Hannukah

The Maccabean Revolt

 Alexander the Great

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQfBinQwPGs&feature=email
Alexander the Macedonian
 Hellenistic Period
• 332BCE Alexander the Great conquers Palestine
• 323BCE Alexander dies
– Diadochi, Ptolemy in Egypt, Seleucus in Syria
• 301-201BCE Ptolemaic Rule
– Allowed to continue as semiautonomous
• 201BCE Seleucid conquest of Palestine
• 175-171 Jason High Priest
– bribes Antiochus IV for high priesthood
– builds gymnasium in Jerusalem which becomes a polis – “Antioch”
• 171-167 Menelaus High Priest
– Converts temple into pagan shrine, YHVH=Zeus=Baal Shamin
• 168-164 Maccabean Revolt
• 167-166 Antiochus IV decrees persecution
• 164 Judah conquers Jerusalem and rededicates the
Temple
From the Hasmoneans to
Roman Revolt
 1. Mattathias Hasmonean
ben Johanan
[ ? - 165 BCE]
Dynasy
____ _ _______________ _ __________|________ _ ________________ _ ______

| | | | |

Johanan Eleazar 3. Jonathan

4. SimonThassi 2. JudahMaccabee
Gaddi [ruled 142-134 BCE] [ ? - 160 BCE] Avaron Apphus[ruled
160-142 BCE]

____ _ ________|______ _ __________

| | |

Mattathias Judah 5. JohananHyrcanus

[ ?-134 BCE] [ ?- 134 BCE] [ruled 134-104 BCE]

________ _ __________|________ _ ________

| | |
6. Aristobulus I Antigonus 7. Alexander Jannai 8. Salome
(Judah) (Matthew) (Jonathan) = Alexandra
[ruled 104-103 BCE] [ ? - 104 BCE] [ruled 103-76 BCE] [ruled 76-67 BCE]

__________ _ ________|

| |
10. Hyrcanus II 9. Aristobulus II
(Jonathan) (Judah)
[ruled 63-40 (d. 30) BCE] [ruled 67-63 (d. 49) BCE]

|_______ ____
|
| |
11. Antigonus
Alexandra = Alexander
[ ? - 28 BCE] [ ? - 49 BCE] (Matthew)
[ruled 40-37 BCE]

__________ |
 Judah the Maccabee
• 167-160 BCE
• Led the revolt against
the Seleucids
• Purified the Temple in
164 BCE
 Jonathan
• Ruler 161-143 BCE
• first Hasmonean to be
High Priest in 153
BCE
 Simon
• Ethnarch and High Priest
• 142-135 BCE
• Is granted tax exemption
from Demetrius II
• Removes Seleucid
garrison in Jerusalem
• Gains total political
independence
• Murdered by his son-in-
law together with two
older sons
 John Hyrcanus
• Ethnarch and High
Priest
• 134-104 BCE
• Forced the Idumeans
to convert (including
Antipater’s father,
grandfather of Herod)
• Destroys Samaritan
Temple in 128BCE
 Aristobulus I
• King and High Priest
• 104-103BCE
• First to call himself
king
• Imprisons mother and
three brothers. Kills
another brother.
• Married to Salome
Alexandra
 Alexander Yannai
• King and High Priest
• 103-76 BCE
• Married Salome Alexandra,
his brother’s widow
• Practiced Sadduecean law
and was pelted by Etrogim.
Kills 6,000 Jews in
retaliations.
• Killed 50,000 in civil war.
• Crucified 800 Pharisees
• Advises his wife before dying
to yield to the Pharisees!
 Salome Alexandra & Sons
• Salome is queen of Judea 76-67 BCE
• Her two sons Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus
II fight over the crown. Both appeal for
help from the Romans.
• Pompey imprisons Aristobulus II and
makes Hyrcanus II high priest in 63BCE.
• Hyrcanus serves 63-40BCE
• Antignos serves 40-37BCE
• Herod marries Mariamne, granddaughter
of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus.
Hasmonean
Conquests
 ____ _ ________|______ _ __________

| | |

Mattathias Judah 5. JohananHyrcanus

[ ?-134 BCE] [ ?- 134 BCE] [ruled 134-104 BCE]

________ _ __________|________ _ ________

| | |
6. Aristobulus I Antigonus 7. Alexander Jannai 8. Salome
(Judah) (Matthew) (Jonathan) = Alexandra
[ruled 104-103 BCE] [ ? - 104 BCE] [ruled 103-76 BCE] [ruled 76-67 BCE]

__________ _ ________|

| |
10. Hyrcanus II 9. Aristobulus II
(Jonathan) (Judah)
[ruled 63-40 (d. 30) BCE] [ruled 67-63 (d. 49) BCE]

|_______ ____
|
| |
11. Antigonus
Alexandra = Alexander
[ ? - 28 BCE] [ ? - 49 BCE] (Matthew)
[ruled 40-37 BCE]

__________ |
12. Herod
Aristobulus III Mariamne =
[ ? - 35 BCE] | [ ? - 29 BCE] (the Great)
[ruled 38-4 BCE]

________ | _____

| |

Aristobulus IV Alexander
[ ca 31 - 7 BCE] [ ca 30 - 7 BCE]
Pompey
 Pompey Enters the Holy of Holies
• The first Roman to subdue the Jews and
set foot into their Temple by right of
conquest was Gnaeus Pompey: thereafter
it was a matter of common knowledge that
there were no representations of the gods
within, but that the place was empty and
the secret shrine contained nothing.
Tacitus Histories 5.11-12
Herod the Great
 Herod
• http://www.bible-history.com/herod_the_gr
eat/

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B73Qmr
LwLZw

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta0LeO
qtCOE&feature=PlayList&p=56135C212B
5479D5&index=0&playnext=1
 Herod the Great
• Ruled 37BCE – 4 BCE
• He was a despot and a murderer, but he
built nice buildings
• 31BCE Earthquake in Palestine kills
30,000. Massive relief effort.
• Had ten wives. He executed Mariamme
and three sons.
• Hated by Pharisees and Sadducees
• Begins Temple rebuilding in 20BCE
Israel under Herod the Great
Herod’s Buildings
Fortresses: Masada
Fortress: Herodium
‫מערת המכפלה‬
Caesarea – City on the Water
 Herod the Great Executioner
• 36BCE appointed Aristobulus III, his brother-in-law as high
priest. Herod has him drowned soon after his inauguration.
• 30BCE puts Hyrcanus II to death for plotting with the
enemy.
• 29BCE Puts his wife Mariamne on trial for adultery and
executes her.
• 28BCE Kills Alexandra his mother-in-law without trial.
• 7BCE Accuses two sons by Mariamne of treason and
executes them.
• 4BCE Accuses his son Antipater III of plotting against his
life and executes him.
• 4BCE Has Judas and Matthias and their pupils burned
alive after they took down the golden eagle Herod placed
at the entrance to the Temple.
Second Temple Writers
Pliny the Elder (23-79CE), Natural
History V.15
•On the west side of the Dead Sea, but out of range of the
noxious exhalations of the coast, is the solitary tribe of the
Essenes which is remarkable beyond all the other tribes of
the whole world as it has no women and has renounced all
sexual desire, has no money, and has only palm trees for
company. Day by day the throng of refugees is recruited to
an equal number by numerous accessions of persons tired
of life and driven there by the waves of fortune to adopt
their manner. Thus, through thousands of ages (incredible
to relate) a race in which no one is born lives on forever: so
prolific for their advantage is other men’s weariness of life!
Lying below the Essenes was formerly the town of Engedi,
second only to Jerusalem in the fertility of its land and in
the groves of palm trees, but now like Jerusalem a heap of
ashes, Next comes Masada, a fortress on a rock, itself also
not far from the Dead Sea. This is the limit of Judea.
 Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, 18-
22: The Doctrine of the Essenes
•Josephus provides the most expansive contemporary description of the Essenes. He
presents them as an agricultural, virtuous people worthy of admiration for their pious,
peaceful ways, their communal economic life, and celibacy.

•(18) The doctrine of the Essenes is that all things are best ascribed to God. They teach
the immortality of the soul and believe that the rewards of righteousness are to be
earnestly striven for. (19) When they send what they have dedicated to God to the
temple, they do not offer sacrifices because they have more purification rituals of their
own, because of which they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer
their sacrifices themselves. Yet their course of life is better than that of other men, and
they entirely devote themselves to agricultural labor. (20) It also deserves our admiration
how much they exceed all other men who claim to be virtuous, and indeed to such a
degree as has never appeared among any other people, neither Greeks nor barbarians,
no, not even briefly. But it has endured for so long among them and has never been
interrupted since they adopted them from of old. This is demonstrated by that institution
of theirs in which all things are held in common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his
own wealth than he who has nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that live in
this way.
•(21)Neither do they marry wives nor are they desirous to keep servants, thinking that the
latter tempts men to be unjust and the former opens the way to domestic quarrels; but as
they live by themselves, they minister one to another. (22) They also appoint certain
stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues and of the fruits of the ground, those
who are good men and priests, who are to get their grain and their food ready for them.
 Josephus, Antiquities XIII, 297:
The Pharisees and Sadducees
on the Traditions of the Fathers
• The traditions of the fathers, or elders, mentioned by Josephus, are
an important component of what the Rabbis later called oral law.
The traditions were a hallmark of the Pharisaic approach to Torah
and continued into Rabbinic tradition as it was later enshrined in the
Mishnah.
•
(297) …What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have
passed on to the people a great many observances handed down
by their fathers, which are not written down in the law of Moses. For
this reason the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to
consider to be obligatory only those observances which are in the
written word, but need not observe those which are derived from the
tradition of our forefathers.
 Comparing the Sects
Freewill/Fate Afterlife Oral Law Population
Pharisees

Sadducees

Essennes
 Who Wrote the Scrolls?
• People Living at Khirbet Qumran
–Essenes – Majority View
–Sadducees – Schiffman

• Brought from Jerusalem - Golb