entities ruled by their bodies of citizens.
2. A stele or occasionally stela (plural stelas or stelæ), when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.
