jews in a graeco- roman world 97
It was only in 152 bce that Judah’s brother Jonathan, after complex
negotiations with the rival Seleucid rulers Demetrius and Alexander
Balas, accepted the post from Alexander Balas. I Maccabees recorded
the letter sent to Jonathan by the king and Jonathan’s subsequent elev-
ation to supreme authority in the Temple:
‘King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greetings. We have heard that
you are a mighty warrior and worthy to be our friend. And so we have
appointed you today to be the high priest of your nation; you are to be the
King’s friend and you are to take our side and keep friendship with us.’
[The king] also sent him a purple robe and a golden crown. So Jonathan
put on the sacred vestments in the seventh month of the one hundred and
sixtieth year, at the festival of booths.Once installed in the high priesthood, the Hasmonaean dynasty was not
to be dislodged for over a century – the last scion of the family to pre-
side in the Jerusalem Temple was Aristobulus III, who died in 35
bce – but their lack of confidence in their right to hold the most presti-
gious position in representing the nation to God emerged on 18 Elul
(September) 140 bce, when Jonathan’s brother and successor Simon
convened a ‘great assembly of the priests and the people and the rulers
and the elders of the country’. The assembly declared that, because of
‘Simon’s faithfulness and the glory that he had resolved to win for his
nation’, they had made him their leader and High Priest, adding that
‘the Jews and their priests have resolved that Simon should be their
leader and high priest for ever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise.’
The selection of High Priest was no longer to be left to the decision of
the gentile suzerain. It was to be decided by the Jewish nation – or (if a
prophet arose) by God. The decree of the assembly was engraved on
bronze tablets, put up ‘in a conspicuous place in the precincts of the
sanctuary’, with copies in the treasury.^11
Simon and two of his sons were assassinated in 135 bce, and Simon’s
surviving son John Hyrcanus faced great obstacles in establishing him-
self in power until the death in 129 bce of the Seleucid king Antiochus
VII on campaign against the Parthians on the eastern edge of his empire.
Antiochus’ successor, Demetrius II, was distracted by internal conflict
elsewhere within his kingdom, and John Hyrcanus began a campaign of
conquest which incorporated under his rule the Samaritans to the
north and the Idumaeans to the south. The Samaritan temple on Mount
Gerizim was destroyed. According to Josephus, after subduing all the
Idumaeans, Hyrcanus ‘permitted them to remain in their country so