Judas Maccabaeus and the Jewish war of independence

Front matter

Cornell University Library

The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.

Preface

'T^HE story of the life of Judas Maccabaeus forms ■•• one of the most important episodes in Jewish history, if only because it explains how the nation first developed that peculiar phase of character which marked it at the time when Christianity was given to the world.

The sources of historic information upon which I have mainly relied in the following pages are the First Book of Maccabees and the Antiquities of Josephus. The Second Book of Maccabees being generally considered to be far inferior in value to the first, and its statements being sometimes in direct contradiction to the more ancient accounts, has contributed only some of the picturesque details with which it abounds.

These authorities, however, furnish little beyond the dry bones of history. Some attempt has, therefore, been made in this volume to render the story more vivid by aid of description of the scenes in which it was laid, and of the contemporary social

6 Preface.

and religious life of the Jews. The Talmudic information is mainly derived from the well-known edition of the Mishna by Surenhusius ; and the account of the country is due to the advantages I enjoyed during the survey of Palestine, when I was able to visit more than once each of the battlefields of Judas.

Finally, I have attempted to give a slight sketch of those results of the great struggle which appear most important in relation to general history, and especially as connected with the origin and growth of Christianity.

C. R. C.

Guildford, i-jth May, 1S79.

Contents

PACK

Introduction— From Ezra to Simon, , . 9

Chronological -Table of Events, . . 18

Chap. I.— The National Life, . . .20 II.— The National Religion, . . 51

IV.— The Victories of Judas. 164 b.c, . 106

v.— Defeats and Death of Judas. 163-161 b.c, 134

VI.— The Surviving Brothers. 161-114 b.c, 161

VII.— The Results of Independence, . . 185

Appendix.— Genealogy of the Hasmonean Faiiilv, 216

ERRATA.

p.

p.

p.

-For "Shofah," read "Shofar."

-For " Mishnaioth," read " Mishmaroth.

-For "Meridarch," read "Meridiarch."

COIN OF ANT10CHU5 EPIPHANES.

JUDAS MACCAB^^US.

Introduction

FROM EZRA TO JUDAS.

JUDAS MACCABEUS is the central figure of one J of the most important periods of Jewish history — a time when the nation struggled successfully to attain independence, and during which the germs of the later Jewish religious development first appeared, and the foundation was laid of that condition of Jewish society which existed in the time of Christ.

The public career of Judas extends only over eight years, and the work he commenced was left to his brothers and their descendants to carry out ; yet the name of Judas stands out more distinctly than that of any other leader of _t!l^ =^g^i and Jewish historians of later times have ever loved to magnify his doings, even at the expense of the later Hasmoneans, whose actual achievements were more important lo Jiidas MaccabcsiLs.

It cannot, however, be said that this high estimate of Judas is unjust. The later conquests may have been more extensive, and the position of the later native Jewish princes may have been more independent and politically stronger. But it was Judas who first dared to withstand the foreign tyranny which threatened to annihilate the Jewish faith, and it was the genius of Judas which first pointed out the measures, military and political, by which independence might be best preserved. The later Hasmoneans merely carried out the designs of which Judas was the original author, and he may, therefore, be justly regarded as the jather of Jewish freedom.

In the following pages, I have attempted not only to narrate the bare facts of the short career of Judas, but also to give a sketch of the gradual development of the nation during the period of independence, from Ezra to the Herodian age, with some account of their habits of life, their manners, and their religious contests and tendencies, and with an estimate of the true value of the achievements of Judas, as influencing the later history of the Jews. From a study of the condition and habits of the nation, we obtain a clear view of the immediate causes of the revolt, and the real importance of the struggle will be seen to lie in the development of the national character and religion, which was the result of the freedom obtained by the efforts of Judas.

Alexander the Great. ii

In order to understand the causes of the revolt, it is necessary, first, briefly to review the history of the nation from the time of their return from captivity.

The book of Nehemiah closes about the year 435 B.C. At this time, the nation was once more re-established in its native country, the city and the Temple had been rebuilt, and the office of the high priesthood was once more constituted.

The immediate successors of Ezra the scribe are known in Jewish history as "the men of the great synagogue," and were regarded with a veneration inferior only to that shown for the great men whose works close the historical canon of the Old Testament. But little, however, is to be gathered of the history of the nation, or of its chief men, during the century which intervened between the time of Nehemiah and that of Alexander the Great ; and one short chapter only is devoted, by Josephus, to the time between the death of Eliashib, the High Priest of the time of Nehemiah, and the visit of Alexander to Jerusalem. It appears that during this century the nation remained peacefully content under jth^Persianrule, in enjoyment of religious freedom, and governed, to a certain extent, by native chiefs.

In the year 333 B.C., the news of the advance of Alexander the Great spread consternation in the Holy City, and the report of his cruelties to the people of Tyre overawed the Jews, and deterred them

12 ytidas MaccabcBus.

from any ideas of resistance. Ambassadors were sent to meet the conqueror in the plain of Sharon ; and as he approached Jerusalem, a long procession of priests and elders, headed by the venerable High Priest Jaddu a, went out to await his arrival on the plateau of Scopus, whence the advancing army could be seen in the distance, and where Jerusalem first struck the sight of the conqueror.

The wisdom and magnanimity of Alexander were on this occasion specially evinced. He received in a friendly manner the proffered submission of the Jews, and showed the greatest deference to their religious scruples. Under the guidance of the priests, he offered sacrifices in the Temple — probably without transgressing the law which forbade strangers to enter the inner court — and he treated the High Priest with marked respect. Thus, by tact and toleration, he secured the friendship of a nation which had so often resisted the greatest monarchs of the Old World, and Palestine passed without a struggle from the rule of Fersja to that of Greece^

The visit of Alexander, so long remembered by the Jews, had an influence of unexpected importance on their future history ; for from the time of that visit dates the establishment of a Jewish colony in Egypt, and the foundation of a new religious sect.

From Jerusalem, Alexander marched to Egypt, and was accompanied by a considerable Jewish con-

Alexandria Founded. 13

tingent, enlisted with the understanding that they were to be permitted to adhere to their own law and customs. In return for the valuable services of this force, Alexander conceded to them equal civic rights with the Macedonians ; and after he had founded Alexandria, tracing its walls with his own hands, he allotted a separate quarter in that city to the Jews.

In the year .^24 B.C. Alexander the Great died — the great horn of the rough goat was broken (Daniel viii. 21), "and for it came up four notable ones towards the four winds of heaven" — ver. 8. Palestine became part of the Asiatic kingdom of the family of Seleucus reigning in Antioch, and Egypt was given to the Ptolemies.

The first Ptolemy (son of Lagus) took Jerusalem in the following year, entering it as though to offer sacrifice on the Sabbath day. He also attacked and conquered Samaria, and led as prisoners to Alexandria a great number of both Jews and Samaritans, who increased the colony already founded.

The next important episode in Jewish history occurred in 277 B.C., when, by the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Eleazar, the High Priest, sent the seventy elders to Egypt to translate the Pentateuch into Greek.

Under the earlier Seleucidae, Palestine attained to a condition of prosperity, and the Jews to political consideration, far beyond that enjoyed under Persian

14 Judas MaccabcBtis.

rule. The Asiatic successors of Alexander pursued the same system of religious toleration which he had inaugurated, and the relations between the orthodox Jews and the heathen world were more friendly than at any previous or subsequent period.

The attention of the Seleucidae was, moreover, engaged with external affairs. Antiochus the Great was attacked by the Romans, and defeated at Thermopylae, and was forced to send his son Antiochus (famous afterwards in the history of the Jewish revolt) as a hostage to Rome. In the year 176 B.C. Antiochus the Great died, and his son Seleucus, who succeeded him, was shortly afterwards murdered, leaving as rightful heir to the throne a son named Demetrius : but Demetrius was in Rome at the time, where he had been sent by his father to take the place of his uncle Antiochus Epiphanes, the younger son of Antiochus the Great. Thus the opportunity presented itself to Epiphanes of seizing the throne of the Seleucidae, and of usurping the rights of his absent nephew — an opportunity which a man so bold and unscrupulous was not slow to seize.

Lieanwhile, Palestine had been given away by Antiochus the Great, as the dower of his daughter Cleopa'. ra, who was married to Ptolemy Epiphanes, King of Egypt. The first act of the new king, Antiochus Epiphanes, was to set aside this arrangement ; and, immediately after his accession, he entered

Antiochus Epiphanes. 15

Palestine and assumed control over its affairs, installing a new high priest at Jerusalem in the year 172 B.C.

The internal dissensions of the Jews now, unfortunately, drew attention to their affairs. They had no longer to deal with a wise and great monarch, but with a man of so violent and unscrupulous a character that he would allow no obstacle to baulk him of his will, and no considerations of justice or policy to restrain his lawless tyranny. By his enemies, Antiochus Epiphanes was named Epimanes — "the frantic" — and the title was well earned by the recklessness of his expenditure, the intolerance of his persecutions, and the folly^f his projects of government.

The High Priest, Onias the Third, died in the year 176 B.C., and was succeeded by his brother Jeauc, or Jason. Onias also left a son named Onias, and had a third brother named Menelaus, and these two latter became also claimants for the office of the highpriesthood.

Antiochus Epiphanes took the part of the younger brother, Menelaus. He had been sent by Jason, the rightful heir, to Antioch with a present of 600 talents, but proved unfaithful to his trust, and with a bribe of 900 talents induced the new usurper to favour his own claim. On his first visit to Jerusalem, in 172 B.C., Antiochus installed Menelaus in the office.

1 6 Judas MaccabcBits.

and Jason, though supported by the pubhc voice, was forced toJ^Jx) the land of the Ammonites.

Antiochus, becoming engaged in a quarrel with Egypt, made four successive expeditions from Antioch against that country, in every case passing down the coast of Syria, and thus inflicting more or less misery on its inhabitants. In the year 170 B.C., during the second of these campaigns, he attacked Pelusium, took Memphis, and would probably have subdued Alexandria, but for the warning he received from the Romans, which forced him to retire under pain of their displeasure. Thus, with a treasury impoverished by reckless expenditure, and with a discontented and mutinous army, he once more reached the plains below Jerusalem.

Unfortunately for the Jews, a report had spread that Antiochus had been slain in Egypt, and Jason, assisted by a large party, had surprised Menelaus in Jerusalem, and had shut him up in the stronghold of the city. This revolution afforded to Antiochus the pretext which he was only too anxious to seize. During his former visit he had become acquainted with the wealth of the Jerusalem Temple, and from his father he had learned to consider such riches as legitimate plunder, Antiochus the Great having set the first example in his attempt to sack the Temple of Diana in Elymais.

On hearing of the return of Jason, the army of

Jerusalem Sacked. 17

Antiochus advanced on Jerusalem, and was admitted by the faction which supported Menelaus, Thus Jerusalem was taken without a siege, and at once delivered over to be sacked. A general massacre of the inhabitants of every age and sex ensued, the public buildings were burnt, the Temple was desecrated, great numbers of Jews were taken captive to be sold in Antioch, the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, all the sacred vessels, and even the veils and crowns of the sanctuary, were carried away. Menelaus was once more installed as High Priest, and a Phrygian governor was left to assist him. The unhappy Jason fled to Egypt, and afterwards to Sparta, where he died, and Antiochus, in the words of the Book of Daniel, returned "into his land with great riches." — Dan. xi. 28.

Such were the events immediately preceding the revolt, which broke out two years later at Modin. In order more clearly to appreciate them, a table of dates and principal events is appended to this Introduction. Having thus briefly narrated the history leading up to the first scene of our hero's life, we may now glance at the social and religious condition of the nation at his time, before we proceed to the story of his own brief but eventful career.

yudas MaccabcBits.

Chronological Table of Events from Hasmonean.

B.C.

460 447 435 424

305 302

285 277 276 263 250

Accession of Artaxerxes Longimanus. Ezra sent to Jerusalem.

Nehemiah sent to Jerusalem. — End of the Book of Nehemiah.

Accession of Darius II.

,, Artaxerxes II.

„ Ochus I.

„ Arogusl. -

„ Darius III.

Alexander visits Jerusalem,

Death of Alexander.

Era of the Seleucidte.

Accession of Ptolemy I., son of Lagus.

,, Antiochus I., Soter.

, , Ptolemy II. , Philadelphus.

The Septuagint translation made.

Ezra to Simon the

Eliashib High Priest.

Joida 11. High Priest.

Jonathan I. High Priest.

Jaddua High Priest.

Onias I. High Priest.

Simon I. High Priest.

Eleazar II. High Priest.

Manasseh High Priest.

Onias II. High Priest.

Accession of Antiochus II., Theos.

Antigonus of Soccho President of the Sanhedrim. 248 Accession of Seleucus II. 247 ,, Ptolemy III., Euergetes.

228 ,, Seleucus III.

225 ,, Antiochus III., the Great.

222 ,, Ptolemy IV., Philopater.

219 ,, Ptolemy V., Epiphanes. Simon 11. High Priest.

205 Joseph farms the taxes (Ant. xii. 4).

199 Josebenjoasus President of Sanhedrim. Onias III. High Priest.

181 Accession of Ptolemy VI., Philometev.

176 ,, Antiochus Epiphanes. — "" Jason High Priest.

172 Menelaus High Priest.

170 Antiochus takes Jerusalem.

168 Revolt of the Jews.

165 Restoration of the Temple.

Chronology. 19

163 Sabbatic year. Antiochus V., Eupator,

takes Jerusalem. 162 Accession of Demetrius. Alcimus High Priest.

161 Death of Judas Maccabaeus. 160 Joshua ben Pheraki President of the

Sanhedrim. Jonathan High Priest.

143 Simon III. Ethnarch of the Jews and

High Priest. 142 First year of Jewish independence.

N.B.— This table is taken from that given by Mr. F. R. Conder in " Cassell's Bible Educator."

Chapter I. The National Life

"AS for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a ■^ maritime country, nor do we deh'ght in merchandise, nor in such a mixture with other men as arises from it ; but the cities we dwell in are remote from the sea, and having a fruitful country for our habitation, we take pains to cultivate that only. Our principal care is this — to educate our children well, and we think it to be the most necessary business of our whole life to observe the laws that have been given us, and to keep those rules of piety that have been delivered down to us." — Josephus contra Apion, i. 12.

Such is the description which Josephus gives of Jewish life in his own time. He represents his fellow-countrymen as agriculturists rather than traders, and as intent chiefly on the observance of the Law of Moses. Such an account, though given as representing the national life in the Herodian age, must evidently apply still better to the less advanced

Absence of a Middle Class. 21

civilisation of the earlier period now under consideration ; and so conservative is the Eastern character, that we find the Jews hardly advanced in the time of the Hasmoneans from the simplicity of the social system in the first days of the consolidation of the nation under Samuel ; while, on the other hand, we find in the peasant life of modern Palestine an almost exact reproduction of that of the lower classes at the period under consideration.

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the social system of the Jews seems to have been the entire a bsence of the^ middle cl ass — that important estate which grows gradually with the advance of civilisation and with the development of trade. The nation seems to have been divided in the second century before Christ into two classes — the educated and the ignorant — the priests and townsmen of higher rank belonging to the one, the villagers and agricultural population to the other.

The division is almost as marked at the present day as it was then, and the upper class speak of the Fellah, or "tiller," with a contempt which reminds one of the Jewish scorn of the " untaught" and " beasts of the people."

The upper class consisted of that "holy seed" which was able to trace back its genealogy to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and it included the families of the twenty-four orders of priests. The lower class of the Hidiut, or " ignorant," consisted probably in great measure of the descendants of the aboriginal Canaanite population, mixed with the Philistine, Cuthean, or Phoenician elements in the southern, central, and northern districts of the land respectively.

In sketching the national life, we have thus to consider separately that of these two distinct classes, which, though living together and forming one nation, were yet distinguished by their language and their religion not less than by their occupations and social position.

The language of the mass of the people was no longer Hebrew, but Aramaic, and the classic tongue in which the Lgiv and the Prophets were written was unintelligibIe_to_theJo3jrfirxlass, As early as the time of Ezra a translation of the holy books was required, as we find recorded in the famous passage where it is related that "they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." — Neh. viii. 8. To this system of interpretation the origin of all the later Targums is traced, for they were at first paraphrases in Aramaic, which gradually became formulated, and which finally were committed to writing after the Christian era. \

Popular sayings and proverbs are said to have been preserved in Aramaic from an even earlier period

Characters zised in Writing. 23

than the Hasmonean times, and this dialect remains even now, with but slight modification, the language of the Fellahin in Palestine.

The language of the educated was the "tongue of the Holy House," the original Hebrew of the times before the captivity. It stood to Aramaic somewhat in the relationship of Latin to Italian, and became the sacred literary language in which the earlier comments on the Law were written.

The character generally employed in writing at this period appears to have been the ancient Libonai, resembling the Phcenician : the square character was however also employed, exclusively for sacred writing. Coins struck after the revolt still exist, with inscriptions in the earlier forms approaching the Phoenician, Moabite, and Samaritan letters. The Jews assert that the square letters were introduced by Ezra, and state that the classic language and the square letters were used by the learned, but the old letters and the Chaldean or Aramaic tongue by the ignorant; "and who are the ignorant.''" the writer continues — "they are the Cuthim." If the Jewish assertion be correct, the square alphabet must at this early period have been considered sacred, and was not used for any secular purpose such as that of the stamp on coins.

An inquiry into the life of the educated class of Jews in the second century before Christ should include some account of the system of government and of education, the condition of the sciences and arts, of manufactures and commerce. A few words may first be said on these questions before describing the customs of the larger class of the Hidiut, or " ignorant" — the mass of the people who were engaged purely in agricultural and pastoral occupations.

The central idea of Jewish government, religious or civil, and of Jewish education, moral or intellectual, was the fulfilmen t oi^ii&JLMit. Education meant knowledge of the Law ; Government, the enforcing of the Law; Policy, the application of the Law to relations with the heathen. The commands of Moses formed the standard by which the value of everything was to be measured, and the rule by which all action was to be guided.

The Jews under Antiochus were probably worse governed than even the Syrians of the present day under the Turks ; for whilst the Koran is the standard, religious and civil, both of the Turk and of the Moslem Syrian, the Law of Moses was not recognised as a legal system by the myrmidons of the Seleucidae. In one respect, however, the Governors sent by Antiochus no doubt resembled the Pachas of the nineteenth century, the main idea of both being the extortion of money on any convenient pretext, partly by way of tax or tribute, partly on the Governor's own private account.

Jewish Government. 25

The native method of government seems also closely to have resembled that now existing in Palestine, being the development of a system of councils formed of the elders and more distinguished local chiefs.

The principal Council sat in Jerusalem, and consisted of seventy-one members. It was called the Beth Din, or "house of debate," and the president was entitled Nasi, while the vice-president was called father of the Beth Din. This Sanhedrim held its meetings in the stone chamber at one corner of the main Temple Court. Men of every class, high or low, rich or poor, priest or lay, were eligible, if qualified by a reputation for sagacity and for knowledge of the Law. Criminal and civil cases were tried (when permission was accorded by the Greek Governor) before the Beth Din, and the 613 precepts which summed up the whole duty of the devout Jew — 365 prohibitory and 248 obligatory — were enforced by this national tribunal.

Smaller councils, modelled on the same plan, but consisting of twenty-four members only, sat in the country towns. These seem to have resembled the modern Mejdlis, or town councils, which exist in the principal places in Palestine at the present day, and which assist by their deliberations the Turkish Governor and the religious judge, or Kadi.

The education of the young was, Josephus tells us,

26 Judas MaccabcBiis.

the first care of the Jews, and the same sentiment is echoed throughout Jewish literature. But by education was understood simply the teaching of the Law of Moses, for little else was known by the teachers.

Thus, as at the present day the Moslem child is taught to read only the Koran, while a knowledge of the elements of arithmetic is considered as equivalent to a very advanced education in Europe ; so in the year 170 B.C. a Jewish child in Palestine learned to read the Holy Books at eight years old, and in the later Jewish period to study the Mishna at ten. This education was confined, however, evidently to the upper class, and could only be obtained in places where schools and teachers existed. The children of the HidiiLt, in the far-off villages, must have grown up in ignorance, being probably employed in tending flocks and herds, as peasant boys still are in Palestine, and, like the Fellah boys, they cannot have known how to write or read.

The schooling was directly connected with the religious service of the people. Synagogues date back apparently to the time of Ezra, and were useful for the diffusion of religious knowledge. Of the number of synagogues we cannot gain any idea, but they existed even in Jerusalem, close by the Temple. The service of the synagogue was founded on that of the Temple, and our English liturgy owes much to it.

The Shema, or exhortation, was followed by prayers

The Synagogue. 27 and psalms ; two lessons were read daily — the first from the Law, the second from the Prophets — and a Deresh, or exposition, followed. The Hebrew was explained by the reader, and the explanation was gradually formulated, and at length written down and became a Targum. The synagogue had an appointed minister and elders, also ten or more Batlanim, or rich " men of leisure," whose duty it was to form a quorum of the congregation at every service. Each synagogue had also its Chazzan, or clerk, who was generally the village schoolmaster as well. There were three services daily, and solemn days on the 2nd, 5th, and 7th days of the week. The synagogue was built so that the congregation should stand facing Jerusalem, the pulpit of the minister being in the middle. The elders held the power of excommunication, or "putting out of the synagogue" — a power still exercised by the Jerusalem Rabbis.

Science formed no part of the orthodox education. The study of Greek, or of any foreign tongue, was discouraged by these teachers, who dreaded the pernicious influence of heathen philosophy. "It is written," one Rabbi said of the Law, "'thou shalt meditate therein day and night' Find me an hour which is neither day nor night, and in that you may study Greek."

A people who had no calendar, but watched the new moon rise, and signalled its appearance at

28 Judas Maccabtsus.

Jerusalem by lines of beacon fires, who occasionally made errors even in this observation, and were at the mercy of Samaritan mock-beacons, cannot be said to have advanced far in astronomy. The mysteries of astrology were perhaps not unknown to the Jewish sect of the Mehistanites ; but in Ecclesiasticus, a book not much earlier than the period now under consideration, we find the suggestive exclamation, "Who can measure the breadth of the earth?" — i. 3.

Nor was the attention of the educated turned to art. The work of the painter or sculptor is, and always has been, regarded by Semitic nations with horror, as an attempt on man's part to imitate the Almighty in creation ; and the Jewish hatred of graven images was, no doubt, partly due to the licentiousness of the idolatrous worship among surrounding nations. " Neither did the mischievous invention of men deceive us, nor an image spotted with divers colours, the painter's fruitless labour ; the sight whereof enticeth fools to lust after it, and so they desire the form of a dead image that hath no breath." — Wisdom XV. 4, 5. Such are the characteristic words of a writer of the period, and such was the stern and puritanic spirit in which the ]q.\w spoke of the sesthetic worship of the Greek.

Music even had made no progress, and the instruments used in the Temple service were few and rude. The modern Syrian music is most distasteful to

Jewish Poetry. 29

Europeans, and its only excellence consists in the wonderfully good time kept by the performers. The viol with two strings and a bow, the lyre struck with a plectrum, the silver trumpet, the double pipe, the shofah, or ram's-horn, and the cymbal, were used in the Temple, but they were only employed as occasional accompaniments to the voices. The cow-horn, Pan'spipe, Eolian harp, and " tabor," or small hand-drum, were also known, and from this category we can judge how poor the music must have been.

Poetry alone was unhampered by national prejudice ; and the tone of religious thought, delighting in bold anthropomorphic descriptions of the actions of the Deity, the language of an age of primitive civilisation, gave free scope for poetic works, rivalling even the sacred Psalms of David. Few passages in the Old Testament are superior to the magnificent description in the Wisdom of Sirach of the works of God — "Look upon the rainbow, and praise Him that made it ; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof. It compasseth the heaven about in a glorious circle, and the hands of the Most High have bended it." — Ecclus. xliii. 11, 12.

Such then was the condition of the upper class. A people with its eyes turned back to the past, intent only on the observance of the Law of Moses, waiting calmly for the expected Prophet, reading their sacred books, as the Roman Church still does, in a tongue