The Maccabean Revolution Ptolemy?)? We must remember that at some point after Alexander’s conquest
the governor (peḥah) of the Persian period disappears, leaving the high priest
as the political head of the community. The corollary of that, however, was
that in the Seleucid period (from ..), or at least by the beginning of An-
tiochus Epiphanes’ reign (from ..), the high priest was appointed by the
king.^21 Is it possible therefore that the ‘‘honour’’ was indeed the high priest-
hood, and that it had been taken into the king’s gift as early as the beginning
of the Ptolemaic period, in compensation for the abandonment of the ap-
pointment of a separate governor? That would readily explain why different
sources refer to this Hezekiah as high priest and as governor; and the dual
function may be reflected in what Joseph the Tobiad is reputed as saying to
Onias in a scene which seems clearly to belong to the Ptolemaic period, more
precisely to the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes (–..), though mis-
placed in Josephus’ narrative. Joseph reproaches Onias (on this view Onias II)
for withholding tribute due to the king, ‘‘on account of which,’’ Joseph said,
‘‘he had received the chief magistracy [prostasia] and had obtained the high
priestly office.’’^22 It would not have been impossible thatpeḥahcould have
remained in use to denote the secular functions now assumed by the high
priest. Ptolemy himself, before his assumption of the royal title, is referred
to by the Persian title ‘‘satrap’’ in a Greek document of ..from Egypt
(P. Eleph.).^23
If these were the circumstances, then it would not have been surprising if
there had not been unanimity as to who had been the legitimate high priest
at any one time, and hence that Hezekiah did not achieve a mention in the
list of high priests in Josephus. Hecataeus’ evidence is further valuable for
providing the view-point on the Jewish community of a sympathetic and
curious gentile observer at the beginning of the Hellenistic period. He em-
phasises above all the rigorous observance of the Law, the privileges of the
priests (, in number), the hostility to pagan cults, and the centrality and
importance of Jerusalem and the Temple. In another passage, transmitted by
Diodorus, he emphasises the absence of a cult image, the leading role of the
priests, the absence of a king (believing that there had never been one), and
the importance of the high priest.^24 If Hecataeus also imported a number of
idealising Greek notions into his portrait of Jewish society, it is none the less
important to stress the extent to which he saw it as a community whose struc-
. Josephus,Ant. , –.
. SeeAnt. , , Loeb trans. See Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryI, .
.Sel. Pap.I,no..
. Diodorus ,Stern,Greek and Latin AuthorsI, no. .