History of Jerusalem Under the Seleucids (198-135/63BCE)

The peaceful century of Ptolemy rule over Judah/Palestine and Phoenicia ends when Antiochus III. ("the Great"), scion of the Seleucids ruling the Eastern parts of the lands conquered by Alexander, asserts his claim to Coele-Syria (including Judah/Palestine) by several military campaigns. A decisive victory at Panias (Banyas) in 198 forces the young Greco-Egyptian ruler, Ptolemy V., to yield. The Seleucid kingdom had reached the zenith of its power.

This period is both eventful and amply described in ancient sources, such as the writings of Josephus Flavius, a Jewish historian flourishing in the second half of the 1st century CE. Under Seleucid king Antiochus IV.'s ("Epiphanes") internal strife and external force culminate in an attempt to suspend the Torah and to convert Jerusalem into a Hellenistic polis (renamed "Antioch in Judaea"). This leads to the first religious persecutions in recorded history.

The rebellion against forced Hellenization is led by a group of non-Jerusalemites loyal to the YHWHistic temple, a family of landed priests (Maccabean revolt, 167-164BCE). Because of its fervent effort to preserve the Torah and to restore the Temple and the city of Jerusalem to its erstwhile ritual purity, the Hasmoneans, as they are later called by the name of their ancestor (House of Hasmon), are given the office of High Priesthood, despite the fact that they are not from the lineage of Zadok. In the late second century, when the Seleucids are decisively weakened on other fronts, the Hasmoneans renew the national independence of Judah and greatly expand its realm by conquest and forced conversion, establishing the second royal dynasty in Judah.