Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

abiding by its laws was put to death (1 Macc. 1:41-61; 2 Macc. 6:1-11). Ac-

cording to 2 Maccabees, similar resolutions were adopted by the neighbor-

ing coastal town of Ptolemais (2 Macc. 6:8-9).

The Maccabean tradition offers no credible explanation for this un-

precedented revolution in Seleucid policy. Second Maccabees simply casts

Antiochus into the biblical mold of the arrogant tyrant who unwittingly

executes God’s judgment upon rebellious Israel. First Maccabees alleges a

royal decree, addressed to all Seleucid subjects, demanding “that all be-

come one people, and that each abandon his [own] customs” (1 Macc. 1:41-

42). If Antiochus ever issued such a decree, its implementation is nowhere

in evidence (except, of course, in Judea itself ). In fact, nowhere in either

account is there any insinuation that the king’s suppression of Judaism ex-

tended to Jews living elsewhere in the Seleucid realm. Whatever the moti-

vation for the Antiochene persecution, Palestine was its sole focus.

The persecution itself lasted approximately three years. Jewish re-

sponses ranged from outright collaboration with (or acquiescence in) the

king’s policies, to passive noncooperation, to willing martyrdom or mili-

tant resistance. The last of these take center stage in the Maccabean ac-

counts, making it difficult to analyze the others. In particular, the tradition

downplays the role of Menelaus and his supporters in bringing the perse-

cution to an end through negotiation, a development attested in a dossier

of letters preserved in 2 Maccabees. The Maccabean narrative focuses in-

stead upon the purification and rededication of the Temple half a year

later and continued Jewish (i.e., Maccabean) dissatisfaction with the

Seleucid-backed high priesthood.

Antiochus himself did not personally preside over the Judean theater

for long. Financial pressures and the imperative to reassert Seleucid sover-

eignty over the eastern satrapies drew him away in 165; he named his

under-aged son, Antiochus V, coruler under the supervision of a guardian,

Lysias. Cuneiform sources confirm that Antiochus IV died on campaign in

the east near the end of the following year. News of the king’s death precip-

itated the first of many succession struggles that would influence Judean

affairs for the next half century.

The Maccabean Revolt

Armed resistance to Antiochus IV’s decrees quickly gravitated around the

priestly family of Hashmonay (hence, “Hasmoneans”). Following the

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Jewish History from Alexander to Hadrian

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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