The Greek's Rule of the Holy Land

The death of Alexander the Great of Greece in 323 B.C.E. led to the breakup of the Greek empire as three of his generals fought for preeminence and divided the Middle East among themselves. Ptolemy secured control of Egypt and the Land of Israel. Seleucus grabbed Syria and Asia Minor, and Antigonus took Greece.

For the next 125 years, the Seleucids and Ptolemies battled for Israel. The Seleucids finally won in 198 B.C.E. when Antiochus III defeated the Egyptians and brought Judea into his empire. Initially, he continued to allow the Jews to rule themselves, but later began a program of Hellenization that threatened to force the Jews to abandon their monotheism for the paganism practiced by the Greeks. Antiochus was unable to introduce idols in the Jewish Temple, but his son, Antiochus IV, who inherited the throne in 176 B.C.E., resumed his father's original policy and applied it to the Jews. A brief Jewish rebellion hardened his views and led him to outlaw central beliefs of Judaism such as the Sabbath and circumcision. He defiled the holy Temple by erecting an altar to the god Zeus, allowed the sacrifice of pigs therein, and opened it to non-Jews.

Though many Jews succumbed to Hellenism, there were pockets of resistance. A Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias (Matisyahu) to make a sacrifice to a pagan god. He refused. Another assimilated Jew was willing, but Matisyahu killed him first. Antiochus began reprisals, but in 167 B.C.E. the Jews rose up behind Matisyahu and his five sons [Judah, Simon, Elazar, Yochanon, and Jonathan] and fought for their liberation.

The Family Maccabee & The Defeat of the Greek Empire

The family of Matisyahu became known as the Maccabees, possibly from the Hebrew word for “hammer,” because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. Another version of the source of this name is Matisyahu’s declaration of “Mi Camocha B’Alim Hashem” Who is like You, God? The acronym of that phrase spells out the word Maccabee. Although many refer to the family as the Maccabees, the family is also known as the Hasmonean (Chashmonaim).

Like other rulers before him, Antiochus underestimated the will and strength of his Jewish adversaries and sent a small force to put down the rebellion. When that was annihilated, he led a more powerful army into battle, only to be defeated. Prior to his death in 167 B.C.E., but only shortly after the revolt began, Matisyahu named his son Judah to be the leader of the rebellion. Judah Maccabee, also known as Yehuda HaMaccabee, is best known as the hero of the Chanukah story. Judah led a small poorly trained and poorly armed Jews to victory against 47,000 battle-wise Greek troops. Elazar was killed in battle when an elephant, the tank of the day, crushed him. Even though many cite the Maccabees’ use of guerilla warfare tactics as the cause, their victory was clearly miraculous. 

In 165 B.C.E., the Greeks retreated, the prohibition against the practice of Judaism was annulled, and the Jews regained control of the Temple in Jerusalem. Judah and his followers cleansed and purified the Temple, which had been desecrated by the foreigners with their pagan practices, and rededicated it.

In 160 B.C.E., Judah died in battle and was buried in the family grave in Modiin. It took more than two decades of fighting before the Maccabees forced the Seleucids to withdraw from Palestine. By this time Antiochus had died. His successor agreed to the Jews' demand for independence. In 142 B.C.E., the Greeks signed a peace treaty with Simon, the last of the Maccabee brothers to survive. After more than 500 years of subjugation, the Jews were in charge of their own fate. This began a period of Jewish independence in Israel. The kingdom regained boundaries not far short of Solomon's realm and Jewish life flourished.

The Maccabee Legacy

Simon became the High Priest, as his family was from the priestly class. However, he also became head of state and took the title of nasi (prince/president). He did not call himself king because he knew that a Jewish king could only come from the descendants of King David, who were not of the priestly class. Still, this was a bad move on Simon’s part because his descendants did not uphold this distinction. They started a new ruling dynasty, the Hasmonean dynasty, which was marked by a terrible moral and religious decline. They should not have been kings in the first place, but also became corrupted by their own power.

The next ruler was Yochanan Hyrcanus. His name alone exposes the Greek influence that had already crept in. In a tragic irony, the Chashmonaim became Hellenized. After their ancestors had fought for and given their lives to remove Hellenism from the Jewish people, they brought it back voluntarily.

Among his many errors, Yochanan Hyrcanus did something that is against Jewish law. As part of his effort to expand the borders of Israel, he forcibly converted the newly conquered peoples. Judaism has never before or since followed this practice. Jews discourage converts and do not compel others to convert.

One of the peoples that he forcibly converted was the Idumeans. A descendant of this people, Herod, was later appointed to be the Jewish king. Herod murdered the High Priest, 45 members of the Jewish Supreme Court and most of his own family, putting an end to the line of rulers. Herod also spearheaded a series of astounding building projects, including the city of Caesarea, the fortress at Masada, and a total re-building of the Temple.

The son of Yochanan Hyracanus, Alexander Yanai, was completely Hellenized and sided with the Sadducees (Jews who only followed the actual words of the written Torah, making up their own interpretations that were not those handed down by tradition) against the Pharisees (the mainstream Jews). When some of the Pharisees opposed him, Yanai had 800 of them executed, after first forcing them to watch the slaughter of their families. During the executions, there was a Greek-style feast.

The last two Hasmonean rulers were two brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobolus, both of whom were totally Hellenized. Hyrcanus was the weaker of the two but he had a strong advisor by the name of Antipater, a descendant of Idumean converts to Judaism. Antipater’s son was Herod.