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
Latter-day Saint
Revision 1.5. “The Maccabean Revolt and the Rise of the Pharisees”

Revision 1.5. “The Maccabean Revolt and the Rise of the Pharisees”

Last updated on: July 8, 2020 at 11:20 pm by Dan Peterson

Revision 1.5. “The Maccabean Revolt and the Rise of the Pharisees” 2020-07-08T23:20:55-06:00 Dan Peterson

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.

Peter Paul Rubens, “The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus” (ca. 1634-1636)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image

In 175 B.C., aggressive Jewish reformers found an enthusiastic but dangerous ally in a new Seleucid monarch who called himself Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus believed in Hellenism, yes, but he also thought that Hellenism would provide him with higher tax revenues—revenues that he desperately needed in order to keep his many wars going. Casting his eyes around the empire for money, he found a promising source of untapped cash. The vast funds of the temple at Jerusalem were simply too much to pass up. Fortunately for him, the militant Hellenizers in Jerusalem, who were his natural allies, had gained control of the office of high priest. They had also published a decree recognizing the divinity of Olympian Zeus. Zeus was just another name for Jehovah, after all, and they couldn’t see that it was worth quibbling over names in this new age of cosmopolitan sophistication. More important still, from Antiochus’s perspective, the Hellenizers were busily downgrading what they saw as the absurd rituals of the temple. No use spending all that good money on sacrifices when you could divert it to really useful things like athletic competitions and drama festivals or, as their boss Antiochus chimed in, like military equipment and naval vessels. So he began to dip into the temple treasuries to further his international adventures, with the aid and connivance of Hellenizing Jews.

The outcry from the people was deafening. Perhaps even Antiochus could hear it, far away in his Syrian palace though he was. The Hellenizers were now revealed to be not only enemies of Jehovah but willing tools of a greedy, tax-happy foreign imperialist. There was tremendous popular resistance, and there were many martyrs. Open revolution broke out in the small town of Modin, located not far from the site of the modern Tel Aviv airport, when one of the “reformers,” an agent of the Hellenizing government, was killed by an aged priest named Matthias Hasmon. The old man’s five sons, led by Judah the Maccabee (“the Hammer”), perhaps knowing that they now had very little to lose, launched an astonishing guerrilla campaign that crushed the Hellenizers and won the Jews’ virtual independence. (However, in the course of their long and difficult campaign, the Hasmoneans, as the Maccabees were sometimes called, turned to a rising Italian city-state for help. A place called Rome. As can be imagined, this step would have important consequences down the road.) A priestly family, the Maccabees stood for strict allegiance to the Law. Their prestige after a successful rebellion against one of the world’s leading powers merely reinforced the tendency toward reverence for the Law, or the Torah, that had already begun to characterize Judaism since at least the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It would mark Judaism ever afterwards.

As part of this return to the Law, a national education system began to evolve in which, theoretically, all Jewish boys were taught the Torah. This education was entirely religious, rejecting—for reasons that ought to be obvious—anything foreign or nonreligious. The Hellenizers had discredited themselves within Palestine by their alliance with a foreign tyrant, as well as by their willingness to abandon important aspects of the Jewish religion. The new form of education that arose upon their downfall had the benefit of avoiding the dangers of contact with corrupt foreign ideas and of strict focus upon scripture. As such, it had a great deal to do with the later rise of rabbinic Judaism. However, in trying to steer clear of ideas from outside, it also tended to make Judaism narrow and xenophobic. This was an opposite but equally dangerous error.

John Hyrcanus, a grandson of Matthias Hasmon who reigned over the Jews from 134 to 104 B.C., maintained his line’s reputation for zeal by setting out to conquer the entire land of Palestine, which, his reading of the Bible told him, was rightfully his as ruler of the Jewish state. It was his duty to eliminate foreign religions and unorthodox sects and, if necessary, to slaughter those who hesitated to give them up. He massacred entire towns whose only crime, as far we can determine, was speaking Greek. He conquered the province of Idumea and forcibly converted the inhabitants of its chief cities to Judaism, butchering those who refused to convert. This was bad enough, but the Hasmonean dynasty, which had at least begun in an outburst of pious heroism, ultimately ended in impiety and oppression. The later members of the family, rich and corrupt, were a disgrace to their name. It’s from this time of deep disappointment in the nation’s leaders that we first hear of a faction known as the Perushim, the Pharisees, who rejected the royal religious establishment and emphasized personal righteousness as the way to salvation. In a sense, they represented a popular revolt against the aristocracy. The temple, the Pharisees were willing to admit, might well be corrupt, or at least administered by corrupt men, but it was still possible for each individual Jew, regardless of class, to live the laws of purity and to study the Torah within his own home. The Sadducees, on the other hand, represented the rich and were more closely affiliated with the ruling class.

Previous Post

July 7, 2020

From the Eight Witnesses

Next Post

July 7, 2020 Are mind and consciousness reducible to events in the physical brain?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month 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 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am a period of seven years times seven, followed by a year of liberty and restoration. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A holy year The Year of Jubilee A year of rest The Sabbath year