The Second Kingdom of Judah

CHAPTER SIX

(

From Joshua to Jesus

)

The Second Kingdom of Judah

ollowing the death of Alexander, his generals divvied up the empire. The Greek city-

states went to Antigonus. The northern region that stretched from Persia through Babylonia

and Assyria and on to the Ionian colonies on the Aegean Sea, was taken by Seleucis. The

southern region, including Egypt and Palestine, was taken by Ptolemy.

For a hundred and twenty-five years, the Ptolemies (i.e., Ptolemy I, Ptolemy II, etc.), ruled

Palestine with a generally tolerant, hands-off attitude: as long as the Jews paid their taxes, they

could govern themselves and worship however they pleased. Their chief administrator was the

High Priest who ruled in conjunction with the Assembly, and initially during this period the

people thrived and prospered. But below the surface there were three great tensions. One was

between the Hebrew culture and the imposed Greek culture. The second was a political

tension between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. The third was a religious difference of

opinion.

The Greeks, since Alexander, expected their vassals to adopt their language, manners,

customs, and ideals. Aristotle, with his emotionally barren belief in an Unmoved Mover and the

isolating virtue of self-reliance, was not the only philosophy with which the Jews had to contend.

Among various other alien ideas, they had to cope with the popular philosophy of

Epicureanism. This distortion of the genuine ideas of Epicurus (who was actually an ascetic)

encouraged a life of cynicism, in which Divinity played no role in human life, and our only

purpose was to free ourselves from concerns about morality so that we could pursue a life of

physical pleasure. As has always been the case, this was a very fashionable and attractive

philosophy for many people, especially among the young. Between the prosperity and the

pleasure, many Jews were happy to be Hellenized. In response to this, however, there was a

conservative reaction among those Jews who still revered the Mosaic Law and the religious

culture of their ancestors, and who maintained a firm belief that the royal line of David would

one day be restored to the throne. These Jews became members of a political group known

as the Hasideans.* The nation was soon split between pro- and anti-Hellenists.

The second tension was due to the constant fighting between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids,

both of whom wanted control of the eastern Mediterranean seaboard which included Palestine.

Finally, in 200 BCE the Seleucids, under Antiochus III, wrested Palestine from the Ptolemies.

Still, Antiochus continued to allow the Jews freedom of worship and the right to govern

themselves, and once again many people were perfectly content to be tax-paying vassals of

the latest Hellenic emperor.

Antiochus soon decided that he wanted to expand his empire even further, and he

marched into Egypt intending to collect more property. There, however, he ran into the latest

contender for world domination, the Romans, who had only recently become the masters of all

Italy and were now beginning their own expansionist policy. One look at the Roman legions and

Antiochus turned back.

But he still thought he might be able to defeat these upstarts if he had the help of a truly

united empire behind him. So Antiochus embarked on an intense project of Hellenization

throughout his realm, including placing statues of himself, as a god, everywhere. In Palestine,

of course, the Jews objected to this idolatrous project, and Antiochus decided to let them be –

so long as they demonstrated their continued loyalty by providing taxes and soldiers. But then

Antiochus III died, and the son who soon took over, ‘Antiochus Epiphanes’, was not so

agreeable.

The Seleucid kings would customarily appoint governors to rule their vassal states. But in

the case of Palestine, which governed itself so admirably, the custom had been to appoint a

High Priest who had been recommended by the people themselves. This time, the aristocratic

pro-Hellenist forces in Palestine, believing it to be in their best interest to support Antiochus

Epiphanes in his Hellenization program, convinced him (and very likely bribed him) to appoint

one of their members, a priest named Jason, as the new High Priest. Within a year, there were

Greek statues and Greek rites in the Temple. In response to this, more and more moderate

Jews flocked to the anti-Hellenist Hasidean party, and the divisiveness in Palestine

approached a state of civil war.

Jason, meanwhile, did not hold his job for very long. Three years later, he sent a man

named

Menaleus to Antiochus, in order to deliver the tributary taxes that were due to the

emperor. But

Menaleus betrayed him, literally outbid him, and came back as the newly

appointed High

Priest. Menaleus was not even a priest. The High Priesthood, which controlled

the great wealth

of the Temple, had became a corrupt institution for sale to the highest bidder.

In the midst of all of this, yet a third schism began to surface, this one an ideological

schism between factions of religious Jews.

A priest named Zaddok taught a form of Judaism which, among other things, denied the

possibility of any sort of reward or punishment in the world hereafter – in fact, Zaddok said

there was no such thing as a ‘world hereafter’. After all, there was nothing expressly written in

the Torah that proclaimed such an afterlife, and Zaddok and his followers – who were known

as Sadducees – read the written Torah literally: they categorically denied the validity of the Oral

Torah, or the right of sages and rabbis to interpret the written word. They were religious

conservatives who harkened back to a fundamentalist version of Prophetic Judaism. Yet the

logical result of their insistence on ‘no life hereafter’ was that our first priority should be to

pursue personal gratification in this one. This made the Sadducee philosophy a friendly

companion of Epicureanism in particular and Hellenism in general. So even though they were

religious conservatives and loyal Jews, they were politically ‘enlightened’ and were willing to

welcome a certain amount of intrusion by modern Greek culture. (Actually, for some at least,

their religious stance may have been a sham used to justify their politics. Josephus Flavius

describes them as basically irreligious). The Sadducees were mostly aristocrats and priests,

members of the wealthy upper class.

In response to this, a larger and more mainstream group was formed that called

themselves Pharisees. The Pharisees were religious liberals: they accepted and supported

the symbolic interpretations of the Oral Torah (which they believed had also been given to

Moses when he spoke with God on Mt. Sinai), including the teachings about resurrection and

the afterlife. They stressed the importance of the Synagogue, the Rabbis, and the new Prayer

Liturgy, while the Sadducees stressed the importance of the Written Torah (exclusively), the

Temple, and the ancient rituals of Sacrifice. The Pharisees, whose members were drawn

mostly from the ‘common people’ such as merchants and farmers, became very punctilious in

the formal observation of their version of religious law. This ‘separated’ them from the general

populace (the name ‘Pharisee’ means ‘Separatist’), most of whom were probably too busy just

surviving to think much about either party. The Pharisees wanted the Greeks and their entire

culture to get out of Palestine.

In time, the tensions between these various groups would increase, and eventually break out

into open conflict.

The Chanukah Story

Antiochus Epiphanes’ Hellenization project was successful in the rest of the Seleucid

Empire, and even in Palestine he had his supporters. So, believing he was strong enough to

face the Romans, he headed once again to Egypt. He was quickly sent packing by the Roman

legions*, and a rumor reached the Jews in Palestine that he had been killed. Members of the

Hasidean party took this news as a signal that the time was ripe to purge the nation of

traitorous Jewish supporters of Hellenism and desecrators of the Temple. Many were killed,

and the Greek statues in the Temple were thrown over the wall and smashed.

Antiochus, however, was very much alive, and when news of the uprising reached

him, right on the heels of his humiliation by Rome, he was enraged. He marched into

Jerusalem, slaughtered thousands of people indiscriminately, installed new statues in the

Temple, looted the Temple’s wealth, and invited pagans to come to Jerusalem and settle

there. Still angry, some reports say that he outlawed the Sabbath, forced Jews to sacrifice pigs

to pagan gods in their own Temple, and forbade circumcision. It was a reign of terror.

In 167 BCE, in a small town near Jerusalem, a Greek official ordered an old Jewish

priest named Mattathias to sacrifice a pig to the Greek gods. It would set a good example, the

official said, and he promised Mattathias a handsome reward if he complied. The old priest

defiantly refused, but while he was upbraiding the official a fellow Jew approached the altar

and began preparing to offer the sacrifice. Mattathias, filled with a blazing anger and

indignation, grabbed a sword and killed both the renegade Jew and the Greek official. He then

turned to the crowd that had gathered and said, “Follow me, all of you who are for God’s law

and stand by the covenant!”

Those who joined Mattathias, including his five sons, hid in the hills and organized a

guerrilla army led by the eldest son, Judah. Judah and his soldiers were so successful that they

were given the nickname “the Hammers” – in Hebrew, “the Maccabees” – because of all the

hammer blows they dealt the enemy. Though vastly outnumbered, they waged a long and bitter

war which they eventually won, and the legend of the Maccabees spread throughout the

empire, causing the Seleucid rulers much consternation.

Antiochus first sent a small force to stop the revolt. Judah annihilated them. Then a

larger force was sent. This time, Antiochus was so confident of victory that he brought slave

auctioneers with him and promised them a large supply of Jewish slaves after the battle.

Again, the Maccabees were victorious.

After the third year of fighting, Judah was able to reconquer Jerusalem and chase away

the Hellenist sympathizers. When the Maccabees entered the Temple, they found it

desecrated, filled with pagan statues, overgrown with vegetation, and its holy implements –

including the golden Menorah (the Candlestick) – stolen: in fact, much of the Temple’s wealth

had been used by the Seleucid kings to pay the Romans their tributes. Judah and his followers

threw out all the idols, cleansed everything, constructed a new Menorah, and rededicated the

Temple on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, in 164 BCE. But they could only find

enough oil to keep the Menorah burning for one day (it was supposed to burn continuously),

and it was an eight day journey to bring back and prepare a new supply of oil. Miraculously, the

oil continued to burn for eight days. This miracle is still commemorated by the Festival of

Lights, the Chanukah Festival, when Jews light candles on a Menorah for eight days.

The word Chanukah comes from the Hebrew word chein, which means Divine ‘Grace’ – i.

e., God’s Light. With God’s help, the Maccabees overcame incredible odds. The candle

lighting ceremony of Chanukah is meant to remind us of God’s Grace and to rekindle Hope in

the human heart during times of adversity.

Judah’s triumph, however, was not yet complete, and there would be many more years of

fighting. But in battle after battle, the Seleucids were forced to retreat. Mattathias and

Antiochus Epiphanes both died during this time, and four of Mattathias’ sons would eventually

die in battle, including Judah Maccabee. But at last, in 143 BCE, Antiochus’ successor, no

longer certain of victory, tired of the endless guerrilla warfare, and feeling weak and threatened

by Rome, signed a peace treaty with Mattathias’ only surviving son, Simon.

The Israelite Nation was once again free.

The Hasmonean Dynasty

The new Kingdom of Judah would not be free for very long.

The elders and priests got together and named Simon to the positions of High Priest and

Governor of Judah. Simon understood that to be named a King in Judah one had to be a

descendant of David, but his heirs would quickly forget this. Although they were nicknamed “the

Maccabees”, the family name was Hasmoneas, and the kings who followed Simon would be

known as the Hasmonean Dynasty.

Simon was shrewd, and he realized that both the Ptolemies and the Seleucids would be

waiting for a favorable moment to attack the Jews again and retake Palestine: commercially

and militarily, this gateway to the Mediterranean Sea was too valuable to ignore. To prepare

for this eventuality, he signed a mutual defense pact with the Romans so that they would be

obligated to help him ward off any future invasion by the Greeks.

During Antiochus Epiphanes’ reign of terror, Pharisees and Sadducees alike had flocked

to the banner of the anti-Hellenist Hasidean party and they had all fought alongside the

Maccabees. But with the success of the revolt, there was no longer any political reason to hold

these religious opponents together. Even in Simon’s own family there were followers of both

groups, and a classic family rift was soon set in motion.

Simon was eventually assassinated by his own son-in-law in 135 BCE, and his son, John

Hyrcanus, took over. Hyrcanus got himself anointed as High Priest and crowned King, thus

merging the two offices. From this point on, the history becomes a virtual parody of the

Philosopher-King ideal, in which obvious pretenders, who have earned nothing, shatter their

world and make a total disaster of the kingdom.

Hyrcanus was a Pharisee, but he quickly managed to offend and alienate this group as his

interests became more and more political and secular. When some Pharisees complained

that he was not following prescribed formalities of worship and behavior, he became angry. He

forbade the observance of laws they had promulgated, and he switched his allegiance to the

Sadducees.

Toward the end of his reign, Hyrcanus conquered several neighboring lands, including the

territories of the Galileans and the Idumeans, building up the size of the Jewish state to what it

was in the days of Solomon. He then did something that is virtually unheard of in the history of

Judaism outside of this period: he converted these pagans to Judaism by the sword (Judaism

traditionally discourages conversion).

When he died in 105 BCE, Hyrcanus left five sons. But although his will left the High

Priesthood to his eldest son Aristobulus, it left the government to his wife. Aristobulus,

however, put his mother in prison and left her there to starve. He then took over the government

for himself. He also put three of his brothers in prison, and murdered the fourth. Fortunately, he

himself died of illness after just one year in power.

After Aristobulus’ death, his widow Alexandra had the three brothers released from prison.

She managed to get the eldest, Alexander Janneus, installed as the new king, and she then

married him. Alexander Janneus proved to be a violent ruler who was constantly engaged in

wars and plundering at home and abroad.

During his reign, the schism between Sadducees and Pharisees reached the breaking

point and civil war ensued. Although most of the Maccabees had originally been Pharisees,

the current secular, financial, and imperial interests of their kingly successors had drawn them

deeper and deeper into the Sadducee camp. But during this same time, the Pharisees were

gaining ever-greater power and influence amongst the majority of the people. “It could only be

with deep-seated resentment,” writes Emil Schürer in A History of the Jewish People in the

Time of Jesus, “that pious Jews could look on and see a wild warrior like Alexander Janneus

discharging the duties of high priest in the holy place, certainly not with the conscientious and

painstaking observance of the ordinances regarded by the Pharisees as divine. Even while he

was discharging his priestly office it is said that for the first time they broke out in open

rebellion.” Apparently, during the Feast of Tabernacles, Alexander was pelted by the

assembled people with lemon-like fruits called citrons that were used as part of the ceremony.

He responded by calling in his soldiers and massacring six hundred people.

This action soon led to a general rebellion, and Alexander spent six years fighting his own

people and killing 50,000 of them. Then the Pharisees made a mistake. They asked the latest

Seleucid Emperor, Demetrius, for help. Demetrius was only too happy to oblige. He arrived

with his army, and Alexander was forced to flee into the mountains. But this renewed invasion

by the Greek Seleucids was too much for many of the Pharisees: they realized too late that

they would rather be ruled by a bad Jewish king than by this Hellenist foreigner. Six thousand of

them went back to Alexander, and together they forced Demetrius to withdraw. Once he was

out of danger, however, Alexander wrought a terrible vengeance on the Pharisees. According

to Josephus Flavius, he crucified eight hundred of them, and while they were still alive they had

to watch the slaughter of their wives and children. During that night of horror, eight thousand

Pharisees fled from Judea, following which there was finally peace in the land for the remaining

years of Alexander’s rule.

When he died in 78 BCE, his will named his wife Alexandra, widowed yet again by a

Hasmonean king, as successor to the throne. Alexandra turned out to be the direct opposite of

her husband, and the most capable of all the Hasmonean rulers. She befriended the

Pharisees, invited the banished to come home, and gave them most of the power in her

government. Her piety and conscientiousness made her the Pharasaic standard of a God-

fearing ruler. She instituted vast social reforms, including free elementary schools for girls and

boys that virtually eliminated illiteracy. During her reign from 78 - 69 BCE, the nation

prospered, and her era has been referred to as a brief Golden Age.

But this turned out to be just a brief respite, and complete chaos and final destruction

followed almost immediately.

Alexandra had two sons. The eldest, Hyrcanus II, was a Pharisee. The other, Aristobulus II,

was a Sadducee. Unable to assume the High Priesthood herself (only men were allowed), she

named Hyrcanus II to the post. When she died, Hyrcanus grabbed the throne as well. But

Aristobulus then led a revolt, and with the help of the priesthood he deposed Hyrcanus. As a

result, another civil war between Pharisees and Sadducees broke out in 67 BCE.

Now it was Hyrcanus’ turn once again. Under the guidance and encouragement of

Antipater – the Governor of the neighboring Idumeans who had been forcefully converted to

Judaism by John Hyrcanus – and with an army of neighboring Arabians led by the Arabian

Prince Aretas, Hyrcanus was able to wrest the throne back again from his brother.

But Aristobulus refused to give up. He now appealed to the Romans for help. It happened

that, right at this time, the Roman general Pompey had just finished his conquest of the

Seleucid Empire, and he and his army were right next door. Pompey listened to envoys (and

received plenty of gifts) from both brothers. Then he told Hyrcanus’ friend Aretas to withdraw

his troops if he did not wish to be declared an enemy of Rome, and Aristobulus was returned

to power a second time.

But it was still not over! In 63 BCE, Pompey was again in the neighborhood conquering

more Greek lands for the Romans. This time, he was met by representatives of three Jewish

parties. Hyrcanus pleaded to be reinstated. Aristobulus pleaded to keep his job. And the

Pharisees, who had had enough of all such kings, pleaded with Pompey to recognize neither

of them, and to return the country to the rule of a legitimate High Priest.

But this time, rather than siding with any of them, Pompey marched into Palestine and

conquered it, and he renamed it Judea. Those who resisted were beheaded. Territories that

had been conquered by the Hasmoneans were taken away and became part of the newly

formed Roman province of Syria. A much reduced Judea was turned over to Hyrcanus, who

was given the position of High Priest, but was no longer a king. Aristobulus was taken by

Pompey back to Rome as a prisoner of war, where he was made to march in front of the

conqueror’s chariot.

After just seventy-six years, the great-grandchildren of the original Maccabees had lost

that freedom which Mattathias’ courage and Judah Maccabee’s valor had won for them, and

the second Kingdom of Judah had become a vassal state of the Roman Empire.

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