Maccabean Revolt and Hasmonean Kingdom
| SUMMARY: The Maccabeans or Hasmoneans (after their ancestor, Hasmon) lead resistance to the Seleucids and, internally, against the radical Hellenists and eventually establish themselves as high priests and kings. | [click the link to the left to read a summary and evaluation of Hasmonean rule] | |
| 168-165 | Maccabean Revolt against the anti-Jewish decrees issued by Antiochos IV. Epiphanes and supported by High Priest Menelaos (d. 163).These decrees aim to eradicate observance of those laws in the Torah that establish a fundamental difference between Jews and Gentiles. | The Maccabeans are named after Judah Maccabi ("the hammer"). They are a family of priests from Modi'in (not Jerusalem aristocracy). Supported by the Asidaioi (a group of pious anti-Hellenists), they wage a successful guerilla war against the Seleucid armies. |
| 166-161 | Judah Maccabi | |
| 165 | Lysias (representative of Antiochos IV.) defeated. Begin of reconciliation of Seleucid administration with the Jews. | Judah Maccabi wins the first and decisive battles against the Syrian armies. |
| 165 | Rededication of the temple in Jerusalem to YHWH. Memorialized in the festival of Hanukkah. | Popular support of the Maccabean brothers erodes after the anti-Jewish decrees are rescinded. |
| c161 | Judah Maccabee concludes a friendship treaty with Rome to boost his standing. | |
| In 161, two important battles are fought. In the Spring against Nikanor (who dies) and in the Fall against Bacchides. | Judah dies in the battle against Bacchides. | |
| 161-142 | Jonathan (brother of Judah) leads the further campaigns and expands the territory controlled by the rebels. | Jonathan and his elder brother Simon who succeeds him in 142 are able to take advantage of the confusion over the succession of Antiochus IV. |
| 153 | Jonathan is made high priest by Seleucid usurper Alexander Balas. | |
| 142-135/4 | After Jonathan is murdered by the Seleucids, Simon (a brother ofJudah and Jonathan) takes over as high priest and leader of the Jews. | |
| 141 | Simon takes the Acra fortress, bringing Jerusalem fully under his control. | |
| 140 | The gerousia confirms Simon as high priest, nasi (patriarch), and military commander. | Simon now enjoys the privileges of a king by popular acclamation in all but the title. |
| 135/4 - 104 | John Hyrkanos | With the son of Simon, the second generation of Maccabees takes over. After 129, when Antiochus VII dies, John Hyrkanos rules a state that is virtually independent. Under his rule, the Idumeans (to the south of Jerusalem, the biblcial Edomites) and the Itureans of the Galilee are forcibly "Judaized." The Samaritan sanctuary on Mt. Garizim is destroyed, and other places conquered. With these measures, continued by his son Aristobulos, Hyrkanos extends the rule of Jerusalem to biblical proportions. In fact, the biblical precedent allows to legitimize this territorial expansion as a mere restoration of ancestral territories. |
| 104-103 | Aristobulos I. | Josephus claims he was the first Hasmonean to take the "diadem" of kingship, but this may be inaccurate. |
| 103-76 | Alexander Iannai | A cruel ruler, remembered for a massacre among the Pharisees. Most likely the first Hasmonean to rule as king, as attested by coins minted by Alexander. |
| 76-67 | Salome Alexandra |
Following her late husband's death bed advice, Alexander's widow reconciles with the Pharisees and appoints her more docile son Hyrkanos as high priest. |
| 67-63 | Aristobulos II. | Forces his brother out of office by force, supported by the anti-Pharisaic Saducees, the traditionalist priestly aristocracy. |
| 63 | Jerusalem conquered by the Romans under Pompey. | Aristobulos and his sons are imprisoned in Rome and thousands of his supporters sold into slavery, swelling the ranks of the Jewish population of Rome. |
| 63-40 | Hyrkanos II | Hyrkanos is reinstated by Pompey after the conquest of Jerusalem in 63, but with the reduced powers of high priest. Under Pompey and Gabinius (57-55), Jerusalem's wings are severely clipped. Hellenistic cities conquered by the Hasmoneans returned to autonomy and territorial administration decentralized. These measures are revoked by Julius Caesar in 47 who reinstated Hyrkanos as ethnarch with the full authority enjoyed by the Hasmoneans before him, though not with the official title of king, from 47 until 40 BCE. As in Ptolemaic and Seleucid times, with the dualism between high priest/ethnarch and epitropos, the reign of Hyrkanos is characterized by the relationship with Antipater, Idumean tax collector for the hegemon, in this case: the Roman imperatores during the years of civil war between Pompey and Julius Caesar. |
| 40-37 | Matthatias Antigonos | Using the opportunity of a temporary threat to Roman power (Parthians invade Syria), the last Hasmonean king (son of Aristobulos II) restores the kingdom and rules until the Romans are able to conquer Jerusalem and install the Roman appointed Herod, the son of Antipater. |
Source: Peter Schäfer, Geschichte der Juden in der Antike. Die Juden Palästinas von Alexander dem Großen bis zur arabischen Eroberung (Stuttgart 1983)