A Judean Civil War

December 26, 2008
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

Last week, I began speaking about the 600 years from 300 BCE to 300 CE. Now, I will take up my theme and preach on. In 200 BCE, the priests in Jerusalem's Temple believed the Greeks were basically idolaters and they rejected Hellenism out of hand. In those days, Greeks and Jews met through trading and commerce; and the little backwater province of Judea was snug in the hands of the tolerant Ptolemaic kings of Egypt.

     But, in 198 BCE, the Seleucids Greeks of Syria, expanding toward Egypt, conquered the area which included Judea. The Seleucids combined Hellenism with Persian culture so that, in essence, they now behaved like Oriental potentates. And, like the Persians before them, they allowed local peoples to worship local gods while adding a new layer by asking locals to worship Zeus, too. In Judea, this situation was only de facto. Jewish priests of the Temple were allowed freedom of worship while the laws regarding the worship of Zeus were not enforced.

     The Judean landscape changed when Antiochus IV usurped the Syrian throne in 175. In short order, Antiochus became bent on world domination. His ambitions not only brought him up against the Ptolemies of Egypt, but forced him to contend with another growing power, the Roman Republic. More and more, Rome considered the Mediterranean Ocean to be their little sea, their arena of trade and commerce. When he arose to the throne, Antiochus IV had even been forced to negotiate a treaty with Rome to consolidate his own position. Nevertheless, Antiochus had his eye on Egypt and he built up his military might to conquer it.

     Suddenly, little Judea assumed a new importance since it lay between Assyria and Egypt. Antiochus' advisors informed him that the Jews, led by their priests, were bound to be difficult to control. He could not afford to allow a disloyal country to lie at his back while he attacked Egypt, so he took his first step to control the Jews. Antiochus deposed the Jewish High Priest and inserted his own man, a Jew named Menelaus, as the new High Priest of Judea. The Jews were upset by this maneuver, but as long as Menelaus functioned according to Jewish law, they had little choice but to accept him as the price for peace with Antiochus.

     In the year 170, the Ptolemies of Egypt played into Antiochus' hands. They demanded that Antiochus return Judea and other disputed territories, claiming these had been granted to them when the Greek world was divided after the death of Alexander the Great. Antiochus used this as an excuse to launch a preemptive strike against Egypt. His armies captured Ptolemy the King of Egypt and conquered all of Egypt except Alexandria. The city selected a new king, also a Ptolemy, and made a treaty with Antiochus.

     But it was only two years before fighting in Egypt flared up again and Antiochus determined to personally conquer Alexandria. He led a second campaign, against both Alexandria and Cyprus, but as he approached Alexandria, he was met by a legation from the Roman Senate. The leader of the Roman legation Popillius Laenas informed Antiochus that the Roman Senate demanded his withdrawal from Egypt and Cyprus. Antiochus said he would discuss this with his council. but Popillius, using his cane, drew a circle in the sand around the two of them and said, "You will make your decision now, before you leave this circle!" This action would always be famous as "drawing the line in the sand." Under threat of war with Rome, an angry Antiochus agreed to withdraw.

     While Antiochus stood before Alexandria, the rumor spread in Judea that he had been murdered in Egypt. Before double-checking, the deposed High Priest Jason gathered a force of 1000 soldiers and marched against poor Menelaus the High Priest who had been appointed by Antiochus. Jason soon commanded the Temple again. But when Antiochus heard about Jason's rebellion, he turned the forces he had gathered for war with Egypt against Jerusalem. Frustrated and enraged by his failure in Egypt, Antiochus was more brutal than he might otherwise have been. Second Maccabees reports that "There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery."

     Second Maccabees goes on to claim that Antiochus now attempted to do away with the religion of the Jews entirely, to replace it with the worship of Zeus. In Second Maccabees we read,

They ... brought into the Temple things that were forbidden, so that the altar was covered with abominable offerings prohibited by the laws. A man could not keep the Sabbath or celebrate the traditional feasts, nor even admit that he was a Jew. ... A decree [ordered] neighboring Greek cities to act in the same way against the Jews [putting] to death those who would not consent to adopt the customs of the Greeks. It was obvious, therefore, that disaster impended.

     In truth, modern historians tell us that the problems in Judea were really the result of what amounts to a Jewish Civil War. Two parties existed among the priests of the Temple-one party advocating a moderate position toward Hellenism and Greek culture and the other party refusing any reform of the traditional Temple practices. Antiochus sided with the priests who were willing to cooperate with Greek culture. But a Jewish priest named Mattathius, living near Jerusalem in the little village of Modiin, joined the traditional faction that refused to change even one jot or tittle of the law.

     Before long, Mattathias and his sons took to the hills, where they were soon joined by others who agreed with them. In essence, they became resistance fighters in a Jewish civil war. It was Antiochus who made the next move in this little game.

     Some think it was madness, others say it was ego, but whichever it was, Antiochus declared himself a deity, taking the title Epiphanes (the "Manifest God"). Ultimately, he chose the worst moment to do this. The majority of Judeans, who had not taken sides with one group of priests over the other, now rallied to the cause of Mattathias and his followers. Meanwhile. a new Eastern power, Parthia, took advantage of Antiochus' problems with Judea and Rome to attack the Greeks in Persia. So began the Parthian wars which would bring an end to the Seleucid rule in Assyria.

     Antiochus had no choice but to lead the main legions of his army against Parthia. He could spare only a small force to put down the revolt in Judea-which was led by Mattathius' son, Judah who was called "the Maccabee" or "hammer" by his soldiers.

     After a ten year struggle, on the 25th day of the month of Kislev in the year 165, the Maccabees overtook the Temple and managed to cleanse and rededicate it for the worship of YHWH. A year later, returning from his campaign against Parthia, Antiochus Epiphanes died.

     In Hebrew, the word Hanukkah literally means "dedication." It is a clear reference to the rededication of the Temple and the triumph of the traditional priests. It was not the armies of the Assyrian Greeks, busy in the Parthian wars, that the Maccabees really defeated. They overcame the priests who advocated moderation and reform. But when we continue next week, we will see that the Maccabees themselves soon favored reform and the most salient result of their military victory was to draw the attention of Rome to tiny Judea. For now, let us say: Amen.