Nadene Goldfoot
Judah had kept up their own state with kings after Solomon had died in 920 BCE until 586 BCE with Zedekiah being Judah's last king from 597 to 586 BCE.
Problems were inevitable when Alexander the Great died in 322 BCE when only 29 years old who had been the king of Macedonia, an empire now divided into Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia. The people spoke Greek. He had made a great impression on the Jews. When he visited Jerusalem, he gave great honor to the high priest, Jaddua, and gave the Jews many privileges. He was not married and had no children, so didn't leave his lands to any family members. His generals then divided Alexander's empire up among themselves. The Greeks believed in many gods but did believe in a god. Alexander admired the Jewish religion. The Jews loved him. This is why so many used his name for their own children. It was adopted as a surname often when that became the naming laws.
Most of the 60,000 Jews living in the Greek area of Macedonia were exterminated during WWII.
Alexander the Great, a Greek, conquered Syria in 332 BCE and, after his death in 323 BCE, the Seleucid Empire ruled the region. That was one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus Nicator who then established his Hellenistic royal dynasty of the Seleucids.
Antiochus III settled Babylonian Jews in the cities of Phrygia and Lydia and entrusted them with an important role in securing those regions of his empire. He conquered the Jewish land by 200 BCE and granted privileges to the Temple.
The Greek Syrians had been occupying Judah since 174 BCE and held the land including Jerusalem till 163 BCE. They chose kings over the Jewish land.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes was their new king, who waged a bloody war upon the Jews, and had imposed his own Hellenic cult on them which sparked a national rebellion. It was a threat not only to all their lives, but also to their spiritual existence.
After years of Greek domination, Jews were beginning to be a part of the Greek culture and its hedonistic pagan way of life. They had become Jewish Hellenists and were willing pawns in Antiochus' scheme to obliterate all traces of their own Jewish religion. The 2nd Temple was invaded, desecrated and robbed of all its treasures. Many Jews were massacred and any lucky survivors were heavily taxed. Antiochus put an idol of Zeus on the holy altar and forced the population to bow before it under penalty of death. He forbid the Jews to observe their Sabbath and the rite of circumcision. Antiochus proclaimed himself a god, and took the name ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES---the DIVINE. Even his own Greek Syrians mocked him as ANTIOCHUS EPIMANES--the madman!
In every town and city in Judah, altars were erected with statues of Greek gods and goddesses. Soldiers rounded up Jews and forced them to make offerings to their gods and engage in other immoral acts customary to the Greeks. The Jews did not resist at this point.
Back in about 166 BCE, there was a priestly family, the Hasmoneans, founded by Mattathias of the town of Modiin. Their ancestor, a priest, descended from Aaron, brother of Moses, had been named Hashmon. Mattathias had 5 sons: Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John and Eleazar.
In Modiin, a small village a few miles east of Jerusalem, Mattityahu challenged the Greek soldiers and those who were acquiescing to their demands. With his 5 sons backing him, he attacked the troops, slew the idolators, and destroyed the idol. They cried out, "ALL WHO ARE WITH G-D, FOLLOW ME!"
Then these brave activists retreated to the hills, gathered more forces and commenced to overthrow the oppression of Antiochus and his men.
The Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, had attacked Judah and was about to occupy the Jewish land. The Hasmoneans fought a number of battles against them, and in 164 BCE, Judah captured Jerusalem back from the Syrians. Then they held raids to rescue the Jews of Ammon, Idumea, Gilead and Galilee.
Eleazar (5) was killed in 163 BCE at Bet Zechariah where they were finally defeated. They had been able to get better terms for their religious freedom, though due to the Syrian distractions.
Judah (1) continued the fight for political freedom as well, and Judah fell at Elasa in 160 BCE.
John (4) was murdered shortly afterwards and Jonathan (2) took over the leadership. He was able to secure the high priesthood in 152 BCE and then the governorship of Judah by 150 BCE.
Simon (3) got the exemption from tribute in 147 BCE. He was confirmed by the people as the hereditary high priest, the ethnarch and general in 142 BCE. Then he was murdered in 135 BCE.
That ended in the expulsion of the Seleucides and the establishent of Judah as an independent Jewish kingdom once again, but this time under their own Hasmonean dynasty of Judah.
The Hasmonians converted Moabites, Edomites and Ammonites to Judaism forcibly as well as the northern kingdom of Israel, now populated with other peoples that the foreign leaders had brought in.
The pragmatic materialism of Greek culture left no room for the Jews'special relationship with G-d. The Syrian-Greek desecration of the Holy Temple was another example of their determination to destroy the sanctity of Jewish life.
Jews had freed themselves from the Seleucids. Antiochus VII Sidetes then invaded the country in the time of Simon the Hasmonean, the Judean chosen ethnarch (ruler of the people) in 138 BCE and again with greater success in 134 BCE. When Antiochus died in 129 BCE, the Jews revolted, and the Seleucid rule in the land ended in 128 BCE.
Simon's son, John Hyrcanus had succeed him and suffered a crushing defeat by Antiochus VII Sidetes in that Jerusalem was taken by the Syrians after a long siege and Judea once more became a Seleucid province. After the defeat of Antiochus in his war against Parthia, John launched a successful offensive against Transjordan. Samaria and Idumea which marked the transition of the Hashmoneans to a semi-hellenized secular military dynasty. This led to his repudiation of the Pharisees and his siding to the aristocratic Sadducee party. He was succeeded by his sons Judah Aristobulus in 105 to 194 BCE and Alexander Yannai in 104 to 76 BCE. Alexander was the first to use a royal title. He set up a standing mercenary army and conquered Transjordan, Idumea and the coastal plain. The Pharisees opposed his war policy and this led to a civil war in which Alexander was the victor after a very bloody struggle.
The Pharisees were in the ascendant during the reign of his widow, Salome Alexandra from 76 to 69 BCE. When she died, the Hasmonean dynasty declined. There had been strife between her sons Hyrcans II, ethnarch appointed by Julius Caesar and Aristobulus II which led to the intervention and eventual domination of Antipater and his son, Herod who had Roman assistance.
In Syria, "the Parthians reigned until, weakened by repeated attacks by the Scythians, their empire fell. Tigranes the Great (140-55 BCE) of the Kingdom of Armenia in Anatolia was welcomed by the people of Syria as a liberator in 83 BCE and held the land as part of his kingdom until Pompey the Great took Antioch in 64 BCE and annexed Syria as a Roman province.
"In 63 BCE the Roman General Pompey conquered Jerusalem and made the Jewish kingdom a client state of Rome.
Hyrcanus remained a puppet while Aristobulus II and his sons, Alexander and Antigonus Mattathias failed to gain any power.
Hyrcanus' granddaughter, Mariamne, daughter of Alexander, son of Aristobulus II, married Herod and was his 2nd wife, mother of his 3 sons and 2 daughters, but was put to death by him in 29 BCE. Also killed were the surviving Hasmoneans viz. Aristobulus III in 35 BCE, Hyrcanus II in 30 BCE, and Mariamne's son, Alexander and Aristobulus in 7 BCE.
Herod's sister, Salome, had never stopped inciting the king against Mariamne and had finally convinced him that she was an adulteress which was why he had her killed.
By 40-39 BCE, Herod the Great was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. His son, Archelaus, was appointed ethnarch by Augustus. Archelaus's mother was Malthace, the Samaritan. Herod had named Archaelaus in his will as the ruler over the greater part of his kingdom as king. When Archelaus went to Rome to get Augustus' ratification of the will, disturbances broke out all over Judah and a Jewish delegation asked Augustus to dethrone the Herodian dynasty. Augustus took away the title of king but named him as an ethnarch of Judea, Idumea and Samaria. He ruled severely from 4 BCE to 6 CE, causing Augustus to remove him from office. He was exiled to Gaul where he died in 16 CE.
In the year 6 CE, the last ethnarch of Judea was deposed by the emperor Augustus. His territories combined with Idumea and Samaria and annexed as Iudaea Province under direct Roman administration.
Now the Romans stepped in with Procurators, Roman governors over Judah after banishing Archelaus in the year of 6 CE. The Romans gave titles to Jews and took them away as well.
Agrippa I was the king of Judea from 10 BCE but was defeated in 44 CE. He was the son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod.
Herod I was King of Judea, appointed by the Roman Senate, from 73 BCE to 4 BCE. He was the son of Antipater, the Idumean by his Nabagean wife, Cypros. His father had first appointed him governor of Galilee, and he showed that he had a strong hand by executing dissident Jews. Because of his cruelty, he was summoned by the Sanhedrin and could have been put to death for taking lives, but the procurator (governor) of Syria, Sextus Caesar and Hyreanus saved him. John Hyreanus was the son and successor of Simon, the Hasmonean, and ruled from 135 to 104 BCE. Hyrcanus II ws the oldest son of Alexander Yannai and had succeed his mother, Salome Alexandra in 67 BCE, but was driven from the throne and high priesthood by his brother, Aristobulus. Pompey left for Jerusalem and was determined to fight the Roman invaders. Pompey chased him and afater a 3 month sige, captured the Temple Mount, deposed Aristobulus and appointed Hyrcanus II as high priest. The Jewish land was joined politically to Syria.
I The first procurator (Roman Governor) was Josephus.
6-9 CE Coponius, revolt of Judas the Galilean happened.
9-12 CE Marcus Ambibulus,
14-37 CE TIBERIUS- Roman emperor. In year 19, expelled Jews from Rome because of fraud on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism. He had 4,000 young Jews sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands. Judah was harshly ruled under his rule when Jesus was crucified.
12-15 CE Annius Rufus, Augustus died then.
15-26 CE Valerius Gratus, appointed and deposed the high priests
26-36 CE Pontius Pilate, deposed in Spring of 36
36-37 CE Marcellus, subordinate official of Vitellius. Vitellius deposed Pilate.
44-46 CE Ciuspius, Claudius appointed him to stop the Syrian legate Vibius Marsus who didn't like Jews and had been mistreating them.
46-48 CE Tiberius Alexander, sent by emperor believe that a born Jew would be welcome to the Jews.
48-52 CE Ventidius Curnanus, removed on the urgent petition of the Jews
52-60 CE Felix, appointed by emperor when high priest Jonathan asked for him.Had to sit in judgement on the apostle Paul.
60-62 CE Porcius Festus, a fairly just man, in proceedings against Paul
62--64 CE Albinus, notorious through his extortions.
64-66 CE Gessius Florus, a contemptible ruler, revolt of Jews took place.
70 CE: ROMANS BURNED 2ND TEMPLE AND DESTROYED JERUSALEM.
Many Jews were captured, made into slaves, taken to Rome, killed in arenas, etc.
132-135 CE General"Aluf" Bar Kokhba fought the Romans, regained Jerusalem, but was killed in 135 CE. Romans were so angry that they named the land PALESTINE, after the Philistines, the worst Jewish enemy of their history. In Greek it was called Syria Palaestina, and in Latin it was called Palaestina, and Palaistine.
The Jewish travails started with the death of Alexander the Great and didn't end until General Bar Kokhba died which was a total of 457 years. Chanukah's celebration was an important moment during this history of succeeding to keep alive our religion which mattered from then on through thick and thin efforts. It seems it's a never-ending struggle against elements that could wipe us out, but here we are. We live. Chai, chai, chai.
Resource: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12376-procurators
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishhistory.org/alexander-the-great/
https://www.ancient.eu/syria/
Your Chanukah Guide, Dec 5- 13, 1996, Lubavitch World Headdauater, Rabbi Schneerson
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-land-of-edom-aka-idumea-enemies-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/08/jezebel-and-fatal-royal-houses-of.html
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2016/02/roman-destruction-of-2nd-temple-and.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2016/12/our-miracle-of-chanukah-storys-enemy.html
 | ||
King Hoshea of Israel in 721 BCE getting ready to attack the Assyrians
|
 |
| King Zedekiah of Judah, last king in 586 BCE |
Most of the 60,000 Jews living in the Greek area of Macedonia were exterminated during WWII.
Alexander the Great, a Greek, conquered Syria in 332 BCE and, after his death in 323 BCE, the Seleucid Empire ruled the region. That was one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus Nicator who then established his Hellenistic royal dynasty of the Seleucids.
Antiochus III settled Babylonian Jews in the cities of Phrygia and Lydia and entrusted them with an important role in securing those regions of his empire. He conquered the Jewish land by 200 BCE and granted privileges to the Temple.
The Greek Syrians had been occupying Judah since 174 BCE and held the land including Jerusalem till 163 BCE. They chose kings over the Jewish land.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes was their new king, who waged a bloody war upon the Jews, and had imposed his own Hellenic cult on them which sparked a national rebellion. It was a threat not only to all their lives, but also to their spiritual existence.
After years of Greek domination, Jews were beginning to be a part of the Greek culture and its hedonistic pagan way of life. They had become Jewish Hellenists and were willing pawns in Antiochus' scheme to obliterate all traces of their own Jewish religion. The 2nd Temple was invaded, desecrated and robbed of all its treasures. Many Jews were massacred and any lucky survivors were heavily taxed. Antiochus put an idol of Zeus on the holy altar and forced the population to bow before it under penalty of death. He forbid the Jews to observe their Sabbath and the rite of circumcision. Antiochus proclaimed himself a god, and took the name ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES---the DIVINE. Even his own Greek Syrians mocked him as ANTIOCHUS EPIMANES--the madman!
In every town and city in Judah, altars were erected with statues of Greek gods and goddesses. Soldiers rounded up Jews and forced them to make offerings to their gods and engage in other immoral acts customary to the Greeks. The Jews did not resist at this point.
 |
| Yehuda "Judah" Maccabee, the Hammerer used guerilla warfare against the Greek Syrians. Numbering 6,000, they defeated the armed battaion of 47,000 Syrians. |
In Modiin, a small village a few miles east of Jerusalem, Mattityahu challenged the Greek soldiers and those who were acquiescing to their demands. With his 5 sons backing him, he attacked the troops, slew the idolators, and destroyed the idol. They cried out, "ALL WHO ARE WITH G-D, FOLLOW ME!"
 |
| Remembering this history every year with the celebration of Hanukkah and lighting a menorah. |
Then these brave activists retreated to the hills, gathered more forces and commenced to overthrow the oppression of Antiochus and his men.
The Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, had attacked Judah and was about to occupy the Jewish land. The Hasmoneans fought a number of battles against them, and in 164 BCE, Judah captured Jerusalem back from the Syrians. Then they held raids to rescue the Jews of Ammon, Idumea, Gilead and Galilee.
Eleazar (5) was killed in 163 BCE at Bet Zechariah where they were finally defeated. They had been able to get better terms for their religious freedom, though due to the Syrian distractions.
Judah (1) continued the fight for political freedom as well, and Judah fell at Elasa in 160 BCE.
John (4) was murdered shortly afterwards and Jonathan (2) took over the leadership. He was able to secure the high priesthood in 152 BCE and then the governorship of Judah by 150 BCE.
Simon (3) got the exemption from tribute in 147 BCE. He was confirmed by the people as the hereditary high priest, the ethnarch and general in 142 BCE. Then he was murdered in 135 BCE.
 |
| Seleucides lost to the Judeans |
The Hasmonians converted Moabites, Edomites and Ammonites to Judaism forcibly as well as the northern kingdom of Israel, now populated with other peoples that the foreign leaders had brought in.
The pragmatic materialism of Greek culture left no room for the Jews'special relationship with G-d. The Syrian-Greek desecration of the Holy Temple was another example of their determination to destroy the sanctity of Jewish life.
Jews had freed themselves from the Seleucids. Antiochus VII Sidetes then invaded the country in the time of Simon the Hasmonean, the Judean chosen ethnarch (ruler of the people) in 138 BCE and again with greater success in 134 BCE. When Antiochus died in 129 BCE, the Jews revolted, and the Seleucid rule in the land ended in 128 BCE.
Simon's son, John Hyrcanus had succeed him and suffered a crushing defeat by Antiochus VII Sidetes in that Jerusalem was taken by the Syrians after a long siege and Judea once more became a Seleucid province. After the defeat of Antiochus in his war against Parthia, John launched a successful offensive against Transjordan. Samaria and Idumea which marked the transition of the Hashmoneans to a semi-hellenized secular military dynasty. This led to his repudiation of the Pharisees and his siding to the aristocratic Sadducee party. He was succeeded by his sons Judah Aristobulus in 105 to 194 BCE and Alexander Yannai in 104 to 76 BCE. Alexander was the first to use a royal title. He set up a standing mercenary army and conquered Transjordan, Idumea and the coastal plain. The Pharisees opposed his war policy and this led to a civil war in which Alexander was the victor after a very bloody struggle.
The Pharisees were in the ascendant during the reign of his widow, Salome Alexandra from 76 to 69 BCE. When she died, the Hasmonean dynasty declined. There had been strife between her sons Hyrcans II, ethnarch appointed by Julius Caesar and Aristobulus II which led to the intervention and eventual domination of Antipater and his son, Herod who had Roman assistance.
In Syria, "the Parthians reigned until, weakened by repeated attacks by the Scythians, their empire fell. Tigranes the Great (140-55 BCE) of the Kingdom of Armenia in Anatolia was welcomed by the people of Syria as a liberator in 83 BCE and held the land as part of his kingdom until Pompey the Great took Antioch in 64 BCE and annexed Syria as a Roman province.
"In 63 BCE the Roman General Pompey conquered Jerusalem and made the Jewish kingdom a client state of Rome.
Hyrcanus remained a puppet while Aristobulus II and his sons, Alexander and Antigonus Mattathias failed to gain any power.
Hyrcanus' granddaughter, Mariamne, daughter of Alexander, son of Aristobulus II, married Herod and was his 2nd wife, mother of his 3 sons and 2 daughters, but was put to death by him in 29 BCE. Also killed were the surviving Hasmoneans viz. Aristobulus III in 35 BCE, Hyrcanus II in 30 BCE, and Mariamne's son, Alexander and Aristobulus in 7 BCE.
Herod's sister, Salome, had never stopped inciting the king against Mariamne and had finally convinced him that she was an adulteress which was why he had her killed.
 |
| Herod Son of Antipater the Idumean (Edom) or Mt. Seir, mountainous land, descendants of Esau, hunters and Cypros, the Nabatean mother. Nabateans also lived Edom in 6th century BCE with their capital in Petra; nomads who learned farming and water conservation. They were Arabs. The Edomites had been conquered by John Hyrcanus who ruled from 135 to 104 BCE, and forced to convert to Judaism. |
By 40-39 BCE, Herod the Great was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate. His son, Archelaus, was appointed ethnarch by Augustus. Archelaus's mother was Malthace, the Samaritan. Herod had named Archaelaus in his will as the ruler over the greater part of his kingdom as king. When Archelaus went to Rome to get Augustus' ratification of the will, disturbances broke out all over Judah and a Jewish delegation asked Augustus to dethrone the Herodian dynasty. Augustus took away the title of king but named him as an ethnarch of Judea, Idumea and Samaria. He ruled severely from 4 BCE to 6 CE, causing Augustus to remove him from office. He was exiled to Gaul where he died in 16 CE.
 |
| Herod's kingdom 4 BCE |
In the year 6 CE, the last ethnarch of Judea was deposed by the emperor Augustus. His territories combined with Idumea and Samaria and annexed as Iudaea Province under direct Roman administration.
Now the Romans stepped in with Procurators, Roman governors over Judah after banishing Archelaus in the year of 6 CE. The Romans gave titles to Jews and took them away as well.
Herod I was King of Judea, appointed by the Roman Senate, from 73 BCE to 4 BCE. He was the son of Antipater, the Idumean by his Nabagean wife, Cypros. His father had first appointed him governor of Galilee, and he showed that he had a strong hand by executing dissident Jews. Because of his cruelty, he was summoned by the Sanhedrin and could have been put to death for taking lives, but the procurator (governor) of Syria, Sextus Caesar and Hyreanus saved him. John Hyreanus was the son and successor of Simon, the Hasmonean, and ruled from 135 to 104 BCE. Hyrcanus II ws the oldest son of Alexander Yannai and had succeed his mother, Salome Alexandra in 67 BCE, but was driven from the throne and high priesthood by his brother, Aristobulus. Pompey left for Jerusalem and was determined to fight the Roman invaders. Pompey chased him and afater a 3 month sige, captured the Temple Mount, deposed Aristobulus and appointed Hyrcanus II as high priest. The Jewish land was joined politically to Syria.
I The first procurator (Roman Governor) was Josephus.
6-9 CE Coponius, revolt of Judas the Galilean happened.
9-12 CE Marcus Ambibulus,
14-37 CE TIBERIUS- Roman emperor. In year 19, expelled Jews from Rome because of fraud on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism. He had 4,000 young Jews sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands. Judah was harshly ruled under his rule when Jesus was crucified.
12-15 CE Annius Rufus, Augustus died then.
15-26 CE Valerius Gratus, appointed and deposed the high priests
26-36 CE Pontius Pilate, deposed in Spring of 36
36-37 CE Marcellus, subordinate official of Vitellius. Vitellius deposed Pilate.
44-46 CE Ciuspius, Claudius appointed him to stop the Syrian legate Vibius Marsus who didn't like Jews and had been mistreating them.
46-48 CE Tiberius Alexander, sent by emperor believe that a born Jew would be welcome to the Jews.
48-52 CE Ventidius Curnanus, removed on the urgent petition of the Jews
52-60 CE Felix, appointed by emperor when high priest Jonathan asked for him.Had to sit in judgement on the apostle Paul.
60-62 CE Porcius Festus, a fairly just man, in proceedings against Paul
62--64 CE Albinus, notorious through his extortions.
64-66 CE Gessius Florus, a contemptible ruler, revolt of Jews took place.
70 CE: ROMANS BURNED 2ND TEMPLE AND DESTROYED JERUSALEM.
Many Jews were captured, made into slaves, taken to Rome, killed in arenas, etc.
132-135 CE General"Aluf" Bar Kokhba fought the Romans, regained Jerusalem, but was killed in 135 CE. Romans were so angry that they named the land PALESTINE, after the Philistines, the worst Jewish enemy of their history. In Greek it was called Syria Palaestina, and in Latin it was called Palaestina, and Palaistine.
 |
| Aluf Simon bar Kokhba |
Resource: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12376-procurators
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishhistory.org/alexander-the-great/
https://www.ancient.eu/syria/
Your Chanukah Guide, Dec 5- 13, 1996, Lubavitch World Headdauater, Rabbi Schneerson
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-land-of-edom-aka-idumea-enemies-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/08/jezebel-and-fatal-royal-houses-of.html
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2016/02/roman-destruction-of-2nd-temple-and.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2016/12/our-miracle-of-chanukah-storys-enemy.html
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