72. B.C. 163 to 143

B.C. 163 to 143

Chapter II

Timeline View:

On or Heliopolis

l. The vacant high-priesthood was given to Alcimus or Jacimus, to the exclusion of the rightful successor, Onias, the son of that Onias who had been murdered at Antioch at the instigation of Menelaus. This disappointment induced Onias to retire into Egypt. He was there received with favor by Ptolemy Philometor, and used his influence to obtain leave to found a temple for the numerous Jews in that country. It was built at On or Heliopolis, “the city of the sun,” after the model of the Temple at Jerusalem, but not so large or magnificent. Onias was appointed high-priest: there were also inferior priests and Levites, and the services were conducted as at Jerusalem, until the time of Vespasian, in whose reign both temples were destroyed.

2. Alcimus, the new high-priest, was a man of loose principles, which, with his known attachment to the Grecian idolatries, rendered him so obnoxious to the Jews, that they very soon expelled him from the land.

3. Shortly after, Antiochus Eupator, and the regent Lysias, were defeated and slain by Demetrius Soter, the rightful heir to the throne,[*] had hitherto been detained as a hostage at Rome. This prince was no sooner established on the Syrian throne than all the Jewish traitors and apostates, with Alcimus at their head, came around him with many grievous complaints against Judas and his party; and Alcimus made it appear that his own expulsion was an act of strong contempt towards that power by which he had been invested with the pontificate. Listening to these complaints, Demetrius re-appointed Alcimus to the high-priesthood, and sent Bacchides, the governor of Mesopotamia, to re-instate him in his office, and take vengeance on his enemies. This commander entered the country without any hostile manifestations; and many Jews, who, relying on his fair professions, had put themselves into his power, were treacherously slain. Bacchides then, having met with no opposition, left the country in charge of Alcimus, with a force considered sufficient to secure him in his place. But he had no sooner withdrawn, than Judas, who had retired before him, appeared again, and easily recovered the position which he had seemed for the moment to abandon. Alcimus, being unable to offer any effectual resistance, again repaired to Antioch, with renewed and more earnest complaints to the king. Another and more powerful army was accordingly sent into Judaea, under Nicanor. He was twice defeated by Judas—the last time so completely, that of 35,000 men, not one escaped alive to bear the tidings to Antioch. This great victory procured the nation an interval of rest, and was deemed of so much importance by the Jews, that they established an annual festival of commemoration. 1Ma 7:4-50; 2Ma 14:2-16; 2Ma 15:1-37.

[*] Demetrius was the son of Seleucus Philopator, who was succeeded by his brother Antiochus Epiphanes, who left the crown to his son Antiochus Eupator. who

4. A step was then taken by Judas, which some have praised, and others blamed; but which will probably be considered, by those who are the most intimately acquainted with the history of the time, to be the best which could have been taken under all the circumstances. He sent an embassy to Rome, to solicit the friendship of that powerful nation, whose influence had for some time been paramount in Syria and in Egypt. It quite consisted with the policy of the Roman senate to weaken the great states, by forming alliances with the lesser nations which depended on them. The Jewish ambassadors were therefore received with favor, and the Romans readily concluded a treaty, which could not possibly be injurious to themselves, and might yet be of some advantage to the Jews. The immediate result of this alliance was, that the senate sent a missive to Demetrius, commanding him, on pain of their displeasure, to abstain from persecuting the Jews in time to come. But before the ambassadors returned, the valiant Judas had met his death, in a desperate conflict with Bacchides and Alcimus, who had been sent to avenge the destruction of Nicanor and his host. The brothers of Judas, Simon, and Jonathan, having made a truce, deposited the body of the hero in the family sepulcher at Alodin, which was not far off, and all Israel mourned for him many days, crying, “How is the valiant fallen, that delivered Israel!”

5. The death of their great leader threw the Jews into such consternation, that the Syrians easily reaped the fruits of their victory. They reduced Jerusalem, and slew many of the adherents of the Maccabees; and Alcimus was once more restored to the high-priesthood. Incapable of profiting by experience, this man persisted in his former courses. He made man; innovations in the religion of his country, in order to produce a greater conformity to the practices of the heathen. At length, with the view of admitting the Gentiles equally with the Jews to the inner courts of the temple, he proceeded to break down the separating wall, when he was suddenly cut off in the full career of his guilt, and died in the most dreadful agonies. On the occurrence of this event, Bacchides, who had remained in the country, returned to Syria, and the Jews were left for two years unmolested. Jonathan, the youngest brother of Judas, who had been elected by the orthodox Jews as their prince and leader in his place, employed this interval in establishing a regular government, in strengthening the walls and fortifications of Jerusalem, and in effecting various important reforms in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his country.

6. After two years, the adverse faction, growing uneasy at the prospect of continued peace, recommenced their operations. They conspired to seize Jonathan, and all his adherents tbroughout the land, in one night; and invited Bacchides to aid their project by a military force. This became known to Jonathan, who, after putting fifty of the leading conspirators to death, withdrew with Simon and his friends to Bethbasi in the wilderness, not feeling strong enough to meet Bacchides in the field. This was a strong post; and the dilapidated fortifications having been put into complete repair, the besieged were enabled to hold out so long, and so to harass the enemy by daring sallies and excursions, that Bacchides at length grew weary of an expedition from which so little honor was to be won, and put those to death who had engaged him in it. In this mood he listened to the overtures of peace made by Jonathan, and, after an exchange of prisoners, withdrew his forces, engaging to trouble the land no more.

Alexander Balas

7. Three years after this, a conjuncture of affairs arose in Syria highly favorable to the Jewish cause. A claim was set up by Alexander Balas to the crown of Syria, which not only gave the reigning king, Demetrius, sufficient employment for all his disposable forces, but made it the interest of the competitors to outbid each other for the support and favor of so warlike a people as the Jews had now become. Jonathan had, meanwhile, been proceeding quietly with his improvements and repairs, which, while they enhanced his reputation, gave the promise of stability to his government. When the competitors began to court his friendship, the remembrance of the wrongs which Demetrius had inflicted upon the nation, no less than good policy, induced him to espouse the cause of Alexander, who, in return, offered him the high-priesthood. That office had been vacant seven years, and, with the unanimous consent and approbation of the people, it was accepted by Jonathan. It will be remembered that the Maccabees were descended from the eldest branch of the family of Aaron. Together with the offer of the priesthood, Balas sent to Jonathan a purple robe and a crown, as ethnarch or prince of Judaea. The chief ecclesiastical, as well as civil power, was then, with the full sanction of public opinion, assumed by Jonathan, in the seventh month of the same year, at the Feast of Tabernacles (b.c. 153), and remained in the family until the usurpation of Herod.

8. Hearing of this, king Demetrius, resolving to outbid Alexander, sent a long list of privileges and immunities which he would grant to the Jews, and of honors which he would bestow upon Jonathan. But, distrusting his sincerity, the people, when the letter was read to them, agreed with their leaders in adhering to the cause of Alexander Balas. That cause was successful; and when Alexander was at Ptolemais, to espouse the king of Egypt’s daughter, he gratefully acknowledged the efficient assistance he had received from Jonathan during the struggle, and treated him with distinguished honors.

9. Prosperity ruined Alexander Balas. The misconduct of the ministers to whom he abandoned all the affairs of government, alienated his friends and encouraged his enemies, and in the fifth year his head was laid at the feet of the younger Demetrius, the son of Demetrius Soter, by Zabdiel, with whom, after all had been lost, the royal fugitive had sought a refuge in Arabia.

10. As Jonathan had remained true to Balas in this struggle, his enemies hailed the success of Demetrius Nicator as the signal for his overthrow; and, through their representations, he was summoned to Antioch. He went, carrying with him valuable presents, and conducted himself so discreetly, that, so far from disturbing him, Demetrius not only confirmed him in the dignities he had received from Balas, but added all the valuable privileges which had been offered by his father, when he had endeavoured to outbid Balas for the friendship of Jonathan.

11. Among his other public acts, Jonathan renewed the treaty with the Romans, and formed another with the Lacedaemonians. His government of seventeen years was in the highest degree beneficial to his country, and tended much to give to the peculiar institutions of the people, which be labored to renovate, that determinate character which was essential to their continuance. His end was afflicting. Disgusted by the perfidy of Demetrius, who cancelled the privileges he had granted, as soon as he was relieved from the danger by which he was threatened, the Jews eagerly espoused the cause of a young son of Alexander Balas, who was brought forward by Tryphon, formerly governor of Antioch. Eventually this youth was raised to the throne, under the name of Antiochus Epiphanes. But Tryplion had used him only for his own objects, and contemplated his removal to make room for himself. To this he saw an obstacle in the known attachment of Jonathan to the house of Balas; and this obstacle he resolved to remove by his death, which he treacherously and barbarously accomplished at Ptolemais, where Jonathan was slain, with a thousand men who attended him as guards. This was speedily followed by the murder of the young king; and Tryphon placed on his own head the blood-stained crown.

Royal Tomb