the Jews, and on his death, 323 B.C., it fell to the possession of
Laomedon, one of his generals; while Egypt was assigned to Ptolemy
Soter, son of Lagus. Between these princes a war soon broke out, and
Laomedon was defeated by Nicanor, one of Ptolemy's generals; and
Palestine refusing to submit to the king of Egypt, Ptolemy invaded
Judaea, besieged Jerusalem, and took it by assault on the Sabbath, when
the Jews refused to fight. A large number of Jews were sent to
Alexandria, and the Jewish colony ultimately formed no small part of the
population of the new capital. Some eighty thousand Jews, it is said,
were settled in Alexandria when Palestine was governed by Greek generals
and princes. But Judaea was wrested from Ptolemy Lagus by Antigonus, and
again recovered by Ptolemy after the battle of Ipsus, in 301 B.C. Under
Ptolemy Egypt became a powerful kingdom, and still more so under his
son Philadelphus, who made Alexandria the second capital of the
world,--commercially, indeed, the first. It became also a great
intellectual centre, and its famous library was the largest ever
collected in classical antiquity. This city was the home of scholars and
philosophers from all parts of the world. Under the auspices of an
enlightened monarch, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek,
the version being called the Septuagint,--an immense service to sacred
literature. The Jews enjoyed great prosperity under this Grecian prince,
and Palestine was at peace with powerful neighbors, protected by the
great king who favored the Jews as the Persian monarchs had done. Under
his successor, Ptolemy Euergetes, a still more powerful king, the empire
reached its culminating glory, and was extended as far as Antioch and
Babylon. Under the next Ptolemy,--Philopater,--degeneracy set in; but
the empire was not diminished, and the Syrian monarch Antiochus III.,
called the Great, was defeated at the battle of Raphia, 217. Under the
successor of the enervated Egyptian king, Ptolemy V., a child five years
old, Antiochus the Great retrieved the disaster at Raphia, and in 199
won a victory over Scopas the Egyptian general, in consequence of which
Judaea, with Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, passed from the Ptolemies to the
Seleucidae.
Judaea now became the battle-ground for the contending Syrian and
Egyptian armies, and after two hundred years of peace and prosperity her
calamities began afresh. She was cruelly deceived and oppressed by the
Syrian kings and their generals, for the "kings of the North" were more
hostile to the Jews than the "kings of the South." In consequence of the
incessant wars between Syria and Egypt, many Jews emigrated, and became
merchants, bankers, and artisans in all the great cities of the world,
especially in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Egypt, where all
departments of industry were freely opened to them. In the time of
Philo, there were more than a million of Jews in these various
countries; but they remained Jews, and tenaciously kept the laws and
traditions of their nation. In every large city were Jewish synagogues.
It was under the reign of Antiochus IV., called Epiphanes, when Judaea
was tributary to Syria, that those calamities and miseries befell the
Jews which rendered it necessary for a deliverer to arise. Though
enlightened and a lover of art, this monarch was one of the most cruel,
rapacious, and tyrannical princes that have achieved an infamous
immortality. He began his reign with usurpation and treachery. Being
unsuccessful in his Egyptian campaigns, he vented his wrath upon the
Jews, as if he were mad. Onias III. was the high-priest at the time.
Antiochus dispossessed him of his great office and gave it to his
brother Jason, a Hellenized Jew, who erected in Jerusalem a gymnasium
after the Greek style. But the king, a zealot in paganism, bitterly and
scornfully detested the Jewish religion, and resolved to root it out.
His general, Apollonius, had orders to massacre the people in the
observance of their rites, to abolish the Temple service and the
Sabbath, to destroy the sacred books, and introduce idol worship. The
altar on Mount Moriah was especially desecrated, and afterward dedicated
to Jupiter. A herd of swine were driven into the Temple, and there
sacrificed. This outrage was to the Jews "the abomination of
desolation," which could never be forgotten or forgiven. The nation
rallied and defied the power of a king who could thus wantonly trample
on what was most sacred and venerable.
Two hundred years earlier, resistance would have been hopeless; but in
the mean time the population had quietly increased, and in the practice
of those virtues and labors which agricultural life called out, the
people had been strengthened and prepared to rally and defend their
lives and liberties. They were still unwarlike, without organization or
military habits; but they were brave, hardy, and patriotic. Compared,
however, with the forces which could be arrayed against them by the
Syrian monarch, who was supreme in western Asia, they were numerically
insignificant; and they were also despised and undervalued. They seemed
to be as sheep among wolves,--easy to be intimidated and even
exterminated.
The outrage in the Temple was the consummation of a series of
humiliations and crimes; for in addition to the desecration of the
Jewish religion, Antiochus had taken Jerusalem with a great army, had
entered into the Temple, where the national treasures were deposited
(for it was the custom even among Greeks and Romans to deposit the
public money in the temples), and had taken away to his capital the
golden candlesticks, the altar of incense, the table of shew bread, and
the various vessels and censers and crowns which were used in the
service of God,--treasures that amounted to one thousand eight hundred
talents, spared by Alexander. So that there came great mourning upon
Israel throughout the land, both for the desecration of sacred places,
the plunder of the Temple, and the massacre of the people. Jerusalem was
sacked and burned, women and children were carried away as captives, and
a great fortress was erected on an eminence that overlooked the Temple
and city, in which was placed a strong garrison. The plundered
inhabitants fled from Jerusalem, which became the habitation of
strangers, with all its glory gone. "Her sanctuary was laid waste, her
feasts were turned into mourning, her Sabbath into a reproach, and her
honor into contempt." Many even of the Jews became apostate, profaned
the Sabbath, and sacrificed to idols, rather than lose their lives; for
the persecution was the most unrelenting in the annals of martyrdom,
even to the destruction of women and children.
The insulted and decimated Jews now rallied under Mattathias, the
founder of the Asmonean dynasty.
The immediate occasion of the Jewish uprising, which was ultimately to
end in national independence and in the rule of a line of native
princes, was as unpremeditated as the throwing out of the window at the
council chamber at Prague those deputies who supported the Emperor of
Germany in his persecution of the Protestants, which led to the Thirty
Years' War and the establishment of religious liberty in Germany. At
this crisis among the Jews, a hero arose in their midst as marvellous as
Gustavus Adolphus.
In Modin, or Modein, a town near the sea, but the site of which is now
unknown, there lived an old man of a priestly family named Asmon, who
was rich and influential. His name was Mattathias, and he had five
grown-up sons, each distinguished for bravery, piety, and patriotism. He
was so prominent in his little city for fidelity to the faith of his
fathers, as well as for social position, that when an officer of
Antiochus came to Modin to enforce the decrees of his royal master, he
made splendid offers to Mattathias to induce him to favor the crusade
against his countrymen. Mattathias not only contemptuously rejected
these overtures, but he openly proclaimed his resolution to adhere to
his religion,--a man who could not be bribed, and who could not be
intimidated. "Be it far from us," he said, "to forsake law and
ordinances. We will not hearken to the king's words, to turn aside to
the right hand or to the left."
When he had thus given noble attestation of his resolution to adhere to
the faith of his fathers, there came forward an apostate Jew to
sacrifice on the heathen altar, which it seems was erected by royal
command in all the cities and towns of Judaea. This so inflamed the
indignation of the brave old man that he ran and slew the Jew upon the
altar, together with the king's commissioner, and pulled down the altar.
For this, Mattathias was obliged to flee, and he escaped to the
mountains, taking with him his five sons and all who would join his
standard of revolt, crying with a loud voice, "Let every one zealous for
the Law follow me!" A considerable multitude fled with him to the
wilderness of Judaea, on the west of the Dead Sea, taking with them
their wives and children and cattle. But this flight from persecution
speedily became known to the troops that were quartered on Mount Zion, a
strong fortress which controlled the Temple and city, and a detachment
was sent in pursuit. The fugitives, zealous for the Law, refused to
defend themselves on the Sabbath day, and the result was that they all
perished, with their wives and children. Their fate made such a powerful
impression on Mattathias, that it was resolved henceforth to fight on
the Sabbath day, if attacked. The patriots had to choose between two
alternatives,--to be utterly rooted out, or to defend themselves on the
Sabbath, and thus violate the letter of the Law. Mattathias was
sufficiently enlightened to perceive that fighting on the Sabbath, if
attacked, was a supreme necessity, remembering doubtless that Moses
recognized the right of necessary work even on the sacred day of rest.
The law of self-defence is an ultimate one, and appeals to the
consciousness of universal humanity. Strange as it may seem, the Sabbath
has ever been a favorite day with generals to fight grand battles in
every Christian country.
Mattathias, although a very old man, now put forth superhuman energies,
raised an army, drove the persecuting soldiers out of the country,
pulled down the heathen altars, and restored the Law; and when the time
came for him to die, at the age of one hundred and forty-five years,--if
we may credit the history, for Josephus and the Apocrypha are here our
chief authorities,--he collected around him his five sons, all wise and
valiant men, and enjoined them to be united among themselves, and to be
faithful to the Law,--calling to their minds the noted examples from the
Hebrew Scriptures, Abraham, Joseph, Joshua, David, Elijah, who were
obedient to the commandments of God. He did not speak of patriotism,
although an intense lover of his country. He exhorted his sons to be
simply obedient to the Law,--not, probably, in the restricted and
literal sense of the word, but in the idea of being faithful to God,
even as Abraham was obedient before the Law was given. The glory which
he assured them they would thus win was not the _éclat_ of victory, or
even of national deliverance, but the imperishable renown which comes
from righteousness. He promised a glorious immortality to those who fell
in battle in defence of the truth and of their liberties, reminding us
of the promises which Mohammed made to his followers. But the great
incentive to bravery which he urged was the ultimate reward of virtue,
which runs through the Scriptures, even the favor of God. The heroes of
chivalry fought for the favor of ladies, the praises of knights, and the
friendship of princes; the reward of modern generals is exaltation in
popular estimation, the increase of political power, the accumulation of
wealth, and sometimes the consciousness of rendering important services
to their country,--an exalted patriotism, such as marked Washington and
Cromwell. But the reward which the Jewish hero promised was
loftier,--even that of the divine favor.
The aged Mattathias, having thus given his last counsels to his sons,
recommended the second one, Simon, or Simeon, as the future head of the
family, to whose wisdom the other brothers were to defer,--a man whose
counsel would be invaluable. The third brother, Judas, a mighty warrior
from his youth, was appointed as the leader of the forces to fight the
battles of the people,--the peculiar vocations of Saul and of David, for
which they were selected to be kings.
On the death of Mattathias, mourned by all Israel as Samuel was mourned,
at the age of one hundred and forty-five, and buried in the sepulchre of
his fathers at Modin, Judas, called "The Maccabaeus" ("The Hammer," as
some suppose), rose up in his stead; and all his brothers helped him,
and all his father's friends, and he fought with cheerfulness the
battles of Israel. He put on armor as a hero, and was like a lion in his
acts, and like a lion's whelp roaring for prey. He pursued and punished
the Jewish transgressors of the Law, so that they lost courage, and all
the workers of inquity were thrown into disorder, and the work of
deliverance prospered in his hands. Like Josiah he went through the
cities of Judah, destroying the heathen and the ungodly. The fame of his
exploits rapidly spread through the land, and Apollonius, military
governor of Samaria, collected an army and marched against a man who
with his small forces set at defiance the sovereignty of a mighty
monarchy. Judas attacked Apollonius, slew him, and dispersed his army.
Ever afterward he was girded with the sword of the Syrian,--a weapon
probably adorned with jewels, and tempered like the famous
Damascus blades.
Seron, a general of higher rank, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian
forces in Palestine, irritated at the defeat and death of Apollonius,
the following year marched with a still larger army against Judas. The
latter had with him only a small company, who were despondent in view of
the great array of their heathen enemies, and moreover faint from having
not eaten anything that day. But the heroic leader encouraged his men,
and, undaunted in the midst of overwhelming danger, resolved to fight,
trusting for aid from the God of battles; for "victory," said he, "is
not through the multitude of an army, but from heaven cometh the
strength." This resolution to fight against overwhelming odds would be
audacity in modern warfare, which is perfected machinery, making one man
with reliable weapons as good as another, and success to be chiefly
determined by numbers skilfully posted and manoeuvred according to
strategic science; but in ancient times personal bravery, directed by
military genius and aided by fortunate circumstances, frequently
prevailed over the force of multitudes, especially if the latter were
undisciplined or intimidated by superstitious omens,--as evinced by
Alexander's victories, and those of Charles Martel and the Black Prince
in the Middle Ages. The desperate valor of Judas and his small band was
crowned with complete success. Seron was defeated with great loss, his
army fled, and the fame of Judas spread far and wide. His name became a
terror to the nations.
King Antiochus now saw that the subjection of this valiant Jew was no
easy matter; and filled with wrath and vengeance he gathered together
all the forces of his kingdom, opened his treasury, paid his soldiers a
year in advance, and resolved to root out the rebellious nation by a war
of extermination. Crippled, however, in resources, and in great need of
money, he concluded to go in person to Persia and collect tribute from
the various provinces, and seize the treasures which were supposed to be
deposited in royal cities beyond the Euphrates. He left behind, as
regent or lieutenant, Lysias, a man of royal descent, with orders to
prosecute the war against the Jews with the utmost severity, while with
half his forces he proceeded in person to Persia. Lysias chose Ptolemy,
Nicanor, and Gorgias, experienced generals, to conduct the war, with
forty thousand foot and seven thousand horsemen, besides elephants,
with orders to exterminate the rebels, take possession of their lands,
and settle heathen aliens in their place. So confident were these
generals of success that merchants accompanied the army with gold and
silver to purchase the Jews from the conquerors, and fetters in which to
make them slaves. A large force from the land of the Philistines also
joined the attacking army.
Jerusalem at this time was a forsaken city, uninhabited, like a
wilderness; the Sanctuary was trodden down, and heathen foreigners
occupied the citadel on Mount Zion. It was a time of general mourning
and desolation, and the sound of the harp and the pipe ceased throughout
the land. But Judas was not discouraged; and the warriors with him were
bent upon redeeming the land from desolation. They however put on
sackcloth, and prayed to the God of their fathers, and made every effort
to rally their forces, feeling that it was better to die in battle than
see the pollution of the Sanctuary and the evils which overspread the
land. Judas succeeded in collecting altogether three thousand men, who
however were poorly armed, and intrenched himself among the mountains,
about twenty miles from Jerusalem. Learning this, Gorgias took five
thousand men, one thousand horsemen, under guides from the castle on
Mount Zion, and departed from his camp at Emmaus by night, with a view
of surprising and capturing the Jewish force. But Judas was on the
alert, and obtained information of the intended attack. So he broke up
his own camp, and resolved to attack the main force of the enemy,
weakened by the absence of Gorgias and his chosen band. After reminding
his soldiers of God's mercies in times of old, he ordered the trumpets
to sound, and unexpectedly rushed upon the unsuspecting and unprepared
Syrians, totally routed them, pursued them as far as to the plains of
Idumaea, killed about three thousand men, took immense spoil,--gold and
silver, purple garments and military weapons,--and returned in triumph
to the forsaken camp, singing songs and blessing Heaven for the
great victory.
Many of the Syrians that escaped came and told Lysias all that had
happened, and he on hearing it was confounded and discouraged. But in
the year following he collected an army of sixty thousand chosen footmen
and five thousand horsemen to renew the attack, and marched to the
Idumaean border. Here Judas met him at Bethsura, near to Jerusalem, with
ten thousand men, now inspirited by victory, and again defeated the
Syrian forces, with a loss to the enemy of five thousand men. Lysias,
who commanded this army in person, returned to Antioch and made
preparations to raise a still greater force, while the victorious Jews
took possession of the capital.
Judas had now leisure to cleanse the Sanctuary and dedicate it. When
his army saw the desolation of their holy city,--trees growing in the
very courts of the Temple as in a forest, the altars profaned, the gates
burned,--they were filled with grief, and rent their garments and cried
aloud to Heaven. But Judas proceeded with his sacred work, pulled down
the defiled altar of burnt sacrifice and rebuilt it, cleansed the
Sanctuary, hallowed the desecrated courts, made new holy vessels, decked
the front of the Temple with crowns and shields of gold, and restored
the gates and chambers. Judas also fortified the Temple with high walls
and towers, and placed in it a strong garrison, for the Syrians still
held possession of the Tower,--a strong fortress near the mount of
the Temple.
When all was cleansed and renewed, a solemn service of reconsecration
was celebrated; the sacred fire was kindled afresh on the altar,
thousands of lamps were lighted, the sacrifices were offered, the people
thronged the courts of Jehovah, and with psalms of praise, festive
dances, harps, lutes, and cymbals made a joyful noise unto the Lord.
This triumphant restoration was celebrated three years, to the very day,
from the day of desecration; it was forever after--as long as the Temple
stood--held a sacred yearly festival, and called the Feast of the
Dedication, or sometimes, from its peculiar ceremonies, the Feast
of Lights.
The successes of Judas and the restoration of the Temple worship
inflamed with renewed anger the heathen population of the countries in
the near vicinity of Judaea; and there seems to have been a general
confederacy of Idumaeans,--descendants of Esau,--with sundry of the
Bedouin tribes, and of the heathen settled east of the Jordan in the
land of Gilead, and of Phoenicians and heathen strangers in Galilee, to
recover what the Syrians had lost, and to restore idol worship. Judas
had now an army of eleven thousand men, which he divided between himself
and his brother Simon, and they marched in different directions to the
attack of their numerous enemies. They were both eminently successful,
gaining bloody battles, capturing cities and fortresses, taking immense
spoils, mingling the sound of trumpets with prayers to Almighty
God,--heroes as religious as they were brave, an unexampled band of
warriors, rivalling Joshua, Saul, and David in the brilliancy of their
victories. All the Jews who remained true to their faith in the
districts which he overran and desolated, Judas brought back with him to
Jerusalem for greater safety.
Only one misfortune sullied the glory of these exploits. Judas had left
behind him at Jerusalem, when he and Simon went forth to fight the
idolaters, a garrison of two thousand men under the command of Joseph
and Azarias, leaders of the people, with the strict command to remain
in the city until he should return. But these popular leaders, dazzled
by the victories of Judas and Simon, and wishing to earn a fame like
theirs, issued from their stronghold with two thousand men to attack
Jamnia, and were met by Gorgias the Syrian general and completely
annihilated,--a just punishment for military disobedience. The loss of
two thousand men was a calamity, but Judas pursued his victories,
finally turning against the Philistines, who at this point disappear
from sacred history.
In the meantime King Antiochus, who, as already stated, had gone on a
plundering expedition to Persia, was defeated in the attempt, and
returned in great grief and disappointment to Ecbatana. Here he heard
that his armies under Lysias had been disgracefully beaten, and that
Judaea was in a fair way to achieve its independence under the heroic
Judas; and, worse still, that all the pagan temples and altars which he
had set up in Jerusalem were removed and destroyed. This especially
filled him with rage, for he was a fanatic in his religion, and utterly
detested the monotheism of the Jews. So oppressed with grief was this
heathen persecutor that he took to his bed; and in addition to his
humiliation he was afflicted with a loathsome disease, called
elephantiasis, so that he was avoided and neglected by his own servants.
He now saw that he must die, and calling for his friend Philip, made
him regent of his kingdom during the minority of his son, whom he had
left at Antioch.
The Jews were thus delivered from the worst enemy that had afflicted
them since the Babylonian captivity. Neither Assyrians nor Egyptians nor
Persians had so ruthlessly swept away religious institutions. Those
conquerors were contented with conquest and its political
results,--namely, the enslavement and spoliation of the people; they did
not pollute the sacred places like the Syrian persecutor. By the rivers
of Babylon the Jews had sat down and wept when they remembered Zion, but
their sad wailing was over the fact that they were captives in a strange
land. Ground down to the dust by Antiochus, however, they bewailed not
only their external misfortunes, but far more bitterly the desecration
of their Sanctuary and the attempt to root out their religion, which was
their life.