Jews in Judah After Antigonus Mattathias

 Nadene Goldfoot     IRAN'S ANCESTOR, PARTHIA                         

 The Persians were an ancient southwestern Iranian ethnic group native to the region of Fars (Persia), famous for founding the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great, while the Parthians were an eastern Iranian people who originated as a nomadic tribe (the Parni) from northeastern Iran and later ruled the Parthian Empire from 247 BCE to 224 CE

I left the period  from the time of Darius I in 486 BCE to Antigonus Mattathias ruling in Judah in 40 BCE, in which Judeans were living in Judah under the Parthians  for the past 526 years. 

Greeks entered and took control of Judah in 332 BCE when Alexander the Great led his Macedonian and Greek forces to conquer the Persian Empire, bringing Judea under Greek rule. 332 BCE: Alexander the Great sweeps through the eastern Mediterranean, defeating Persia/Parthia and taking control of Judah (Judea) without major resistance.

323 BCE: Alexander the Great dies, and his empire splits among his generals into rival Hellenistic kingdoms.
3rd Century BCE: Judah is ruled largely by the Ptolemaic Kingdom (Egypt), bringing Greek culture, language, and administration.The Ptolemaic Kingdom was connected to the Greeks through its Macedonian-Greek royal family, its Hellenistic culture, and its political and economic roots in the empire of Alexander the Great.  The dynasty was founded in 305 BCE by Ptolemy I Soter, a trusted Macedonian general and companion of Alexander the Great. Greek Ruling Elite: The government, military, and upper classes were dominated by Macedonian and Greek immigrants who held key administrative posts and used Greek as the official language
200 BCE: The Seleucid Empire (based in Syria) gains permanent control over Judah.



168–167 BCE: The Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrates the Temple and bans Jewish practices, sparking the Maccabean Revolt and temporary Jewish independence. The Seleucid Empire ruled Judah for about 58 years (from 200 BCE to 142 BCE).   Conquest: King Antiochus III the Great won Judah from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt at the Battle of Panium in 200 BCE. Initial Governance: At first, the Seleucids allowed local Jewish self-rule, lowered taxes, and let people practice their religion freely. Forced Hellenization: Under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (beginning around 175–167 BCE), policy changed. He banned the Torah, made Jerusalem a Greek city called Antioch in Judaea, and turned the Second Temple into a shrine for Zeus. 

                   Judas Maccabeus:  Judah was the third son of Mattathias, the Hasmonean, a Jewish priest from the village of Modi'in. In 167 BCE, Mattathias, together with his sons Judah, Eleazar, Simon, John, and Jonathan, started a revolt against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who since 169/8 BC had issued decrees that forbade Jewish religious practices. After Mattathias died in 166 BC, Judah assumed leadership of the revolt per the deathbed disposition of his father. The First Book of Maccabees praises Judah's valor and military talent, suggesting that those qualities made Judah a natural choice for the new commander.
The Maccabean Revolt: The extreme religious oppression led to a Jewish guerrilla rebellion (167–142 BCE) led by the Hasmonean (Maccabee) family.  End of Rule: Judas Maccabeus and his brothers fought off the Seleucid armies, recaptured the Jerusalem Temple (celebrated as Hanukkah), and won full autonomy and independence by 142 BCE                             

Antigonus II was High Priest of Israel, and also the last Hasmonean king of Judea. He was the son of King Aristobulus II.  Antigonus II Mattathias ruled Judea for 3 years (from 40 BCE to 37 BCE).  He was  proclaimed king and high priest in 40 BCE with the help of the Parthians.  He had to fight  approximately 3 years of continuous war against Roman forces and Herod the Great. Then he was  captured and executed in 37 BCE, which ended the Hasmonean dynasty.

                        The Siege of Jerusalem (37 BCE)              

• The Forces: After the Roman Senate declared Herod "King of the Jews" in 40 BCE, he returned to Judea with Roman legions led by Sosius, the governor of Syria. 
• The Assault: Herod and the Roman forces surrounded the city, amassing a massive army. The siege lasted 4 to 5 months of brutal, bitter fighting.  Starvation was happening as they had no food.  People were desperate.  
• The Breach: Roman forces breached the city walls, resulting in a massacre of the inhabitants. Herod famously had to step in and pay the Roman soldiers out of his own pocket to stop them from completely pillaging the city and desecrating the Holy of Holies. 
• The Execution: King Antigonus Mattathias surrendered to Sosius and was sent in chains to Mark Antony, who had him beheaded. This brought a definitive end to the century-long Hasmonean dynasty.  

 

Why Judah Was Attacked in 70 CE By the Romans Or The Occupation of Judah by Rome

 Nadene Goldfoot                     

              Pompey (106 BCE-48 BCE) Roman General

Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BCE. This occurred during his campaigns in the East, following the Third Mithridatic War. Pompey's conquest of Jerusalem marked a significant turning point, leading to the end of Jewish independence and the incorporation of Judea into the Roman Republic as a client kingdom, according to Military Wiki | Fandom. 

He captured Jerusalem and the Temple from Aristobulus' supporters. Judah Aristobulus I, or Aristobulus I, was the High Priest of Israel and the first Hasmonean king of Judaea, reigning from 104 BCE until his death the following year. He was the eldest of the five sons of John Hyrcanus, the previous leader.  Pompey left the shrine intact, although entering the Holy of Holies.  Judea was made tributary and stripped of the territories acquire by the Hasmoneans.  Aristobulus and his family were taken to Rome to grace Pompey's triumph.  Pompey effectively terminated Jewish independence enjoyed since Simon the Macabee.  Simon Thassi was the second son of Mattathias and the first prince of the Hasmonean dynasty. He reigned from 142 to 135 BC.               

           Bar Kokhba also known as Simon bar Kokhba, was a Jewish leader who led a revolt against the Roman Empire in Judea from 132 to 136 CE. The revolt, known as the Bar Kokhba revolt, was ultimately unsuccessful, resulting in significant loss of life and the devastation of Jewish communities in Judea. He died in 136 in battle to keep Jerusalem.  

The Romans first became involved in Judah with Pompey's conquest in 63 BCE, but it became a Roman province in 6 CE. This period of Roman rule ended in 135 CE after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, which led to the renaming of the province to Syria Palaestina.  It went from Judah to Judaea, the Roman spelling.   From 63 BCE to 6 CE, Judaea experienced a period of Roman influence, transitioning from a semi-autonomous vassal state to a Roman province. In 63 BCE, Pompey's Roman army conquered Jerusalem, ending the Hasmonean kingdom and establishing Roman authority. While initially maintaining a degree of self-governance,                                        

     Herod Archelaus, ruler of Judea from 4 BCE to 6 CE; son of Herod and Malthace the Samaritan.  Under Herod's last will, Archelaus was appointed ruler over the greater part of Herod's kingdom with the title of King.  When Archelaus went to Rome to get Augustus' ratification of Herod's will, disturbances broke out all over the land of Eretz (Judah) and a Jewish delegation requested Augustus to dethrone the Herodian dynasty.  Augustus abolished the title of king but confirmed Archaelaus as "ethnarch" of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria.  Archelaus' rule was marked by a severity which led to his removal from office by Augustus and his exile to Gaul where he died in 16 CE.  

Judaea's status shifted when it became a Roman province in 6 CE after an appeal against the rule of Herod Archelaus. Herod Archelaus was the ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea, including the cities Caesarea and Jaffa, for nine years. He was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace the Samaritan, brother of Herod Antipas, and half-brother of Herod II.  An ethnarch is a historical term denoting a ruler of a people or province, particularly within empires like the Roman or Byzantine Empires. It signifies a position of authority over a specific ethnic group, often subordinate to a larger empire or kingdom. 

The Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-73 CE, culminating in the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, was sparked by a combination of factors including Roman oppression, religious tensions, and social unrest. Specifically, the revolt was triggered by Roman mishandling of Judea, including corrupt and brutal procurators, desecration of the Temple, and heavy taxation

Before the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, no Roman legion was permanently stationed in Judah. While Roman forces were present and involved in maintaining order, the specific unit that crucified Jesus was a Roman auxiliary cohort called Cohors I Sebastenorum, made up of non-Roman soldiers. Legions were not permanently stationed in Judea until after the First Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE).

 Cohors I Sebastenorum was an auxiliary cohort of the Roman army, primarily composed of Samaritans. It was stationed in Judea, and likely formed by Herod the Great. The unit is known from military diplomas and inscriptions, and its name refers to the city of Sebaste (ancient Samaria.)     That would be Samaria that was the surrounding land of Judah!  Originally, Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, founded in about 880 BCE by the Jewish king Omri on a hill he bought from Shemer, recorded inI Kings 16;24).  The site, 7 miles  NW of today's Nablus (Shechem) was on an elevated piece of land of about 25 acres.  

Remember that Samaria withstood the siege of the Syrians but fell in  721 BCEto Sargon II of Assyria who resettled the land with Cutheans who intermingled withthe remnanats of the former Jewish population.  Who were the Cutheans?  Cutheans were a group of people from the ancient Babylonian city of Cuthah (also spelled Kutha or Cuthaeh). The Assyrian king, after conquering the Northern Kingdom of Israel, relocated them to Samaria as colonists. They are also referred to as Cuthites in some texts, and are associated with the Samaritans, a group that emerged in Samaria.                                                

So the Roman army was made up of Samaritans, a mixture of Jews and Babyloniansof Cutheans (Cuthahans) who occupied Judah before the Jews rebelled.  

Following the revolt, Legio X Fretensis was stationed in Jerusalem. Legio X Fretensis was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was founded by the young Gaius Octavius in 41/40 BCE to fight during the period of civil war that started the dissolution of the Roman Republic. X Fretensis is then recorded to have existed at least until the 410s.

Resource: 

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Our Chanukah Story 's Ending with Hellenization of Israel- Judah-A Bloody History

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

The Greek Athenian Empire invaded Israel and saw to it that much of the country was Hellenized.  This would change the path the Israelites were on and they were forced to take a detour in their history. 

Notice that Athens is closer to Jerusalem than Rome is.  

 Alexander the Great was beloved by the Israelites and he had everything to do with it happening.  Just how powerful were the Greeks with the rest of the world?  

Alexander was king of Macedonia, son of Philip,  from 356 to 323 BCE.died

at 33.  Born: 356 BCE, Pella, Macedonia [northwest of Thessaloníki, Greece]

Died: 

June 13, 323 BCE, Babylon [near Al-Ḥillah, Iraq]

  who overthrew the Persian empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical career.  

He traveled with his army:  with over 13,000 men; he himself commanded about 30,000 foot and over 5,000 cavalry, of whom nearly 14,000 were Macedonians and about 7,000 allies sent by the Greek League. This army was to prove remarkable for its balanced combination of arms. Much work fell on the lightarmed Cretan and Macedonian archers, Thracians, and the Agrianian javelin men. But in pitched battle the striking force was the cavalry, and the core of the army, should the issue still remain undecided after the cavalry charge, was the infantry phalanx, 9,000 strong, armed with 13-foot spears and shields, and the 3,000 men of the royal battalions, the hypaspists. Alexander’s second in command was Parmenio, who had secured a foothold in Asia Minor during Philip’s lifetime; many of his family and supporters were entrenched in positions of responsibility. The army was accompanied by surveyors, engineers, architects, scientists, court officials, and historians; from the outset Alexander seems to have envisaged an unlimited operation.

First hit was Tyre (Lebanon). Alexander wanted money.   The Phoenician cities Marathus and Aradus came over quietly, and Parmenio was sent ahead to secure Damascus and its rich booty, including King Darius III’s war chest. In reply to a letter from Darius offering peace, Alexander replied arrogantly, recapitulating the historic wrongs of Greece and demanding unconditional surrender to himself as lord of Asia.

While the siege of Tyre was in progress, King Darius sent a new offer: he would pay a huge ransom of 10,000 talents for his family and cede all his lands west of the Euphrates. “I would accept,” Parmenio is reported to have said, “were I Alexander”; In November 333 BC, King Darius III had lost the Battle of Issus to Alexander the Great, which resulted in the subsequent capture of his wife, his mother and his two daughters, Stateira II and Drypetis.

 “I too,” was the famous retort, “were I Parmenio.” The storming of Tyre in July 332 was Alexander’s greatest military achievement; it was attended with great carnage and the sale of the women and children into slavery. Leaving Parmenio in Syria, Alexander advanced south without opposition until he reached Gaza on its high mound; there bitter resistance halted him for two months, and he sustained a serious shoulder wound during a sortie. There is no basis for the tradition that he turned aside to visit Jerusalem. After the battle, King Darius retreated to Babylon where he regrouped with his remaining army that was there, on-site from a previous battle.

Alexander fought at the Siege of Tyre (332 BC), which lasted from January to July, and the victory resulted in his control of the Levant. Alexander then again fought at the Siege of Gaza. Persian troop counts in Egypt were diminished due to many soldiers being removed to support the Battle of Issus and dying there. As a result, the Persian satrap of Egypt, Mazaces, peacefully surrendered to Alexander upon his arrival.

 The Talmud has a tradition of his meeting between the Jews with him at Antipatris. Antipatris was a city built during the first century BCE by Herod the Great, who named it in honour of his father, Antipater. The site, now a national park in central Israel, was inhabited from the Chalcolithic Period to the late Roman Period, but he had died in 323 BCE, so that couldn't have happened there.  He no doubt did meet Jews and they were very impressed with him.  

 He suppressed a Samaritan revolt which gave the Jews of Jerusalem the occasion to stress their own loyalty.  Alexander figures prominently in Talmudic, Midrashic and medieval Jewish legends.  Many sons were named Alexander for centuries after.   

Earlier in 415 BCE, a large Athenian naval force went to the island of Melos and demanded that the Melians submit and begin paying tribute. Thucydides, an Athenian historian and general's History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens and  recounts what ensued;  the famous Melian dialogue in the 5th book of his history: You're either with us or against us, the Athenians threatened, and if you are against us we will destroy you. The Melians refused to submit and so following the siege, the Athenians massacred the adult men of Melos and enslaved the women and children.  The reaction later was surprising to the Greeks.   the Peloponnesian War broke out and most of the Greeks wanted Sparta to win, not Athens.  Yet Athens was the home where democracy was born and Sparta was an oligarchy.  Athens was the home of Socrates, Pericles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Sophocles.  Sparta was rural and backward.  Why?  Sparta was not at the imperial stage like Athens was. Ill will was against them.  

 Then there was much later, Antiochus IV Epiphanes who reigned from 175 to 163 BCE.  He was the 4th of 13 Greek kings of the House of Seleucus who ruled Syria in the Hellenistic Period. His father, Antiochus III (223-187 BCE) is known for transferring 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon to Lydia and Phrygia.  He captured Jerusalem in 198 BCE, but it's said he treated the Jews with understanding.  

The son, the 4th Antiochus attacked Egypt twice, and Rome turned him back the 2nd time.  He occupied Jerusalem, plundered the Temple treasure, and endeavored to hellenize Judea aby force in order to convert it into a reliable frontier-province.  This is what brought about a rising which Antiochus suppressed with great cruelty;  thousands of Jews were killed and many sold into slavery. 

Antiochus IV brought gentile settlers into Jerusalem and fortified the ACRA as a stronghold of the hellenizers to dominate the city.  The Acra (also spelled Akra, from Ancient Greek: Ἄκρα, Hebrew: חקרא ,חקרה Ḥaqra(h)), with the meaning of "stronghold" , was a place in Jerusalem thought to have had a fortified compound built by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, following his sack of the city in 168 BCE. 

The dreidel was a game for subtrafuge; when asked, the students of talmud/Tanakh would pull out this game, saying they were just playing a game, heavens;  not studying anything Jewish !!!

He now began a fierce religious persecution of the Jews. He forbid circumcision and observance of the Sabbath, desecrated the Temple altar, set up pagan altars in the provincial towns, and compelled the Jews to participate in pagan ceremonies.  His excesses caused the Hasmonean uprising.  

Of course, his son, Antiochus V (164-162 BCE) continued the war against the Jews until 163 BCE, when he granted them religious and some political autonomy in return for their acceptance of his rule. 

Chanukah is celebrating the Jewish victory in 165 BCE of the small Judean nation led by Judah Maccabee over the immense Assyrian-Greek Empire attempting to replace Judaism with the worship of idols.  

Antiochus VII Sidetes (138-128 BCE) reasserted the Seleucid claims on Judea.  After an initial repulse in 138 BCE, he again invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem. 

 In 135-134 BCE John Hyrcanus, son and successor of Simon the Hasmonean (135-104 BCE)  led the people in peace and prosperity, until in February 135 BCE, he was assassinated at the instigation of his son-in-law Ptolemy who had married one of Simon's daughters;  son of Abubus (also spelled Abobus or Abobi), who had been named governor of the region by the Seleucids. Simon's eldest sons, Mattathias and Judah, were also murdered, and Simon  was forced to surrender, destroy the walls of Jerusalem, cede his conquests outside Judea, and pay tribute;  but after Antiochus's death in 129 BCE, he reasserted his independence.  

John Hyrcanus had been the governor of Gezer, but after the murder of his father and 2 brothers by Ptolemy, 1st Macedonian king of Egypt and originator of the Ptolemaic dynasty (his brother -in-law), had to escape to Jerusalem, where he seized power before Ptolemy could gain control.  Ptolemy escaped after murdering John Hyrcanus's mother whom he had been holding in hostage.  Then in 135-4 BCE, Antiochus Sidetes captured Jerusalem.  John was confirmed as high priest but had to accept harsh peace terms which made the Hasmonean state again tributary to Syria. 

Mattathias and Judah, Jonathan, Simon, John, Eleazar

So you see, Judah, the Hammerer of our Chanukah story was the 1st son of Mattathias which was a priestly family.  Jonathan was the 2nd son, Simon the 3rd, John the 4th, and Eleazar the 5th.  They directed the popular revolt against the hellenizing policy adopted in Palestine by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes.  Simon's son was John Hyrcanus.  John's sister was married to the Greek Macedonian king of Egypt, Ptolemy.  

Ptolemy, son of Abubus, was an official in the early Hasmonean kingdom which then controlled Judea. According to the book of 1 Maccabees, in 135 BC, he served as the governor of Jericho. While High Priest Simon Thassi (the 3nd son of Mattathias)  was visiting, Ptolemy orchestrated the murder of Simon and two of his sons, as well as some of Simon's servants. This act of betrayal of guest right earned Ptolemy a place in Dante's The Divine Comedy; one of the sections of the ninth layer of hell described in Inferno is called Ptolomea, where those who betray guests in their home suffer.  People just whacked each other off when they needed them to disappear and not be a bother.  Murdering was a constant.  Taking over another's land was also a constant.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

Imperialism:  Lessons from History by Victor Davis Hanson from Imprimis 

The only sources that survived from antiquity describing Ptolemy are the book of 1 Maccabees and Josephus's Jewish Antiquities Book 13, Chapter 7–8. According to these accounts, Ptolemy was the cause of the death of High Priest Simon Thassi despite having married one of Simon's daughters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_son_of_Abubus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acra_(fortress)

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hellenism-2