daism will justify our dwelling more at length upon it. Such a character as that of Antiochus

Antiochus
IV. Epiph-

anes.

Epiphanes it is difficult to comprehend, much less to describe. It is marked by the most startling contrasts, well illustrated in the double name the people gave him: Epiphanes, the illustrious, and Epimanes, the madman. Personally brave, generous, at times, even to prodigality, a lover of art, spending immense sums on the erection of magnificent buildings, he was, at the same time, possessed of an ineffable self-esteem, a selfesteem which did not keep him from the most abominable vices, and never rose to the dignity of true self-respect. While treating the noblemen about him with the utmost haughtiness, arrogating to himself both the title and the prerogatives of deity, he was, at the same time, on familiar terms with the lowest of the people; offered himself as a candidate for petty offices; went tooting about the streets in the character of a strolling musician, and shared with the actors at the theatres in their lewdest scenes. The historian Polybius (xxvi. 10) deemed

some of his eccentricities worthy of record. He says of him: "Just as though, at times, he had slipped away from the servants of the palace, he made his appearance, here and there, in the city, sauntering about in the company of one or two persons. Quite often he might be found in the workshops of the gold and silver smiths where he chatted with the molders and other workmen, and gave them to understand that he was a lover of art. Then again, he gave himself up to confidential intercourse with the next best fellows among the people and chaffered with strangers of the common sort who happened to be present. When, however, he learned that young people, somewhere or other, were having a carousal, without waiting to be announced, he came marching up with horn and bagpipe in revelling style so that the majority of the guests, horrified at the strange spectacle, took themselves off. Intelligent people, therefore, did not know what to make of him. Some thought he was a simple, unaffected man; others, that he had lost his wits. . . . . In the sacrifices which he caused to be offered up in the cities, and in the honors which he paid to the gods, he was surpassed by no other king. Of this the temple of Jupiter at Athens and the statues about the altar at Delos are proof. He used, also, to frequent the public baths when they were quite full of common people, at which times, moreover, he had brought to him vessels of the most costly ointment. A person once said to him: How happy are you kings that you can have such ointment, and exhale such delightful odors?' Thereupon, on the following day, without having said anything to the man, he went to the place where he bathed and had a huge vessel of the most precious ointment, the so-called stacte, poured over his head. Upon this all got up and plunged in, in order to bathe themselves with the ointment. But on account of the slipperiness of the floor they fell down and excited laughter. The king himself, also, was one of them." Such was the kind of man that the people of Judæa now had over them. The throne he had got by treachery, and began his reign by a war against Egypt in defense

Antiochus IV. Epipha(continued).

nes

of an injustice. In the first campaign he was successful, and in the beginning of the second also, but being finally compelled to retreat, he vented his discomfiture on the temple at Jerusalem. Four times in as many successive years (B. C. 171-168), his armies marched the now familiar road to the land of the pyramids. The last time it was the Roman legate, Popilius Lænas, whom he was obliged to face, and who drawing a circle around him in the sand, bade him decide before he crossed it, for peace or war with the great empire of the West. With gnashing of teeth Antiochus betook himself homeward, letting out the full flood of his ungovernable passions, as once before, on the people of Judæa and Jerusalem. It was his conduct at this time, that was the direct occasion of the so-called revolt of the Maccabees. Immediately on his accession, had begun at Jerusalem the struggle between the sympathizers with Greek customs, and their determined opponents. For one hundred and fifty years, Greek civilization had been developing itself on every side. It had made startling progress in the very centre of the Israelitish religion. The moral nerve was beginning also here to lose its tensity. It was a sad omen for the future, that about this time, under one pretense or another, an embassy could be sent from Jerusalem to witness the heathenish games in honor of Hercules at Tyre.1

Onias III. was now high priest, and a firm and courageous representative of the ancestral faith. An own brother, Jason, who had become Hellenized, as it will be seen, even to his name, stood at the head of the opposing party, and persuaded the king to transfer by force, to him, the sacred office held by Onias. Once in power he used all the influence at his command to induce a wide-spread apostasy among

Profanation of the high priest's office.

1 Cf 2 Macc. iv. 9-20.

the people. Among other devices he caused to be erected close beside the temple-mountain, a gymnasium, after the Greek style, and invited to its frivolous sports, not only the youth of Jerusalem, but found means also, to seduce even the priests from their duties at the altar, that they might be present at its thronged entertainments. But as Jason had unjustly possessed himself of the high priesthood, so he lost it through injustice. Menelaus, another devotee of the new ideas, simply offered Antiochus a higher tribute than Jason was paying, and got the office. The latter, however, did not leave him long in peace. While the king was absent on his second expedition against Egypt, he took possession of Jerusalem for a time with his retainers, and compelled his rival to flee to the citadel. Antiochus professing to look upon this act of Jason as a rebellion on the part of his Jewish subjects, on his return took fearful vengeance on temple and people. But their cup was not yet full. Two years later, as we have said, after his humiliating rencontre with the legate of Rome, he came back to give full proof of the intensity and demoniacal depths of his passionate nature. The Jews seem to have given him no new occasion for fresh complaints.

"Abomina

lation."

But it was quite unnecessary. He was in one of his hellish moods. Before the evraûla Boulevou of the Roman power he had been compelled to give way. Here, at least, were those who were weaker than he; they should feel the weight of his iron hand. tion of desoBesides, Judaism had never had the opportunity of showing to him, as to Cyrus and Alexander, its better side. Perhaps he would have been incapable of appreciating it, if he had seen it. If unusual moral stamina, and a rare industry and prosperity were developed within it, the one might have served simply to challenge his hostility, and the other have been a temptation to his cupidity and chronic impecuniosity. What he had seen most of, the ambition of a Jason, and the meanness of a Menelaus, were certainly not of a nature to encourage him to prosecute his inquiries. Enough that he who began by despising Judaism, had now come bitterly to hate it, and resolved to sweep it at a stroke from the face of the earth. At a review of troops in the environs of Jerusalem, on the Sabbath, Apollonius, his general, began an indiscriminate massacre of the spectators, and followed it up with the plundering of the defenseless city. Antiochus had given orders further, that on pain of death, all sacrifices and services peculiar to the temple should cease, the Sabbath be no more observed, circumcision nowhere practiced, the sacred books be destroyed, and that idol worship should be universally introduced. The altar of the temple on Mount Moriah was specially named as a place to be thus desecrated. With terrific thoroughness did the unfeeling soldiery enter upon the execution of these orders of the king. And as it was not simply a place, but a people and a system, which had been devoted to overthrow, so it mattered not where in the Syrian empire a Jew might be found, he was exposed to the same frenzied assaults. To have in one's possession a copy of the law, to refuse, on being commanded, to eat swine's flesh, sacrifice to an idol, or to participate in Bacchanalian processions crowned with garlands of ivy in honor of Dionysos, was a sufficient pretext for the most unheard-of cruelties. On the 16th of Chisleu - the date could never be forgotten — Mount Moriah itself was dedicated to Jupiter, and a heathen shrine placed over the sacred altar. Ten days later a herd of swine were driven into the temple precincts, and their subsequent sacrifice completed the desecration. This was the "abomination of desolation" (Bdéλvyμa èpnμwrews, 1 Macc. i. 54), the synonym, in all later Jewish history, of infamous wickedness and of humiliation to the uttermost. With not a few these efforts to enforce submission succeeded. They were those who had been the first to run to the gymnastic performances which Jason and Menelaus maintained at the expense of the temple. But there were many others who still preferred death to paganism, and Antiochus, to his astonishment, soon discovered that an army of twenty-two thousand men was quite too small for the object he had in view. At first, resistance was passive, but none the less heroic and inspiring. A few such examples as that of the gray-haired Eleazer, who manfully confronted his tormentors with the words: "I will show myself such an one as my age requires, and leave a notable example to those who are young, to die willingly and courageously for our honored and holy laws," could not long remain without effect.

The revolt.

The immediate occasion of the armed revolt was as follows: Emissaries of the king had erected a heathen altar at the little village of Modein, a few miles out from Jerusalem. It was the home of an aged priest Mattathias, with the family name Asmonæus, the father of five stalwart sons, and a man widely known and respected. He, among others, was summoned to offer idolatrous sacrifices on this altar. He publicly and boldly re

Judas Maccabæus.

fused, and seeing a man who was a Jew upon the point of doing it, he rushed upon him and slew him. Whereupon the Syrian officers also were put to death, and the altar they had erected destroyed with the cry: "Whosoever is zealous for the law and maintaineth the covenant let him follow me." Mattathias with his two sons, and a few others, now plunged into the neighboring wilderness where forces might be safely collected, and time gained for reflection over the course to be pursued. This was the small beginning of that great politicoreligious movement, by means of which the Jewish people, after more than four hundred years of foreign domination, gained again their independence. It is a thrilling story, which will never lose its charm as long as men love freedom, admire unselfish heroism, and hate oppression. It is only possible for us here to touch upon the more salient points of the history, and it is also unnecessary, since it is to be found in full in the books of the Maccabees that follow. Mattathias himself continued but for a little while at the head of the patriotic band which flocked to his standard, but in dying, recommended Judas, his son, as leader, with the words: "But as for Judas Maccabæus, he has been mighty and strong, even from his youth up; let him be your captain, and fight the battles of the people." The sequel proved that the choice had been well made. Judas Maccabæus was really the hero of the whole conflict, and properly gave his name to the party and movement of which he was the soul. A childlike piety, a womanly tenderness towards the weak, good common sense that could see at once the point at issue, were united in his nature with a courage that flinched at no hardship and was appalled at no danger. The army that followed him, if so it might be called, was always scanty enough, but like Gideon he did not hesitate, at times, to reduce its numbers still more by sifting out the timid and the unresolved. The blast of his trumpet, as his enemies soon discovered, meant nothing less than doing and daring to the utmost limit of human strength. He first defeated Apollonius, entering upon the engagement with the battle cry: Eleazer, the help of God; " then Seron; and again, an immense army under Nicanor and Gorgias; and finally, Lysias himself, and opened thereby for his troops once more the way to Jerusalem and the temple. On the 25th of Chisleu, exactly three years from the date of its desecration, the purified altar was again dedicated to Jehovah and sacrifices offered amidst universal rejoicings. Since this time the Jews have ever continued to observe the recurrence of the day as the "Feast of Dedication," and no festival awakens among them more grateful memories. Soon after occurred in the far East the death of Antiochus Epiphanes (B. C. 164) under circumstances that could not but encourage the persecuted people still more to hope for the final success of their cause. Judas Maccabæus, in the mean time, set forward his well-begun work. At first, he engaged in a successful expedition against the Edomites to the south, then met, for the second time, Lysias at Bethsur, where, for once, his little band were forced to retire before the overwhelming odds that were brought against them, and a beloved brother, the brave Eleazer, lost his life. Then followed the brief trace and apparently friendly intercourse with Nicanor, broken off by his treachery, and the battle of Caphar Salama, in which this Syrian general was among the slain. It was at this time that Judas, recognizing the importance of securing auxiliaries, against the advice of some of his adherents sent a delegation to Rome to ask for an alliance. He did it the more willingly because he had learned that "none of them wore a crown, or was clothed in purple, to be exalted above his fellow citizens." A treaty was made, but, as it would seem, before its cor.. ditions could well have been known, Judas was called upon to meet once more, and for the last time, the hosts of the Syrians under Bacchides. The disparity between his forces and those of his antagonist would have driven any other than the lion-hearted Maccabee to de spair. His officers sought to dissuade him from the conflict with the promise to take it up afterwards when circumstances were more favorable. But his memorable answer was: "God forbid that I should do this thing and flee away from them. If our time be come let us die manfully for our brethren and leave behind no stain upon our honor!" These are the last recorded words of the heroic soldier. The battle was accepted. Judas personally fought with his usual intrepidity and success. But his followers being overpowered, he was set upon from behind and lost his life (B. c. 160). His two brothers, however, Jonathan and Simon, thoughtless of danger to themselves, rescued his body from the thronging, exultant foe, and it was buried in the family tomb at Modein. Great was the lamentation which went up for him throughout Judæa, and its burden was like that which had been heard for Saul

1 1 Macc. ii. 66.

2 Cf. 1 Macc. viii.

and for Jonathan: "How is the valiant fallen that delivered Israel!" We are not surprised that in the olden time fancy loved to dwell upon this inspiring name, or that so many friendly pens were ready to depict with heightened coloring the struggle in which so noble a life was sacrificed.

B. C. 160-143.

It was a serious task which Jonathan, the youngest son of Mattathias, who had been elected to fill the place of Judas, had now before him. Without the prestige of Judas Jonathan. Maccabæus, called upon with a dispirited handful of troops to confront the victorious army of Bacchides, it is doubtful how the conflict would have terminated if a diversion in his favor had not occurred in the political affairs of Syria. One Alexander Balas, who gave himself out for a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, laid claim to the throne which Demetrius I. Soter (B. c. 162-150), had already, for ten years, had in possession. Both parties naturally sought an alliance with the Asmonæan chief and strove to outdo each other in the magnificence of their offers for his support. From Alexander Jonathan received in addition to all the rest, a purple mantle, a golden crown, and the promise of the high priest's office, which, since the death of the infamous Alcimus (B. C. 159), had remained vacant. As the party which Alexander represented was supported by nearly all the kings of the neighboring lands and had, by far, the best promise of success, Jonathan did not long hesitate to give it his own influence. At the same time, also, he accepted the generous terms offered, and put on the pontifical robes at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year B. C. 152. From this time the Asmonæan family ruled in Judæa. The dependence on Syria, however, still continued, and the land for a considerable period was more or less involved in the strug gles among rival claimants for the crown. One of these, named Tryphon, having by artifice got Jonathan into his power, treacherously put him to death in the year B. C. 143.

Simon.

But one son of Mattathias, Simon, already an old man, now remained. He had been the trusted counselor of the family from the first. He was still vigorous in mind and body. In a speech that he made at this time for the encouragement of the people, B C. 143-155 he said: "You yourselves know what great things I and my brothers and my father's house have done for the laws and the sanctuary, the battles also, and troubles we have seen by reason whereof all my brethren are slain for Israel's sake, and I am left alone. Now, therefore, be it far from me that I should spare my own life in any time of trouble, for I am no better than my brethren." Under the influence of these touching words the people were roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, and cried out, with a loud voice: "Thou shalt be our leader instead of Judas and Jonathan thy brother." There was no one better fitted than he to execute the sacred trust which by natural right, as well as the vote of the people, had been thus committed to him. What Judas by hard blows had won, what Jonathan by a sagacious policy had preserved and increased, that was now to be carried on to its natural conclusion, namely, complete freedom from a foreign yoke and the reëstablishment of the Jewish commonwealth unimpaired. In accomplishing this object, Simon was greatly aided, as Jonathan had been, by the internal divisions of the Syrian empire. Tryphon, who in the murder of the child Antiochus VI., whose interests he had professed to represent, had thrown off the mask he had hitherto worn, was contesting by force of arms the throne with Demetrius II. The latter, in order to win for himself their support, at the request of Simon, not only remitted to the Jews all past and future dues for taxes, but confirmed them in the possession of certain fortresses which for prudential reasons they had occupied and provisioned against any political emergency that might arise, and expressed his willingness, for the future, to receive Jewish officers into his army and at his court. It was a high day for Israel when this news was proclaimed, and from this year (B. C. 143), they were accustomed, as well on coins as on public and private contracts, to date their national independence. Beautiful is the picture which the historian gives of the latter part of the reign of Simon, especially when contrasted with the stormy, troublous times of Judas and of Jonathan. He "made peace in the land; and Israel rejoiced with great joy; for every man sat under his fig-tree and there was none to terrify him, nor was any left in the land to fight against them." 2 Ir. the midst of great public rejoicings Simon drove out the remnants of the Syrian party which for forty years had held possession of the citadel in Jerusalem. He enlarged the boundaries of the country, encouraged the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, had an excellent harbor constructed at Joppa, cleared the land of idolaters, enriched and beautified the temple, renewed under the most friendly auspices former treaties with the Lacedæmonians and Romans; and by 2 See 1 Maco. xiv. 11, 12.

1 1 Macc. xiii. 3-8.

a course at once firm and conciliatory held in check that factious and partisan spirit which was already beginning to manifest itself with ominous power among the people. So great was the gratitude and admiration that were felt for Simon that a brazen tablet inscribed with his deeds and those of his family was set up to his honor in the temple, and the office of prince and high priest (ŵyoúμevos kai àpxiepeús) was made hereditary in his house" until there should arise a faithful prophet."1 But like every other member of his family he, too, was destined to meet a violent death. Through the treachery of an ambitious son-in-law, Ptolemy, whom he had made governor of the district of Jericho, he together with his two sons, Mattathias and Judas, was assassinated in a most dastardly manner after a reign of eight years (B. C. 135).

nus.

B. C. 135-105.

Simon was succeeded in both the offices which he had clothed with so much honor by his John Hyrca- son, John Hyrcanus. The first part of his reign was marked by ill success. Hindered, through fear of evil consequences to his mother, whom Ptolemy had in his power, from avenging the murder of Simon, he was at the same time compelled to make a humiliating treaty with Antiochus VII. Sidetes, who had invaded Palestine and shut Hyrcanus up in Jerusalem. Subsequently, thanks anew to the contentions of rival factions in Syria, and the friendship of the Romans, he gradually threw off again the foreign yoke, conquered, and thoroughly wasted Samaria to the north, and on the south compelled the Edomites to adopt the Jewish faith, including the rite of circumcision. This is one of the most memorable examples in Israelitish history of an attempt to enforce conversion, and is especially noticeable as having brought with it its own swift retribution. To these same circumcised Edomites belonged the family of that Herod who afterwards became the "evil genius of the Asmonæans." 2 We reserve until later an account of the violent party spirit, especially between the Pharisees and Sadducees, which now began to rage. Hyrcanus had the sagacity to adopt, in general, a wise middle course, although driven, as it would seem, late in life to take sides positively with the Sadducees. The extant coins of this reign are interesting as showing that the people still retained their political rights unimpaired. They bear the inscription: "John the high priest and the Commonwealth of the Jews;" or "John, the high priest, Head of the Jewish Commonwealth." The assembly (yepovoía), afterwards developing into the Sanhedrin, was able to make its voice heard in all matters affecting the public weal. On the whole, the long reign of Hyrcanus may be characterized as brilliantly successful. Josephus, while giving him the title of prince and high priest, also ascribes to him the gift of prophecy. Under him the Jewish people reached a degree of prosperity which had been unknown before, since the days of Solomon and David. But with him, too, that prosperity reached its culmination. The history that follows is little else than a sad record of domestic feuds and the intrigues of rival parties, until, after a little more than a single generation, the Roman power, at first invited in to arbitrate, stayed to dictate and to rule.

Aristobulus

104.

Aristobulus I., the eldest of the sons of Hyrcanus, was designated by the latter for the high priesthood, while the political sovereignty was left to his widow. Such a I B. c. 105- change in the traditional order of government did not at all suit the ambitious Aristobulus, and he soon found means to remove his mother from the throne and cast her, together with his brothers, into prison. One brother alone, Antigonus, he permitted to share the government with him. Aristobulus was the first of the Asmonæan family who claimed for himself the title of king, and of all that had hitherto ruled he was the least worthy of it. His real name was Judas, and one might suppose that he would have borne it with pride in honor of the heroic Maccabæus, but his devotion to Greek ideas was predominant. He was even known among his subjects under the contemptuous nickname of Philhellen (Þéλany), lover of the Greeks. He caused a Greek title to be inscribed on the national coins along with various emblems, which, in the eyes of a real Pharisee of the time, must have made contact with them seem almost like a transgression of the ceremonial law.◄ In the mean time, the leaven of dissension continued ominously to do its work. Antigonus, the best loved brother, fell a victim to the intrigues of the court and the suspicions of the king, whose own painful death followed soon after.

It was one of the hitherto imprisoned brothers of Aristobulus I., Alexander Jannæus, who succeeded him, making Alexandra (Heb., Salome), the former's widow, who had released him

1 See 1 Macc. xiv. 41.

8 Antiq., xiii. 10, §§ 5, 7.

2 Cf. Holtzmann, idem, p. 26.

4 Cf. Graetz, iii. 103, and Schürer, p 118.