[Illustration: JEWISH PRIEST AND ALTAR]
[Sidenote: [415-332 B.C.]]
We have very little information from trustworthy sources concerning
the subsequent events of the period of Persian dominion. The list of
high priests during this interval of some two centuries is--reckoning
from father to son, with the approximate date at which they
flourished--Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, 463; Josakim, 449; Eliashib,
the contemporary of Nehemiah, 415; Joiada, 413; Johanan or Jonathan,
373; Jaddua, 341. Into their hands, it appears, the direction of the
commonwealth passed by degrees, unless some other person were appointed
by the king of Persia; the Persian governors retaining certain
prerogatives not more fully particularised, but probably the collection
of the king’s taxes and the levy of recruits for military service.
UNDER PERSIAN RULE
Generally speaking, the Jews enjoyed humane treatment under Persian
rule, only alloyed now and again by extortionate taxation. Bagoses,
governor under Artaxerxes II, imposed on the country a tax of fifty
drachmas for every lamb of the daily sacrifice for seven years, in
consequence of a quarrel between Johanan the high priest and Joshua
his brother. Concerning a rebellion against Artaxerxes III (Ochus,
362-338), which ended in the destruction of Jericho and the carrying
away captive of many Jews to Hyrcania, we have but vague reports.
In the north the extent of the restored state was hardly greater
than that of the former kingdom of Judah, while in the south, where
Edomite tribes had forced their way into the country, it was hardly so
great. From the dense population which appears to have dwelt in the
land by the end of the Persian supremacy, we may conclude that other
immigrations had taken place besides those recorded in the books of
Ezra and Nehemiah. There were, moreover, numerous Jewish communities,
not only in the regions about the Euphrates, but in the countries round
Palestine, and even in Asia Minor and Egypt, which remained in touch
with the mother country, and provided sacrifices and other gifts for
the temple.
PERSIAN INFLUENCES ON JEWISH RELIGION
It is true that the hopes of the complete restoration of their former
might and independence cherished at the time of the return from
captivity had not been fulfilled. The splendid promises of the prophets
withdrew from the mean and narrow sphere of the present into an ideal
and remote future. If any expectations of political power still
existed, they had to be abandoned perforce. The pressure of the times
taught and compelled the people to turn their eyes to internal and
spiritual conditions, by no means to the detriment of the community.
The period of the Babylonian exile, comparatively short though it was,
had wrought a complete change in the religious views of the nation.
The leaning towards heathen cults, which had been so strongly manifest
in earlier times, had completely disappeared; the prophets and psalms
of this date employ no weapon but ridicule against idolatry. The
sufferings they had endured, the infliction of the long-threatened
chastisement, had brought about a purification of religious feeling.
The adherents of heathen cults had withdrawn from the Jewish society
in time of oppression, and the result had been a tightening of the
bond that held them together, and a stern abhorrence of intermixture
with foreigners, born of a keen instinct of self-preservation and
strengthened by the memory of old and mournful experience. Contact
with the Magian religion, which predominated in the Persian Empire
and permitted no image-worship, may have done something towards this
end; at least an acquaintance with eastern Asiatic conceptions is
evident in the writings of the prophets of the exile (Ezekiel and
Zechariah). The belief in the personal existence of angels, and of evil
spirits likewise, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead in the
enlightened aspect of the immortality of the soul, a greater accuracy
of chronological statement, etc., are intellectual acquirements which
the Jews brought with them from exile and developed further under the
same influences.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
[Sidenote: [332-312 B.C.]]
In the year 334 Alexander of Macedon entered upon that campaign of
conquest against Persia which speedily brought about the fall of the
great empire. After the battle of Issus (November 333) Syria and
Phœnicia were subjugated, Tyre alone offered a stubborn resistance,
and was not taken until August 332, after a seven months’ siege. It
is said that at the beginning of the siege Alexander called upon the
high priest of Jerusalem to rebel against Darius. But, unlike the
Samaritans, who promptly brought an auxiliary army to Alexander’s
assistance, the Jews refused to renounce the allegiance they owed to
the king of Persia. In order to punish this disobedience, Alexander
marched upon Jerusalem after the fall of Tyre, which was soon followed
by that of Gaza. The high priest came to meet him at the head of the
assembled priesthood, marching in solemn procession in their sacred
vestments. At this spectacle Alexander dismounted and bowed reverently
before the venerable high priest, because--as he declared to the
astonished Parmenio--just such an august figure had once appeared
to him in a dream. He made a peaceful entry into Jerusalem, caused
sacrifices to be offered for him in the temple, and permitted the Jews
to live according to their laws, granting them, among other privileges,
exemption from taxation during the Sabbath year. Many Jews thereupon
determined to enter his army.
The authenticity of this story of Alexander’s march to Jerusalem,
which is told by Josephus and the _Talmud_ but by no Greek historian,
has been impugned with good reason.[5] The high priest in question is
called Jadus (Jaddua) by Josephus, and Simon the Just by the _Talmud_.
Later amplifications of these stories declare that, as a token of
gratitude for Alexander’s favour, the high priest promised him that
all sons born to high priests that year should be called Alexander.
Although certain books of the Bible are later than the dissolution of
the Persian Empire, Alexander’s name is not mentioned in any; he is
only referred to under various figures in the dreams and visions of the
book of Daniel. Thus the great figure which Nebuchadrezzar beholds in
a dream, the iron thighs (Daniel ii. 32-40), the fourth terrible beast
in Daniel’s dream (vii. 7, 19), the goat coming from the west in the
following vision (viii. 5 _seq._), and, lastly, the great king (xi. 3),
stand for the Macedonian kingdom or Alexander the Great.
The dissolution of the Persian Empire at first brought about no
substantial change in the political and religious condition of the
Jews, and the influences bred of the diffusion of Greek civilisation
in Anterior Asia were not felt by them till much later. But, generally
speaking, the state of the Jewish commonwealth during this period and
down to the wars of the Maccabees is wrapped in a certain amount of
obscurity, since the lack of Biblical records throws us back almost
entirely on the narrative of Josephus, who himself drew from somewhat
turbid sources and did not sift his material with sufficient care.
After the rapid decline of the Macedonian kingdom and during the
conflict of Alexander’s generals among themselves, Palestine, together
with Phœnicia and Cœle-Syria, became the apple of discord between the
rulers of the Syrian and Egyptian kingdoms. Ptolemy I (Lagi or Soter
reigned until 283) seized Jerusalem in the year 320 by a sudden attack
on the Sabbath (on which day no resistance was offered) and carried
away a large number of Jews to Egypt, where some of them were sold as
slaves and some enrolled in the royal army. Ptolemy, however, did not
gain permanent possession of the country until the battle of Gaza,
in 312, after which he again marched into Jerusalem, but acted with
great clemency, so much so that many Jews of consequence migrated with
him to Egypt, one of them being a learned man of the name of Ezekias
(Hizkiah). The high priests at the time were Onias I, in 330, and his
son Simon I, in 310.
UNDER THE SELEUCIDS
[Sidenote: [312-204 B.C.]]
With the battle of Gaza in 312 is associated, among the Jews as among
other oriental nations, the “era of the Seleucids” (also called Minjan
Shtarot--_æra contractuum_--and, probably, “[the years] of the rule of
the Hellenes”) which remained in use during the Middle Ages and even
later. When afterwards the era of the creation of the world also came
into use among the Jews, most Jewish chronologists, in order to reduce
the two to a common standard, assumed that the era of the Seleucids
had begun in the year 3448 after the creation of the world, and one
thousand after the coming forth out of Egypt. They accordingly reduced
any given date of the Seleucid era to the corresponding date after the
creation of the world by adding 3447 to it, and to the corresponding
date of the Christian era (with precision only for the first nine
months of the year, as the Seleucid year begins in autumn) by deducting
the Seleucid date from 312 to find the year B.C., or deducting 312 from
it to find the year A.D. Asarja de’ Rossi, in the twenty-third chapter
of _Meor Enajim_, enlarges upon the error of Jewish chronologists, who
identify the beginning of the Seleucid era with the beginning of Greek
dominion in Asia.
For more than a century Judea remained under the rule of the Greek
kings of Egypt, and on the whole enjoyed, with slight interruptions,
a period of happy tranquillity and benevolent treatment. The relation
of the kings of Egypt to the country cannot have been widely different
from that of the kings of Persia, the commonwealth was represented
abroad by the high priest, whose first business it was to see to the
levying of the taxes. After Simon I, mentioned above, the office was
held by his brother Eleazar (his son Onias being too young), who was
succeeded by his uncle Manasseh (276), and then by Onias II (250).
An old tradition associates with the name of the second Ptolemy
(Philadelphus) the origin of a literary undertaking in some respects
unique in the literature of antiquity, the translation of the Holy
Scriptures into the Greek language.
The high priest, Onias II, mentioned above, who is depicted as a morose
and avaricious man, brought down upon himself the wrath of Ptolemy
III, surnamed Euergetes, his Egyptian suzerain, by refusing to pay the
annual tribute of twenty talents, and would have involved his country
in a great calamity had not Joseph ben Tobiah, his sister’s son,
stepped into the breach. With his uncle’s permission he undertook to
go as ambassador to the Egyptian court, where by wise liberality he
contrived first to win the favour of the courtiers, and then of the
king himself. At the farming out of the taxes of Cœle-Syria, Phœnicia,
and Judea, for which purpose many nobles from those countries had come
to the Egyptian court, Joseph, without more ado, offered twice as much
as any of them, and, being provided by the king with adequate forces,
was able by well-directed severity not only to levy the sum agreed upon
but to gain great wealth and reputation for himself. For two and twenty
years he filled the office of tax-farmer for the whole region known as
Syria.
Josephus relates with great satisfaction that Ptolemy Euergetes,
passing through Jerusalem on his way back from a victorious struggle
with Seleucus Callinicus, king of Syria (245) offered sacrifices in
the temple and bestowed great gifts on it; but Judea had nevertheless
suffered from the perpetual friction between Egypt and Syria. She
also endured many evils at the hands of the Samaritans under the
administration of Onias.
These quarrels between the two great kingdoms between which Judea was
wedged, did not cease in the reign of the fourth Ptolemy (Philopator,
221-204). Antiochus (the Great) of Syria had occupied Galilee and
the land east of Jordan when Philopator took the field against him,
defeated him at Raphia, and forced him to conclude peace. Among those
who congratulated Philopator on this victory were ambassadors from
the Jews, whom he received graciously, and desired to show his favour
towards them by coming to Jerusalem and sacrificing in the temple.
On this occasion he was inspired with a wish to enter the Holy of
Holies, nor would he be restrained by the urgent remonstrances of the
priests and the tumult of the whole city. But as he was about to set
his foot within the hallowed space he was seized with sudden faintness
and had to be carried away senseless.
[Illustration: ANCIENT JERUSALEM (A RESTORATION)]
Thirsting for vengeance, he departed, and promulgated harsh measures
against the Jews, and, when they did not produce the effect he
anticipated, he collected all the Jews in Egypt together on his return
home, and shut them up in a circus, where they were to be trodden to
death by elephants excited by intoxicating liquors for the purpose.
At the decisive moment, however, the elephants turned against their
drivers and wrought hideous havoc among the assembled crowds of
Egyptians. This cruel act of Philopator and the miraculous deliverance
of the Jews forms the subject of the third Book of the Maccabees and
lacks historic confirmation. According to Josephus, the event took
place in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon (146-117), the motive being
revenge because the Jews had supported the claims of Cleopatra, widow
of Ptolemy Philometor.
[Sidenote: [204-200 B.C.]]
After the death of Philopator (204), and the accession of his son, a
child of five, Antiochus succeeded in conquering Palestine, and it
never again fell under the sway of Egypt.
Onias II was succeeded by his son, Simon II, who proved more worthy
of his high office than his father had been. It is on this Simon that
the name of “the Just” (ha-Zaddik) was bestowed, and in the _Mishnah_
he is styled one of the last of the men of the Great Assembly. His
motto as there given, “The world rests upon three things, doctrine,
the service of God, and benevolence,” is in sharp contrast to the
views that dominated the world in his day, and is characteristic of
the aspirations of the spiritual leaders of the time. The list of the
Tannaïm (teachers of the _Mishnah_) usually opens with his name. Joshua
ben Sirach, a younger contemporary of his, lavishes encomiums on him,
and he has been glorified even more by later legend. He embellished
and fortified the temple, constructed aqueducts, and rebuilt the walls
of Jerusalem which Ptolemy Lagi had broken down and left in a state of
demolition. The means for this expenditure were promptly and liberally
supplied by the numerous and valuable gifts and contributions which
were bestowed on the temple from all quarters, and not by Jews only;
and which served likewise to attract the envy and covetousness of many
foreign rulers. Onias III, the son and successor of Simon the Just,
filled the office of high priest no less worthily.
The labours of the Sofrim seem to have been unaffected by any of
these political events; the storm which raged throughout the whole of
Anterior Asia after the death of Alexander had only made the Jews, who
had no political power whatever, devote themselves the more diligently
to the consolidation of their religious inheritance, and in this
occupation they found compensation for the loss of external splendour
and constancy at the approach of their enemies. The 119th Psalm, that
“hundred-fold echo of the excellence and needfulness of the Law,” is
typical of this spirit. The completion of the Book of Psalms and the
composition of Chronicles, and the Book of Esther must be assigned
to the first century of Greek dominion, _i.e._ to about 200 B.C. The
language of these books leads us to infer a flagging of the primitive
spirit of Jewish nationality; as a result of close intercourse with
Syria, Aramaic gained ground, especially as the speech of the common
people.
THE SYRIAN DOMINION; ANTIOCHUS THE GREAT
[Sidenote: [300-187 B.C.]]
On the disintegration of the Macedonian Empire, Syria fell first to
Antigonus, and then (after the battle of Ipsus in 301) to Seleucus
I, surnamed Nicator, who was assassinated in 281. His successors
were--his son, Antiochus I, surnamed Soter (281-261), Antiochus II,
surnamed Theos (261-247), Seleucus II, surnamed Callinicus (246-227),
Seleucus III, surnamed Ceraunus (227-224), then the brother of the
last-named monarch, Antiochus III, surnamed the Great (224-187),
Seleucus IV, surnamed Philopator (187-176), Antiochus IV, surnamed
Epiphanes (175-163). The son of Antiochus IV, Antiochus Eupator, who
was only thirteen years of age at the time of his father’s death, was
assassinated, together with his guardian, Lysias, by Demetrius, the son
of his father’s brother Seleucus, in the year 161.
The Greek language and literature, Greek ideas and habits, which had
been making an abiding conquest of Anterior Asia since the days of
Alexander the Great, had not failed to make their influence felt at
length by the Jews. First, indeed, by those who lived away from Judea,
remote from the centre of Jewish thought and Jewish life. We have
already seen how, as a result of these conditions, the need of a Greek
translation of the sacred books arose among the Egyptian Jews; to what
kind of literature this translation itself gave rise we shall presently
show. But while in Egypt, Asia Minor, and elsewhere, the Jewish and
Greek spirit contrived to establish some sort of accord, a very
different state of things prevailed in Palestine. Here the contrast
of the Jewish and Greek conceptions of the universe was manifest in
its full strength and bitterness. In Judea, in place of the conditions
which had facilitated reciprocal approximation and partial amalgamation
in Egypt, such as a preponderant Greek majority, brisk intercourse in
civil life, and general culture on the part of the Jews, the situation
was reversed. Jerusalem was the original seat of Jewish life, which
constantly derived fresh strength from perpetual and minute study of
the national scriptures and zealous practice of the divine precepts.
This life, grave, strict, based on the inviolable ground of morality,
tending always towards austerity and self-sacrifice, contrasted vividly
with the blithe and sensuous mode of life of the Greeks, with its ready
enjoyment of the moment and what it offered. The clear intellect of the
Jewish thinker plainly perceived that this alluring existence hid the
most shameful vices under an artificial veil.
The relations of the Syrian Empire with the Jews were at first of an
amicable character. Seleucus Nicator had given Jews equal privileges
with Macedonians and Greeks in the cities he founded in Asia Minor
and Syria and in Antioch itself, and his example was followed by his
grandson Antiochus Theos. After the death of Ptolemy Philopator the
Jews gave a cordial welcome to Antiochus the Great, who had defeated
Scopas, the Egyptian general, and Antiochus readily acknowledged their
good will. He helped them to repair the damage done by the war, gave
liberal gifts in money and natural objects for the service of the
temple, permitted and advanced the completion of the temple buildings
begun before his time, and granted the members of the senate, the
priests, and other temple officers entire immunity from taxation. To
increase the population of the capital, he granted exemption from
taxation for three years to its inhabitants and to any who would remove
thither within a fixed period, and remission of one-third of the taxes
after that; any who were sold as slaves were to have their liberty and
property restored. He gave evidence of the great confidence he reposed
in the loyalty of the Jews by transplanting two thousand of them from
Mesopotamia and Babylonia to the provinces of Lydia and Phrygia, which
were on the verge of rebellion, and granting them fields and vineyards,
together with ten years exemption from taxation. He also guaranteed to
all Jews within his empire, without restriction, the right of living
according to the law of their forefathers.
[Sidenote: [187-175 B.C.]]
Seleucus IV, surnamed Philopator, the son and successor of Antiochus
the Great, was a man of humane and pacific temper, and yet during his
reign a cloud, the presage of the storm that was so soon to burst,
gathered over Judea. The Syrian court was constantly involved in
great financial straits because of the contribution which had yet to
be paid to the Romans. Under these circumstances Simon, the overseer
of the temple, who had had a quarrel with the high priest, drew the
attention of Apollonius, commander of the Syrian forces in Cœle-Syria,
to the riches of the temple treasury. The hint was eagerly taken, and
Seleucus despatched his servant Heliodorus with orders to inspect
the temple treasury. In vain did the pious and conscientious Onias
expostulate with him, in vain did he protest that a great part of the
treasure consisted of deposits made by widows and orphans, and that
the sum total amounted to no more than four hundred talents of silver
and two hundred talents of gold. Heliodorus was obstinate; but was
prevented by a supernatural appearance, when he was actually within
the treasury, from carrying his sacrilegious purpose into effect. It
seemed to him that a gorgeously clad horseman trampled him under foot,
while at the same time two youths appeared, glorious to behold, and
scourged him unremittingly, so that he was carried thence in a swoon.
The intercessions and expiatory sacrifices of the high priest restored
him to life, and nothing would induce him to repeat the attempt. Onias
himself repaired to the court of Seleucus to defend himself against
the charges brought by his violent adversary Simon, with what result
is uncertain. Seleucus was soon afterwards poisoned by this same
Heliodorus, but the latter’s purpose of placing himself on the throne
was frustrated.
ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES
[Sidenote: [175 B.C.]]
On hearing the news of the death of Seleucus, his brother Antiochus,
surnamed Epiphanes, who was in Rome at the time as a hostage, hastened
home and assumed the reins of government. He is the Antiochus who won a
melancholy celebrity in the annals of the Jews, and gave occasion for
a glorious episode in their history, which ended with the attainment
of political independence. Nevertheless, the imputations cast upon
his character are to some extent baseless or exaggerated. In spite
of the luxurious and licentious life he led, he was not worse than
the majority of Syrian and Egyptian monarchs of the period. He was
good-natured and liberal, though accessible to the arts of flatterers
and evil counsellors, and irritable under the restraints imposed upon
him by the Romans. Ancient Greece was incapable of comprehending the
existence of religious conviction or the capacity for making such
sacrifices on its behalf as were made by the Jews; to Antiochus the
question was merely that of reducing rebellious subjects to submission,
the rather because certain of them compelled him to have recourse to
measures of ever-increasing severity.
The first seed of the growing complications was sown by the Jews
themselves. Soon after the accession of Antiochus, Joshua (Greek Jason)
the brother of the high priest, visited him and purchased the office
of high priest for a large annual payment, Onias being compelled
to retire into private life. Jason took advantage of his exalted
position to introduce Greek customs into Jerusalem, and among other
things instituted a gymnasium (a place for the practice of physical
exercises). A large number of the priests took great pleasure in it,
so much so that the regularity of the temple services suffered; while
to the devout it seemed an abomination and a desecration of the holy
city. Hand in hand with these practices went the violation of the
precepts for the regulation of Jewish life, and among other things the
artificial obliteration of the traces of circumcision.
Meanwhile the friendly relations between Egypt and Syria had once more
been disturbed by the refusal of Antiochus to give up Cœle-Syria, which
his father had promised as the dowry of Cleopatra on her marriage
with Ptolemy Philopator. In a progress which he made through his
western dominions while war with Egypt was impending, Antiochus came
to Jerusalem, where he met with a magnificent reception, and made his
entry by torchlight amid the joyful acclamations of the people.[b]
There was a sharp contrast between the welcome of his entry and the
mood imposed by his stay. Under Antiochus Epiphanes the Jews suffered
such outrages as finally steeled even their unwarlike hearts to
battle. The character and cruelties of Antiochus deserve some further
detail, as do also the deeds of his native lieutenant, who tormented
the conservative Jewish conscience more exquisitely perhaps than the
foreign master; for to the people Jason was a renegade who began his
Hellenising, it was said, on his own name, which was originally Joshua
or Jesus. In the following account of Antiochus’ conduct towards the
Jews, George Smith does not take so kindly a view of the Syrian king as
has been given above.[a]
JASON AND ANTIOCHUS TORMENT THE PEOPLE
[Sidenote: [175-170 B.C.]]
Antiochus Epiphanes was mean in his spirit, low in his habits, covetous
in disposition, and exceedingly cruel in temper. The evil tendency of
his bad character was, however, rather elicited by the corrupt state
of Jewish morals, than voluntarily directed against this people. But
the result was terrible beyond description. Soon after his accession,
Jason, the brother of the high priest, proceeded to the king at
Antioch, and offered a great increase of tribute, if he would appoint
him high priest, and confine his deposed brother Onias in his capital.
The necessities of the king, occasioned by the great tribute which he
had to pay to Rome, acting upon an unprincipled and covetous mind,
induced him to yield a ready compliance with this infamous proposal.
The pious and venerable Onias therefore was forthwith deposed and
banished, and Jason invested with the high-priesthood.
Finding how availing money was with the young monarch, Jason gave a
further sum for liberty to erect a gymnasium at Jerusalem, for the
celebration of Grecian games in the holy city; and to build an academy
for teaching youth the sciences, after the manner of Greece; and for
power to make such Jews as he thought fit free of the city of Antioch.
The effect of these licenses tended to strengthen the party of the
usurper, and at the same time to inflict a terrible blow on the great
cause of Jewish nationality and religion. The academies were erected,
and Grecian learning cultivated. His gymnasium was so much frequented,
that priests neglected their duties at the altar to contend in the
games. As these exercises were performed naked, it induced a general
desire to avoid the distinguishing mark of Judaism. “The only avowed
purpose of these athletic exercises was the strengthening of the
body; but the real design went to the gradual changing of Judaism for
Heathenism, as was clearly indicated by the pains which many took to
efface the mark of circumcision. The games, besides, were closely
connected with idolatry; for they were generally celebrated in honour
of some pagan god. The innovations of Jason were therefore extremely
odious to the more pious part of the nation, and even his own adherents
did not enter fully into all his views.”
[Illustration: ROBES OF THE HIGH PRIEST]
So extensively did this impious priest carry out his irreligious and
denationalising plans, that he actually sent Jews to contend in the
games which were celebrated at Tyre before Antiochus, although they
were avowedly in honour of Hercules; transmitting by them, at the same
time, a large sum to be presented as a votive offering to the god. The
persons entrusted with the present had, however, so much more sound
principle than their master, that they presented the money to the
Tyrians for building ships of war.
About this time Antiochus, aware that the king of Egypt intended to
attempt the recovery of Judea and Phœnicia, in making a tour of these
provinces, went to Jerusalem, where he was received by Jason with great
splendour.
This apostate high priest had now laboured for three years to destroy
the Jewish constitution and religion, when he found himself the victim
of villainy similar to that which he had himself practised. It being
the time to remit the annual tribute to Antioch, he sent it by the hand
of his younger brother, Onias, who, carrying out in his own case the
prevailing desire to merge all Hebrew distinctions in an accommodation
to Greek customs and manners, had taken the name of Menelaus. This
person, in his intercourse with the Syrian king, instead of discussing
those subjects with which he had been charged by his brother, availed
himself of every opportunity of insinuating himself into the good
graces of the king; and having to some extent succeeded, he ventured
to bid a much larger sum than Jason had paid as tribute, and was
accordingly invested with the high-priesthood. Thus did the unworthy
descendants of Israel barter away the interests of their country; and,
instead of uniting their energies to make Judea strong and respectable
in the eyes of surrounding states, they looked at nothing but the
gratification of their own low and sordid passions.
Menelaus returned to Jerusalem with his commission, where, as he was
supported by the powerful sons of Tobias, he soon found himself at
the head of a formidable party. But, notwithstanding this, Jason had
sufficient strength to resist his pretensions; and the people being
disgusted with his infamous treachery, he was obliged to return to
Antioch. Here, the further to commend himself to the favour of the
king, he and his friends solemnly abjured the Jewish religion, and
engaged to bring the whole Hebrew people to take the same course, and
to assimilate their manners and institutions in all respects to the
model of the Greeks. On making these promises, he obtained a military
force, which being unable to resist, Jason fled to the country of the
Ammonites, leaving to the still more apostate Menelaus the government
of Jerusalem. He proceeded to carry out his engagement with the
imperial court in all but one particular--he neglected to send the
tribute which he had promised to pay. After having been repeatedly
reminded of his obligation in vain, he was summoned to Antioch, where
he soon found that the amount must at once be paid; but the temporary
absence of the king at the moment of his arrival gave him time to
send orders back to Lysimachus, his deputy at Jerusalem, to abstract
as many of the golden vessels from the temple as would suffice to
raise the money. By these means he realised enough to pay his debt,
and, besides, to make large presents to Andronicus, to whom Antiochus
had entrusted the direction of affairs in his absence. But this fact
coming to the knowledge of Onias, the deposed high priest, who resided
in exile at Antioch, he complained so severely of this conduct, that
an insurrection of the Jews residing in the capital was seriously
apprehended, in consequence of their anger against Menelaus. At his
instance, therefore, Andronicus murdered the pious ex-high-priest under
circumstances of the greatest baseness and atrocity. This sacrilegious
conduct was equally fruitful of mischief at Jerusalem; for although
Lysimachus had three thousand men under his command, so enraged were
the populace when they heard what had been done, that they attacked him
and his guards, and, having slain many, pursued him into the temple,
where he was destroyed.
[Sidenote: [170 B.C.]]
On the return of Antiochus to Antioch, he was informed of the death
of Onias by the hand of Andronicus; and, wicked as he was, he was so
affected at the enormity of this crime, that he ordered that officer to
be taken to the spot where he had committed the murder, and there to
suffer the penalty of death.
These collisions and murders had brought Jerusalem into great trouble
and difficulty, and rendered the rule of Menelaus hateful to the
people. While the Jewish capital was in this distracted condition,
Antiochus visited Tyre. The Jewish sanhedrim took advantage of the
proximity of the king to Jerusalem to send three persons thither, for
the purpose of explaining the unhappy circumstances of the Jewish
people, and of showing that this was attributable to the conduct of
the high priest. They acquitted themselves so well in this duty, that
Menelaus, unable to defend himself, had recourse to his usual weapon,
bribery: by this means he gained over the king’s favourite, Ptolemy
Macron, who not only induced the monarch to acquit the high priest, but
also to put the deputies to death.
This afforded Menelaus a complete victory; so he henceforth proceeded
on in his career of impiety and cruelty, unchecked by inward principle
or external power. During this time, while Antiochus was engaged in an
expedition to Egypt, on a report being spread that he was killed before
Alexandria, Jason, who had been long sheltered among the Ammonites,
suddenly appeared before Jerusalem with a band of one thousand resolute
men. With this force, by the aid of his friends within the city, he
easily obtained admission, and forced Menelaus to retire into the
citadel. Being thus in possession of the metropolis, he vented his
rage against all those whom he suspected to belong to the party of his
brother: this led to the most shocking barbarity, which, however, was
soon terminated by the approach of Antiochus.
[Sidenote: [170-167 B.C.]]
The king, having invaded Egypt with every encouragement and prospect
of success, was suddenly arrested in his progress by the presence of
Roman ambassadors, who insisted on his immediate retreat, on pain of
being declared an enemy to Rome. Not daring to meet the arms of the
republic, he sullenly relinquished his prey; and, returning, heard that
the Jews had rejoiced at the rumour respecting his death, and were now
in a state of insurrection against his authority: he therefore marched
directly to Jerusalem. The Jews, aware of his wrath, closed their
gates, and defended their city with great vigour; but in vain; they
could not resist his army: Jerusalem was taken by storm, and subjected
to the most horrid barbarities. The carnage lasted for three days; and
it is said forty thousand persons were killed, and an equal number
taken for captives and sold as slaves into the neighbouring countries.
Elated with his success, he caused Menelaus the high priest to lead
him into the temple, even into the most holy place. Here he defiled
the sacred vessels, and removed all the gold, valuables, and treasure
which had been laid up there, even to the vail of the sanctuary. By
these means he obtained one thousand eight hundred talents of gold and
silver, besides the gold and vessels which he took from the temple;
and with this booty he marched in triumph to Antioch. And as if this
butchery and robbery was not a sufficient infliction on the unhappy
Jews, he confirmed Menelaus in the high-priesthood, and appointed one
Philip, a Phrygian, a most barbarous man, to be governor of the country.
These measures were the commencement of a regular system of tyranny
and slaughter. After two years from the spoiling of the temple by
Antiochus, he sent Apollonius to Jerusalem, with an army of twenty-two
thousand men. He came in a peaceable way, and took up his quarters in
the city, until the first Sabbath day, when he sallied out with his
troops, ordering them to massacre the men, and make captives of all
the women and children. This cruel and unexpected attack on an unarmed
population, amid the sanctities of the Sabbath, filled Jerusalem with
blood, and was followed by universal rapine; the houses were plundered
and demolished, the walls of the city broken down, and a castle built
on Mount Zion, which commanded the entrance of the temple; by which
means Apollonius obtained entire control over the celebration of
worship.
These preparations appear to have been made with the design of carrying
out a preconceived purpose of the king. Soon afterwards an edict was
published at Antioch, and proclaimed in all the provinces of Syria,
commanding the people, throughout the whole empire, to worship the
gods of the king, and to acknowledge no religion but his. An old Greek
was sent to Judea to enforce this law. Henceforth all the services of
the temple were prohibited; circumcision, the keeping of the Sabbath,
and every observance of the law, were now made capital offences; all
the copies of the sacred books that could be found were destroyed.
Idolatrous altars were erected in every city, and the people were
commanded to offer sacrifices to the gods, and to eat swine’s flesh
every month on the birthday of the king. The temple at Jerusalem was
altered and profaned, in accordance with this infamous policy. The
sacred building was dedicated to Jupiter Olympus; an image of this
heathen deity set up; and, on the altar of Jehovah, another smaller one
was erected, on which to sacrifice to Jupiter.
The Jews had never before been subjected to a persecution so directly
levelled against all their institutions, and enforced with such
diligent and persevering malignity. The execution of these laws was as
execrable as their object. Two women, having circumcised their infants
with their own hands, being detected, were led through the streets of
Jerusalem, with their infants hung about their necks, and then cast
from the highest part of the walls of the city, and dashed to pieces.
On another occasion a thousand men, women, and children were discovered
secretly observing the Sabbath in a cave, and all barbarously put to
death by the inhuman Philip.
[Illustration: GREAT JEWISH ALTAR FOR MAKING SACRIFICES]
Antiochus was enraged to find that so many of the Jews resisted his
will; and his wrath was perhaps rendered more intense because the
Samaritans had readily submitted to his edict, and allowed their temple
to be dedicated to Jupiter Xenios, or, “the protector of strangers.”
He therefore came in person to Jerusalem, to enforce the law, or
extirpate the people. His first victim was Eleazar, a very aged scribe,
who, when commanded to eat swine’s flesh, positively refused, and,
although ninety years of age, upheld the religion of his God with
sterling energy; and, at last, exhorting others to follow his example,
died under the lash of the tyrant. A mother and her seven sons, all
grown up, acted in the same heroic manner. The young men, refusing to
transgress the law, were subjected, in succession, to the most horrid
tortures, until every one of them, and, lastly, the mother also, died
martyrs for the cause of truth and righteousness.
[Sidenote: [167-166 B.C.]]
These atrocities produced the results which always follow such deeds,
where any manly spirit or nobility of soul remains. Men who had a
conscientious regard for the law of their God and the religion of
their fathers, and whose minds were not so debased by slavery as to
have lost every noble attribute of human nature, would prefer dying
in a patriotic resistance to such tyranny, rather than to perish
tamely under the power of the tyrant. The man who first dared to adopt
this course was an aged priest, named Mattathias, the father of five
sons, all distinguished for bodily strength and nobility of mind.
When the king’s officers came to the city of Modin, where this family
resided, to make the Jews sacrifice to the heathen gods, they invited
Mattathias to bring his sons and brethren first to the sacrifice, that
the influence of his character and office, as a ruler, might induce
others to follow his example; that he might thus be regarded as one of
“the king’s friends.” The aged priest indignantly refused compliance,
protesting that, if himself and his sons stood alone, they would
adhere to the law and ordinances of God. While he was thus declaring
his determination, he saw one of the apostate Jews come forth to the
altar to offer sacrifice. This flagrant act roused the spirit of the
priest: inflamed with zeal, he ran towards the culprit, and, in the
sight of all the people, inflicted on him the punishment which the
law denounced against idolatry--he slew him upon the altar. He also
killed the king’s commissioner, who had been sent to compel the people
to sacrifice, and pulled down the altar; then, running through the
city, crying, with a loud voice, “Whosoever is zealous of the law,
and maintaineth the covenant, let him follow me,” he, with his sons,
abandoned all the property they had in the city, and went out into the
wilderness. They were quickly followed by many others; and, as soon as
it was noised abroad, great numbers crowded to their retreat, until
Mattathias found himself at the head of a considerable body of men.
Having placed himself and his friends in this position, the venerable
priest addressed himself to the arduous duty which he had undertaken
with becoming gravity and zeal. The first point which appears to have
engaged his attention was, the proper line of conduct which they were
bound to pursue with respect to the Sabbath. Hitherto the Jews had
always regarded themselves as under a religious obligation to avoid all
warlike operations on that holy day. To such an extent had this been
carried, that they would not defend themselves, even when attacked.
Their heathen foes, therefore, generally selected the sacred day for
their assaults, that they might secure their object without resistance.
But Mattathias, having considered the subject with his friends, and
consulted such learned scribes as he had access to, decided that,
although it was not right to provoke a combat on the Sabbath day, it
was, nevertheless, their duty, if attacked on that day, to defend
themselves, and resist the aggression. This was a most important
decision, and had a mighty influence upon the results of the ensuing
war.
The general course of proceeding adopted by the aged chief seems,
also, to merit particular attention. He did not shrink from engaging
any of the Syrian forces that came in his way; but his principal
object, or, at least, his immediate design, does not appear to have
been the expulsion of the Syrians. As a patriotic soldier, this might
have been expected; but as a patriotic priest, he thought it wiser to
act differently. He appears to have viewed the humbled and prostrate
condition of Israel as the result of the infidelity of the people;
and therefore directed his energies to the restoration of the Jewish
faith. With this object he marched from town to town, destroying all
idolatrous altars, punishing with death, or driving into other lands,
those that had apostatised from the faith, recovering the sacred books
which had been concealed, and restoring again the law, the worship, and
the authority of Jehovah. In these efforts he was eminently successful.
Those who had not been circumcised submitted to that rite; and not only
was the religious aspect of the country soon greatly improved, but some
important advantages were gained over the enemy. When the venerable
Mattathias found his end approaching, he exhorted his sons to devote
their lives to the holy cause in which they had been engaged, reminding
them of the noblest examples in Hebrew history. He then advised them
to regard their brother Simon as their counsellor, on account of his
wisdom; and Judas he appointed the captain, because of his strength
and bravery: him he surnamed Maccabeus, or, “the hammerer.”[6] Thus
Mattathias blessed his sons, and died in a good old age.
[Sidenote: [166 B.C.]]
On the death of his father, Judas took the command of the band which
had been gathered together, about six thousand men (2 Maccabees viii.
1); and, as soon as the days of mourning had expired, proceeded to
carry on the war. This may be called the war of Jewish independence.
From the time of their return from captivity the Jews had been always
in entire subjection to Gentile powers. At first they were a part of
the Persian Empire; they then passed under the dominion of Alexander;
on the division of his kingdom they were subjected to Egypt; and,
lastly, had been attached to the Greek kingdom of Syria. Nor is it
probable that the Jews would have made any vigorous efforts to obtain
freedom and self-government, if they had been ruled with tolerance and
moderation. But the boundless cruelty and insane impiety of Antiochus
were too much for endurance, by men of such energy and intellect as the
Jews. Besides, the time was peculiarly appropriate for such an attempt.
The disjointed fragments of the Macedo-Grecian Empire were becoming
daily more feeble and disorganised; while the mighty power of Rome
was steadily advancing, giving constant evidence of her great purpose
and destiny--to govern the world. It was, therefore, the manifest
policy of Rome to encourage, rather than to suppress, efforts made by
states, subject to the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt, for the purpose of
obtaining independence. Under such circumstances Judas commenced his
martial career.[g]
FOOTNOTES
[5] [See also the chapter in the later books devoted to Greece and
Alexander.]
[6] [A similar appellation was given to Charles of France, who was
surnamed _Martel_, or, “the hammer.”]
[Illustration: SEPULCHRE AT SILOAM, THE SO-CALLED MONOLITH]