Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
The Age of Tyrants

The Age of Tyrants

Last updated on: June 19, 2015 at 6:45 am by Philip Jenkins

The Age of Tyrants 2015-06-19T06:45:23-04:00 Philip Jenkins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Josephus recorded the history of the Jewish people in the last two centuries before the Christian Era. Reading that story today must many of our assumptions about the world we know from the New Testament.

I think I am accurately reflecting common ideas when I imagine that history something like this. In the 160s, the Jews rebelled against a brutal and tyrannical Greek regime, the Seleucid Empire of Antiochus IV. That sage is depicted in cosmic terms in the Book of Daniel, where Antiochus becomes a force of cosmic evil. The Jews retained national independence for a century or so, when the Herodians rule as agents of Rome. Herod the Great was abominably cruel and tyrannical. Roman oppression and exploitation continued until it provoked the great Jewish Revolt of the 60s AD.

From Josephus, though, I get a somewhat different impression, namely that the period between the Maccabean Revolt and the rise of Herod was really no better than what came before or afterwards. The Hasmonean state was ruled by ruthless tyrants, who were quite as likely to massacre or crucify their enemies as Antiochus before them, or Herod the Great and Pontius Pilate afterwards. Herod differed from his predecessors in degree, but not in kind.

One famous figure of the Hasmonean dynasty was Alexander Jannaeus, who was born around 126 BC and who ruled as king and high priest from 103 through 76 BC. For a century after the 150s, the family had combined secular and religious authority, but it was his older brother who had first adopted the Greek title of basileus, king. Alexander was able to exercise such power – indeed, to build up a mini-empire in the region – because of the collapse of the Seleucid Empire that had dominated the territory for two centuries.

Alexander, though, faced a turbulent political situation at home, with Judea deeply divided between violent factions. The country, in fact, seems to have been in a near-permanent state of civil war. Josephus (Antiquities, XIII.13) reports one incident of near-apocalyptic repression in the Temple precincts themselves, in the 90s BC:

As to Alexander, his own people were seditious against him; for at a festival which was then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar, and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upon him, and pelted him with citrons [which they then had in their hands, because] the law of the Jews required that at the Feast of Tabernacles every one should have branches of the palm tree and citron tree; which thing we have elsewhere related. They also reviled him, as derived from a captive [aichmaloton gegonota], and so unworthy of his dignity and of sacrificing. At this he was in a rage, and slew of them about six thousand. He also built a partition-wall of wood round the altar and the temple, as far as that partition within which it was only lawful for the priests to enter; and by this means he obstructed the multitude from coming at him.

Alexander was a Sadducee partisan, his enemies were Pharisees. (By the way, numbers were not Josephus’s strong suit, and on occasion we might want to reduce his estimated number of victims of massacres or battles by five- or tenfold).

After a military defeat,

From thence [Alexander] fled to Jerusalem, where, besides his other ill success, the nation insulted him, and he fought against them for six years, and slew no fewer than fifty thousand of them. And when he desired that they would desist from their ill-will to him, they hated him so much the more, on account of what had already happened; and when he had asked them what he ought to do, they all cried out, that he ought to kill himself.

His subjects called for help from the Seleucid king Demetrius Eucaerus, who duly invaded. Alexander eventually regained control of the country, and took reprisals which shocked even the hardened Josephus (Antiquities, XIII.14):

when he had taken the city, and gotten the [rebel Jews] into his power, he brought them to Jerusalem, and did one of the most barbarous actions in the world to them; for as he was feasting with his concubines [pallakidon], in the sight of all the city, he ordered about eight hundred of them to be crucified [anastaurosai]; and while they were living, he ordered the throats of their children and wives to be cut before their eyes. …. this barbarity seems to have been without any necessity, on which account he bare the name of a Thracian [ie a barbarous savage] among the Jews whereupon the soldiers that had fought against him, being about eight thousand in number, ran away by night, and continued fugitives all the time that Alexander lived; who being now freed from any further disturbance from them, reigned the rest of his time in the utmost tranquility.

Terror worked.

It’s useful to be reminded that at this time, Alexander was high priest as well as king. (Incidentally, pallakidon is an odd word, which sometimes implies sacred prostitution or even a ritual prophetess).

Alexander’s personal situation was equally unhappy. Josephus tells us that he “happened to be hated by his father as soon as he was born, and could never be permitted to come into his father’s sight till he died.” His father had him brought up in a distant and uncongenial part of his domain, namely Galilee. In later life, says Josephus, Alexander ruined his health by hard drinking (ek methes).

And no, contrary to many sermons preached through the years, crucifixion was not a distinctive horror that the Romans had introduced to the shock of their Jewish subjects. It had been a standard practice in the Hellenistic states and their neighbors for at least two centuries before Jesus’s time, and the Seleucid king Antiochus crucified many rebels during the Jewish Revolt of the 160s, among the other torments he inflicted. The practice was well known in the Hasmonean kingdom. To put it in context, Alexander’s mass crucifixion of his enemies occurred about a decade before the much more famous Roman suppression of Spartacus’s revolt, as commemorated in the legendary Kirk Douglas film.

It says a lot about our general ignorance of the “inter-Testamental” period that a career like Alexander’s has not ended up more prominently in popular history, or that we do not remember him as prominently as we do, say, Herod the Great.

Based on all this, I wonder if that region ever knew anything vaguely like what we might think of as good government. Or was it rather one despotism after another? (The Merovingian Frankish regime was sometimes described as “despotism tempered by assassination.”) If so, that goes far to explaining the New Testament perception about worldly governments, that for instance the Devil was the Lord of this World. And also the desperate hope for divine rule that might offer justice – or at least, that would ensure that violence was inflicted on our enemies, rather than ourselves. It is a depressing vision.

I wonder if we underplay the atrocities of the Hasmonean kingdom in order to paint a sharper contrast with the better known evils of the Herodian and Roman eras?

One recent book I have found valuable is Vasile Babota, ed., The Institution of the Hasmonean High Priesthood (Boston : Brill, 2013).

Before anyone shouts at me, I know the whole “sacred prostitution” idea is deeply controversial – see especially Stephanie L. Budin, The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). But that is another column.

Philip Jenkins

Alexander Jannaeus

Alexander the Great

Antiquities of the Jews

Previous Post

June 17, 2015

Child Preachers, Then and Now

Next Post

June 21, 2015 Paul the Covert

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims Piracy pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public Executions Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Jesus' earthly profession?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Shepherd Fisherman Carpenter Tentmaker