How Chanukah Has Nothing To Do With Christmas

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

I'm finding that many Christians think, because of the dates Christmas and Chanukah are so close together, that Chanukah is just the Jews' way of celebrating Christmas.  

I'm afraid not.  Their dates of celebration in December is just a coincidence.  One has nothing to do with the other.

Chanukah is a minor Jewish holiday in the context of all our Jewish holidays.  Because gift-giving is involved, it's become more of a celebrated holiday, perhaps because it's in competition with Christmas.

Chanukah is celebrating a historic war where Judah, once one of the 12 states of Israel, had battles with the Greek-Syrians of Hellenism.  They tried to take over the country and even got away with putting the idol of Zeus in the Jewish Temple ! Everyone was afraid to speak out.  They were trying to force Jews to eat parts of pigs, you know, pork.  That's forbidden for Jews, highly offensive in those days .  They wanted to put an end to circumcision.  That did it! 

 A very macho-man who had 5 sons, was furious. Mattathias was a patriot, a priest and a landowner of Modiin. He had 5 sons; Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John, and Eleazar. Mattathias killed the royal official who was sent to make the Jews worship Zeus.  This was the focus of the revolt of his sons against Antiochus Epiphanes. This was very serious;  it meant the end of Judaism if not stopped.  The Syrians had become Hellenized (fall for Greek beliefs)  way before it was a threat to the Jews.  That's why the Jews had to fight Syrian-Greeks.   

Mattathias was the leader of the revolt and was staying in the Judean hills and waged a guerilla war on the Syrians. (In fact, he introduced fighting in that manner.)  He was killed and his son, Judah the Maccabee, took over.  He was later called the Hammerer because he hammered away at the Syrians.  We remember Judah and his brothers being victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes and their rededication of the Temple that the Greeks had taken over.

 Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the Hellenistic king of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 175 BCE until his death in 164 BCE, born around 215 BCE, known for his aggressive Hellenization policies that led to the Maccabean Revolt against his rule in Judea. 

This means that the event happened about 2,200 years ago, and at least 175 years before the birth of Jesus.  

In the temple hung the eternal light lamp of oil which was always kept full.  With the Syrians taking over, it burned down to no oil left by the time Mattathias decided to risk his and his son's lives by rebelling.  With them succeeding, they threw out Zeus and sent runners to the next town for oil.  The lamp kept on burning for 8 nights anyway until the runners returned;  a miracle.  We remember this by eating foods fried in oil, like sufganiot (donuts) and potato latkas (hash browned potatoes-bought frozen are yummy in a pinch).  

Young men were being kept from studying the Torah, so they would go into the woods and study.  If the Syrian soldiers saw them and were questioning them, they denied they were studying, only gambling with a dreidal.  That's where the dreidal comes into our holiday.  

If this hadn't taken place, neither would Judaism have continued, so because of this event, Jesus was born and Christianity was able to develop.  

Resource:

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-revolt-against-syrians-by-jews.html

 

Before the Roman Enemy, There Were the Greeks : Our Chanukah Story from JOSEPHUS

 Nadene Goldfoot      Another War: Jews fighting the Greeks                                

Antiochus IV Epiphanes was one of 13 Greek Kings of the House of Seleuces who ruled Syria in the Hellenistic period, reining from 175-163 BCE.   His father, Antiochus III,  transferred 2,000 Jewish families from Babylon to Lydia and Phrygia.  He captured Jerusalem in 198 BCE. Greek presence is attested from early on, and in fact, the name of Syria itself is from a Greek word for Assyria.The Greek presence in Syria began in the 7th century BCE and became more prominent during the Hellenistic period and when the Seleucid Empire was centered there. Today, there is a Greek community of about 4,500 in Syria, most of whom have Syrian nationality and who live mainly in Aleppo (the country's main trading and financial centre),  Aleppo had been populated by Jews since then up until a few years ago.  

                                                                                  

Antiochus IV was on his 2nd try to attack Egypt but was turned back by Rome, so he then went to Jerusalem and occupied it.  He plundered the Temple treasure and tried to Hellenize Judea by force in order to convert it into a reliable frontier province.  This brought about a great rising which Antiochus suppressed with great cruelty;  thousands of Jews were killed and many sold into slavery.  

Ptolemy I
At one time between 186-145 BCE, Antiochus quarreled with the 6th Ptolemy, the Greek king of Ptolemaic Egypt  about his right to the whole country of Syria.  At this time, a great sedition came over the men of power in Judea, and they had a contention about obtaining the government;   with each one vying for power. 

                                                

In 175 BCE, conflict broke out between High Priest Onias III (who opposed Hellenization and favoured the Ptolemies) and his son Jason (who favoured Hellenisation and the Seleucids). A period of political intrigue followed, with both Jason and Menelaus bribing the king to win the High Priesthood, and accusations of murder of competing contenders for the title. The result was a brief civil war. The Tobiads, a philo-Hellenistic party, succeeded in placing Jason into the powerful position of High Priest. He established an arena for public games close by the Temple. The high priest, Jason, converted Jerusalem into a Greek polis replete with gymnasium and ephebeion (2 Maccabees 4).

According to writer, General Josephus,  Onias, one of the high priests, won out against Jason  and kicked out the sons of Tobias from the Jerusalem.  Joseph was one of the sons of Tobias and nephew of Onias.  Onias I had refused to pay his taxes to Ptolemy III.  That made the governor of Jerusalem threaten to destroy Jerusalem.   Joseph heard about it and scolded his Uncle Onias for putting Jerusalem in such danger.  Onias let Joseph go to Alexandria, Egypt to pacify the king.  Joseph found out when he arrived that he needed a lot of money to gain high favor in the court.  He had to go to Samaria to his friends and get a loan. He did, and was later made the tax collector.  Onias then went to Antiochus IV and begged him to make use of them for his leaders.  Then they could make an expedition into Judea.  

The king, thinking this a great idea, complied and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force, and slew a multitude of men of those that favoured Ptolemy, and sent out his soldiers to plunder them without mercy.  He also spoiled the Temple, and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation for 3 years and 6 months.  (Expiation "a religious act, by which satisfaction or atonement is made for the commission of some crime, the guilt done away,)                                     

But Onias, the high priest, fled to Ptolemy, and received a place from him in the Nemus of Heliopolis ( a major city , the capital of ancient Egypt), where he built a city resembling Jerusalem, and a Temple that was like Jerusalem's Temple.       

According to I and II Maccabees, the priestly family of Mattathias (Mattitiyahu in Hebrew), which came to be known as the Maccabees, called the people forth to holy war against the Seleucids.

                                             

  Mattathias' sons, Judas (Yehuda), Jonathan (Yonoson/Yonatan), and Simon (Shimon) began a military campaign, initially with disastrous results: one thousand Jewish men, women, and children were killed by Seleucid troops because they refused to fight, even in self-defence, on the Sabbath. Other Jews then reasoned that they must fight when attacked, even on the Sabbath. The institution of guerrilla warfare practices by Judah over several years led to victory against the Seleucids:                                 

It was now, in the fall of 165, that Judah's successes began to disturb the Greek central government. He appears to have controlled the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and thus to have cut off the royal party in Acra from direct communication with the sea and thus with the government. It is significant that this time the Syrian troops, under the leadership of the governor-general Lysias, took the southerly route, by way of Idumea.

Towards the end of 164, Judah the Maccabee felt strong enough to enter Jerusalem and the formal religious worship of Yahweh was re-established. The feast of Hanukkah was instituted to commemorate the recovery of the temple. This was the Hasmonean Period ruling Judea.  Josephus tells what happened.  

Antiochus, however, remembering his struggles in the fight, decided to compel the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcized, and to sacrifice swine's  flesh upon the altar;  against which they all opposed.  Some even had to be put to death.  Bacchides, who guarded the fortresses, became even more barbaric than usual, and indulged in all sorts of wickedness and tormented the worthiest of the inhabitants, man by man, and threatened their city every day with open destruction till at length he provoked the poor sufferers by the extremity of his wicked doing, to avenge themselves.

                                              

Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests who lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his own family, which had 5 sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides with daggers, and thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons of the Greeks, he fled to the mountains, and so many of the people followed him, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains, and to fight Antiochus's generals, when he beat them, and drove them out of Judea. So he joined the government and became the prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then died, leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son.                                             

 Josephus was born in about 38 CE, dying in 100 CE.  Romans attacked Galilee in 67, he directed the resistance and was besieged in Jotapata, but when the city was captured, he went over to the Romans and called himself Flavius, the family name of Emperor Vespasian.  He went with Vespasian and Titus during the siege of Jerusalem and tried to persuade the Jews to leave their resistance.  After the crushing of the revolt, he was given some confiscated estates in Judea, but lived in Rome instead. 

Titus Flavius Josephus, born Yosef ben Matityahu ha Cohen was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian, best known for The Jewish War, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry. Josephus, as he is known to us, a Jewish general whose life was spared by becoming their historical writer, considered a traitor by many Jews, said, "Our city of Jerusalem had arrived at a higher degree of felicity (happiness)  than any other city under the Roman government, and yet at last fell into the sorest calamities again.   Accordingly it appears to me the the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the  Jews, are not so considerable as they were;  while the authors of them were not foreigners neither.  This makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations.......However, I may justly blame  the learned men among the Greeks...they also write new histories about the Assyrians and Medes as if the ancient writers had not described their affairs as they ought to have done...everyone took upon them to write what happened in his own time."  So I find that Josephus had many details in his special book than in any other history I have read.

The Pyrrhic War (280–275 BCE) was largely fought between the Roman Republic and Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus, who had been asked by the people of the Greek city of Tarentum in southern Italy to help them in their war against the Romans.  After several years of campaigning there (278–275 BCE), Pyrrhus returned to Italy in 275 BCE, where the last battle of the war was fought, ending in Roman victory. Following this, Pyrrhus returned to Epirus, ending the war. Three years later, in 272 BC, the Romans captured Tarentum.

Roman Syria was an early Roman province annexed to the Roman Republic in 64 BCE by Pompey in the Third Mithridatic War following the defeat of King of Armenia Tigranes the Great.  Following the partition of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea into tetrarchies in 6 CE, it was gradually absorbed into Roman provinces, with Roman Syria annexing Iturea and Trachonitis.

The first is the revolt of 167-160 BC, when Judah Maccabee led an uprising against the Seleucid Greek rulers of Judaea, painted in Jewish memory as a virtuous struggle against persecuting overlords.

There was about a 100 pause between wars for the Jews between the Greeks and the Romans.  

Rome had occupied Judea in 63 BCE and again in 66 CE.  The province of Judea was the scene of unrest  in 6 CE during the Census of Quirinius, the crucifixion of Jesus circa 30–33 CE, and several wars, known as the Jewish–Roman wars, were fought during its existence.

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Book:  Josephus, by Whiston

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopolis_(ancient_Egypt)

https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/E/expiation.html

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

What Happened When Israelites Were Separated From Jerusalem?

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Samaritans During Passover

  Israel's 10 tribes of the northern part separated themselves from Judah, the largest and most southern tribe of the 12 Tribes of Israel after King Solomon died in 920 BCE and his son, Rehoboam took the kingship from 933 BCE to 917 BCE.  A committee from the tribe of Ephraim had gone to speak with the new king about lowering their taxes and expectation of their free labor in working on the Temple and other building projects of Solomon and Rehoboam wasn't going to change a thing.  So the 10 Tribes pulled out of the union and chose their own king and capital from their own population and northern land.                                   

Their king was now Jeroboam from 933 to 912 BCE..
 The next king was Nadab from 912 to 911 BCE. 
King Baasha was their 3rd from 911 to 888 BCE
King Elah was the next one from 888 to 887 BCE
King Zimri only lasted a short while in 887 BCE

1. King Omri was king from 887 to 876 BCE, an 11 year reign.  So far only 57 years had passed since King Solomon had died.  
                                                                     

They finally chose their capital to be Samaria (Shomron) founded in 880 BCE by King Omri.  It was located on a hill that they bought from Shemer.  The site was about 7 miles northwest of Shechem (Nablus) and was on an isolated elevation dominating a wide countryside.  The city took up 25 acres of land.  25 Acres = 0.0390625 Square Miles.    It had an acropolis (an upper fortified part of an ancient Greek city) with a casemate wall (fortified position or chamber or an armored enclosure on a warship from which guns are fired through embrasures)  within which was the royal palace in an Assyrian style which shows that they already had connections with the Assyrians by then.  It had an inscribed ostraca that were found by excavators in its store-rooms and also ivory inlays recalled the IVORY HOUSE built by
                                                                             

Jezebel

2. King Ahab who was the next king from 876 BCE to 853 BCE. Son of Omri, his wife was Jezebel who introduced Baal worship into Israel, and a fierce struggle started between the royal family and the prophets headed by Elijah.  

3. The next king was Ahaziah who also reigned in 853.
4. King Jehoram then ruled from 853 to 843, a 10 year reign. 

This was the end of settled conditions that were the history of the HOUSE OF OMRI's rule.

1. King Jehu ruled from 843 to 816 BCE.
2. King Jehoahaz ruled from 816 to 800 BCE, 16 years.
3. King Jehoash ruled from 800 to 785 BCE
4. King Jeroboam II ruled from 785 to 745 BCE
5. King Zechariah ruled in 744 BCE

This was the end of  the HOUSE OF JEHU.  The kingdom had reached its greatest power during Jehu's house.  They had conducted successful campaigns against neighboring states, and enjoyed much luxury.   At one time they had extended its sway as far as the Gulf of Akaba.  Then its strength was sapped because of their constant warfare with the kingdom of Damascus, which was SYRIA.  Both Israel and Syria fell before the advancing power of ASSYRIA.
                                                                         

Ahab, King of Israel, away from Jerusalem, gave up his religion when he became entranced in the famous Jezebel and because of her, allowed Baal worship into Israel-idol worship including a pantheon of gods.  It was the opposing belief to Judaism!  
                                                                   

Samaritans
Descendants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh
and outsiders from Babylon (Cutheans)  who were colonists
brought in by Assyria's Sargon II

Samaria, the capital of Israel, was then captured by Sargon II in 721 BCE and this ended the history of the kingdom of Israel.   Sargon II had taken away 27,290 Israelites  They happened to be some of the most influential and important leaders of their communities. The religious life of the kingdom of Israel was on a relatively low level.  Part of the reason for this was being away from Jerusalem.  It was for this reason that the policy of its first rulers was to set up sanctuaries locally in order to divert their subjects from Jerusal
em, a deliberate attempt to keep the 2 state status and not need Jerusalem anymore.
                                                                                       

Amos the Prophet

Only a minority of the biblical prophets such as Hosea and Amos worked in  the northern kingdom.  The Book of Kings gives lengthy accounts of Elijah and Elisha's endeavors to check idolatry and social injustice, though, so they knew what was going on.

Some of its traditions were preserved afterwards by the new SAMARITANS who had been brought to the land by this conqueror who had resettled it with Cutheans, the people of Babylon.  The Cutheans now intermingled with the remnants of the former population of Israelites, for all had not become captives.  This mixture of people, as they most likely intermarried, became the ancestors of the SAMARITANS (Shomeronim) .  We still have a handful of Samaritans living in Israel today.  They call themselves the Bene  Yisrael or Shomerim (the keepers) of the Law.
                                                                     

Babylonians leading away Judah

Then came the Babylonian attack on Judah by Nebuchadnezzar
FROM 597 BCE TO 586 BCE WHERE THE PEOPLE WERE ALSO TAKEN TO BABYLON IN 586 BCE AND THE TEMPLE WAS DESTROYED.  
                                                                             
The people who wished to return were given permission after 539 BCE.  
That means they had remained deported for almost 50 years, 2 generations.  These were the descendants of the original exiles who went back.  They had been able to cherish their national and religious ideas in Persia so as to make possible the renewal of Jewish life when they returned to Jerusalem.  The intellectual and spiritual life of Jerusalemites was extraordinarily rich.  It was there that most of the canonical prophets carried on their activity, great parts of the Bible were composed and the essential traditions of Judaism were developed and preserved.  Jerusalem Jews had not been politically known but that was not their purpose in life.  Keeping the flame of Judaism was their goal.  This was the difference between the nothern Israel group with Samaria as their capital and Judah with Jerusalem as their continued capital.  The religion remained strong while they had Jerusalem to guide them.  
                                                                      

The 5th century BCE is called the Persian Period.  This is when the governor of Judah, Nehemiah, who was serving as a cupbearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes I (Ahasueros) , had heard of the terrible conditions in Jerusalem and asked permission from the king to go there.  Artaxerxes said yes and appointed him as the governor of Judah (Tirshata) in 444 BCE.  When he reached Jerusalem, he organized the repair of its walls--an activity that was finished in 52 days despite interference by neighboring people who tried to stop them.  Then Nehemiah worked on social reforms including the observance of the Sabbath observance and the cancellation of debts owed by the poor.

The leaders of the people had to pledge themselves to maintain the Temple regulations and pay their tithes.  The security of Jerusalem was ensured by arranging for a tenth of the people to live there.  During the almost 50 years they had been away from Jerusalem, they kept up their practices.  They were the people that had Jerusalem as their capital.  They had heard stories from their grandparents about The Temple and Jerusalem and its importance to them.
                                                                           
During this Persian Period, Samaria became a Macedonian colony in 331 BCE.  John Hyrcanus took Samaria in about 107 BCE and razed it, burning it down.  He was the son and successor of Simon the Hasmonean and ruled from 135 to 104 BCE.   The Hasmoneans were the family of Priests (with the Cohen gene of J1 or J2 that was a dynasty founded by Mattathias of Modiin.  This is where Chanukah originated, our story of Judah the Hammerer.
                                                                                   

Remember, Mattathias had 5 sons, Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John and Eleazar and they turned against the Greek Syrians who were trying to make us believe in their gods.    It was later restored by the Roman, Pompey.  King Herod renamed it Sebaste which is Greek for Augusta in honor of Augustus Caesar and the name has been preserved in the modern Sabastiya.
                                                                           

After 12 years, Nehemiah returned to Susa, Persia, but later went back to Jerusalem to renew his drastic work there.  In 433 and 432 BCE, he took steps against mixed marriages and had Ezra to help back him up in this endeavor.  His work was decisive in the rebuilding of Judah.  Nehemiah's memoirs form the basis of the biblical Book of Nehemiah which is a continuation of the Book of Ezra.

Samaria is also used today meaning the entire northern region of the central highlands of Judea-Samaria in that it is Samaria today, what used to be northern Israel's land and capital.

It's amazing that some customs were preserved by some descendants of the northern tribes found today to be the Pashtuns who are now Muslims.  They did not forget their roots that today are 2,740 years old already back to 721 BCE when their ancestors were taken away by force by the Assyrians.
                                                               

Abbas of Fatah (PA) on Left;  Hamas on right Ismail Haniyeh
of Gaza.s  That must be a Saudi leader on the far right.

  Who lives there today?   In 1994, control of Areas 'A' (full civil and security control by the Palestinian Authority) and 'B' (Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control) were transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, the former Fatah terrorists. The Palestinian Authority and the international community do not recognize the term "Samaria"; in modern times, the territory is generally known as part of the West Bank.. 

By the same token, we Jews who know our history do not 
accept West Bank, a term created by the Jordanians, as the
name of the ancient land of northern Israel as it erases its history.  

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/ivory-palace-king-ahab-001576
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaria

The Major Hannukah Story: Judah's Occupation By Greek Syrians Leading To Roman Occupation -

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

King Hoshea of Israel  in 721 BCE getting ready to attack the Assyrians

Israel had been a large Empire which later divided in a civil disagreement which turned into a small war. When they divided they were the northern part- Israel and the southern part-Judah.  The northern half of Israel, later called Samaria (name of their capital and surrounding area) , had been lost to Judah when the Assyrians had attacked them and took them away from 722 to 721 BCE, leaving Judah exposed.  The Assyrians annexed Israel and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media.  Then they replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  Before that, Israel ruled itself when king Solomon had died in 920 BCE.   Though Israel  had broken away from David and Solomon's Judean dynasty, they had their own kings with Hoshea being their last one who reigned from 730 to 721 BCE. 

 Judeans had been seized by  the Babylonians from 597 to 586 BCE and taken to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar.  They were able to finally return in 538 BCE and rebuilt their Temple that King Solomon and spent so much time and labor building.  

                                                                 

King Zedekiah of Judah, last king in 586 BCE

  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.  

                                                                         

Yehuda "Judah" Maccabee, the Hammerer
used guerilla warfare against the Greek Syrians.
Numbering 6,000, they defeated the armed battaion of
47,000 Syrians.  

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!"  
                                                   

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

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.  
                                                          

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.  
                                                                

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.    

Aluf Simon bar Kokhba 

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