Second Temple Period Judaism

Factors Leading to the Maccabean Revolt (Part 1)

Several factors led to the Maccabean Revolt. Early in his reign, Antiochus IV Epiphanes was involved in a dispute over the high priesthood in Jerusalem. Onias III was the legitimate High Priest. His pro-Hellenism brother Jason traveled to the newly established Antiochus and bribed the king to be appointed as High Priest (1 Mac 1:13-15, 2 Mac 4:7-15). To please Antiochus, Jason pledged to build a gymnasium near the temple and encourage the Jews to become more “Greek.” The gymnasium was popular, even among some priests who left their duties to play in the games dedicated to Hermes.

Maccabean Revolt Antiochus IV Epiphanes CoinAs offensive as these things were to the orthodox Jews, for some, the Hellenization did not go far enough. For this reason, Menelaus (with the support of the Tobiad party) went to Antiochus and offered the king a larger bribe (300 more talents than Jason) for the office. Antiochus immediately declared Menelaus High Priest and sent Syrian troops to oust Jason from Jerusalem.  Menelaus was not even of a priestly family and was only interested in the priesthood for political power and wealth. “Religion was to Antiochus nothing but a tool, a convenient means to an end” (Seow, Daniel, 183).

Menelaus also had some serious problems. Since most of the Jews did not support him as a high priest, he had trouble raising the money to pay Antiochus his bribe. As a result, he was forced to sell temple items to pay bribes to the king’s agent, Andronicus.

Onias III protested: Menelaus was not a legitimate high priest and had no authority to sell anything from the temple, let alone to pay bribes to a Gentile king!  Andronicus was not impressed with his protest and had the true high priest killed (2 Mac 4:33-38, many would include Dan 9:26-27 here as well; For those who assume a second-century date for Daniel, this is the “cutting off of the anointed one” in Daniel 9).

2 Maccabees 4:33-35 When Onias became fully aware of these acts, he publicly exposed them, having first withdrawn to a place of sanctuary at Daphne near Antioch. 34 Therefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus aside, urged him to kill Onias. Andronicus came to Onias, and resorting to treachery, offered him sworn pledges and gave him his right hand; he persuaded him, though still suspicious, to come out from the place of sanctuary; then, with no regard for justice, he immediately put him out of the way. 35 For this reason not only Jews, but many also of other nations, were grieved and displeased at the unjust murder of the man.

Menelaus’s robbing of the temple caused riots against his priesthood. Lysimachus, Menelaus’s brother, led troops against the rioters and killed 3000 people, but he was himself killed in the battle. Menelaus was called into account by Antiochus but managed to bribe his way out of trouble.

2 Maccabees 4:43-50  Charges were brought against Menelaus about this incident. 44 When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented the case before him. 45 But Menelaus, already as good as beaten, promised a substantial bribe to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes to win over the king. 46 Therefore Ptolemy, taking the king aside into a colonnade as if for refreshment, induced the king to change his mind. 47 Menelaus, the cause of all the trouble, he acquitted of the charges against him, while he sentenced to death those unfortunate men, who would have been freed uncondemned if they had pleaded even before Scythians. 48 And so those who had spoken for the city and the villages and the holy vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty. 49 Therefore even the Tyrians, showing their hatred of the crime, provided magnificently for their funeral. 50 But Menelaus, because of the greed of those in power, remained in office, growing in wickedness, having become the chief plotter against his compatriots.

The situation in Judea is one of political chaos as two men vie for the office of High Priest. Their motivation is not to lead Judea in worship but to obtain wealth and power. Menelaus, in particular, is portrayed in 2 Maccabees as violent and greedy, willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain his power. These power plays from rival high priests directly led to the Maccabean Revolt.

Is There a Messiah in 1 Maccabees?

If the writer of 1 Maccabees positioned Judas as David-revisited, it would be unlikely that he would look forward to a future messiah. The book represents a staus quo sort of Judaism, and is “opposed to the Pharisees, the apocalypticists, and the many sectarians in Judea itself” (Fischer, “Maccabees,” 4:442). There is no “return of Judas” theme in 1 Maccabees. His successor Jonathan is enthroned as a king in purple and gold (10:59-66) and as high priest (10:18-21). The writer makes it quite clear that the “yoke of the gentiles was removed” under the leadership of Jonathan (13:41). 1 Maccabees might be described as having a completely realized eschatology because hope for an eschatological age are entirely fulfilled in the Hasmoneans.

Judas Maccabees Messiah

As outlined in a previous post, the writer of 1 Maccabees patterned Judas after the great heroes of the Hebrew Bible. But the brief hymn of praise in 3:3-9 may go beyond even the historical characters found in the biblical material. Goldstein suggests this section is derive from Isaiah 11:12 and 12:5 (Goldstein, 1 Maccabees, 245). Judas gathers the people to the Land and thereby makes his name known throughout the world. There are, however, no exact linguistic parallels between 1 Mac 3:9 and Is 12:5.

In the hymn of praise for Simon (14:4-15), it the Hasmonean dynasty which has established peace in the land and provided the needs of all of the people. Simon is even praised for restoring the temple to glory (14:15). In 14:8, the people described as tilling the land in peace. This is part of the blessings for covenant obedience (Lev 26:4, cf. Deut 28:12) as well as a promise from the prophets concerning the messianic age. Zechariah 8:12 and Ezek 34:27 promise a time of unprecedented prosperity when God restores the people to the land. Since the author of 1 Maccabees is describing the period of Simon in “messianic” terms, there is little need for a coming, future messiah to restore prosperity to the Land.

In 1 Maccabees 14:9, old men are pictured as sitting in the streets talking of good things. This may allude to the messianic age as a time of great rejoicing. For example, in Zechariah 8:4 old men and women in the streets as a symbol of peace. But 1 Maccabees 14:9 describes young men putting on “splendid military attire,” while Zech 8:5 describes children as playing in the streets. It is possible the Hebrew שׂחק, which normally means “to play,” was taken by the author of 1 Maccabees in the same sense as 2 Sam 2:14, to fight (HALOT 4 for bibliography). In this case, the verse might be taken as “children are play-fighting in the streets.”

In either case, the image of if a time when old men and children can rest from work because of the peace and prosperity of the day. While Zechariah sees this as a part of a return from captivity and messianic age, the writer of 1 Maccabees sees the peace as accomplished in Simon. In 14:10 Simon is described as supplying everyone with food and defense, something Goldstein sees as patterned after the kings of great Israel (1 Kings 9:15-19, 2 Chron 8:3-6, 26:6-15; see Goldstein, 1 Maccabees, 491). If a king was to be judged as a “good king” in Chronicles, he undertook building projects which defended the land. Like Judas, Simon’s fame spreads throughout the world.

The reign of Simon is described as a time when “all the people sat under their own vines and fig trees, and there was none to make them afraid” (14:12), a metaphor drawn from several passages in the Hebrew Bible. As early as 1 Kings 4:25, the peace brought by David’s reign is described as a time of safety, when each man sat under his own vine and fig tree. This image is repeated in Isa 36:16, although it is on the lips of the Assyrians when they promise to make peace if the Israelites surrender. More significant are Micah 4:4 and Zech 3:10 where the metaphor appears in clearly eschatological contexts.

In the messianic age there will be peace and safety and all will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree. The Hasmoneans claim to have created a kingdom of peace and safety. Whether they did or not is beside the point, perhaps 1 Maccabees could be described as “alternative facts” which support the script the new dynasty wants to use to support their power.

What should we make of this re-application of prophecy to a more or less secular political dynasty? It is not too difficult to think of several modern (recent) examples of this kind of propaganda in American politics. What is the theological damage to Second Temple period Judaism if the Hasmoneans are re-interpreting prophetic texts to support their regime? That answer may be instructive as we see this sort of thing happening in contemporary contexts.

1 Maccabees and the Legitimacy of the Hasmoneans

The book of 1 Maccabees clearly favors the revolution against the Seleucid and the Hasmonean dynasty. In fact, it is “a thoroughgoing pro-Hasmonean . . . perhaps even Sadducean, tendency interpenetrates the entire work” (Fischer, 4:441) and the “author of 1 Maccabees identifies unreservedly with the rebels and their leaders.” (Efron, 47; Sievers, 2).

judas-maccabeesThe Maccabean revolt was God’s will since the Hasmoneans liberated Judean from foreign rule. For example, in 5:62 the early Hasmoneans are described as “those men into whose hands salvation of Israel was given.” Those who disobey the Hasmoneans are killed in battle (5:55-62).

The founder of the dynasty, Matthias, is described as “burning with the zeal of Phineas” (2:26) when he first rallies people to rebel against the Seleucids. Phineas was the priest who killed a man and prostitute who dared to flaunt their sin before the tabernacle in Numbers 25:7. Even his last words to his sons, Matthias urges his sons to emulate Phineas, David, Caleb, Joshua, Elijah and other great heroes of the Hebrew Bible. It is no surprise that many of these models expressed their zeal for the Lord with violence.

Judas Maccabees is cast as a leader in the tradition of the great military leaders of the Hebrew Bible. In 3:4 Judas is compared to a lion (“his deeds were like a lion, a lion’s cub roaring for prey”), an allusion to Gen 49:9, “Judah is like a lion’s cub” (σκύμνος λέοντος in both texts). In the prophecy of Balaam Israel is described as a lion’s cub crouching for prey (σκύμνος in Num 23:24 and 24:9).

In 3:8 Judas is compared to Joshua in that he drove the ungodly out of the land (Josh 2:3). This compares to the prophetic evaluation of Othniel in Judges 3:7-10 – the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he drove out the enemies of the land. That Judas “gathers those who are perishing” (1 Macc 3:9, συνήγαγεν ἀπολλυμένους) may be an allusion to Isaiah 11:12 where the root of Jesse himself will raise a banner in the land and gather (συνάξει) in all of the scattered of Israel (τοὺς ἀπολομένους Ισραηλ).

Judas is most often identified with David. In 3:10-12, the writer briefly explains how Judas came to have the sword of Apollinius. This story seems remarkably parallel to David, who early in his career captured the sword of Goliath and made use of it later in his time as a mercenary. In 3:16-23 Judas makes a speech which is reminiscent of David against Goliath (1 Sam 17, cf. 1 Mac 12:15, 16:3). The situation is in fact analogous since Judas leads a small army of Jews against the larger Greek force. Judas says that the size of the army does not matter since “strength comes from Heaven” and that his army is fighting “for our lives and our laws.”

As a result of this speech, the Jewish army crushes the Greeks and pursues them to Beth-horon and into the territory of the Philistines. The verb “to crush” (συντρίβω) is used in the LXX in Deut 28:7, the blessings of the covenant: “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you.” In Joshua 10:10 the word is used to described the defeat of the Gibeonites, who are “crushed” and “chased . . . by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon.” In this story great hailstones rain on the Gibeonites, killing more men than the army of Joshua and the sun and moon stand still (Josh 11). The story in Joshua concludes with the words “for the Lord fought for Israel” (Josh 10:14), precisely the same point Judas makes in 1 Mac 3:19-21.

It seems clear the writer of 1 Maccabees is intentionally modeling Judas Maccabees after David and other heroes of the Hebrew Bible. Like any good political propaganda, 1 Maccabees wants the reader to think of the hero of the story in epic terms drawn from the sacred literature Israel. But is Judas really a king like David, or a conqueror like Joshua? Why choose these two particular examples from the Hebrew Bible? What is the book of 1 Maccabees saying about the Hasmonan dynasty?

 

 

 

Bibliography: Joshua Efron, Studies on the Hasmonean Period. (Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity 39. Leiden: Brill, 1987);    Fischer, Thomas. “Maccabees, Books of,” ABD 4:440-50 (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1992), Joseph Sievers, The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I. (Atlanta: Scholars, 1990); Williams, David S. The Structure of 1 Maccabees, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly. Monograph Series ; 31. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1999.

 

Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Beginning of the Rebellion

The conflict between the Hellenists and the Hasidim came to a climax during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163 B.C.), leading to the Maccabean revolt. Antiochus IV had been in Rome as a hostage because of his father’s military defeats. Before his death Seleucus Philopater had sent his son to Rome in exchange for his brother Antiochus IV. This twelve years spent in Rome influenced the young Antiochus greatly.

antiochus_iv_epiphanesAfter leaving Rome Antiochus went to Athens where he served as chief magistrate until Seleucus IV Philopater was murdered by Heliodorus. Heliodorus ruled as regent for Demetrius, the second son of Seleucus IV. When Antiochus IV heard of his brother’s death and that Heliodorus had seized the throne, he arranged financial support King Eumenes II of Pergamum. When he arrived in Syria, Antiochus began to flatter and bribe everyone involved in arbitrating the dispute over who should be king.

Although he was finally named king, Antiochus took over a troubled kingdom. The Seleucids were nearly out of money and continually harassed by Rome to the west and the Parthinians to the east. Antiochus dealt with the first problem by robbing temples and shrines throughout the kingdom, including Jerusalem. In order to develop some stability in the kingdom, he encouraged Hellenism throughout the kingdom, usually by adding Zeus to the local pantheon.

Antiochus angered the Jews by appointing high-priests who had bribed him for the office. He appointed Jason as high-priest in 175 in exchange for a bribe (which was larger than the bribe offered by Onias III, the high-priest antiochus_iv_epiphanes_1appointed by Antiochus’ predecessor.) Three years later, Jason was replaced by Menelaus, an enemy of Onias III, who happened to offer an even larger bribe to Antiochus.  Both Jason and Menelaus were extremely lax with respect to Jewish law; Jason even petitioned Antiochus to re-found Jerusalem as a Greek city-state with the name Antioch and built a gymnasium at the foot of the temple mount.

Jason attacked Menelaus in Jerusalem, forcing Antiochus to put down the rebellion with a show of force. Antiochus responded to this Jewish in-fighting by outlawing distinctive Jewish religious practices and began a program of persecution of the Jews with the intent of insulting and offending the Jews in every way possible. This included sacrificing a pig to Zeus in the Temple, the “abomination that causes desolation” from Daniel 9.

Antiochus is often described as a “Hellenistic zealot” who sought to impose Hellenism on the “faithful” Jewish people. That is the impression one gets from reading 1 Maccabees, but the book is not necessarily “objective history.” There is really no evidence that indicates Antiochus was any more Hellenistic that any other Greek ruler, nor was his method of suppressing the Jewish nationalistic feelings particularly extreme by the standards of the day.

While these outrageous actions of Antiochus were the direct causes of the Maccabean revolt in 164 B.C.E., the tension between completely Hellenized Jews (Menelaus and Jason) and somewhat Hellenized Jews (Onias III, and the later Hasmoneans) was present in the period prior to Antiochus’ offensive actions.

There will be a range of responses from the Jews to the highly offensive policies of Antiochus and his political descendants, from the armed rebellion of the Maccabeans to passive martyrdom of the seven brothers in 4 Maccabees. Some groups withdrew from society to study their sacred Scripture (the Essenes, some Pharisees), others developed elaborate apocalyptic hopes for God’s immediate intervention. Others give up any resistance to the empire and ally themselves with the emperor who commits abominations.

What is remarkable is these are still the kinds of options available to modern Christians in a post-Christian America. What are the dangers of joining the empire, what are the risks of speaking out against the “abominations”? How can the various responses to Antiochus be a guide (or a warning) to Christian responses to present anti-Christian governments?

 

 

The Law in Jubilees

In Jubilees, the law is established in creation, therefore “obedience to the Law is the central message of Jubilees” (Wintermute, “Jubilees,” OTP 2:40).  The writer desires to place as many Jewish customs and religious features as early in the history as possible. The earlier a practice can be rooted in history, the better. For example, the purity laws concerning a pregnancy (3:8-14) are found in the creation narrative alongside marriage and Sabbath. Adam is created unclean and must wait forty days before entering the garden, Eve must wait eighty (3:8-14, the number of days after which a woman is to present herself at the temple for ritual cleansing after the birth of a male and female).

Jubilees 2:19-20 selects phrases from Exodus on Sabbath and inserts them into the creation story.

And he gave us a great sign, the sabbath day, so that we might work six days and observe a sabbath from all work on the seventh day. 18 And he told us—all of the angels of the presence and all of the angels of sanctification, these two great kinds—that we might keep the sabbath with him in heaven and on earth. And he said to us, “Behold I shall separate for myself a people from among all the nations. And they will also keep the sabbath. And I will sanctify them for myself, and I will bless them. Just as I have sanctified and shall sanctify the sabbath day for myself thus shall I bless them. And they will be my people and I will be their God. And I have chosen the seed of Jacob from among all that I have seen. And I have recorded him as my firstborn son, and have sanctified him for myself forever and ever. And I will make known to them the sabbath day so that they might observe therein a sabbath from all work.” OTP 2:57.

There are other later Jewish institutions and beliefs retrojected into the story of Genesis. Noah establishes the feast of Shevout and Firstfruits (6:17-31). These feasts are “Thus it is engraved and ordained on the heavenly tablets, and there is no transgressing in a single year, from year to year.”

Image result for sabbath commandment manuscriptThe prohibition on eating blood in Gen 9 is greatly expanded, conforming it to later command sin the mosaic law (7:20-33). Abraham implores his father to not worship idols (12:1-8) and burns down the house of idols (12:12-14).

Abraham even keeps the Feast of Booths centuries before it is given (Jub. 16:20-31). Passover and the Feast of Lights are not celebrated by Abraham since they are rooted in well-known historical events. Purim is also omitted, although if the book comes from a theological current akin to the Qumran community, Esther may not have been an important book and Purim a secular celebration. Even the Day of Atonement is foreshadowed in the story of Genesis; it is a day of mourning for Joseph (34).

In Jubilees, Seth, Enoch, and Noah are “proto-Jews” who were righteous before God well before Abraham. The tithe is rooted in the patriarchal stories in Jubilees 32.  The writer is therefore weaving law material into the narrative of the earliest histories in the Hebrew Bible in order to provide a more sure foundation for distinctive Jewish practices.

Jubilees repeatedly condemns fornication in the early generations, rooted in the Noahic covenant.  Similarly, many of these commands are “written on heavenly tablets,” an indication of the solemnity of the commands as well as their inviolability.  Even when a patriarch is guilty of fornication and is not judged (Reuben, 33; Judah 41), the author makes it clear this is no excuse for the reader to commit such acts.

What motivated the writer of Jubliees to ground distinctive Jewish practices in the earliest stories in Genesis? Is his motivation to prove to the Gentile world that the Judaism of the Second Temple period is ancient and worthy of respect? Or is he “preaching to the choir,” trying to encourage Second Temple Jews to continue in their practice of Sabbath and festivals?