58 Chapter 3turn to their homeland. In 516 B.C.they rebuilt the
Temple at Jerusalem. Not so grand as the Temple of
Solomon, it served as the center of Jewish faith and as-
pirations until its destruction by the Romans in A.D.70.
The glue that held the many Jewish communities
together was the teaching of prophets and devotion to
the Law, as symbolized by the gradual evolution of the
Talmud from the fifth century B.C.onward. The
Prophets, many of whose writings have been preserved
in the Bible, exhorted the Jews to remain faithful. The
Talmud was the product of scribes who sought to un-
cover the full meaning of the Mosaic Law and apply it
to every conceivable circumstance. This process of
commentary, which continues today, was central to the
development of mature Judaism, but certain aspects of
it were not unopposed. The biblical books of Jonah and
of Ruth are veiled protests against what many saw as an
increasingly narrow and overly proscriptive faith.
This struggle between a Judaism based firmly upon
the Law and a broader tolerance of the non-Jewish
world reached its greatest intensity in the Hellenistic
era (see document 3.6). The conflict between Hel-
lenism and Hebraism was fundamental. A life lived ac-
cording to divinely revealed law was incompatible with
the Greek love of speculation and with aesthetic stan-
dards based upon the beauties of nature and the perfec-
tion of the human body. In spite of this, many Jews
were clearly attracted to Greek thought and customs.
The excesses of the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV
Epiphanes (c. 215–164 B.C.) turned the tide decisively
against them. When he introduced the worship of Zeus
to the temple at Jerusalem, a revolt led by the Mac-
cabees, the five sons of the priest Mattathias, resulted in
the restoration of an independent Jewish state.
In later years the dynasty founded by the Mac-
cabees embarked upon a policy of expansion and
forced conversions to Judaism. This was opposed by
the Pharisees, who sought a return to the Law and to
traditional Jewish values. A bloody civil war between
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, as the supporters of
the dynasty were known, ended only with Roman in-
tervention in 64 B.C.and the abolition of the monarchy
in the following year. Though political independence
was lost, the danger of Hellenism had been avoided.
The Romans made no effort to interfere with the Jewish
faith, and the Pharisees emerged as the dominant fac-
tion in religious life—both at home and in the scattered
communities of the dispersion.
Unlike that of the Jews, the culture of ancient
Greece was profoundly humanistic in the sense that
Greek thinkers emphasized the cultivation of virtue and
the good life within a social instead of a religious
framework. Greek artists concentrated almost exclu-
sively on the human form, while poets found inspira-
tion in the heroic dignity of men and women in the
face of tragedy. This intense concentration on the hu-DOCUMENT 3.6
The Jewish Struggle Against Hellenism
The First and Second Book of Maccabees tells the story of the struggle
against the hellenizing policies of Antiochus Epiphanes from the stand-
point of observant Jews. Not all Jews opposed Greek tendencies, and the
struggle waged by the Maccabees was not only against Antiochus, but
also against his local supporters.Jason obtained the high priesthood by corruption,
promising the king in his petition 360 talents of silver and
80 talents from other revenues. When the king had con-
sented and he had taken office, he immediately brought
his countrymen over to the Greek way of living. He set
aside the royal ordinances especially favoring the Jews ...
and abrogating the lawful ways of living he introduced
new customs contrary to the Law. For he willingly estab-lished a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he made
the finest of the young men wear the Greek hat. And to
such a pitch did the cultivation of Greek fashions and the
coming-in of foreign customs rise ... that the priests were
no longer earnest about the services of the altar, but dis-
daining the sacrifices, they hurried to take part in the un-
lawful exercises of the wrestling school, after the
summons to the discus throwing, regarding as worthless
the things their forefathers valued, and thinking Greek
standards the finest. [2 Macc. 2:23–27]
The Apocrypha. First Maccabees 2:23–27, 42–48. trans. Edgar J. Good-
speed. New York: Random House, 1959.