The Maccabean Revolution the document is not itself contemporary. Furthermore, Josephus quotes it
explicitly as evidence for a thesis which he has put forward earlier,^12 that the
Samaritans claimed or denied relationship to the Jews according to the ad-
vantages of the moment. Thirdly, there is no other evidence recording either
a reversion of the Samaritan Temple to its original cult after the end of per-
secution or its continuance as a temple of Zeus Xenius or Hellenius until its
destruction by John Hyrcanus.
A substantial doubt must therefore remain. But Maccabees at least at-
tests the fact of a petition for the transformation of the cult on Mount Geri-
zim; and we have the independent evidence of Pseudo-Eupolemus, perhaps
writing in the second century.., who explains ‘‘Argarizin’’ as ‘‘mountain
of (the) Highest’’ (hypsistos):^13 ‘‘Zeus Hypsistos,’’ being, as is well known, a
possible way of referring to the Jewish God in the Graeco-Roman period.
We still cannot be certain of course what Pseudo-Eupolemus himself im-
plied by this, or whether his view was shared by those who worshipped there.
However, we have a considerable body of evidence, admittedly from vary-
ing regions of Syria and varying dates, which clearly shows that indigenous
cults could be preserved and integrated with their now Hellenised environ-
ment without losing their identity or continuity. What is more, a study of
the Semitic cults of the Syrian region, and in particular of private dedica-
tions, whether in Greek or in dialects of Aramaic, argues that the evidence
reflects a growth of the conception of a single supreme god, addressed in
various names.^14 If this evidence will require further consideration, it is still
clear that,ifthe cult in Jerusalem were sufficiently similar to the native cults
persisting elsewhere in the Syrian region, it might have undergone a com-
parable assimilation provided that the social and cultural conditions for this
were also present. Whether they were present is a question which can only be
answered by looking at the structure of the Jewish community in the period
preceding the ‘‘reform’’ and revolution.
The Jewish Community in the Early Hellenistic Period
The Persian period, and the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah, had left the
Jews as a small tightly knit community centred on the Temple, occupying a
.Ant. , .
. Eusebius,Praep. Ev.,Jacoby,FGrH. See also Hengel, –, and A.-M.
Denis, ‘‘L’historien anonyme d’Eusèbe (Praep. Ev. , –) et la crise des Macchabées,’’JSJ
(): –. I am unable to discern why the mention of Mount Gerizim should lead
to the presumption that the author was a Samaritan.
. J. Teixidor,The Pagan God: Popular Religion in the Greco-Roman Near East().