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THE NEW PLUTARCH

JUDAS MACCAByEUS

THE NEW PLUTARCH.

Lives of men and woinen of action.

PRICE, S^ 1 O O P E U VOLUME.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN; the Abolition of Slavery. With a

Portrait. By Charles G. Leland.
COLIGNY ; THE Failure of the French Reformation. With a

Portrait. By Walter Besant, M.A.
JUDAS MACCABEUS and the Jewish War of Independence.

By Claude Reignier Conder, R.E.
VICTOR EMMANUEL; the Attainment of Italian Unity. By

Edward Dicey, M.A.
JOAN OF ARC; the Expulsion of the English from France.

By Janet Tuckey.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT and his Age; By Rev. W. J.

Brodribb, M.A.
THE CALIPH HAROUN AL RASCHID ; Saracen Civiliza-
tion. By Prof. E. H. Palmer. M.A.
RICHELIEU and his Court ; By Walter Herries Pollock, M.A.
HANNIBAL and Carthaginian Civilisation. By Samuel Lee, M.A.
HAROLD FAIR HAIR and the Scandinavians. By Erik Mag-

NllSSON, M.A.

CHARLEMAGNE and his Time. By Prof. Beesley.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By Richard Garnett.
WHITTINGTON, Lord Mayor of London. By James Rice,

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,

182 FIFTH AVENUE', NEW YORK.

AsKterotH Karnwm

. SKETCH MAP OF PALESTINE.

SHOWING PLACES CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF JUDAS MACCAB.«US.

JUDAS MACCABEUS

AND THE

JEWISH WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

BY

CLAUDE REIGNIER CONDER, R.E.

Can these bones live ? "

NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

182 FIFTH AVENUE
1879

PREFACE

n^HE story of the life of Judas Maccabaeus forms
-■- one of the most important episodes in Jewish
history, if only because it explains how the nation
first developed that peculiar phase of character
which marked it at the time when Christianity was
given to the world.

The sources of historic information upon which
I have mainly relied in the following pages are the
First Book of Maccabees and the Antiquities of
Josephus. The Second Book of Maccabees being
generally considered to be far inferior in value to
the first, and its statements being sometimes in direct
contradiction to the more ancient accounts, has con-
tributed only some of the picturesque details with
which it abounds.

These authorities, however, furnish little beyond
the dry bones of history. Some attempt has, there-
fore, been made in this volume to render the story
more vivid by aid of description of the scenes in
which it was laid, and of the contemporary social

6 Preface.

and religious life of the Jews. The Talmudic
information is mainly derived from the well-known
edition of the Mishna by Surenhusius ; and the
account of the country is due to the advantages
I enjoyed during the survey of Palestine, when I
was able to visit more than once each of the
battlefields of Judas.

Finally, I have attempted to give a slight sketch
of those results of the great struggle which appear
most important in relation to general history, and
especially as connected with the origin and growth
of Christianity.

C. R. C.

Guildford, 17M May^ 1879.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introduction— From Ezra to Simon, . . 9

Chronological -Table of Events, . . 18

Chap. I. — The National Life, . . .20

II. — The National Religion, . . 51

III.— The Revolt. 170 b.c— 165 e.g., . . 76

IV.— The Victories of Judas. 164 e.g., . 106

v.— Defeats AND Death OF Judas. 163-161 e.g., 134

VI.— The Surviving Brothers. 161-114 e.g., 161

VII.— The Results of Independence, . .185

Appendix.— Genealogy of the Hasmonean Family, 216

ERRATA

p. 29, line 5. — For "Shofah," read "Shofar."

P. 30, line 27. — For " Mishnaioth," read " Mishmaroth.

P. 169, line 25. — For "Meridarch," read "Meridiarch."

N OF aNTIOCHUS EPIPHANES.

JUDAS MACCABEUS.

INTRODUCTION.

FROM EZRA TO JUDAS.

JUDAS MACCABEUS is the central figure of one
of the most important periods of Jewish history —
a time when the nation struggled successfully to
attain independence, and during which the germs of
the later Jewish religious development first appeared,
and the foundation was laid of that condition of
Jewish society which existed in the time of Christ.

The public career of Judas extends only over eight
years, and the work he commenced was left to his
brothers and their descendants to carry out ; yet the
name of Judas stands out more distinctly than that
of any other leader of the age, and Jewish historians
of later times have ever loved to magnify his doings,
even at the expense of the later Hasmoneans, whose
actual achievements were more important.

lo Judas MaccabcBus.

It cannot, however, be said that this high estimate
of Judas is unjust. The later conquests may have
been more extensive, and the position of the later
native Jewish princes may have been more indepen-
dent and politically stronger. But it was Judas who
first dared, to withstand the foreign tyranny which
threatened to annihilate the Jewish faith, and it was
the genius of Judas which first pointed out the
measures, military and political, by which indepen-
dence might be best preserved. The later Hasmoneans
merely carried out the designs of which Judas was
the original author, and he may, therefore, be justly
regarded as the father of Jewish freedom.

In the following pages, I have attempted not only
to narrate the bare facts of the short career of Judas,
but also to give a sketch of the gradual development
of the nation during the period of independence, from
Ezra to the Herodian age, with some account of their
habits of life, their manners, and their religious contests
and tendencies, and with an estimate of the true value
of the achievements of Judas, as influencing the later
history of the Jews. From a study of the condition
and habits of the nation, we obtain a clear view of
the imm.ediate causes of the revolt, and the real
importance of the struggle will be seen to lie in the
development of the national character and religion,
which was the result of the freedom obtained by the
efforts of Judas.

Alexande7^ the Great. \\

In order to understand the causes of the revolt, it
is necessary, first, briefly to review the history of the
nation from the time of their return from captivity.

The book of Nehemiah closes about the year 435
B.C. At this time, the nation was once more re-estab-
lished in its native country, the city and the Temple
had been rebuilt, and the office of the high priest-
hood was once more constituted.

The immediate successors of Ezra the scribe are
known in Jewish history as " the men of the great
synagogue," and were regarded with a veneration
inferior only to that shown for the great men whose
works close the historical canon of the Old Testa-
ment. But little, however, is to be gathered of the
history of the nation, or of its chief men, during the
century which intervened between the time of Nehe-
miah and that of Alexander the Great ; and one short
chapter only is devoted, by Josephus, 'to the time
between the death of Eliashib, the High Priest of the
time of Nehemiah, and the visit of Alexander to
Jerusalem. It appears that during this century the
nation remained peacefully content under the Persian
rule, in enjoyment of religious freedom, and governed,
to a certain extent, by native chiefs.

In the year 333 B.C., the news of the advance of
Alexander the Great spread consternation in the
Holy City, and the report of his cruelties to the
people of Tyre overawed the Jews, and deterred them

12 Judas MaccabcBiis.

from any ideas of resistance. Ambassadors were
sent to meet the conqueror in the plain of Sharon ;
and as he approached Jerusalem, a long procession of
priests and elders, headed by the venerable High
Priest Jaddua, went out to await his arrival on the
plateau of Scopus, whence the advancing army could
be seen in the distance, and where Jerusalem first
struck the sight of the conqueror.

The wisdom and magnanimity of Alexander were
on this occasion specially evinced. He received in a
friendly manner the proffered submission of the Jews,
and showed the greatest deference to their religious
scruples. Under the guidance of the priests, he
offered sacrifices in the Temple — probably without
transgressing the law which forbade strangers to
enter the inner court — and he treated the High
Priest with marked respect. Thus, by tact and
toleration, he secured the friendship of a nation which
had so often resisted the greatest monarchs of the
Old World, and Palestine passed without a struggle
from the rule of Persia to that of Greece.

The visit of Alexander, so long remembered by the
Jews, had an influence of unexpected importance on
their future history ; for from the time of that visit
dates the establishment of a Jewish colony in Egypt,
and the foundation of a new religious sect.

From Jerusalem, Alexander marched to Egypt,
and was accompanied by a considerable Jewish con-

Alexaiidi'ia Founded. 13

tingent, enlisted with the understanding that they
were to be permitted to adhere to their own law and
customs. In return for the valuable services of this
force, Alexander conceded to them equal civic rights
with the Macedonians ; and after he had founded
Alexandria, tracing its walls with his own hands, he
allotted a separate quarter in that city to the Jews.

In the year 324 B.C. Alexander the Great died —
the great horn of the rough goat was broken (Daniel
viii. 21), "and for it came up four notable ones
towards the four winds of heaven" — ver. 8. Palestine
became part of the Asiatic kingdom of the family of
Seleucus reigning in Antioch, and Egypt was given
to the Ptolemies.

The first Ptolemy (son of Lagus) took Jerusalem in
the following year, entering it as though to offer
sacrifice on the Sabbath day. He also attacked and
conquered Samaria, and led as prisoners to Alexan-
dria a great number of both Jews and Samaritans,
who increased the colony already founded.

The next important episode in Jewish history
occurred in 277 B.C., when, by the request of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, Eleazar, the High Priest, sent the
seventy elders to Egypt to translate the Pentateuch
into Greek.

Under the earlier Seleucidae, Palestine attained to
a condition of prosperity, and the Jews to political
consideration, far beyond that enjoyed under Persian

14 Judas Maccab(2iis.

rule. The Asiatic successors of Alexander pursued
the same system of religious toleration which he had
inaugurated, and the relations between the orthodox
Jews and the heathen world were more friendly than
at any previous or subsequent period.

The attention of the Seleucidse was, moreover,
engaged with external affairs. Antiochus the Great
was attacked by the Romans, and defeated at Thermo-
pylae, and was forced to send his son Antiochus
(famous afterwards in the history of the Jewish
revolt) as a hostage to Rome. In the year 176 B.C.
Antiochus the Great died, and his son Seleucus, who
succeeded him, was shortly afterwards murdered,
leaving as rightful heir to the throne a son named
Demetrius : but Demetrius was in Rome at the time,
where he had been sent by his father to take the
place of his uncle Antiochus Epiphanes, the younger
son of Antiochus the Great. Thus the opportunity
presented itself to Epiphanes of seizing the throne of
the Seleucidae, and of usurping the rights of his
absent nephew — an opportunity which a man so bold
and unscrupulous was not slow to seize.

Meanwhile, Palestine had been given away by
Antiochus the Great, as the dower of his daughter
Cleopatra, who was married to Ptolemy Epiphanes,
King of Egypt. The first act of the new king,
Antiochus Epiphanes, was to set aside this arrange-
ment ; and, immediately after his accession, he entered

Antiochus Epiphanes. 15

Palestine and assumed control over its affairs, instal-
ling a new high priest at Jerusalem in the year
172 B.C. '

The internal dissensions of the Jews now, unfortu-
nately, drew attention to their affairs. They had no
longer to deal with a wise and great monarch, but
with a man of so violent and unscrupulous a character
that he would allow no obstacle to baulk him of his
will, and no considerations of justice or policy to
restrain his lawless tyranny. By his enemies, An-
tiochus Epiphanes was named Epimanes — "the
frantic" — and the title was well earned by the reck-
lessness of his expenditure, the intolerance of his
persecutions, and the folly of his projects of govern-
ment.

The High Priest, Onias the Third, died in the year
176 B.C., and was succeeded by his brother Jesus, or
Jason. Onias also left a son named Onias, and had
a third brother named Menelaus, and these two latter
became also claimants for the office of the high-
priesthood.

Antiochus Epiphanes took the part of the younger
brother, Menelaus. He had been sent by Jason, the
rightful heir, to Antioch with a present of 600
talents, but proved unfaithful to his trust, and with
a bribe of 900 talents induced the new usurper to
favour his own claim. On his first visit to Jerusalem,
in 172 B.C., Antiochus installed Menelaus in the office,

1 6 Judas Maccabceiis.

and Jason, though supported by the public voice, was
forced to fly to the land of the Ammonites.

Antiochus, becoming engaged in a quarrel with
Egypt, made four successive expeditions from Antioch
against that country, in every case passing down the
coast of Syria, and thus inflicting more or less misery
on its inhabitants. In the year 170 B.C., during the
second of these campaigns, he attacked Pelusium,
took Memphis, and would probably have subdued
Alexandria, but for the warning he received from the
Romans, which forced him to retire under pain of
their displeasure. Thus, with a treasury impoverished
by reckless expenditure, and with a discontented and
mutinous army, he once more reached the plains
below Jerusalem.

Unfortunately for the Jews, a report had spread
that Antiochus had been slain in Egypt, and Jason,
assisted by a large party, had surprised Menelaus in
Jerusalem, and had shut him up in the stronghold of
the city. This revolution afforded to Antiochus the
pretext which he was only too anxious to seize.
During his former visit he had become acquainted
with the wealth of the Jerusalem Temple, and from
his father he had learned to consider such riches as
legitimate plunder, Antiochus the Great having set
the first .example in his attempt to sack the Temple
of Diana in Elymais.

On hearing of the return of Jason, the army of

yerusalem Sacked, \y

Antiochus advanced on Jerusalem, and was admitted
by the faction which supported Menelaus. Thus
Jerusalerh was taken without a siege, and at once
delivered over to be sacked. A general massacre of
the inhabitants of every age and sex ensued, the
public buildings were burnt, the Temple was dese-
crated, great numbers of Jews were taken captive
to be sold in Antioch, the golden candlestick, the
altar of incense, all the sacred vessels, and even the
veils and crowns of the sanctuary, were carried away.
Menelaus was once more installed as High Priest, and
a Phrygian governor was left to assist him. The
unhappy Jason fled to Egypt, and afterwards^ to
Sparta, where he died, and Antiochus, in the words of
the Book of Daniel, returned "into his land with
great riches." — Dan. xi. 28.

Such were the events immediately preceding the
revolt, which broke out two years later at Modin. In
order more clearly to appreciate them, a table of
dates and principal events is appended to this Intro-
duction. Having thus briefly narrated the history
leading up to the first scene of our hero's life, we may
now glance at the social and religious condition of
the nation at his time, before we proceed to the story
of his own brief but eventful career.

18

Judas MaccabcBiis,

Chronological Table of Events from Ezra to Simon the

B.C.

466
460
447
435
424

405
359
338
334
333
324
313
310

305
302
285
277
276
263
250

248

247
228
225
222
219
205
199
181
176
172
170
168
165

Hasmonean.

Accession of Artaxerxes Longimanus.
Ezra sent to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah sent to Jerusalem.
End of the Book of Nehemiah.
Accession of Darius II,

,, Artaxerxes II.

,, Ochus I.

,, Arogus I.

„ Darius III.

Alexander visits Jerusalem.
Death of Alexander.
Era of the Seleucidse.

Accession of Ptolemy I., son of Lagus.

,, Antiochus I., Soter.

, , Ptolemy II. , Philadelphus.

The Septuagint translation made.

Accession of Antiochus II., Theos.
Antigonus of Soccho President of the

Sanhedrim.
Accession of Seleucus II.

Ptolemy III., Euergetes.

Seleucus III.

Antiochus III., the Great.

Ptolemy IV., Philopater.

Ptolemy V., Epiphanes.
Joseph farms the taxes (Ant. xii. 4).
Jose ben Joasus President of Sanhedrim.
Accession of Ptolemy VI., Philometer.
,, Antiochus Epiphanes.

Antiochus takes Jerusalem.
Revolt of the Jews.
Restoration of the Temple.

Eliashib High Priest.
Joida 11. High Priest.

Jonathan I. High Priest.

Jaddua High Priest.
Onias I. High Priest.

Simon I. High Priest.

Eleazar II. High Priest.
Manasseh High Priest.

Onias II. High Priest.

Simon II. High Priest.

Onias III. High Priest.

Jason High Priest,
Menelaus High Priest.

Chronology. ig

163 Sabbatic year. Antiochus V., Eupator,

takes Jerusalem.
162 Accession of Demetrius. Alcimus High Priest.

161 Death of Judas Maccabseus.
160 Joshua ben Pheraki President of the

Sanhedrim. Jonathan High Priest.

143 Simon IH. Ethnarch of the Jews and

High Priest.
142 First year of Jewish independence.

N.B. — This table is taken from that given by Mr. F. R. Conder in " Cassell's
Bible Educator."

CHAPTER I.

THE NATIONAL LIFE.

"AS for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a
-^ maritime country, nor do we delight in mer-
chandise, nor in such a mixture with other men as
arises from it ; but the cities we dwell in are remote
from the sea, and having a fruitful country for our
habitation, we take pains to cultivate that only. Our
principal care is this — to educate our children well,
and we think it to be the most necessary business of
our whole life to observe the laws that have been
given us, and to keep those rules of piety that
have been delivered down to us." — Josephus contra
Apion, i. 12.

Such is the description which Josephus gives
of Jewish life in his own time. He represents his
fellow-countrymen as agriculturists rather than traders,
and as intent chiefly on the observance of the Law
of Moses. -Such an account, though given as repre-
senting the national life in the Herqdian age, must
evidently apply still better to the less advanced

Absence of a Middle Class, 21

civilisation of the earlier period now under considera-
tion ; and so conservative is the Eastern character,
that we' find the Jews hardly advanced in the time of
the Hasmoneans from the simplicity of the social
system in the first days of the consolidation of the
nation under Samuel ; while, on the other hand, we
find in the peasant life of modern Palestine an almost
exact reproduction of that of the lower classes at the
period under consideration.

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the
social system of the Jews seems to have been the
entire absence of the middle class — that important
estate which grows gradually with the advance of
civilisation and with the development of trade. The
nation seems to have been divided in the second
century before Christ into two classes — the educated
and the ignorant — the priests and townsmen of higher
rank belonging to the one, the villagers and agricul-
tural population to the other.

The division is almost as marked at the present
day as it was then, and the upper class speak of the
Fellah, or "tiller," with a contempt which reminds
one of the Jewish scorn of the " untaught" and
" beasts of the people."

The upper class consisted of that " holy seed "
which was able to trace back its genealogy to the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzar, and it included the families of the twenty-four

22 Judas MaccabcBUs.

orders of priests. The lower class of the Hidiiit, or
" ignorant," consisted probably in great measure of
the descendants of the aboriginal Canaanite popula-
tion, mixed with the Philistine, Cuthean, or Phoenician
elements in the southern, central, and northern dis-
tricts of the land respectively.

In sketching the national life, we have thus to
consider separately that of these two distinct classes,
which, though living together and forming one nation,
were yet distinguished by their language and their
religion not less than by their occupations and social
position.

The language of the mass of the people was no
longer Hebrew, but Aramaic, and the classic tongue
in which the Law and the Prophets were written was
unintelligible to the lower class. As early as the time
of Ezra a translation of the holy books was required,
as we find recorded in the famous passage where it is
related that "they read in the book in the law of
God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to
understand the reading." — Neh. viii. 8. To this
system of interpretation the origin of all the later
Targums is traced, for they were at first paraphrases
in Aramaic, which gradually became formulated, and
which finally were committed to writing after the
Christian era.

Popular sayings and proverbs are said to have been
preserved in Aramaic from an even earlier period

Characters used in Writing, 23

than the Hasmonean times, and this dialect remains
even now, with but slight modification, the language
of the Fellahin in Palestine.

The language of the educated was the "tongue of the
Holy House," the original Hebrew of the times before
the captivity. It stood to Aramaic somewhat in the
relationship of Latin to Italian, and became the sacred
literary language in which the earlier comments on
the Law were written.

The character generally employed in writing at
this period appears to have been the ancient Libonai,
resembling the Phoenician : the square character
was however also employed, exclusively for sacred
writing. Coins struck after the revolt still exist,
with inscriptions in the earlier forms approaching the
Phoenician, Moabite, and Samaritan letters. The
Jews assert that the square letters were introduced
by Ezra, and state that the classic language and the
square letters were used by the learned, but the old
letters and the Chaldean or Aramaic tongue by the
ignorant; "and who are the ignorant.'*" the writer
continues — " they are the Cuthim." If the Jewish
assertion be correct, the square alphabet must at this
early period have been considered sacred, and was
not used for any secular purpose such as that of the
stamp on coins.

An inquiry into the life of the educated class of
Jews in the second century before Christ should

24 Judas MaccabcBMS,

include some account of the system of government
and of education, the condition of the sciences and
arts, of manufactures and commerce. A few words
may first be said on these questions before describing
the customs of the larger class of the Hidhit, or
*' ignorant" — the mass of the people who were engaged
purely in agricultural and pastoral occupations.

The central idea of Jewish government, religious
or civil, and of Jewish education, moral or intellectual,
was the fulfilment of the Law. Education meant
knowledge of the Law ; Government, the enforcing of
the Law; Policy, the application of the Law to relations
with the heathen. The commands of Moses formed
the standard by which the value of everything was to
be measured, and the rule by which all action was to
be guided.

The Jews under Antiochus were probably worse
governed than even the Syrians of the present day
under the Turks ; for whilst the Koran is the standard,
religious and civil, both of the Turk and of the
Moslem Syrian, the Law of Moses was not recognised
as a legal system by the myrmidons of the Seleucidae.
In one respect, however, the Governors sent by
Antiochus no doubt resembled the Pachas of the
nineteenth century, the main idea of both being the
extortion of money on any convenient pretext,
partly by way of tax or tribute, partly on the
Governor's own private account.

Jewish Government. 25

The native method of government seems also
closely to have resembled that now existing in
Palestine, being the development of a system of
councils formed of the elders and more distinguished
local chiefs.

The principal Council sat in Jerusalem, and con-
sisted of seventy-one members. It was called the
Beth Din, or "house of debate," and the president
was entitled Nasi, while the vice-president was called
father of the Beth Din. This Sanhedrim held its
meetings in the stone chamber at one corner of the
main Temple Court. Men of every class, high or
low, rich or poor, priest or lay, were eligible, if
qualified by a reputation for sagacity and for know-
ledge of the Law. Criminal and civil cases were
tried (when permission was accorded by the Greek
Governor) before the Beth Din, and the 613 precepts
which summed up the whole duty of the devout
Jew — 365 prohibitory and 248 obligatory — were
enforced by this national tribunal.

Smaller councils, modelled on the same plan, but
consisting of twenty-four members only, sat in the
country towns. These seem to have resembled the
modern Mejdlis, or town councils, which exist in
the principal places in Palestine at the present day,
and which assist by their deliberations the Turkish
Governor and the religious judge, or Kadi.

The education of the young was, Josephus tells us,

26 Judas MaccabcBus.

the first care of the Jews, and the same sentiment is
echoed throughout Jewish Hterature. But by educa-
tion was understood simply the teaching of the Law
of Moses, for little else was known by the teachers.

Thus, as at the present day the Moslem child is
taught to read only the Koran, while a knowledge of
the elements of arithmetic is considered as equivalent
to a very advanced education in Europe ; so in the
year 170 B.C. a Jewish child in Palestine learned to
read the Holy Books at eight years old, and in the
later Jewish period to study the Mishna at ten. This
education was confined, however, evidently to the
upper class, and could only be obtained in places
where schools and teachers existed. The children of
the Hidittt, in the far-off villages, must have grown
up in ignorance, being probably employed in tending
flocks and herds, as peasant boys still are in Palestine,
and, like the Fellah boys, they cannot have known
how to write or read.

The schooling was directly connected with the
religious service of the people. Synagogues date
back apparently to the time of Ezra, and were useful
for the diffusion of religious knowledge. Of the
number of synagogues we cannot gain any idea, but
they existed even in Jerusalem, close by the Temple.
The service, of the synagogue was founded on that of
the Temple, and our English liturgy owes much to it.

The Shema, or exhortation, was followed by prayers

The Synagogue. 27

and psalms ; two lessons were read daily — the first
from the Law, the second from the Prophets — and a
Deresh^ or exposition, followed. The Hebrew was
explained by the reader, and the explanation was
gradually formulated, and at length written down and
became a Targum. The synagogue had an appointed
minister and elders, also ten or more Batlanim, or rich
" men of leisure," whose duty it was to form a quorum
of the congregation at every service. Each synagogue
had also its Chazzan, or clerk, who was generally the
village schoolmaster as well. There were three
services daily, and solemn days on the 2nd, 5th, and
7th days of the week. The synagogue was built so
that the congregation should stand facing Jerusalem,
the pulpit of the minister being in the middle. The
elders held the power of excommunication, or "putting
out of the synagogue" — a power still exercised by the
Jerusalem Rabbis.

Science formed no part of the orthodox education.
The study of Greek, or of any foreign tongue, was
discouraged by these teachers, who dreaded the per-
nicious influence of heathen philosophy. " It is
written," one Rabbi said of the Law, "'thou shalt
meditate therein day and night.' Find me an hour
which is neither day nor night, and in that you may
study Greek."

A people who had no calendar, but watched the
new moon rise, and signalled its appearance at

28 Judas MaccabcBus.

Jerusalem by lines of beacon fires, who occasionally
made errors even in this observation, and were at the
mercy of Samaritan mock-beacons, cannot be said to
have advanced far in astronomy. The mysteries of
astrology were perhaps not unknown to the Jewish
sect of the Mehistanites ; but in Ecclesiasticus, a
book not much earlier than the period now under
consideration, we find the suggestive exclamation,
" Who can measure the breadth of the earth ?" — i. 3.

Nor was the attention of the educated turned to
art. The work of the painter or sculptor is, and
always has been, regarded by Semitic nations with
horror, as an attempt on man's part to imitate the
Almighty in creation ; and the Jewish hatred of
graven images was, no doubt, partly due to the
licentiousness of the idolatrous worship among sur-
rounding nations. "Neither did the mischievous
invention of men deceive us, nor an image spotted
with divers colours, the painter's fruitless labour ; the
sight whereof enticeth fools to lust after it, and so they
desire the form of a dead image that hath no breath."
— Wisdom XV. 4, 5. Such are the characteristic words
of a writer of the period, and such was the stern and
puritanic spirit in which the Jew spoke of the aesthetic
worship of the Greek.

Music even had made no progress, and the instru-
ments used in the Temple service were few and rude.
The modern Syrian music is most distasteful to

yewish Poetry, 29

Europeans, and its only excellence consists in the
wonderfully good time kept by the performers. The
viol with two strings and a bow, the lyre struck with
a plectrum, the silver trumpet, the double pipe, the
shofah, or ram's-horn, and the cymbal, were used in the
Temple, but they were only employed as occasional
accompaniments to the voices. The cow-horn, Pan's-
pipe, Eolian harp, and " tabor," or small hand-drum,
were also known, and from this category we can
judge how poor the music must have been.

Poetry alone was unhampered by national preju-
dice ; and the tone of religious thought, delighting in
bold anthropomorphic descriptions of the actions of
the Deity, the language of an age of primitive
civilisation, gave free scope for poetic works, rivalling
even the sacred Psalms of David. Few passages in
the Old Testament are superior to the magnificent
description in the Wisdom of Sirach of the works of
God — " Look upon the rainbow, and praise Him that
made it ; very beautiful it is in the brightness thereof.
It compasseth the heaven about in a glorious circle^
and the hands of the Most High have bended it." —
Ecclus. xliii. 11, 12.

Such then was the condition of the upper class. A
people with its eyes turned back to the past, intent
only on the observance of the Law of Moses, waiting
calmly for the expected Prophet, reading their sacred
books, as the Roman Church still does, in a tongue

30 Judas MaccabcEiis.

unknown to the multitude, but, unlike the Church of
Rome, accompanying the reading with some attempt
at translation, however unfaithful the rendering may
have been to the original spirit of the Scripture.

It is impossible to lay too much stress on the fact
that religious observances formed the essence of the
Jewish life, at least as far as the upper class was
concerned. Every earthly consideration was made
subservient to that of following the commandments
of the Law, and not only inconvenience, but even
danger and death were cheerfully suffered rather than
infringe the observance of the Sabbath, or of the
Sabbatic year.

Twice every year every male Jew was commanded
to visit Jerusalem, and the organisation by which this
duty was carried out formed a fundamental part of
the individual and national life.

The priests were divided into twenty-four orders,
the names of which are given in the Bible, and the
division was as old as the time of David. — i Chron.
xxiv. These orders relieved one another every week
in the Temple service, the new order reaching the city
on Friday, and the old leaving on the first day of the
week. Thus a double company was always present
in the Temple on the Sabbath, and every order
visited the -Holy City twice in twelve lunar months.

Not only was this division into Mis/utaiotk, or
orders, organised for the sons of Aaron, but the whole

'' Standing Men.'' 31

nation was divided in a corresponding manner, and a
certain proportion of the laity visited the Temple
with each company of priests. Thus, whatever the
occupation of the layman, and wherever his home
might be, he was bound twice a-year to go up with
the priests of his district to Jerusalem, and to remain
there a week. No organisation could be better fitted
to preserve the purity of the national faith, and
nothing can better show how vital an element religion
must have formed of the national life than the fact
that it was found possible to enforce so strict a rule
upon the laity as well as upon the priesthood. The
position of the " standing men," or representatives of
the congregation — who, as being specially purified,
were admitted to an inner part of the Temple — was
held in the highest esteem. These representatives
stood in the raised cloister which ran north and south
in front of the Altar Court, ten feet above the level of
the great square enclosure where the main part of the
congregation gathered, with the women in galleries
round the open court. Fifteen steps led from the
Court of the Women to the great gate Nicanor, and
to the cloister of the " standing men." On the fifteen
steps the Levites chanted the Songs of Degrees (Ps.
cxx.-cxxxiv.), and the priests stood up on the dwarf
wall which rose between the people and the altar, close
above the cloister of the "standing men," and thence
blessed the congregation. An impassable barrier

32 yudas MaccabcBus.

fenced off the worshippers from the priests in the
Altar Court, and to this barrier the selected and
honoured representatives called "standing men" were
allowed to approach the nearest.

The great religious festivals of the year also became
occasions of social intercourse between the inhabitants
of remote districts, and thus united the nation.

The Jews had, properly speaking, no calendar. The
feasts of trumpets, which celebrated each new moon,
were regulated by actual observation of the Crescent.
Throughout Palestine, the appearance of the slender
sickle, which shines so brightly in the clear Oriental
heaven, was watched with eager eyes, and those who
first saw it hastened to report it to the Beth Din in
Jerusalem. Even the law of the Sabbath-day's
journey was abrogated to allow these messengers to
proceed at once to the capital ; and it is said that, on
one occasion, forty pairs of witnesses passed through
Lydda alone on the Sabbath, intent on the errand
which seemed so important to this primitive people.

The witnesses were obliged to be men of good
character, and were very closely questioned by the
Sanhedrim. If they had only seen a reflexion in
water, or a doubtful portion of the luminary through
clouds, or if they had seen the new moon through
glass, their, evidence was disallowed, and their journey
was fruitless. Here, probably, we trace the origin of
the superstition that it is unlucky to see the new moon

Feasts and Fasts. 33

first through glass. Certainly it was unlucky for
the witness who had made a laborious journey in
vain.

The evidence was taken until the time of evening
prayer on the last day of the old month. When it
had been clearly proved that the new moon was
visible, a beacon was lighted on Olivet, and when
this was seen, other beacon-fires spread through
Palestine until the land was in a blaze from north to
south. If, however, by reason of storms or other
natural causes, the moon was not seen, the month
was only lengthened by one day, and the new month
began on the second.

The Jewish year commenced at the vernal equinox,
and the Passover occurred early in April. In the
end of May the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was
celebrated, and in the beginning of October the booths
of the Feast of Tabernacles were built. To these
three ancient festivals a fourth was added in later
times, and the Feast of Purim, at which wine was
drunk in inordinate quantities, was celebrated in the
beginning of March, and commemorated the national
deliverance by Esther. At the Feast of Tabernacles,
and at that of Purim, palms were borne by the
worshippers, and afterwards laid up on the roof of the
Temple cloisters. On the first of these anniversaries
the Temple was illuminated.

Six fasts were also yearly observed, including the
c

34 Judas MaccabcBUS. .

great Day of Atonement. The first occurred in the
beginning of July, in memory of five national
calamities; the second fast, in the end of the same
month, was on account of the destruction of Solomon's
Temple ; the third was the great Day of Atonement,
in the end of October ; the fourth, lasting three days,
commemorated the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzar, in December ; the last v/as the Fast of Esther,
preceding Purim. Later festivals, instituted in the
times of which we are now treating, will be noticed
in due course.

We find in the Talmud the most minute details of
the observances during these festivals ; but, among all
the religious ceremonies, those of the solemn Day of
Atonement are most fully explained, a whole treatise
being devoted to the details of the service as observed
in the later times.

On that day the goat consecrated to Azazel was
led forth to the wilderness, bearing the sins of the
people on its head. A remarkable modification in
the Law, or rather perhaps a strained reading of its
directions, was introduced latterly into the service.
The unhappy goat was indeed loosed when it reached
the dreary desert cliffs above Jericho ; but the
messenger who led it pushed the animal over the edge
of a steep slope, and it rolled down about looo feet,
and was killed by the fall. The scene of this unique
custom is to be found on the great hill, with steeply

Trades and Industries, 35

sloping sides, where the old name of Tzook, applied
in the Talmud to the mountain in question, still
lingers, at the exact distance from Jerusalem men-
tioned in the tract Yomah.

There is no evidence that the Jews were er^gaged
in commerce at this period. Josephus states that,
even in his own day, they were not addicted to trade ;
and in the Books of Maccabees husbandry is men-
tioned, but trade is not. The Holy Land had no
harbours, and its primitive cultivation did not leave
much produce to export. What was required of
woven or spun materials the Jews made for themselves,
and there were potters, dyers, and tanners in the
country just as there are now. Of metallurgy
probably something was known, for smiths' work was
necessary for the forging of ploughshares and mat-
tocks. Foreign merchants seem also to have visited
the country; but con^merce and manufacture are
probably at the present day much what they were in
the Hasmonean times, and the Jewish dislike to mix
with the heathen must have been fatal to any exten-
sive interchange of produce.

Turning next to the lower class of the Hidiut, or
"ignorant," we find them leading an agricultural and
pastoral life.

Their language, as before said, was the Aramaic or
Chaldee dialect, and Hebrew was not understood. It
follows that, in the more remote villages, where there

l6 Jtidas MaccabcBus,

were no schools or synagogues, and where the popu-
lation consisted of peasants unable to write or read,
there can have been but little knowledge of the Law
of Moses. At a later period we find mention of the
common people, who were " ignorant of the Law," and
in the Talmud various writers look forward to a
millennium, when every soul in Palestine should be
acquainted with its precepts ; from which we may
perhaps fairly infer that such universal knowledge
had never existed, even in the palmiest days of
Jewish independence.

There are indications in Jewish literature which
tend to show that the old worship of the "high
places," which the children of Israel were commanded
to destroy, was never entirely stamped out. Some
of these idolatrous shrines existed, and were held
sacred, even in the 4th century of the Christian
era. In the Mishna, this worship is considered a
subject of sufficient importance to demand a tract to
itself, and instances of trees in Palestine, locally held
sacred, but officially condemned by the Rabbis, are
given in the treatise on " Foreign Worship."

Nor is this worship of local divinities extinct even
at the present day. The modern Mukam replaces
the ancient Makom, or " place," consecrated to some
traditional prophet or chief to whom supernatural
powers are ascribed. Sacred trees still exist all over
the country, and sacrifices and processions entirely

Rustic Life, 37

disconnected with the ritual of the Moslem religion
are locally observed.

Distinguished alike by religion and language, the
rustic population led a life of toil and misery,
oppressed by the foreign rulers, neglected and
despised by the upper class of their nation. They
were born, they married, and they died — such was
their story, generation after generation. Their reli-
gion, as far as they could understand it, was adverse
to progress, and commanded them absolutely to
abhor innovation. The children were sent to feed
the flocks and herds as soon as they were of sufficient
age, and thus they had no opportunity for acquiring
even the rudiments of education. Thus in the
peasant of Hasmonean times we find no advance on
the same class in the days of Samuel, while the
modern Fellah probably presents a living picture of
the aboriginal "hewers of wood" and "drawers of
water" even as far back as the time of Joshua.

Of the family and social life of the second century
before Christ we can only gain an idea from the
scattered notices in the literature of the period.

A Jew, like a Moslem, was allowed four wives.
This custom was based, like every other Jewish
custom, on a venerable precedent. Jacob had four
wives ; therefore, it followed that the number must
have been divinely permitted. In the same way, the
Samaritans now allow two wives if one be childless,

38 Judas Maccabcetis.

acting on the same precedent, but ignoring the claims
of the two inferior wives of the Patriarch. But
though a rich townsman may occasionally have
had the full number, the poor peasant, as a rule,
cannot often have afforded to support more than one,
or at the most two. So, at the present day, the
number is regulated not so much by law as by the
poverty of the Fellahin.

The position of the wife cannot easily be estimated.
The modern Jewish women are held in very low
estimation, and live in constant terror of divorce. In
the Talmud, the most cynical and contemptuous
estimate of the moral and intellectual nature of
women is observable, and \vas no doubt, to a certain
extent, justified by the actual condition of Jewish
female education.

On the other hand, the Bible and the early writings
of post-Biblical date are full of the praise of good
women as contrasted with bad ones. Famous women
appear throughout the whole range of Jewish history,
from Miriam to Judith. The authority of the mother
over her children is again and again enforced in the
writings of Solomon, and in the later imitations of
his works. "A silent and loving woman," says the
son of Sirach, " is a gift from the Lord, and her con-
tinent mind cannot be valued."

Marriage, in the eyes of the Jew, was a religious
duty inculcated in the very commencement of the

Marriage, Birth, aitd Death. 39

Torah, and in later times the bride had the additional
reason for desiring children that any one of her sons
might prove to be the Messiah. The men were
married at the early age of eighteen, the girls at
twelve, which is still the age at which Jewish girls
are wedded. There were three kinds of nuptials
recognised by the law, and a regular betrothal pre-
ceded marriage. The girl's consent was asked after
the arrangements for the alliance had been made
between the bridegroom and the bride's father, and
this also on Patriarchal precedent, for Rebecca was
asked by Bethuel, "Wilt thou go with this man.?"
The bride was accompanied by her companions in
procession, with songs and dances, and a dowry
was paid by the husband — customs still universally
observed in the East.

The ceremonies of the naming and circumcision of
children were also probably much the same as those
observed from the earliest period. Of these we have
no special notice in the Hasmonean times ; but Jewish
custom is known to have forbidden feasting on the
occasion of the birth of a child.

No special ceremonial appears to have existed with
regard to burials. The nearest relatives accompanied
the corpse, and the women uttered the shrill cries
still heard at funerals. It seems probable that
professional mourners were employed (Jeremiah ix.
17), and all who met a funeral were expected to

40 Judas MaccabcBUs.

join in the procession. Purification was necessary
after the ceremony, and the visiting of the grave
was probably never a Jewish custom, being contrary
to the whole spirit of their views as to contamination
by a dead body. Costly monuments were never
erected ; the rolling door of the rude rock-cut tomb
closed on the dead, who entered the " House of
Eternity," and no certain hope of immortality
consoled the mourners. " The covenant of the
grave," says the son of Sirach, " is not showed thee."
■ — Ecclus. xiv. 12.

The appearance of the country in the old days was
probably, on the whole, very like that which it still
presents. There is no evidence that any part of
Palestine was ever, within the historic period, covered
with those forests which many writers suppose to
have formerly existed, or that the rainfall or supply
of water in running streams has decreased. The
springs and rivers noticed in Scripture still flow with
water, and the deserts of Scripture are still deserts.
The wild growth of copse and oak-wood now existing
answers to the Hebrew nomenclature of the old
natural vegetation, and the long rolling limestone
ridges, the sharp precipices, the open plains and
downs, present to our eyes the same features as of old.

Only in one respect is there a marked change — in
the decay of cultivation throughout the land. This is
an indisputable fact. In the middle of thick copses,

Scenery of Palestme, 41

the traveller still comes across the old rude-stone
towers of the ancient orchards. On the bare hill-
sides he. finds magnificent wine-presses cut in the
rock, and in the districts where the white chalk
prevails, the hills are contoured with endless terraces
excavated on their slopes, and now only growing
thorns and thistles. The present population of the
whole of Syria is less than that of London, and the
land is desolate because of the steady decrease of the
native inhabitants.

The appearance of the country, when thoroughly
cultivated, must have been one of unusual fertility
and prosperity, though not of romantic beauty. The
rugged hills of Hebron were indeed clothed with the
thick copsewood of Hareth ; Carmel was then, as now,
covered with bushes ; and the lower hills of Galilee,
with the plain of Sharon, were beautified by thick
oak-woods, surrounding the bright shallow streams
which still run over the rocky beds of the valleys.
On the other hand, bare and waterless deserts stretched
along the east of the watershed ; the ghastly Jeshimon,
or " solitude," reached to the crags which bound the
Dead Sea on the west ; the Wilderness of Beth-Aven
was stony and barren then as now ; and the open
plains of Beersheba grew only grass and flowers,
serving in spring as rich pasturage for the nomadic
tribes. The Jordan valley was also uncultivated, and
the swamps of the river afforded cover to outlaws

42 Judas Maccabceus.

and fugitives ; for the palm cultivation, which was
first commenced by Herod the Great, had not yet
been attempted, and the great capabilities of the
Jericho soil were unknown.

In such districts the country had very much the
same appearance in the second century before Christ
that it now presents ; but in those parts where culti-
vation was possible, the aspect of the scenery was
probably more pleasing. Throughout the district of
the Shephelah, or low hills, the yellow corn crowned
the flat summits, and covered the red soil of the
valleys. On the higher hills, the long apple-green
vineyards spread terrace above terrace, as they still
do in the fastnesses of Hermon. The dark soft
foliage of the great olive groves in the broader valleys
contrasted with the sparse, straggling leaves of the
fig-trees which flourished on the higher ground.
Water for irrigation was stored in cisterns long since
broken, and it is by no means necessary to suppose
that the natural supply was then more plentiful than
it now is.

How far this condition of prosperity had been
developed in the Hasmonean times, it is not easy to
determine ; probably the cultivation differed almost
from year to year, according to the tranquillity of the
land, just as it does at the present day ; and no doubt,
during the period of the revolt, agriculture must have
suffered where the contest was being carried on.

Jewish ArchitedMre. 43

The picture, as a whole, may, however, be taken to
represent Jewish Palestine almost from the time of
Samuel to that of Herod.

There is a second question which deserves notice,
as rendering more vivid our appreciation of the
appearance of ancient Palestine, namely, that of the
original Jewish architecture. The enthusiasts who
have expected to unearth by deep excavations former
monuments of Jewish splendour, have always been,
and will always be, doomed to disappointment.
There is no good reason to suppose that the Jews
were ever a race of great builders. From their
literature we obtain quite a different impression, and
the known antiquities of the land serve to strengthen
the impression.

In the Bible we find no buildings thought worthy of
special notice, except the successive Temples in Jeru-
salem. These latter were remarkable more for their
huge proportions than for their architectural beauty.
The Holy House itself was at best a very heavy-looking
building ; the great altar was merely a structure of
unshaped stones imbedded in mortar, and white-
washed. And, in addition to this, even the original
Temple was not the work of Jews, but of foreign
masons hired by Solomon.

That the Jews were skilful in rock excavation there
is much to indicate. The cisterns hewn in the rock,
the artificially-scarped walls of rock on which the

44 Judas MaccabcBtis,

older towns stood, the rock-cut tombs and passages,
steps and platforms, which are found at the ancient
sites, are plainly attributable to Jewish times. But
beyond these rude and primitive works, which are
remarkable for the roughness of their finish and the
irregularity of their angles, we find little that can be
confidently ascribed to the early periods before the
Christian era.

The Canaanite towns, which Joshua In a single day
reduced to a heap of ruins, cannot have been exten-
sive or very firmly built. The city which Joab would
have drawn with cords into the river, the house sup-
ported on two pillars which Samson pulled down,
the cottage roof torn up to give room for the paralytic
man's bed to be lowered — these various episodes
suggest that the architecture of ancient Palestine was
not far different from that of the modern Syrians.
In the Bible, we find the towns divided into fenced
cities and open villages ; the former had walls of
stone, the latter had none. So, in Galilee, fenced
cities surrounded by walls are still found, which were
fortified by the great native families, while in positions
of less strategical value the villages are open and
undefended. Tacitus also remarks that "a great
part of Judea is com^posed of scattered villages."

We are then apparently justified in concluding that
the architecture of the Hasmonean age was not in
advance of the modern native architecture. Explorers

Agriculture. 45

have failed to find any remains which show the Jews
to have been at any time a nation of builders, and the
land is now so well known, that it seems highly
improbable that any remains of indisputable antiquity
will be found beyond the primitive rock excavations,
cisterns, scarps, caves, and tombs.

From the Jewish writings we may also gather a
fairly vivid picture of the usual occupations of the
peasantry in Jewish times.

In an ordinary year, rain was to be expected at the
autumnal equinox, and it continued until the vernal
equinox, the great storms of these two seasons being
known as the "former" and "latter" rain. The
ground was ploughed just before the rainy season,
and the sowing began in October. The barley was
green and high in April, and the wheat was ripe in
May, in the plains. The fruit season began about
September. Millet, cummin, lentiles, vetches, melons,
and cucumbers were also cultivated where water and
good soil existed. Such was the natural produce in
the Hasmonean times, and such it still is in the
present day.

The land was cleared of stones and thorns, was
ploughed, though not deeply, and cross-ploughed,
and was also allowed to lie fallow ; but the rotation
of crops was either unknown or considered contrary
to the spirit of the Law, which forbade mixing various
seeds.

46 Jitdas MaccabcBUs.

In May and June the harvest began. The corn
was cut and stacked in round cocks, much Hke hay-
in England. The carts conveyed it to the village
threshing-floors; and the "corner of the field" and
gleanings were left for the poor. The barley was
ready a fortnight before the wheat, and there was a
considerable difference in the harvest-time in the
mountains and in the plains.

Brought to the Goran, or threshing-floor (now
called Jitrn)^ the corn was trampled by oxen, and the
rude sledge, called Moreg (now Mi\rej\ was dragged
over it by horses or other beasts. The grain was
heaped up in the centre of the open rock platform
which formed the threshing-floor; it was winnowed
by tossing with shovels and forks, such as are still in
use, and it was finally shaken in a sieve.

Two other principal crops were cultivated then as
now — the olive, which spread in long shady groves
over the western slopes ; the vine, whose grapes were
most luscious when filled by the autumn mists in the
mountains, where the frost invigorated the plants in
winter.

Such were the agricultural pursuits of the peasantry,
and in addition to these they had the care of
their flocks and herds. From the earliest period
we find both pastoral and agricultural districts in
Palestine, and find them just where they still remain.
The mountains of Judea and Samaria, and the higher

Nomadic Life, 47

ranges of Upper Galilee, with the low hills to the
west, are now the agricultural parts of the country.
The plain of Sharon, the desert of Beersheba, and
the lower slopes of the hills above the Judean desert,
together with the Jordan valley, are the pastoral
districts. They are inhabited by nomadic tribes,
descendants of the ancient Arabs and Midianites of
the earlier period ; but the peasantry on the border-
land are also owners of large flocks and herds, which
find pasturage at the edge of the pastoral districts ;
and throughout Palestine every village owns some
cows and goats, and finds places where they can
be fed.

This sort of mixture of agriculture and pastoral life
can be traced even as early as the times of the
Patriarchs : being themselves nomads and owners of
cattle, they fixed their abode in the plains of Beer-
sheba and Gerar, where the open, untilled land
afforded rich food for their beasts. But the children
of Heth and the sons of Hamor were owners of fields
and orchards in Hebron and Shechem, which were
secured by legal rights. The peasant boys of David's
time sheltered their flocks in the great caves, which
are still used as sheepfolds, along the skirts of the
Judean desert ; and Nabal the Carmelite was at
once a householder and an owner of cattle in a district
where the settled population is still remarkable for
the number of its flocks and herds.

48 Jtidas MaccabcBus.

The character of the peasantry seems also to have
borne a strong resemblance to that of the modern
Fellahin. Untaught and uncared for, tortured with
fever and eye-sore, with paralysis and leprosy, unable
to read or write, and grossly superstitious, they were
yet remarkable for that dignified courtesy which is
distinctive of Eastern peoples ; and though the exclu-
sive feeling which confined their ideas of the duties
of hospitality to their " neighbours" (by which term
they understood those of their own race and kin to
be intended) made them appear brutal in the eyes of
strangers, still among themselves there was no doubt
a strong feeling of clanship and of mutual helpfulness.
The morality and truthfulness of the lower class was
not, however, it would appear, more remarkable of
old than it is now. " A lie is a foul blot in a man,"
says the son of Sirach ; " yet is it continually in the
mouth of the untaught." — Ecclus. xx. 24.

With regard to the dress and arms of the period,
we have, at best, little information ; yet the con-
servatism of the Semitic people in all such matters,
together with the primitive character of the native
dress in the Palestine of to-day, leads to the supposi-
tion that the ancient costumes were much like the
modern. Of this conservatism we have a curious
instance in the history of the growth of Hellenism
in Jerusalem, where it is recorded of the High Priest
that he "brought the chief young men under his

Dress and Arms, 49

subjection, and made them wear a hat. Now such
was the height of Greek fashions and increase of
heathenish manners through the exceeding profane-
ness of Jason, that ungodly wretch and no high
priest." — 2 Mace. iv. 12.

The simple dress of the country-people consisted
of the shirt, the camel's-hair cloak, the broad leather
belt, shoes with latchets, and in winter the warm
sheepskin jacket. On their heads they probably wore
some kind of turban or head-shawl, and the women
still continued to favour the henna-painting and
tattooing of Jezebel, and the "round tires like the
moon" against which Isaiah had inveighed (Isaiah
iii. 18), and which, with other primitive articles of
dress, are still worn in Palestine.

The dress of the higher class is also probably un-
changed, the articles enumerated as parts of the priest's
costume in the book of Exodus being essentially
the same as that now worn by the sacred Sheikhs and
Sokhtas in Jerusalem — the coat of linen, the bonnet
and breeches of the same, and the variegated waist-
shawl of needlework. — Exod. xxxix. 29.

The arms and armour of the period also deserve a
word of notice ; and here again the change is slight,
except in as far as the introduction of gunpowder
among the Arabs has modified the use of defensive
armour. The spear and javelin, which have now been
superseded by the flint-lock gun, were used by foot-

50 Judas Maccabmis.

men, and a sword, which, like that now in use,
resembled rather a Khanjar^ or large knife, than an
European sword. Bucklers were also worn, and the
bow and stone-bow were employed. Even as late as
the 14th century the bow and buckler were in use,
as described by travellers, among the Syrian Arabs,
or Saracens.

The defensive armour consisted of the mail-coat
(Sirion) which is still worn east of Jordan, and of the
Kubah, or " cup," a steel cap, probably with a nose-
piece and spike as at present. Judas himself is
spoken of as wearing a breastplate, but in a manner
which seems to show that such heavy armour was
rarely employed. — i Mace. iii. 3.

The Jews were not a nation of horsemen. Their
tactics were those of light irregular infantry. Their
principal victories were won in places where the
nature of the ground neutralised the enemy's supe-
riority in cavalry. Still the Runih, or lance, is
mentioned in the Bible, and if it resembled the
weapon now known by the same name — a cane-lance,
ten to fifteen feet long, with a knife-like steel head —
it was entirely unfitted for the use of unmounted
men, as indeed was the mail-shirt, which is now
worn only by horsemen.

CHAPTER II.

THE NATIONAL RELIGION.

IN the preceding- chapter we have considered the
nation mainly from a social point of view. It
has, however, been pointed out that religious duties
formed the main employment of Jewish life among
the higher class, and that every other consideration
was sacrificed by the pious to the strict and minute
observance of the various ordinances of the Law.

It is now necessary to obtain a clear idea of the
state of religious parties at the time of the revolt ; for
it will be found that one of the main causes of the
outbreak was a reaction from the latitudinarian
tendencies of the party headed by the High Priests
Jason and Menelaus.

In considering these questions, it is of the utmost
importance to remember that the Semitic race
naturally regards every religious question from a
point of view entirely different from Aryan ideas.
The fundamental bases of their faith are different^
from those which lie at the root of all the Aryan

52 Judas MaccabcBus,

natural religions, and the adoption of heathen fancies
grafted on to Hebrew theology resulted in an
unnatural doctrine which never took root among the
people of Palestine.

Hence it appears to have arisen that, throughout
Jewish history, any attempt to bring about a fusion
with the Aryan dominant race has resulted in a
reaction which has left the Jews more proudly
isolated and more narrowly prejudiced than before.
It was so in the time of Ezra, in the Hasmonean
period, and even in the later Roman times.

The Jews who returned from Babylon were not
indeed like their fathers who went into captivity.
They had even lost their ancient language ; they had
been influenced by the religion of their Semitic
conquerors ; and they had imbibed many foreign
views ; some noble and refined, which recommended
themselves naturally to a nation having a spiritual
monotheistic religion of its own ; some fanciful and
grotesque, which mingled strangely with the dignified
solemnity of their original creed.

The natural disposition of the Semitic character is
remarkable for its child-like submissiveness and sim--
plicity. The same narrowness of view, the same
reverence for the " tradition of the elders," the same
belief in. the superiority of personal customs and
inherited habits as contrasted with all that is new
and strange, may be observed in the Semitic people,

yewish Conservatism, 53

viewed from a religious standpoint, and in the child
who has not as yet begun to think for itself. The
Semitic people do not seem to attain to that intellectual
hardihood which is necessary for original thought and
progress. They conceive nothing better or nobler
than that which has always been known to them, and
so continue to walk according to the commands
handed down to them by their fathers from of old,
and are anxious only to assure themselves that they
have understood those commands aright.

This child-like and reverential attitude constitutes
the basis of the Jewish religion, and to the same
unenquiring disposition of mind, characteristic of the
Semitic races, the tendency to a belief in the
marvellous, which is so strong among them, is
no doubt due. The conceit which arises from
isolation, and from ignorance of the progress made
by others, has also exerted a marked influence
on the history of the Jewish faith. In the time
of Moses the superiority of the nation to the
surrounding tribes was no doubt very remarkable ;
but the Jew continued to regard his nation as a
chosen race long after it had fallen far behind others
in civilisation, and to maintain stoutly that any
ordinance not in accord with the Law of Moses, or
which in any way tended to modify that Law by
adapting it to the manners of the heathen, was not
merely mistaken, but positively wicked.

54 Judas AlaccabcEZis.

Another point of striking contrast between the
Eastern and Western minds is the want of aesthetic
perception which characterises the former. The
worship of nature was foreign to the Jewish tempera-
ment. The passionate appreciation of the poetry which
surrounded him by land and by sea, in hill and
valley, formed the key-note of the Greek's religion and
the basis of his mythology. But the Jew lived in a
less beautiful land : careful cultivation was necessary
before it would yield enough to support life ; the rock
must be quarried to make stores for water ; the scanty
soil of the hill-side must be carefully terraced ; and
thus his daily life, passed in toil in a country devoid
of romantic scenery and under a burning sun, was
less enjoyable than that of the Greek. He saw in
nature the works of God — "very good," but only
intended for his use and profit. Soulless in them-
selves, they were destined to be burnt up in " fervent
heat" when no longer required. The Greek saw in
everything a portion of the great Divine soul of the
universe, and appreciated easily the truth of the
immortality of that soul. The Jew looked only to
the one personal Creator and Master of the whole,
and to the duties of the present world ; " for there is
no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
tl^ grave^ whither thou goest."

Such being the Semitic character, we find that the
influence of outer nations has never been permanent,

The Separatists, 55

or generally diffused. In the case of the revival under
Ezra, the personal character of the leaders seems to
have been eminently conservative. And it is at this
period that we first meet that cry for "separation"
which ultimately formed the strong ruling party of
the Pharisees.

The Jews returned from captivity to find their land
occupied by a mixed Semitic people. There were
the ancient Canaanite inhabitants, never quite exter-
minated, but living as serfs and tillers of the ground ;
there were the foreign colonists from Cutha, Ava,
Ham.ath, and Sepharvaim, introduced by the Assyrians,
and with whom the returning Israelites had mixed ;
and there were the haif-caste Jews,children of those who
had taken Canaanite, Egyptian, or Phoenician wives.

It would appear that the ruling party of the High
Priest was not adverse to this fusion of the various
Semitic tribes. He was himself allied to Sanballat,
the Samaritan leader, and it is doubtful whether the
latter was not of foreign extraction. It was the
party headed by Ezra and Nehemiah which first
advocated the separation of the "holy seed" from
those of mixed descent, and which condemned
alike, under one sweeping ban, as strangers and
uncircumcised, the heathen, the Samaritan, and the
half-caste Jew.

The party of the separatists was at first small ; the
rulers and the majority of the nation — less zealous for

56 Judas MaccabcBUS.

their religion — were content to take things as they
were. It was not until a later period that the gradual
growth of the Puritanical spirit increased the numbers
of the Pharisees, until they became more powerful
than the original ruling party. In the time of Simon
the Just the name Sadducee began first to be applied
to those who were content with the old orthodoxy ;
it was derived from a certain leader of the party, who
was named Sadoc, and Avas not a descriptive term
like the word Pharisee or " separatist."

The Sadducean party adhered to the original spirit
of the Law, which they regarded as a practical rule
of life, referring solely to the affairs of this world,
with which alone man was concerned. In common
with the Samaritans, the Sadducees failed to find in
the Law any reference to future life, and they gave
but little thought to the matter. The soul might be
immortal, or it might not; but as Moses had not
directed their attention specially to the matter, it
could not, they argued, be a question which it was
important for mankind to decide.

No doubt, the more ignorant went further, and
denied the Resurrection altogether — an accusation
which the Pharisees brought against the whole of
their opponents — but the Karaites, the oldest of the
Jewish sects, confined their teaching to the view that
the promised good and evil of the Law were to be
understood as referring to things temporal.

The Mehistanites. 57

The opposite sect of the Pharisees was, in Has-
monean times, yet in its infancy. The separation
under Ezra had originated the party, and the manifest
tendency of the Alexandrine, or Mizraimite, school
cannot but have strengthened the Purists in their
views ; but the Mishna, or oral law, was not yet
committed to writing, and the gradual development
of dogma which, as time went on, surrounded not
only that commentary, but also eventually the Gemara,
or comment on the Mishna, with a halo of sanctity,
can evidently not have been reached so early. The
Sadducees and Pharisees may justly be compared to
the English Evangelical and Ritualistic Church
parties; but in 170 B.C. the Ritualists were only just
arising, and the Evangelicals were the larger party.

During the captivity, the Jews had come into contact
with the Persian dual religion, with all its angelic and
demon forms, and their imagination had not been
unaffected. It is remarkable that we find no word in
the Old Testament which really expresses our notion
of a disembodied powerful spirit ; but this is not the
case in later Jewish writings. The Talmud is full of
ghost lore, and of the influence of good and evil
spirits. The Cabbalistic book Zohar gives the names
of many of the principal angels : Gabriel, Michael,
Uriel, and Raphael, seraphs standing in front, to the
right, to the left, and at the back of the throne of
Godj Duma, the angel of silence and death; Usiel

58 Judas MaccabcBUS.

and Samchasai, lovers of the daughters of men ; and
Samiel, prince of the powers of the air, who is iden-
tified with the serpent and with the evil Ahriman of
the Zend Avesta. There were spirits of water, hail,
bread, and fruits, and demons who inhabited the
meanest out-houses and assumed the most grotesque
forms. In this mythology we recognise the influence,
on a certain Jewish school, of an Aryan people, and
the same spirit which saw a genius, or nymph, in
every spring and stream.

The heretical school to which these tenets are
ascribed was called Mehistanite, and was the oldest
unorthodox Jewish sect, being traced back to the
times of the captivity. The book of Tobit, dating
not later than 200 B.C., is a production of this school,
and in it Asmodeus and Raphael appear in a contest
which reminds one of Persian dualism. Possession
by evil spirits, as described in that book, was one of
the prominent doctrines of the Mehistanites.

But in the time of Simon the Just, the successor of
Ezra, another influence was brought to bear on the
Jews — the influence of an Aryan nation far more
powerful and civilised than the Persians ; and the
effect was, for the time, more important and more
general. The visit of Alexander the Great resulted,
as has been noted in the Introduction to this volume,
in the establishment of a Jewish colony in Egypt,
and, from the time of his conquest of Palestine, the

The Hellenists, 59

Jews were thrown into communication with the
Greeks, and became famiHar with their national
customs and rehgious observances.

Returning — in disobedience to the spirit of the
Law — to the land of bondage, the Jews were also
once more brought into contact with the spiritual
religion of Egypt at the very time at which they
began to become acquainted with the philosophy of
Greece. The great problem of the imm.ortality of the
soul was ever prominent in the thoughts of those who
built the pyramids and invented the stern custom
of judging the past lives of the dead. The same
problem was discussed in every light by the various
philosophic schools of Greece.

Alexandria, under the Ptolemies, became the gate-
way of the East where Oriental life touched Western
civilisation, and where Rome, Antioch, and Carthage
found a common centre of commerce and intellectual
intercourse. There was thus a close connection
between the school of the Mizraimites or Egyptian
Jews, whose peculiar doctrines were due to the
influence of heathen philosophy on Jewish religion,
and the party of the Hellenisers, whose aim it was to
assimilate the social customs of the nation to the
manners of the Gentiles. A religious and a social
movement of liberal character was taking place, and
the name Mizraimite applied to the religious aspect,
while that of Hellenist indicated the social.

6o Judas MaccabcBus,

On the speculative systems of Greek and Egyptian,
the Jew looked from his own peculiar point of view.
It was impossible for a nation, whose education since
the time of Moses had tended solely to the abnega-
tion of personal opinion and to implicit faith in the
all-sufficiency of the Law, to accept freely the new
philosophy. Yet the Egyptian Jews seem to have
been attracted by Greek teaching, and it is indeed
possible that the Mizraimites found themselves in a
false position, for by returning to Egypt they had
disobeyed the plain spirit of that law which forbade
the King of Israel to do anything which might tend
to induce a return to the land of bondage. They
were thus naturally inclined to seek explanations
other than those which appeared plainly on the face
of their Sacred Books ; and the same motives which
led in the Jerusalem school to the most minute
criticism and most careful "hedging round" of the
Law, in order to secure the exact fulfilment of its
precepts, gave rise in Egypt to mystic and allegorical
interpretations which, like the specious evasions of
the Pharisees, explained away the manifest original
meaning of the Sacred Commandments, though they
had become, through long custom, too much a part
of the Jewish nature to allow of their being openly
renounced.

The Sacred Books were written, moreover, in a
classic language which was no longer generally under-

The Septuagmt. 6i

stood, and which held just the same relation to the
common tongue that the Vulgate Latin holds to the
modern Italian : Hebrew was the language of the
educated, and, though easily translated, the Books of
Moses were by themselves unintelligible. This
difficulty had been overcome at Jerusalem by the
expedient of public reading in the original, followed
by interpretation in Aramaic ; but this clumsy method
seems to have been insufficient to satisfy the Alex-
andrine Jews, amongst whom, in the century following
their establishment, there must have been many
students who were anxious to study the Law, but
who were only able to read Greek.

The immediate cause of the translation of the
Sacred Books into Greek is, however, stated by
Josephus to have been the desire of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus to understand Jewish institutions, and to add
a version of their Law to his library. The Jews of
Jerusalem were at this period feeling flattered by the
honours which had been lavished upon them by
powerful and civilised rulers. They had not yet
discovered the danger which lay in lending an ear to
the devices of the heathen ; and the heresy of the
Alexandrine school had not yet become sufficiently
pronounced to excite that alarm and repugnance
which, as will be seen, soon seized on the more con-
servative party. The royal request for experienced
translators was met with courtesy by the High Priest,

62 Judas MaccabcEus,

Eleazar IL, and in the 7th year of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus (B.C. 2"]^]), the seventy elders were sent to
Alexandria to translate into Greek the Sacred Torah.
How bitterly the nation afterwards repented its
temporary backsliding in complying with the per-
suasion of the heathen, is evidenced in the subsequent
establishment by the Pharisees of a fast on the 8th
of Tebeth in memory of the translation, and in their
prohibition to write copies of the Law with letters of
gold, such as had been employed in the original
Greek manuscript.

In the Septuagint version traces are still to be
found of the latitudinarian views of its authors. The
codex from which it was taken cannot have been
identical with those from which the English text is
derived. The anthropomorphisms of the Hebrew
have been expunged, studied variations are also to be
found, and passages occur which are not in our
English Bible, notably in the fourth chapter of
Genesis. In these respects the Greek translation
approaches very closely to the Samaritan Pentateuch,
but on the other hand it is generally admitted that
these versions have often preserved the meaning of
the original Hebrew, which was lost, later, by the
Jerusalem school.

The translation of the Pentateuch seems to have
been one of the main causes of the gradual estrange-
ment which grew up between the Alexandrine school

The Cabbala. 63

and the orthodox party at Jerusalem ; but at the
time at which the story of the war of Independence
opens, the Jews in Egypt were still directly under the
authority of the High Priest in the Holy Land. The
views of the Alexandrine Jews, or Mizraimites, were,
however, already very advanced.

As early as 160 B.C. a Jewish priest of Alexandria,
named Aristobulus, wrote and dedicated to Ptolemy
VI. a work most characteristic of those peculiar tenets
which resulted from an attempt to reconcile Faith
and Philosophy. He contended that the Peripatetic
philosophy was derived from the Law and the
Prophets, and to these latter he gave throughout
an allegorical interpretation. His works are full of
quotations from Orpheus and Musaeus, and are the
precursors of those mystic interpretations of the plain
letter of the Law which reached their fullest develop-
ment in the writings of Philo, the contemporary of
Christ.

It was in the Alexandrine school that the Cabbala
sprung up and flourished. The Jews brought with
them to Egypt the mystic doctrines of the Mehis-
tanites, and combined them with the speculations
of the Peripatetics, and with the idealism of the
Egyptians. Hence arose that vast maze of allegorical
and fanciful comment on the Books of Moses, which,
in the time of Christ, stood side by side with the
endless quibbles of the Pharisees, who were attempt-

64 yudas MaccabcBUS.

ing to give precision to, and either to evade or to
ensure exact fulfilment of, the very precepts which the
Mizraimites were doing their utmost to explain away.

A short notice of the main features of that mystic
study known as Cabbala, or "tradition," will serve to
make clear the tendency of the Egyptian school of
Jewish doctrine. The Cabbalists pretended that their
dogmas were derived by direct tradition from Adam,
and taught to him by the Angel Raziel. They thus
far outwent the Talmudists in their pretensions, for
the latter only claimed for their great work — the
Mishna, or "second" law — an antiquity equal to that
of the Mikra, or "written" law, of which it was
supposed to be the necessary supplement.

Three studies were embraced under the name
Cabbala, without including the practical Cabbala, which
taught merely the construction of charms and talis-
mans, such as are still used in Egypt. These three
are known as Dogmatic, Metaphysical, and Numeric
(or Symbolic) Cabbalas, and may be briefly noticed in
turn.

Dogmatic Cabbala was the oldest of these mystic
studies, and was intimately connected with the
doctrines of the Mehistanites. It treated of the
unseen world, and the treatise Zohar, "the book of
splendour," gives the names of God and of His
angels, which the Jews are said to have learned in
Babylon, and also those of demons and of genii, the

Jewish Metaphysics. 65

latter being considered by the Cabbalists (as by the
modern Arabs) to be a race intermediate between
men and angels. The doctrines of metempsychosis,
of possession, and of a double spirit inhabiting a
single body, were part of this teaching ; and the
influence of the Zoroastrian dualism is traceable in
the grouping of good angels under the " Angel of the
Presence," while the evil spirits are arrayed under the
authority of Samael, " Prince of the Powers of the Air."

The Metaphysical Cabbala was a yet deeper study,
and presented a curious mixture of Persian dualism
with the Greek doctrine of an infinite soul of the
universe. The Cabbalists attacked the question of the
origin of evil, and taught a beautiful truth when they
regarded creation as an emanation of the Deity.
Evil they treated not as a positive and antagonistic
quality, but as negative, and as being a deficiency of
the good, or, as they expressed it, a less close approach
to the central light. A good parallel to such a
doctrine may be found in Newton's theory of light,
which regards darkness as negative, contrasting with
Goethe's fanciful representation of darkness as a
positive and opposite entity.

Creation was an emanation of God, according to
the Cabbalists, and the development was three-fold.
The "Ancient of Days" was manifested in idea, in
speech, and in action. The idea was personified in
the mysterious Wisdom which first appears in the

66 Judas MaccabcBits.

Book of Proverbs ; the speech was typified by the
Word, or Angel of the Presence ; finally, action was
shown in the creation of the Adam Kadmon, "the
Old or First Adam," from whom all other living
things were in order evolved.

Of Numerical Cabbala it is not necessary to speak
fully. The study was too intricate and extensive to
allow of brief description. The general idea was
that of minute study of the characters in which the
Sacred Books were written, according to various rules,
for the interpretation of a symbolic and mystic hidden
Jncaning which the letters were supposed to indicate.
The study was again divided into three, but the
oldest method of playing with the text consisted in
the device called Atbash, which was a permutation of
the letters after the fashion of an anagram. This
practice was certainly as ancient as the time of Judas
Maccabaeus.

To modern students the Symbolic Cabbala appears
to be a mere trifling with useless puzzles unworthy of
mature intellects. It originated, nevertheless, in the
extreme veneration with which the Jews regarded
the Law of Moses, and in the idea that the Inspiring
Spirit directed the choice of each letter of the text.
The Cabbala exerted a powerful influence on the
students of the dark ages, and many a curious super-
stition still lingering among us can be traced back to
its forgotten doctrines.

hnmortality of the Righteous, 67

Works imbued with the spirit of the Cabbalists
were abundant in the time of the Hasmoneans, and
a few of these are still left to us, as, for instance, the
Wisdom of Solomon, a book dated about 150 B.C.
Its doctrines approach to those of Philo, including
the pre-existence of souls, the formation of the world
from formless matter, the existence of a soul of the
universe, the four cardinal virtues, free will, the belief
in a " tempter," and, finally, the typical interpretation
of Scripture.

In this book, probably the latest of the group
including Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus, there is
still no distinct teaching as to the immortality of the
soul, or as to the resurrection ; nor is the expectation
of a future divine or temporal King expressed in it.
Probably the author of the Wisdom of Solomon held
with Philo that death was the true resurrection, or
"standing up" (Anastasis) of the soul from the body.
The righteous are promised eternal life (Wisdom
ii. 15), as among the later Jewish schools, but whether
in a spiritual or corporeal condition is left undefined,
and we still find the echo of the old Sadducean
materialistic doctrine, "Who knoweth the spirit of
man that- goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast
that goeth downward to the earth } Wherefore I
perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man
should rejoice in his own works ; for that is his
portion."

68 Jtidas MaccabcBUS.

It is not a little important to understand clearly
what was the general Jewish expectation at this time
with regard to a future Messiah, or anointed King,
temporal or spiritual. If,, at the time of the revolt,
such an expectation had been general, there would
no doubt have been a strong party which would have
recognised in the appearance of Judas the fulfilment
of their hopes. Yet in the history of the Hasmoneans
we find no hint that he was ever so regarded. In the
books above referred to, the familiar names " Son of
Man" and "Anointed Prince" do not occur; and the
dictatorship of the Hasmoneans was never accepted
as more than a temporary arrangement, to last until,
by the appearance of a faithful prophet, the original
theocracy of the time of Samuel should be re-
established.

The development which had been attained at the
Christian era with respect to the doctrine of an
Anointed Prince, we may gather from the New Testa-
ment, and from the later Talmudic works and Targums.
A Prince of the House of David was to be born at
Bethlehem of Judea, and to rule the people of Israel.
Some sects supposed this reign of Messias to be
temporal, and to precede the general resurrection of
the righteous ; other sects held the reign to be
spiritual, and that it would succeed the renewal of all
things. In support of these discordant views, the
prophecies of Isaiah and Zechariah, the Psalms, and

The Expected Prophet, 69

other portions of the Old Testament were quoted, and
the word Messiah was inserted into the Targums, or
Aramaic paraphrases of these passages. Such expec-
tations are found fully developed in works like the
so-called " Psalms of Solomon," and in other Jewish
writings of the Herodian period.

In the earlier works, dating from the Hasmonean
times, we find no such expectations expressed. In
the Bible, the references on which the Jews afterwards
relied have not, as a rule, that definite character which
distinguishes those in the Psalms of Solomon, and in
the Book of Ecclesiasticus we find an eloquent prayer
for restoration, such as might well date from the
time of the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes
(Ecclesiasticus xxxvi.), yet there is no mention of
Messiah in the whole passage. " Take away the
adversary" is the prayer of the son of Sirach, "raise
up prophets," and " let thy prophets be found faithful."

In later times the two hopes thus cherished stood
side by side ; the faithful prophet and the anointed
prince were both awaited. Still later, in the 4th and
5th centuries, the passage in the Pentateuch relating
to a future prophet was explained by the Rabbis to
refer to the succession of prophets from Moses to
Malachi. At the time which we are now considering,
the prophet alone is the prominent figure, and the
anointed prince is unnoticed. This is no doubt the
simplest explanation of the fact that Judas Maccab^eus

70 Jtidas Maccabceus,

never claimed, and never was believed, to be the
" Lord's Anointed."

The expectation of a future prophet is clearly
brought out in the Books of the Maccabees. It was
an ancient and orthodox dogma, and one which still
survives among the modern Samaritans. It was
founded on a very distinct promise in the Law of
Moses — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee
a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken." And
this hope formed the basis of all the temporary
arrangements for self-government which the Jews
made under the direction of Judas and Simon. The
stones of the desecrated altar were laid up " until
there should come a prophet to show them what
should be done." Simon was accepted as Governor
and High Priest "until there should arise a faithful
prophet." — I Mace. xiv. 41. And according to some,
it was Elias himself who was to return. — Malachi
iv. 5 ; Ecclus. xlviii. 11.

The present sketch of religious sects among the
Jews about 170 B.C. would be incomplete without a
short notice of the Samaritans as then existing.

At the present time the small remnant of this
interesting people surviving at Shechem presents
probably the nearest approach to original Judaism
that we 'can find anywhere. They hold the old
Sadducean views with regard to the Law and the

The Samaritans. 71

future life ; they observe the Passover strictly in
accordance with the ordinances in Exodus ; and they
believe that a prophet like unto Moses is still to be
expected before the final destruction of the world.

Of the Samaritans, we have two accounts extant —
the one their own, the other that of their enemies, the
Jews. The first is unfortunately so late as to be of
comparatively little value, though there seems reason
to believe that the author of the " Samaritan
Chronicle" drew from older authentic sources. The
Jewish accounts of the Samaritans — those of Josephus
and of the Talmudists — are so evidently warped by
the feeling of bitter sectarian hate, that they cannot
be received without the greatest hesitation. Unfortu-
nately, we do not find in the Bible materials sufficient
to enable us to determine how far the later Jewish
writings can be believed. The inhabitants of Samaria
are spoken of in the Old Testament as a mixed
people, including the Cuthean colonists ; but, on the
other hand, it is clear that many of the Israelites of
the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh remained in their
native land even after the destruction of Jerusalem
by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Chr. xxxiv. 9 ; Jer. xli. 5), and
it is from these sons of Joseph that the Samaritans
claim and have always claimed to be descended, while
their priestly family was admitted by the Jews, even
as late as the 12th century, to be derived from the
stock of Aaron. The distinctive physiognomy of the

72 yudas MaccabcBUS.

modern Samaritans, approaching as it does closely to
that of the Jews, is a strong confirmation of their
claim, and the existence of an ancient and valuable
codex of the five books of Moses at Shechem may
also be cited in favour of the Israelite origin of the
Samaritans.

The Jews have, on the other hand, generally main-
tained that their enemies are descendants of the
Cuthean colonists. In a few passages of Josephus
and in the Targums they are, however, called
Sidonians — an assertion which can hardly be recon-
ciled with the former assertion that they are Cuthim.

The temple built by Sanballat on Gerizim had
already become a rival to that at Jerusalem by 170 B.C.
The bitter enmity which arose in the time of Ezra
between Jews and Samaritans was caused by the
refusal of the former to allow any participation in
the work of restoration at the Jerusalem Temple ; or,
according to the opposite account, by the secession of
the Jews from the rest of Israel, who were proceeding
to Gerizim to rebuild the Temple on the site of the
old " Sanctuary of Jehovah." This enmity had
become deeper and deeper as, during three centuries,
wrongs and retaliations had accumulated ; and at the
period with which we are now concerned, the Samari-
tans had, moreover, succeeded in extending their
frontier to- the south, so as to include places afterwards
recovered by the Jews.

yewisk and Samaritan Disputes. 73

Samaritans were to be found in Alexandria, and
here also they lived at enmity with the Jews. The
Samaritans claim that it was from their version of the
Law, not from that of the Jews, that the Greek
translation was made in Alexandria ; and though the
authority for this statement is very late, we have still
the curious fact that the Greek version approaches
much closer to the Samaritan than to that later
Masoretic text established by the Pharisees, and from
which our English translation is derived. Impartial
scholars have often pointed out that, in many cases,
the true meaning is best preserved by the Alexandrine
text.

In Hasmonean times, fierce disputes arose in Alex-
andria with regard to the true chosen site of the
Temple. The Samaritans were able to point out
that while Ebal and Gerizim are mentioned as being
the mountains of the curses and blessings, Jerusalem
is not noticed at all by name in the Law of Moses.
The Jews appear to have contented themselves with
a de facto argument, and urged that foreign princes
had always done exclusive honour to the Jerusalem
sanctuary;

According to Josephus, the decision of Ptolemy
Philometer was in favour of the Jews, and the Samari-
tans were beheaded (Ant. xiii. 3, 4) ; but it would be
interesting to hear the opposite side of the story.
Josephus was a Pharisee — one of that party which

74 yztdas MaccabcBus,

specially detested the^Cuthim. He is known to have
made either a blunder or a wilful misstatement with
regard to Sanballat, for his account of the building of
the Gerizim temple contradicts the account of the
Book of Ezra, unless we admit the unlikely hypothesis
that there were two Sanballats in succeeding centuries,
each allied by marriage to the then reigning High
Priest in Jerusalem. The statements of Josephus in
matters like these, where his sectarian prejudices
interfere, must therefore be accepted with caution.

It remains briefly to sum up the main points of the
questions touched on in the preceding pages.

At the time immediately preceding the revolt of
Judas, we find that the orthodox Jewish tenets were
those of the Sadducees, and that the party of the
Pharisees was still in its infancy. The devout Jews
were in expectation of the appearance of a prophet
promised by Moses, but, as far as the existing litera-
ture of the subject goes, we have no proof that the
definite belief in a future Anointed Prince of the
House of David had arisen as early as the commence-
ment of the Hasmonean period.

The heretical sect of the Mizraimites, holding the
mystic dogmas of the Alexandrine Jews, had, as we
have seen, become a very important religious school.
Their peculiar views had spread even in Palestine, and
the admiration of Greek customs among all the free-
thinking Jews, whether Egyptian or Syrian, had given

Position of Parties. y^

great offence to the orthodox even in Jerusalem, as
will be narrated in a future chapter.

Such was the condition of religious thought when
Antiochus Epiphanes came to the throne. Had he
been content to leave the Jews to themselves, and had
he given time for the gradual spread of the Hellenising
heresy which was sapping the very foundations of
Judaism, the history of the world must have been
materially modified, and the basis on which Chris-
tianity was first founded might perhaps never have been
consolidated. A reaction had commenced in a very
small but zealous party, which preserved the tradition
of "separation" handed down from the time of Ezra,
and which demanded a return to the strictest and
most literal interpretation of the Law of Moses, and
the entire repudiation of everything derived from the
heathen outer world. This party only required a
leader to rally it, and a persecutor to fan the flame of
its zeal. The persecutor was Antiochus Epiphanes ;
the leader proved to be Judas Maccabasus.

CHAPTER III.

THE REVOLT.
170 B.C.— 165 B.C.

" A FTER the Macedonians obtained supremacy in
-^ the East, King Antiochus endeavoured to root
out the Jewish superstition, but was hindered by a
Parthian war from reforming this vilest of people." —
Tacitus, History^ v. 8.

With these few but bitter words the Roman
historian contemptuously dismisses the history of the
great struggle for freedom, successfully carried out
by the Hebrew nation, which he hated.

It is not, however, in such a spirit that an impartial
student of history will regard the episode of the revolt
from the Greek rule which Judas Maccabaeus con-
ducted. The position of an independent Prince, or
Ethnarch, in Palestine may have had little political
importance at the time, for the country had neither
trade nor harbours, and its whole extent was not much
greater th'an the area of Yorkshire. Yet we cannot now
forget that Palestine was the cradle of Christianity,

Jew and Gentile. yy

and that the Jewish rehgion, which Judas saved and
defended at a time when its entire extinction was
threatened, became the basis of the faith of Christen-
dom, and has not only shaped the history of Europe,
but still forms one of the main springs of modern
politics.

A silent revolution was taking place in Jewish
thought and habits at the time when Antiochus
Epiphanes came to the throne. The influence of
Greek culture was beginning to be felt not only in
Egypt or Syria, among the foreign Jews, but even in
Palestine and in the Holy City. The toleration
shown by Alexander the Great had brought Jew and
Gentile into new and friendly relations, and a ruler as
wise and far-seeing as was the great conqueror would
have been content to allow the movement to develop
itself with results which we cannot calculate. The
obstinate and hasty measures enforced by Epiphanes
saved Judaism in attempting to destroy it, and created
the reaction which purged it at once of every foreign
element, and stamped it with a distinct character of
its own.

It has been already narrated in the Introduction
that two claimants were at this time struggling for
the office of High Priest — Jesus, or Jason, the rightful
heir, supported by the national voice ; and Menelaus,
also called Onias, the nominee of Antiochus. It
must not, however, be supposed that two contending

78 Judas MaccabcBUs.

parties were represented by the rivals, for both were
deeply tainted with Hellenistic heresy, and the contest
was purely personal and political.

Menelaus and his companions lived at the Court of
Antiochus in open defiance of the Law of Moses.
Jason, meantime, was busy in Jerusalem familiarising
the astonished inhabitants with Greek customs, which
raised in the breasts of the older and more conserva-
tive feelings of mingled contempt and wrath. Among
the charges which have been recorded against him is
one already noticed — that he introduced among the
young men of good family the fashion of wearing a
hat ; and trivial as this innovation may appear to us
in Europe, those who know the East will appreciate
the importance which must have been attached to the
change, and will remember the veneration with which
the national head-dress is regarded.

A more serious innovation was, however, the estab-
lishment of a gymnasium in Jerusalem, under the
western walls of the Temple — the remains of the
building being perhaps still recognisable in an ancient
chamber recently discovered. In this profane place,
even the priests of Jehovah were to be seen engaging
m unseemly struggles, casting aside their sacred
robes, and contending for popular applause in the
heathen game of Discus. To a proud and dignified
Semitic people, nothing can have appeared more
degrading, or unworthy of the sacred vocation, than

Heathen Festivals in Palestine, 79

this participation in performances which they must
have regarded as fit only for hired clowns, or for the
heathen.

Heathen festivals also began to be celebrated in
Palestine, and were attended by the Jews, in direct
disobedience to the Mosaic commands. The feasts
of Bacchus were honoured in the Holy Land, and
Jason sent representatives with rich presents to attend
the games in honour of Hercules, celebrated under
the auspices of the Kings of Antioch every fifth year
at Tyre.

Another festival, which seems probably to be of
heathen origin, was that celebrated twice a-year at
Motza, in a deep, well-watered valley west of Jeru-
salem. The Jewish maidens came out to meet the
young men at this place with songs and dances — a
ceremony very contrary to the spirit of Judaism ; and
though said to commemorate the old festival of
Shiloh, when the Benjamites chose their wives from
the women dancing in the vineyards, this feast calls
to mind irresistibly the processions of the Greek
mysteries.

On such innovations the orthodox looked in much
the same spirit in which the " Old Turk" of our day
regards our western customs and our European
games, or athletics. As he considers every law to be
vicious if not based on the Koran, so did the devout
Jew regard laws at variance with the commands of

So Judas MaccabcBMS.

Moses. As the Moslem looks with horror on the
proposal to place Christian and Mahommedan on an
equal footing, so did the Jew regard the proposal to
raise the Gentile to a position of equality with himself.
But yet more — as the "young Turkish party" too
often apes the irreligion and immorality not less than
the dress of the West, so did the Hellenisers imitate
the vices and depraved customs, as well as the
costume, of the Greeks.

Such was the state of national feeling when the
savage and disappointed Antiochus formed his rash
project of destroying all that was distinctive in
Jewish customs and religion. He judged the temper
of the people, no doubt, from the renegade Jews whom
he had encountered in Antioch. He understood
neither the attachment with which the bulk of the
nation regarded their ancient Law, nor the stubborn
courage and endurance of which the Jews were
capable.

Returning from his fourth Egyptian campaign,
Antiochus detached a party under one of his officers,
Apollonius, to go to Jerusalem. Apollonius was
made Governor of Palestine, and instructed not
merely to collect the taxes, but to put down, by
stringent measures, every distinguishing Jewish custom.
Circumcision was forbidden, the Sabbath was to be
desecrated, the copies of the Law to be collected and
burnt, the Jews to be forced to eat swine's flesh, and

The Persecution. 8i

the Temple to be desecrated by foreign worship, and
re-consecrated to Jupiter Olympus. We gather that
the same pdict was to be enforced also against the
Samaritans and their Temple at Gerizim, and that
ApoUonius, after desolating Jerusalem, went next
to fulfil his mission in the northern capital of
Shechem.

'^The new Governor entered Jerusalem peacefully,
but, when once established, his cruel edict fell like a
thunderbolt on the nation. A terrible persecution
followed. Women who had dared to circumcise their
children were tortured and paraded with their mur-
dered infants hanging round their necks ; aged elders
were put to a cruel and lingering death, refusing to
eat the flesh of the unclean beast. But the stubborn
spirit of the nation could not be broken, though the
party of the Hellenisers was so strong in the capital
that it was impossible for the few devout Jews there
left to do more than meet martyrdom courageously.
The noble reply of the aged Eleazar when under
torture, shows the manner in which Jewish elders
refused even the semblance of apostacy. " It becometh
not our age," he said, " in anywise to dissemble, where-
by many young men might think that Eleazar, being
four-score years old and ten, was now gone to a
strange religion."

The Greek policy triumphed for a moment, and
incense was burnt at pagan altars in the streets of

82 Judas MaccabcBus.

Jerusalem. A citadel was erected on the little knoll
of Millo, or Akra, which overlooked the lower city.
It stood just where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
now stands, and formed a stubborn stronghold, which
was not overthrown for twenty-seven years. It was
garrisoned by Macedonians, and by renegade Jews
from among the Hellenisers.

On the 15 th day of Cisleu (December), in this
memorable year, the "abomination of desolation"
was set up, an idol altar standing upon the great
rude stone altar in the Temple Court. Ten days
later, sacrifices of swine were offered on it, and the
fane reared for Jehovah was declared consecrated to
Jupiter Olympus. The Jewish ritual was abolished,
and Greek rites substituted for it.

Thus, in the pathetic language of the Chronicler,
" Her sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness ;
her feasts were turned into mourning, her Sabbaths
into reproach, her honour into contempt. And there
was very great wrath upon Israel."

A curious and instructive story is related in the
Talmud connected with this profanation of the
Temple. Miriam, the daughter of a priest of the
course of Bilgah, saw the altar with the idol altar
upon it, and struck it with, her shoe, exclaiming,
"Thou insatiable wolf, how much longer wilt thou
consum.e the wealth of Israel, when thou canst not
help in time of need." For this offence the course of

Mo dm. 83

Bilgah was in later times deprived of its appointed
chamber in the Temple. The story may, perhaps, be
thought to indicate a sort of superstitious worship of
the altar itself among the less educated Jews of the
time, resembling the Moslem worship of the two
sacred rocks of Mecca and Jerusalem, which are
regarded as possessed of supernatural powers, and
even of speech.

Although it was at Jerusalem that the violent
decree of Antiochus seems first to have been put in
force, it was not there that the desperation of the
Jews first lent them courage to resist. The same
edict was sent out to every town and village in
the country. At the capital, the Hellenists were
probably in a majority, and the few orthodox Jews
on whom persecution fell were unable to resist ;
but the views and habits of the villagers were, as has
been shown in the last chapter, entirely different from
those of the educated townsmen. They had, no
doubt, adhered with much greater loyalty to the
ancient customs and beliefs of their forefathers, and it
was thus far more difficult to carry out the resolution
proposed by Antiochus in the wild rural districts
remote from the capital.

The ancient main road from Jerusalem to Lydda
descended the stony hill of Bethhoron, and ran
along a mountain spur towards the plain. About a

84 Judas MaccabcBUS,

mile to the north of this main road, the little village
of Modin was built upon the southern slopes of a
rocky valley.

The surrounding country was bare of trees, con-
sisting of chalky limestone, with terraces built against
the hill-sides, and ancient sepulchres, quarries, and
reservoirs cut in the rock. The village lay below the
crest of the hill, and had a remarkable rocky knoll
immediately south of it— a conical hump on the hill-
side, with a few scattered olives on the top. This
knoll commanded a view of the sea. The little hills
of the Shephelah, or " lowland," district could be seen
stretching westwards, covered with copse in parts, and
crowned here and there with small villages. At their
feet, amid dark groves of olive, lay the white town of
Lydda, and behind it the broad brown plain of
Sharon extended to a breadth of ten miles. Furthest
of all, the yellow gleaming sand-dunes bounded the
rich arable land, and the waters of the " Great Sea"
shone brightly under the afternoon sun. The prospect
was extensive, and not devoid of interest ; but the
outline of the hills was tame, and the absence of
forest-trees combined with the greyness of the rocky
limestone on the hills to give an air of barrenness to
a country which was really fertile.

To this little village, some twenty miles from the
capital, and standing away from the high-road, an
aged priest, named Mattathias, had retired from

The Five Brothers, 85

Jerusalem. The Temple was desolate, the ritual of the
Jewish temple service had been forbidden, and there
was no longer any regular recurrence of those visits
which (as already described) the orders of priests paid
twice a-year to the Holy City. Disgusted with the
innovations of the Hellenisers, Mattathias retired into
the country to mourn the fallen condition of the
chosen people.

Mattathias had five sons — all grown men — all of
whom were destined to become famous. Johanan,
the eldest, was also called Caddis, " the saint ;" Simon,
called Thassi, the second, was esteemed the wisest
and most prudent of the brethren ; Judas Maccabaeus,
" the hammerer," was the boldest and most skilful in
war ; Eleazar, the fourth, was called Avaran ; and the
crafty Jonathan, youngest, but perhaps most energetic
of the five, had already earned the title Apphus, or
" the wary." We may reasonably conjecture that the
young men were remarkable for their personal beauty;
for that fatal gift was, at all events in later times,
distinctive of the Hasmonean race, and the last of the
h'ne, Aristobulus, was no less famous for his beauty
than was his unhappy sister, Mariamne, whose charms
made Herod forget even the fascination of Cleopatra
herself. The family name of Hasmonean was derived
from that of Hasmon, the great-grandfather of
Mattathias, and through him they traced their descent
from the sons of Joarib — the first of the twenty-four

86 Jtidas MaccabcBMS.

courses of priestly families, and thus to Eleazar, the
son of Aaron.

Mattathias was a man of distinction in Modin — a
ruler and an influential elder. When, therefore, the
edict of Antiochus was carried out into the country,
and the King's commissioners came to Modin, their
first object was to endeavour to persuade, or bribe,
the leading family into compliance with the rule
which directed that every Jew should offer sacrifice to
the heathen divinities. Had they succeeded in gaining
the countenance of Mattathias, the envoys would
probably have found it an easy task to induce the
poor and ignorant villagers to follow his example.
But such compliance was scarcely to be expected
from one who had fled from Jerusalem on account of
the spread of heresy which he there witnessed.

The spirit of the old man was, moreover, roused by
the sight of a renegade Jew, whose fears had induced
him to perform the sacrifice required. The memory
of the famous deed of the zealous Phinehas, his
ancestor, encouraged Mattathias to strike a blow for
his religion and for the covenant of his fathers. He ran
upon the apostate, and slew him on the idol altar,
which had been raised in accordance with the royal
order — possibly on the knoll south of the village ; and
he went further yet, and slew the King's commis-
sioner, while the Greeks were driven out of the place
and the heathen altar demolished.

The Revolt Commenced. ^y

Thus the first outbreak of the national revolt was
due to the unpremeditated act of a single aged man.
A reaction of feeling followed imm.ediately, and the
villagers saw the danger to which they would be
exposed so soon as the news reached Jerusalem, and
the Macedonian garrison of the fortress should be sent
to punish them. Hastily driving off their cattle, they
fled across the watershed to the dreary desert of
Bethaven, above the Jordan valley, where they
endeavoured to hide themselves in caves, subsisting
,on the wild herbs of the wilderness.

Such a hegira may still be witnessed in unhappy
Palestine, when a whole village marches off, with its
flocks and herds, to find refuge in the waste lands from
the punishment which the peasants dread in retaliation
for the violent deed provoked by the exactions of
some tyrannous tax-gatherer or lawless soldier.

The villagers of Modin formed a small band, to
which the discontented and zealous quickly gathered.
The Chasidim, or Puritans, were the first to join, and
the force of the insurgents augmented rapidly. They
took courage at length to undertake a guerilla warfare
against the Greek Governor and against the apostate
villages, and were successful in many night attacks.
They compelled their wavering countrymen to adhere
to the Law ; they pulled down the idol altars, and
made the Jews who had submitted to Antiochus
circumcise their children.

8S Judas MaccabcEUS.

The party was distinguished at a very early period
by its strict orthodoxy, and by its determination to
restore the most archaic institutions of the national
religion. Yet, curiously enough, one of the first acts
of Mattathias was a modification of the Law of Moses.
A band of a thousand insurgents were attacked on
the Sabbath day in a cavern, and as they would not
break the Sabbath rest by using their weapons, their
strict observance of the Law cost them all their lives.

Mattathias, hearing of this catastrophe, took counsel
with his followers, and pointed out that unless some
modification of this understanding of the Law were
made, the heathen would take advantage of the
Sabbath, and the devout Jews would in time be
entirely extirpated. It was therefore decreed that
self-defence against Gentiles was to be held lawful
even on the Sabbath. The decision was sensible, yet
it served to show how impossible it would be to
adhere to every minute observance of a Law promul-
gated at so remote an age, and under circumstances
so different from those of the time of the revolt. The
alteration was more in the spirit of the Hellenists
than in that of the conservative and zealous party of
the Chasidim.

Thus for a year the insurrection continued to
smoulder, when, in 167 B.C., Mattathias died, no doubt
from the effects of the hardships and exertions which
the old man had been forced to undergo in the rough

Death of Mattathias. 89

life of the desert. His address to his sons, though
perhaps not strictly historic, is illustrative of the
spirit which animated the Jews. It concluded with
the exhortation to consider Simon as the wisest
counsellor ; Judas as the ablest leader. " To recom-
pense fully the heathen, and take heed to the
commandments of the Law."

It was thus that, in the year 167 B.C., Judas Macca-
baeus found himself at the head of a small, but resolute
and united band of enthusiasts, who were determined
not only to resist the tyranny of Antiochus, but to
free their brethren from both the Greeks and the
Hellenistic Jews, and to re-establish the independence
of the nation.

The province of Judea was an outlying part of the
possessions of Antiochus, and the revolt, which seems
at first to have had the character of a guerilla war, or
brigandage, such as often precedes a great national
struggle, did not raise any great amount of alarm
at Antioch. The Governor of Samaria, ApoUonius—
to whom Judea had been also assigned in 168 B.C.
— collected the local forces and advanced against
Judas ; but he was defeated and slain, and his
sword was ever after used by Maccabaeus, " and there-
with he fought all his life long."

No doubt the aims and views of the party of which
Judas was the head expanded with time and with
success. The impetuosity of Mattathias had forced

90 Judas MaccabcEiis,

them into revolt, and at first they fought merely for
self-preservation. They then became emboldened so
far as to attack the villagers, and, a little later, they
even ventured to oppose the Greek garrison of the
Akra citadel, and the Samaritan militia under Apol-
lonius. But a far graver danger was brought upon
them by the defeat of Apollonius ; for no sooner had
it come to the ears of the King in Antioch, than he
despatched his general, Seron, with an army of
regular troops, then garrisoning Ccelesyria.

Seron's orders were yet more imperative and violent
than those which Antiochus had given Apollonius.
The small party of the orthodox was to be annihilated ;
the Jewish religion was to be utterly stamped out ; the
land was to be colonised by strangers, and divided by
lot among them.

Thus, in the year i66 B.C., the Greek army marched
down the plain of Sharon, and commenced its ascent
towards Jerusalem by the main road from Lydda,
passing by Modin, the home of Judas, and advancing
on the steep ascent of Bethhoron, where, in about
half-a-mile, the road rises 500 feet to gain the top
of a long, narrow, rocky ridge — a spur oi the water-
shed mountains, flanked by deep and narrow ravines.

Against this formidable force the brave Judas
advanced with a handful of men. His zeal and fear-
lessness, his military instinct and prudence, were alike
evinced in this his first regular battle ; and his choice

The Battle of Bethhoron. 91

of position, guarding the top of this dangerous pass,
showed qualities beyond those of a mere bandit chief.

The scenery was full of inspiring memories, for the
rugged pass had more than once before been the scene
of a Jewish victory. Beneath him, near the line of
the Greek advance, Judas looked towards Modin, his
home, where, even then, his aged father lay buried — ■
the scene of the memorable episode which had opened
his career. Behind him, on its stony knoll, amid open
corn-lands, was Gibeon, and to the south-west was
the broad, flat plain, skirted by low hills, and running
down by the little village of Ajalon. Thus it was
almost on the very spot where Joshua had stood, when
he commanded the sun to stand still until Israel was
avenged of his enemies, that Judas Maccabaeus now
awaited the new foes of his country. In imagina-
tion, he might already see them rolled back from the
steep steel-grey slope of barren rock, crowned by a
few straggling olives, dow^n to the white hills and
corn-plains beneath, even as the host of the five kings
had been discomfited when overtaken by the great
hail-storm on that bleak hill-side.

His followers, however, looked down on the Greek
host, as it advanced towards the foot of the pass, with
far other feelings. " How shall we be able," they said,
" to fight against so great a multitude, and so strong,
seeing we are ready to faint with fasting all this
day .?" But Judas was able to infuse into them some-

92 Judas MaccabcBUS,

thing of his own spirit, reminding them that they
fought for their Hves and for the Law, and that
strength was not to be sought in numbers, but from
the God who had given victory to Joshua.

FaUing suddenly on the enemy, with every advan-
tage of ground, and in country suited for an irregular
attack, Judas gained his first real victory on the field
which was destined to see also his last success. The
scattered Greeks were pursued even further into the
broad Philistine plains than were the Amorites after
the first battle of Bethhoron, and the Greek generals
were, apparently, convinced that the northern pass,
which could be held by so small a force, was not the
best line of advance on Jerusalem.

The independence of the Jews was thus, for the
moment, secured, and Antiochus was not only shamed
by the defeat of his army, but his treasury was also
impoverished by the loss of the Judean taxes. His
attention was thus turned to Parthia, and to the rich
temple of Nanaea, the " desire of women" (Dan. xi. '^y^,
in Elymais ; and leaving to his generals the task of
subjugating the Jews, from whom he had already
extorted the riches of the Jerusalem temple, he
appointed Lysias guardian of his boy-heir, and
departed, early in 165 B.C., on his last fatal campaign.

Three new generals, Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gor-
gias, were quickly despatched by Lysias to re-conquer
the stubborn corner of hill-country where Judas held

The Battle of Bmmaus, 93

his own : a force of no less than 40,000 footmen
and 7000 horse is said to have been under their com-
mand. Warned by the fate of Seron, they did not
attempt to face the difficulties of the Bethhoron pass,
but prepared to ascend by the main road which leads
up to Jerusalem from the west, by which means they
might be able to hem in the rebels between the
Greek army on the south and the Samaritans on the
north.

The force now sent against Judas appears to have
been considered overwhelming ; and so certain were
its leaders of success, that they allowed merchants to
follow the camp, who were provided with gold and
silver to give for the slaves they hoped to buy, and
with fetters to place on their limbs. Marching south-
wards, along the flat plain of Sharon, they encamped
by the town of Emmaus, at the edge of the hills, their
route being almost exactly that which the English
afterwards took under Richard Coeur de Lion in their
advance on Jerusalem from Acre.

But the same spirit which had animated Judas at
Bethhoron supported him even in presence of this
mighty army. His second victory was perhaps the
most brilliant of all his battles ; and, from the
similarity of its tactics, it might be called the Mac-
cabsean Austerlitz.

Jerusalem itself lay almost entirely in ruins. The
fierce persecution of the fatal year 168 B.C. had

94 Judas Maccabcsus.

decimated its population. The Hellenist renegades,
and the foreign mercenaries who had been introduced
as a garrison by Apollonius, were shut up in the tower
which stood on the lofty knoll of Millo, or Akra. The
walls of the city had been pulled down, and the
desecrated temple was deserted and ruinous. Thus
it was not in the capital that the zealous devotees
assembled for those religious exercises by which, like
the Covenanters, they prefaced their fierce onslaught
on the heathen. Reverting in memory to the primi-
tive times of Samuel, they assembled in the place
where he had gathered Israel before the great victory
of Ebenezer, and spent the day in prayer and fasting
at Mizpeh, immediately north of the city, where
formerly the Tabernacle had stood, and near which
the Jews had encountered Alexander the Great on
his memorable visit to Jerusalem. Clothed in sack-
cloth and covered with ashes, they lamented the sins
of their nation, and implored the Divine help, while
the flame of fanaticism was aroused by the exhibition
of a copy of the Sacred Torah, which the heathen had
desecrated by paintings of their images.

As night came on, the army was arrayed in the
primitive formation employed by their forefathers ;
captains of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of
tens were appointed, and, in strict accordance with
the commands of Moses, the newly-married men, the
vine-dressers, and even the timid and unwilling, were

The Night- March, 95

dismissed from the picked body which the five famous
brothers were to lead against the enemy.

In all these preparations we cannot fail to note an
intentional imitation of the actions of their forefathers
by the zealous and orthodox party of the Chasidim.
The Divine favour was only to be gained by a strict
observance of the Divine ordinances, as made known
to Moses or Samuel. As under Samuel the Israelites
had assembled at Mizpeh, so they did now under
Judas ; and almost in the steps of the former host,
they now advanced on their enemies in the low-
lands.

A long night-march of some twenty miles brought
the Jews within sight of the Greek host at dawn. By
that very road by which the traveller now generally
first approaches the Holy City they must have come
down, crossing deep valleys and long ridges clothed
with copse, emerging through the narrow pass now
called "The Gate of the Valley," into the bare
chalky hill country which surrounds Emmaus, and
runs out on the south side of the little plain of
Ajalon.

Arriving thus on the south side of the enemy's
position, Judas arrayed and exhorted his men — " For
it is better for us to die in battle," he said, "than to
behold the calamities of our people and our sanctuary."
The vanguard only of the enemy had as yet arrived —
8000 men, under Gorgias— and the promptitude of

96 Judas MaccabcFUs,

the Jewish attack indicates the military talent of their
leader, who thus fell upon the enemy before his forces
were entirely concentrated.

The news of the gathering at Mizpeh had already
been brought to the Greek camp by some of the Akra
garrison ; and Gorgias, hoping to surprise the Jews
before they expected him, had started from his camp
with 5000 of his best men, and, guided over the
mountains by the " men of the fortress," had actually
passed by the Jewish force, which was descending
by the less known southern road.

Thus the battle of Emmaus may be compared to
that of Austerlitz, in which Napoleon allowed the
greater part of the Austrian force to advance on his
communications, and hurling his main body against
the right wing of the enemy, which was weakened by
the advance of the left, cut the army of Austria in
two, and defeated each half in detail. So also Judas
now fell, to the sound of the silver trumpets, with his
whole force on the 3000 Greeks in camp, and cut in
two the army of Gorgias, the left wing being already
too far advanced into the intricate hill-country to
afford any assistance to the right. The Greeks in the
camp at Emmaus little suspected how close the foe
was to them. They were unarmed and unmounted.
The forces of Judas were equal in numbers, and
though he had no cavalry, the nature of the ground
was such as to render the deficiency unimportant.

Defeat of Gorgias. 97

So soon as the compact companies of the Jewish
host became visible, marching across the swelling
hills and dark against the brightening dawn, the
Greeks armed hastily, and went out to meet them ;
but Judas had again contrived to have the advantages
of higher ground and of surprise. The heathen were
thus soon discomfited, driven into the plain, and
pursued for five miles north-west to the strong fortress
of Gezer, which stands on a bastion of hill projecting
into the Philistine plain, and which was at that time
in the power of the Greeks. The panic-stricken
remnant fled yet further to the south and west, to
Jamnia and Ashdod, on the shores of the sea, twenty
miles from the battle-field.

But Judas was too prudent a general to allow his
forces to scatter in pursuit, or to become disorganised
in looting the abandoned camp. " Be not greedy
of the spoils," he said, "inasmuch as there is a
battle before us." His position between the two
halves of the enemy seems to have recalled to his
mind — or to that of the chronicler who puts the
words in his mouth — that of Israel in the Red Sea ;
and though one wave had been beaten back, a greater
one was now surging from the rocky hills, for Gorgias
had heard the din of battle, and had seen the black
column of smoke rising from the burning tents in his
camp at Emmaus. Perceiving that some disaster had
occurred in rear, he now hastily retraced his steps,

G

98 Judas Alaccabceus.

and the heads of his columns were seen emerging
from the folds of the mountains.

The battle was, however, already won. At the
sight of their strongly-fortified camp in flames, and of
the Jewish army drawn up at the foot of the hill
awaiting their attack, a panic struck the Greeks, and
they fled without striking a blow.

The spoil of the deserted camp was rich and
various. Gold, silver, blue silk, Tyrian purple, and
other riches fell into the hands of the Jews, and
perhaps the allotted portion of the spoil formed the
foundation of the great wealth afterwards possessed
by the Hasmonean family. The return to Jerusalem
after the second victory was triumphant and joyful ;
and among the three " Battles of the Passes " which
were fought during the campaign of the years i66 and
165 B.C., that of Emmaus was afterwards considered
to have contributed most to the deliverance of the
nation.

The news of this second defeat at the second pass
leading to Jerusalem reached Lysias, who was ad-
vancing with the main body of the Greek army. His
forces were swelled to 60,000 men by the levies raised
on the march and by the remnants of Seron's and
Gorgias' armies, with which he formed a junction ;
but he determined not again to attempt an approach
by the western passes, but to endeavour to reach the
formidable stronghold formed by the natural rock-

The Battle of Beth stir, 99

wall of mountains round Jerusalem by the easier
ascent on the south-west. Judas, however, had in
this contest the strategical advantage of interior lines.
His position was taken up on the watershed, near
Jerusalem, from which point the roads to the various
passes radiated. Thus he could never be surprised,
and was able to confront the foe after a short march,
and to choose his ground, while the enemy wandered
round him in the plains.

Lysias would appear to have advanced by the
broad and open valley of Elah, the scene of so many
conflicts between the Philistines and Israel under
Saul and David. Ascending by the road which leads
by Hareth, the Greeks gained the watershed just
south of Bethsur, some twelve miles from the capital,
on the way to Hebron. The shed is lowest at this
point, and a narrow pass leads by a beautiful spring,
under the rocky scarp where Bethsur then stood,
west of the road, while to the east a rounded hill
rises above a low cliff towards the mountain village
of Halhul. This pass forms a position not easily
turned, and it was here that the indefatigable Judas
had posted himself, barring the main road along the
watershed to Jerusalem.

It was no longer a small band that the patriot
mustered. The victory of Bethhoron gave him an
army ; the more brilliant offensive action at Emmaus
swelled that army to 10,000 men. The Jews began

loo yudas MaccabcBMS,

to understand that a great deliverer had arisen, and
they flocked to the camp of Judas.

As the scenery of Bethhoron had recalled the
remembrance of Joshua to Judas' mind — as the
position of his army between the two Greek hosts at
Emmaus reminded him of Israel in the Red Sea — so
now, as he looked down on the rugged hills covered
by the copses of Hareth to the great valley of Elah,
where Adullam and Shochoh had once barred the
way against Philistine invasion, the memory of the
shepherd king who had defended the mountains of
Judah in this same district seems to have risen
to his thoughts, and the very scene of the old battle
with the giant, which was spread beneath him, gave
good augury for his impending conflict with the giant
host of the Greeks.

''Blessed art thou, O Saviour of Israel!" were the
words of his prayer, " who didst quell the violence of
the mighty man by the hand of thy servant David,"

An attack followed, in which the Jews again had
the advantage of the higher ground. The confidence
inspired by former victory outweighed the inferiority
in numbers. The army of Lysias was defeated and
dispersed, and that general fled to Antioch to gather
fresh forces for a yet more formidable attack.

By these three famous victories at Bethhoron,
Emmaus, 'and Bethsur, Judas accomplished the
liberation of his countrymen from the yoke of the

The Ruins of Jerusalem.

Seleucidae. For the next two years he was left undis-
turbed, and even ventured on expeditions which seem
to have . had for an object the restoration of the
kingdom as it had been under Solomon. The Greeks
found themselves in presence of a far more serious
task than they had expected, and it was no longer
a question of crushing a small body of disaffected
zealots, but of the re-conquest of the whole block of
the Judean hills. At each of the three main passes,
the generals of Antiochus had been repulsed with
loss, and a regular campaign was necessary, for which
preparations were now made at Antioch.

The first thought of Judas, after these signal
successes, was the re-establishment of the national
religion and the purification of the Temple. From
the field of battle the host marched to ruined
Jerusalem. It was winter. The Sanctuary was
desolate ; the rampart walls which Solomon had
raised from the rock, and which Nehemiah had
rudely restored, were half overthrown, and in places
the great stones were cracked and blackened by fire.
The broad area within was covered with thistles, and
the wild plants, just sprouting rankly after the first
rains of winter, had forced their way between the
flagstones of the inner cloisters. The wild olives and
other shrubs had straggled over the outer court ; the
chambers round the platform were torn down ; the
gates were burnt ; the long creepers hung down from

102 Judas Maccabcsus.

the walls. We can almost picture to the eye the
desolation of the Holy House by a comparison with
the present condition of parts of the Temple area.

The passionate outburst of grief with which the
liberators looked on the desolation of their Temple,
evidences the national pride in, and affection for, a
building that was not only the centre of that faith
which formed the mainspring of their existence, but
was also their one architectural triumph, and their
ideal of all that was grand and beautiful in art.

Another eyesore in the scene was the dark tower
on Millo, which overtopped the Temple ramparts, and
formed the stronghold of renegades and oppressors.
A body of troops from Judas' army was detached to
invest this castle ; for, though successful in the field,
the Jewish leader appears to have had no engines or
other requisites for conducting an attack on a regular
fortress, and he contented himself with surrounding it,
as a precaution against an unexpected sally.

The purification of the Temple was at once com-
menced. Priests of orthodox faith, untainted by any
suspicion of Hellenistic heresy, were chosen to restore
and cleanse the inner courts. The chambers were
built up, the gates re-hung, and the desecrated altar
on which swine had been sacrificed, and which a
woman had struck in contempt, was pulled down.
Stones for the new altar were sought in the valley
of the Kedron, and dug out from red virgin earth,

The Desecrated Altar. 103

without the use of iron. They were arranged in a
wooden frame, and cemented together with mortar.
The hollow horns were fashioned on wooden moulds,
and, the framework being removed, the rude concrete
structure was whitewashed all over.

It was not easy to deal with the stones of the
old altar. Though no longer fit for the service of
God, they had, nevertheless, been at one time con-
secrated, and it seemed doubtful to the scrupulous
Purists, who now led the nation, whether it would be
right to cast them out into a profane place. For such
a predicament no precedent or direction could be
found in the Law of Moses, and it appeared, therefore,
to be a question which could only be settled by the
authority of a divinely-commissioned messenger — of
such a prophet as was expected shortly to appear.
They, therefore, laid up the stones in a chamber at
the north-west corner of the altar court, in the great
gate-house called Moked, there to remain until a
prophet should arise to show what should be done
with them. In that chamber they remained until the
time of Christ, and until the Holy House had been
once more overthrown, once more restored and
beautified, and yet again levelled to the ground. The
Prophet with the required authority was never recog-
nised, and the stones of the desecrated altar were
finally scattered, no man knows where.

The 25th day of Cisleu was appointed for the

104 Judas MaccabcBUS.

solemn re-consecration of the Sanctuary. It was a
memorable anniversary. On that day the Angel had
been seen by David standing on the hill-top by the
rocky platform of Araunah's threshing-floor. On the
same day, only three years before, the heathen had
sacrificed swine on their idol altar. Thus it was an
appropriate day on which to celebrate the restoration
of the purity of Judaism and the defeat of the
uncircumcised.

New veils had been made for the Temple, new
tables of shewbread, and a new candlestick and
incense altar. The vessels were all new, replacing
those stolen by Antiochus, and crowns and shields of
gold were hung in front of the Temple fagade. So,
with feasts and sacrifices, with psalms and music, with
processions of priests bearing palm-branches, and
with every expression of festivity, the dedication was
celebrated for eight days. In memory of the event,
a yearly "Feast of Lights" was ordained, and palm-
branches were borne as at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Once more the solemn service of the Temple, so
graphically, described in the Mishna, was restored.
In the darkness of the early morning, the master of
the Temple came at an uncertain hour to summon
the priests who watched round the fire in the gate-
house of Moked. In the dusk they went out and
fetched the lamb which had been pronounced spotless
on the previous day. Standing without the altar

The Daily Service, 105

court, they watched the first streak of day spreading
behind the black outHne of OHvet, and over the steel-
grey ridges of Moab, until the brightness had crept
round southwards as far as the direction of Hebron.
Then the appointed priest went in first, and in the
dim light he bathed at the great laver, and his figure
could be discerned mounting the long slope of the
altar, until, from under the heavy, grey ashes, the
red glow of the never-extinguished fire was stirred up,
and the column of smoke was thickened by new fuel.
Then, and not till then, the other priests ventured
into the Sacred Court ; and as daylight brightened
and the city awoke, the early sacrifice was offered,
and the daily service of the Temple proceeded in its
appointed order.

T

CHAPTER IV.

THE VICTORIES OF JUDAS.
164 B.C.

HERE are few characters in history which can
rank with Judas Maccabaeus for purity of motive
and unselfish patriotism. His whole life was passed
in struggles for freedom, and in fighting the battles
of his country ; but his personal ambition was never
gratified by any dignity bestowed on him. Jonathan,
his brother, became High Priest in 153 B.C.; but for
Judas no such reward was in store, and he was
content to remain the military chief and political
leader, without title, and without formal recognition.

The position which he wished to hold in the eyes
of his countrymen was no doubt that of a " deliverer"
— a sui:cessor of the many famous judges who had
arisen in the old days, such as Gideon, Samson, or
Joshua. He had raised himself to his position as
leader of the liberating party by the force of his own
character,* and he now maintained his reputation by
the wisdom with which he ruled.

''Messiah Malhainah!' 107

The Hasmonean family belonged to the course of
Joarib, but though of the sons of Aaron, they had no
claim by blood to the office of High Priest. Judas
made no attempt to alter the succession, or to usurp
the dignity of the then living Pontiff. The miserable
Onias was allowed to retain his nominal authority ;
but his name does not appear often in the history of
this period, and, suspected as he was of the most
latitudinarian views, he no doubt found it best to
remain as quiet as possible, leaving the practical
duties of his office to the liberators.

The kingly dignity might also have been thought
tempting to the Maccabsean ambition, but the family
could not claim descent from David, and the whole
spirit of the revolt seems to have been rather in
imitation of the primitive period of Samuel than of
the later history of the Jewish monarchy. The pro-
phecies, if understood to refer to a restoration of the
temporal rule of a successor to David, must evidently
have indicated that such a ruler would be of the
House of David ; but, as far as we can gather from
the Book of Maccabees, the popular expectation was
directed, as has already been explained, towards the
appearance of a new prophet rather than to the
re-establishment of independent native royalty.

The position actually held by Judas seems to have
been that of Messiah Malhamah, or "the Anointed
for War," an ancient office appointed by Moses

io8 Judas MaccabcBUS,

(Deut. XX. 2) ; the priest on whom it was conferred
being in fact just what Judas became — the acting
High Priest, accompanying the army in order to
exhort the troops on the eve of battle.

The Jews, in the time subsequent to the first estab-
lishment of the kingdom, recognised two Messiahs, or
"anointed" leaders: the first was the High Priest,
christened with the holy oil with which Aaron had
first been consecrated ; the second was the Messiah
Negedy or " Anointed Chief," of whom Saul was the
first. It was not until after the death of Judas that
the Hasmoneans introduced an innovation into the
Jewish constitution, by uniting the two offices in one,
and the first and greatest of the brethren contented
himself with the humbler position of Messiah Mai-
hamah^ or War-deputy to the High Priest Onias.

The small extent of territory which had been
recovered is not at first easily appreciated, The
lands of Judea were bounded on the north by
Samaria, on the east by Moab, on the west by the
Philistines, and on the south by Edom ; the area
included was little over 1000 square miles — one-sixth
of Palestine as conquered by Joshua — and was thus
scarcely larger than the county of Surrey. On the
south the fortress of Bethsura was built by the Jews
as a frontier castle, guarding the approach to the
Holy City from Hebron and from the southern
deserts ; and Bethsura was only about twelve miles

Frontiers of Judea. 109

from Jerusalem. On the north the main road from
Samaria was protected by the town of Bethel, and
the line which ascended from the plain of Capharsaba
was blocked by the castle of Thamnatha, standing at
the head of a rugged ravine some seventeen miles
north-west of the capital. Bethhoron and Emmaus
were also frontier towns, and on the east Jericho was
the furthest inhabited place. Such were the limits of
the little state which Judas had created ; they coincided
almost exactly with those of the Christian kingdom
of Jerusalem under its latest kings ; for the boundaries
were natural, and the steep rampart of hills, which
surrounds the narrow plateau on which Jerusalem
stands, formed an efficient barrier against the incur-
sions of the nomadic inhabitants of the plains, both
in the days of Judas and in the times of Godfrey.
Whenever the leaders of Israel went forth from their
rocky fastnesses, it was to fight their way inch by
inch, and, like the Christian expeditions against Moab
or Ascalon, the wars of Judas, after the successful
revolt of 165 B.C., were only rapid raids which had
no permanent effect in increasing the amount of the
Judean territory.

The capital of Judea was as small as the territory
belonging to it. The Jerusalem of the Hasmoneans
was not larger than is the modern town, and the
walls built by Solomon probably enclosed the same
area of about 200 acres.

no yudas MaccabcEus.

Nor was the city one to be coveted as a natural
capital to a great kingdom. Its position, shut in at
the back of the Judean watershed, while affording it
security, and thus making it the centre of the national
faith, was at the same time unfavourable to com-
munication with the rest of the world. In this
natural isolation of the religious capital, we find, no
doubt, one of the main causes for the preservation of
the Jewish religion unaffected by the heathenism of
the surrounding nations ; but we also see in it the
reason why Jerusalem has never been, nor is ever
likely to become, a large city. The Jerusalem of
Nehemiah or of the Hasmoneans was barely two and
a-half miles round ; and of its area, the Temple, with
its courts, occupied a sixth part.

It may be interesting here to give a short sketch
of the main features of the city, which we gather from
the accounts in the book of Maccabees and from
Josephus.

The site of Jerusalem is too well known to require
lengthy description. It consists of the spurs which
run out south-east from a flat watershed, and which
are bounded by two valleys — -one running southwards,
the second, to the west of it, running at first parallel,
then turning eastwards, and thus enclosing the site of
the town in a rude parallelogram, which is defended
by nature on all sides but the north-west.

The eastern valley is called Kedron in the Bible,

y ertisalem. \ 1 1

while the southern is the Ravine of Hinnom. Both
valleys are deep and narrow, with precipices of ruddy
rock in places, and at their junction they are about
500 feet below the tops of the hills they enclose.
'^ The ground within the boundary valleys was
further divided by a broad and flat-bottomed depres-
sion, afterwards called the Tyropoeon, which divided
the site in two. To the east was the long tongue of
land which, running out of the watershed, formed the
sloping ridge of Moriah, and terminated in the narrow
spur of Ophel, enclosed between the Tyropoeon on
the west and the Kedron on the east.

On the west of the Tyropoeon a second spur ran
out to a narrow neck of high ground between the
head of that valley and the top of the western
boundary, or Valley of Hinnom. From this isthmus
the ridge again swelled out into the high, broad hill
almost isolated by the deep natural trenches which
surrounded it, forming the strongest part of the town
— the upper city.

A narrow ravine, which had its head north of the
city, joined the Tyropoeon just where it swept round
southwards below Moriah. This ravine, afterwards
filled up, bounded on the east the little knoll of rock
which stood immediately north of the large hill of the
upper city — a knoll higher than the crest of Moriah,
but commanded by the mountain south of it. The
head of the Tyropoeon was so broad that it formed a

112 Judas Maccabcp.tis.

hollow theatre between the knoll of Millo and the
upper city, and the houses which were built on the
northern slope, and near the isthmus joining the upper
city to the watershed, were arranged in a crescent-
shape, and rose terrace above terrace opposite those
on the southern hill.

The water - supply of the city was extremely
deficient. The great reservoirs of the Temple
enclosure were probably already in existence, but
several of the pools now found (especially to the west)
date much later than Jewish times. Jerusalem could
boast of only one spring — on the east — and that was
outside the walls of the town. In this deficiency of
water-supply we find another great drawback, which
prevents us from regarding Jerusalem as the natural
capital of Palestine. Shechem, with its beautiful
gardens and its abundant springs, being in a central
position and easily accessible, is more likely than is
Jerusalem to be in the future the political centre of
the country.

The eastern ridge of Moriah was enclosed by the
great fortress walls of Solomon, rising to a height of
150 feet of solid masonry; the stones of megalithic
size, and ornamented with the broad draft distinctive
of Phoenician work. The area within — partly rock,
partly of earth banked up — was perhaps planted as it
is now, and on the highest part of the ridge a plat-
form was erected, ascended by steps, and surrounded

The Temple, 1 1 3

by little chambers, with doors leading to the lower
level without. A second platform, rather lower,
existed on the east. The first was the sacred Altar
Court, only entered by the priests ; the second was the
place of worship for the whole of the congregation.
In the Altar Court the rude pile of unhewn stones,
whitewashed and cemented, was the principal object,
and the impression conveyed by the very primitive
character of the altar is, that the buildings of the
Temple could not have been very magnificent in
appearance, or solid in construction. The square
block of masonry which is described as constituting
the Holy House can hardly fail to have had a heavy
appearance, and we have no authority for supposing
that this was relieved by beautiful architectural
details, or by any ornamentation other than the golden
shields and crowns which were hung on its walls.

Beneath the western wall of the sanctuary, down
in the valley, was the Xystus, or gymnasium, of which
we have no description, but which was probably
designed in imitation of a Greek building of the kind.
North of the Temple was a scarped rock, rising some
forty feet above the court, and on this stood the tower
called Baris, which the Hasmoneans built as a pro-
tection to the Holy House, commanding the strong-
hold of the Greeks on Akra, or Millo. This tower
was the predecessor of the famous citadel of Antonia,
which so long baffled the Roman besiegers.

H

114 yudas MaccabcBMs.

The only other prominent pubHc building was the
stronghold on Akra, just mentioned. From it the
foreign mercenaries were able to look into the Temple
area, and the height of the knoll on which it stood
was considered so great a danger, that it was after-
wards cut down, as will be seen later.

Such were the principal points in the view. The
Temple fortress on a narrow ridge, with the heavy
central building and the gleaming altar ; to the north,
the scarped rock of Baris ; to the west, the knoll of
Akra, with its tower. The houses rose tier above
tier from the low ground towards the knoll, and the
whole of the broad, flat, southern hill was built over,
while the steep slopes to the east of it were probably
covered also with houses.

The city wall curved round from Baris to the west,
and included the Akra knoll. It was the old line by
which Solomon and later kings had connected the
upper city with the Temple area, and which Nehemiah
had repaired. In the south-west corner of the upper
city was a rocky scarp and outer trench. Thence the
wall ran east above Siloam, and, crossing the Tyro-
poeon, extended to Ophel — the quarter of the priests.
Here, by the Watergate, was the curious rock-shaft
down which the inhabitants of the city, in the time of
siege, could descend unseen to the subterranean source
of Gihon, the one spring of Jerusalem. From Gihon
also the rock-cut aqueduct of Hezekiah was tunnelled

The Sumzy Mountain. 115

through the Ophel hill to the rock reservoir of
Siloam.

Between the Watergate and the south-east corner
of the Temple rampart, the foundation of the great
wall of the city still remains. It is probably the work
of Nehemiah, and its hasty construction is evidenced
by the fact that it is not founded on rock, but merely
on the soil above.

The general appearance of the city thus described
cannot have been imposing. The ordinary dwellings
were probably of stone, built in the same rude manner
now common in the country. The Jewish ideas of
symmetry seem always to have been very imperfect.
Even the splendid Temple rampart is so irregularly
built that its walls are not at right angles to one
another, and the same defect is observable in the
majority of native buildings of every age in Palestine.

The surrounding site was rocky and treeless, for
the "mountains of Sion" no doubt presented at every
historic period that aspect of sterility which originally
caused them to receive the name Sion, or "sunny;"
and the modern traveller who sees the city spread on
the white chalk hills, under the full glare of the mid-
day sun, can well appreciate the appropriateness of
the old Hebrew title.

But if the capital of Judea could not compare with
Athens or with Rome, it must be remembered that its
architecture was expressive of a much more primitive

ii6 Judas MaccabcEUs,

condition of civilisation. We are dealing with a
people who were still content with a patriarchal
government, and with a pastoral and agricultural
life ; who were almost entirely uneducated, and who
had neither sciences nor arts. We cannot draw a
true parallel between Judas Maccabaeus and any of
the great heroes of heathenism, any more than we can
fairly compare ancient Jerusalem with any of the
great capitals of the Old World. The history and
results of the Hasmonean struggle are not, however,
less interesting because connected with a less civilised
condition of society ; for the true appreciation of the
influence of Jewish institutions on mankind is not
impaired by forming a correct estimate of their archaic
character.

A real parallel may be drawn between the Has-
moneans and the great native families of Palestine,
which have now been almost entirely extinguished
by Turkish persecution. Thus, for instance, in Galilee
the great family of Zeidan gained power about the
commencement of the i8th century; Dhahr el 'Amr,
grandson of Zeidan, threw off the Egyptian yoke and
refused to pay tribute. He became virtually King of
Galilee. His eight sons were governors under him of
eight districts, including Upper and Lower Galilee, with
a total of. 162 villages. The strongest positions were
fortified with walls and round towers, and, as the
country within these frontiers was at peace, mosques

A Historic Parallel, 117

and palaces, aqueducts and mills, were erected all
over the land, which, for a quarter of a century,
flourished under its native chiefs, until, at the age of
ninety, the national hero was cruelly executed by
Jezzar Pacha.

The history of the Hasmoneans was very much the
same. Gaining power over a weak foreign govern-
ment, they threw off the yoke and refused to pay
tribute. Strengthening their borders with frontier
fortresses, they obtained interior peace and tran-
quillity, and the Temple and walls of Jerusalem were
raised again. But, like the Zeidaniyin, the Has-
moneans were destined to final overthrow ; their hero
was slain, and their family was gradually exterminated
by foreign rulers.

The year of which we are now speaking was, how-
ever, a time of constant success for Judas Maccabseus.
In the spring of 164 B.C. he made four long and
successful expeditions, and in the same year the great
enemy of the Jews, Antiochus, " the frantic," died. The
history of these events may now be resumed in order.

The first expedition made by Judas beyond the
bounds of Judea was towards the South. The great
wave of nomadic invasion, which was always surging
against the high hills held by the Jews, could only be
restrained and forced back in times of peace, when
the mountaineers were strong and prosperous. So
far had the southern Arabs advanced, that Bethsura

ii8 Judas Maccabceus.

was now the limit of Idumea, and the Hebron hills
were no longer reckoned as belonging to Israel. The
" sons of Bean," who were descendants of Esau, had
harassed the border villages during the period of
anarchy, which dated from the accession of the im-
politic Antiochus Epiphanes. Against these brigands
Judas waged war, and succeeded in driving them
back even to the southern limit of the territory given
to the tribe of Judah by Joshua.

Boldly marching down along the watershed, and
over the downs where David had wandered round
Ziph and Carmel when hiding from Saul, Judas and
his army entered the great chalky desert which runs
out eastwards from Beersheba to the desolate pre-
cipices above the Dead Sea.

The land descends in sudden steps southwards
towards Sinai and Petra ; and at the south end of the
Dead Sea, above the dreary salt marsh and the steep
salt mountain, the rugged pass of Akrabbim leads up
to the highest plateau, fifty miles from Jerusalem.
Akrabbim, "the scorpion pass," was on the old
boundary of Judah, and it was here that the sons of
Esau had gathered a host. The trogloditic Horites
from the caverns of Petra, the sons of Bean from the
flint castles in the deserts of Rehoboth, and all the
nomadic ancestors of the modern Arabs, had collected
together for their summer incursion into the corn-
fields and vineyards of the hill country.

The Battle of Akt^abbim. 119

Judas fell upon them suddenly, and defeated them,
driving them back to the fastnesses of Mount Hor,
and shutting them up in the desert fortresses. His
expedition may be compared with that so adven-
turously carried out by Baldwin the First, brother of
Godfrey, who, descending by almost the same route,
in the early part of his reign, passed the salt mountain
and fought his way to Petra and Mount Hor. But,
like the later expedition, that of Judas was merely
a raid, and the defeat of the Idumeans was only
sufficient to give temporary security to the outlying
villages south of the fortress of Bethsura, which was
the real limit of the Jewish kingdom.

It is not clear from the existing accounts whether
Judas crossed the valley south of the Dead Sea and
passed over to the east side, or whether his attack on
the children of Ammon was made from the plains of
Jericho ; but the second appears to have been the
most likely, because the less difficult operation.
Whichever route he chose, he next entered the
highlands north of Heshbon, and penetrated to the
edge of the great oak forest of Mount Gilead. Here
he encountered the Ammonites under their chief,
Timotheus, and defeated them in many battles, or
skirmishes ; finally, he attacked and overthrew the
town of Jazer, standing on the border ravine of the
old territory of Gad, forty miles from Jerusalem,
whither Judas returned in triumph afterwards.

I20 Judas MaccabcBus.

The power of the Greeks in Syria was now virtually
at an end for the time being, and the anarchy
resulting from the misgovernment and disasters of
Antiochus had unsettled all the wild lands surround-
ing Judea. Thus, no sooner had Judas retired to
Jerusalem, than tidings of troubles came to him
simultaneously from the east, the north, and the west.
The Jews of Mount Gilead were flying to the fortress
of Dathema, or Dametha : the Galilean Jews were
invaded by the Phoenicians, and by the foreign
inhabitants of Accho, Tyre, and Galilee ; while the
troubles which, from time immemorial, had afflicted
the border-lands between Israel and the Philistines,
also demanded attention.

Judas decided to undertake the most difficult
expedition himself, and, accompanied by Jonathan,
his youngest brother, he marched towards Mount
Gilead with 8000 men, while Simon, his elder brother,
was sent towards Galilee with 3000. At Jerusalem
two chiefs were appointed, named Joseph ben Zacha-
rias and Azarias, who were strictly enjoined by
Judas, and by the council which was held to
determine what should be done to help the unfortunate
Jews beyond Jordan, to remain on the defensive, and
to attempt no expedition with the weak reserve left
in Judea ; for the whole of the army which had won
the victory of Bethsura was now to be employed in
the two expeditions undertaken.

The Expedition to B 02 rah, 121

It was no trifling enterprise on which Judas
embarked. To carry his army over the scorching
plains of Jericho, descending 4000 feet from Jerusalem
by a rugged mountain-path ; to ford the rapid stream
of Jordan ; to climb the stony mountains of Gilead —
rising yet higher east of the Jordan valley — were
laborious tasks ; but even after the river was passed,
and the plateau above the passes reached, yet greater
difficulties had to be faced. Judas had to lead his
men forward through a hostile and unknown land,
providing them with food as best he could, and dis-
covering the rare springs along his line of advance.
No regular base existed for his flying column, and no
stores were carried forward to the front. It is
surprising to read how far he penetrated into the
interior of the eastern desert, and over how large an
area his conquests in one short campaign extended.

A bloody vengeance had been taken by the
Ammonites and Amorites on the Jews inhabiting
their country, in retaliation for the defeat which Judas
had so recently inflicted on them near Jazer. A
thousand Israelites in the land of Tob had been put
to death ; their wives and children were captives ; and
Dametha was besieged by the same Timotheus whom
Judas had defeated.

The advance of the relieving force was directed
towards the broad plains of Bashan, which had been
entirely overrun by the foreigners : cities inhabited by

122 yudas MaccabcEtcs.

the Jews, even as far as the famous Ashtoreth Car-
naim, east of the sea of Galilee, were either already
taken or in danger. Bozrah was besieged, as well as
Alema, Bosor, Casphor, and Maked, strong places,
the very names of which have now perished.

Our difficulties in correctly following out the
campaign are greatly increased by the imperfect
information which we possess as to the position of
the various places mentioned. West of Jordan the
topography is clear enough ; but the maps of the
country to the east are mere sketches, and have been
made in hasty journeys by travellers ignorant, as a
rule, of the Bedawi language. Nor can we hope to
recover the ancient names as completely as in
Western Palestine — even if the country be at some
future period more perfectly explored — because the
eastern Arabs do not preserve the old Hebrew titles
with the tenacity of the peasantry west of Jordan.
We must be content, therefore, with tracing the
outline merely of Judas' adventurous wanderings.

The Jewish army crossed Jordan, and marched for
three days into the wilderness — a distance of probably
not less than seventy miles from Jerusalem. They
then encountered a friendly tribe of Nabatheans, from
whom they learned the peril of the Jews in Bozrah,
and Judas determined to advance to the relief of this
town, which stands on the high road to Euphrates,
sixty miles east of Jordan, at the point where the

The Relief of Dametha, 123

eastern highway is crossed by the road which runs
south from Damascus to Heshbon and Moab. This
famous city Judas actually reached by a forced march
of 100 miles from Jerusalem, and, imitating the
example of Joshua, he killed all the males and burnt
the town. This feat may be compared with the
adventurous expedition in which young Baldwin the
Third won his spurs, before he became King of
Jerusalem, when he advanced almost in the steps of
Judas as far as Bozrah.

From Bozrah it appears to have been a night's
march to Dametha, the last stronghold of the Jews ;
and as Judas' subsequent march led him northwards,
it is not impossible that the place intended is the
present Dameh, in the middle of the dreary Lejja
district, near the oak forests and extinct volcanoes
which exist some thirty miles north of Bozrah. This
district has, in late times, proved a refuge for the
Druses when revolting from the Turks, and the
inaccessibility of the position must always have made
it a strong place.

On this subject it is not, however, possible to speak
with any certainty ; and the position of the Mizpeh
immediately afterwards taken, as well as of Casphor,
Maked, Bosor, and Malle, which all fell before Judas,
is also unknown. They appear to have been situated
very far east, but Malle and Casphor are placed by
Josephus in Mount Gilead.

124 Judas MaccabcBMs,

Timotheus, the Ammonite, was besieging Dametha,
and in the early morning the Jewish force arrived, and
saw tlie host of the heathen advancing against the
walls with battering-rams and ladders. The trumpets
of the relieving force sounded, and the astonished
Ammonites found themselves hemmed in between
Judas and the garrison of Dametha just at the
moment when victory seemed certain, and when, no
doubt, they supposed the army of Maccabseus to be
resting in Jerusalem after the late campaign in
Moab : such was the masterly generalship of Judas,
who, by some five days' forced marching, had reached
the beleaguered town just in time to save it.

Timotheus and his army fled before the three
companies, which charged with the sound of the
trumpet, and which "cried with prayer." Eight
thousand Ammonites were slain, and the surrounding
district was subjugated. Thus Judas had successfully
imitated and even surpassed the prowess of Saul in
his expedition to the relief of Jabesh Gilead, when
besieged by the Ammonite Nahash.

Encouraged by success, Judas determined to pursue
his enemy Timotheus yet further north, and he
advanced against the host which was gathered round
the city of Raphana, afterwards famous as belonging
to the Decapolis, but the site of which is, unfortu-
nately, unknown. The hordes of the Eastern Arabs
had been induced, by the hope of plundering the

Defeat of the Ammonites, 125

Jews settled in the cities of Bashan, to join the
Ammonites, and the immense host was drawn up
behind a .torrent-bed, or gorge, which formed a natural
rampart. This line the heathen endeavoured to
defend, hoping to overawe Judas by their formidable
numbers, and by the strength of their position.
When the valley had been forced by the Jewish army,
rendered confident by the uninterrupted success of
three years of continual fighting, the last hopes of
Timotheus were destroyed. He fled still further
northwards to Ashtoreth Carnaim, and sought refuge
in the famous temple of the two-horned Queen of
Heaven. The whole army of Judas hurried on in
pursuit ; for the scribes, or subordinate officers, whose
duty it was to arrange the proportions of combatants
and non-combatants in the Jewish army (Deut. xx.),
had received orders from Judas that not a man was
to remain in camp.

The first attack being thus promptly followed up,
Ashtoreth Carnaim was taken without a siege, and
Timotheus appears to have perished in the flames
of the idol temple.

It cannot be doubted that Judas displayed, during
this great campaign, a very high degree of military
talent. It is true that he had not to contend with
trained soldiers such as the generals of Antiochus
could bring against him ; but the art of successfully
conducting a long advance through a country infested

126 yudas Maccabcsus.

by bands of guerillas has always held a high position
in military science. Ashtoreth Carnaim was 150
miles from Jerusalem, and the distance alone made
the campaign arduous. The rapidity of the marches,
the fearlessness of the attacks, and the sudden over-
throw of the cities, take us back to the first days
of the invasion of Palestine by Joshua, when the
enthusiasm and zeal of the fierce Israelite hosts
had not been damped by defeat nor cooled by
time.

Judas, however, knew well that no permanent
results could be expected from his brilliant raid, and
that a terrible vengeance would be wreaked on his
fellow-countrymen, if left in Bashan, after his return.
Warned by the tragedy of the land of Tob, the
eastern Jews prepared for a general emigration, and,
guarded by the Hasmonean army, they set out,
with their wives, children, and household possessions,
to go to Judea.

The route lay south-west, towards Jordan, over the
plateau of Golan, and was not free from danger. On
the road stood the fortress of Ephron, past which they
were obliged to march. The inhabitants closed the
gates, and barricaded them with stones, refusing
admission, and turning a deaf ear to the peaceable
demands of Judas that his host should be allowed to
pass through the city on foot. No doubt the scarcity
of water was the main reason why another route was

The Return to yerusakm. 127

not taken, for it seems curious that a single town
should bar the entire line of retreat.

The churlish townsmen, however, trusted in vain to
the strength of their walls. The host halted, and the
baggage was laid down ; the fighting men advanced,
and, after assaulting the city for a whole day, the
Jews took it and put its inhabitants to the sword.
Over the dead bodies of the enemy they marched
straight through the city, and, descending by the
deep white gorge of the Hieromax river, past
black precipices which hem in Jordan, they reached
the bank of the river in the part where, north
of Bethshean, it flows through a broad flat plain — a
rapid but tortuous stream. Here, by the great ford
of Abarah, or by some of the numerous passages,
rather lower down, by which the Sukr Arabs now
yearly cross the Jordan, the mixed host gained the
western banks, and thence, as soon as the rear-guard
and the stragglers had been collected, they marched
down the great valley and ascended to the hills of
Jerusalem with songs and rejoicings. Arriving at
the Holy City, they offered sacrifices in token of their
gratitude for deliverance from the heathen, and for
their safe journey to Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Simon, with his 3000 men, had been
scarcely less successful in Galilee than Judas had
been in Gilead and Bashan. The Phoenicians from
Tyre, Sidon, and Accho — or, as it was then called,

128 Judas Maccahceus,

Ptolemais — had been repulsed, the captive Jews had
been released, and the invaders were in turn shut up
in the maritime towns, while 3000 of the enemy are
said to have been slain. .

A second emigration also took place from Galilee,
where the Jews appear to have had no more secure
a footing than in Peraea. The security of the little
Judean kingdom, guarded by its frontier fortresses
and ruled by the strong hand of the heroic Judas,
offered an inducement to all the scattered Israelites
to flock round Jerusalem. Thus from Galilee and
Arbattis a host accompanied Simon on his return
southwards. The latter district is not known with
certainty ; but it is possible that under the name of
Arbattis was included the territory of Issachar and
the great plain of Esdraelon, above which, on the
south-east, stood the old city of Rabbith, represented
by the modern village of Raba, on the high saddle
south of Gilboa.

Fortune favoured the Hasmonean brothers not only
in the field, but, during their absence, in Jerusalem.
Azarias and Joseph ben Zacharias had been ordered
to remain quietly at home, but their ambition sug-
gested to them the idea of supplanting the absent
heroes in the popular favour by brilliant victories won
nearer home. " Let us also get us a name," they said,
"and go fight against the heathen that are round
about us." In an evil moment, they rashly undertook

Defeat at Jamnia. 129

an enterprise which Judas would have shunned. In
his conflicts with the trained soldiery of the Greek
generals, he had always relied on strong defensive
positions, and had never ventured to oppose them in
the open ground.

The new leaders were destitute of the military
genius and cautiousness of Judas, and advanced boldly
against Gorgias, the general defeated at Emmaus,
who was now entrenched in Jamnia, a town standing
in a naturally strong position on a round hill almost
isolated, which rises above the valley of Sorek, just
where the yellow sand-dunes begin to encroach on
the broad corn-lands of Philistia.

Gorgias sallied out from this stronghold, and swept
down the hill on the Jewish force in the low ground.
A rout resulted, and 2000 Israelites were slain, the
remainder being pursued across the plain into the
hills of Judea.

This defeat was, for Judas, perhaps the most fortu-
nate circumstance in his career. The expedition had
been undertaken in direct contradiction to his prudent
counsel ; and the success with which he had opposed
the Greeks, acting on the defensive, at the mountain
passes, when contrasted with the defeat in a rash
attempt to meet them on equal terms, showed how
well he understood the true tactics for a Jewish army.
At the same time he was returning in triumph from
a long offensive campaign, in which (as the historian
I

130 yudas MaccabcBUS.

affirms) he had not lost a man. It was noted that
the defeat at Jamnia was due to disobedience of his
commands. " Moreover, these men (Azarias and
Joseph) came not of the seed of those by whose hand
dehverance was given to Israel." The power of the
Hasmoneans was by this one incident consolidated
for more than a century.

The energy of Judas would not suffer him to rest
long. His forces were swelled by the Jews of Peraea
and Galilee, and he once more took the field against
the Idumeans, endeavouring to redeem the Hebron
mountains and the rich Shephelah plains, which might
now be so advantageously colonised by the emigrants
collected at Jerusalem.

Hebron, the most ancient city of Judea, fell before
this second Joshua, and its fortress walls were pulled
down. Thus the rich vine country and the beautiful
springs of that high district were conquered.

From Hebron the ever-victorious host descended to
the rolling hills and fat corn valleys of the Shephelah,
and attacked and took Mareshah, a city on the edge
of the Philistine plain, which was reckoned as within
the bounds of Idumea. By this conquest the district
round AduUam was reclaimed — the rich valley of
Elah and the olive groves of Beth-Gubrin, the old
city of the Horites. It would seem, however, that the
more adventurous spirits of the army were with
difficulty restrained by their wary general ; for certain

Ashdod Btcrnt. 131

priests, venturing from the safety of the hills, were
slain in the open country. But even in the plains the
good fortune of Judas was the same. He did not
indeed venture to attack Gorgias in Jamnia, but he
reached Ashdod, lying south of it, and fifteen miles
from the foot of the hills. In one rapid march he
came down on the famous town which stands by the
sand hills, in an open plain surrounded with palms.
The temple of Dagon was levelled with the ground,
the carved images of the fish-god were burnt, and the
Jewish expedition had effected a retreat to the
mountain fastnesses, before the Greek general, only
nine miles away, could cut them off. The return
march to Jerusalem was interrupted by the Sabbath,
and the army rested for that day in the valley of
Elah, at the famous stronghold of Adullam.

At this same time Antiochus Epiphanes died. His
expedition against the temple of Nanaea in Elam had
been unsuccessful ; the inhabitants of the place
defeated him, and the shrine of Artemis, with all its
riches, escaped the fate of the Temple of Jehovah.
The defeated tyrant retired to Babylon, and thence to
Taboe, in Persia. He was soon after afflicted with an
incurable disease, and his latter days were embittered
by the continual reports of Judean victories, and of
the extension and consolidation of the Hasmonean
power. He came to his end, and there was "none
to help him." The heathen saw in his death the

132 Judas MaccabcBUS.

vengeance of Diana, and the Jew attributed it to the
Divine wrath of Jehovah, because of the many miseries
which Antiochus had inflicted on the chosen race.

Judas had now attained the summit of his power.
It is true that, while much had been done in those
four years which had passed since Mattathias, his
father, died, much remained to be done, but Judas
was not himself destined to see his hopes completely
realised. The independence of the Jews was an
accomplished fact, but not yet recognised by the great
rulers of the world, the kings of Egypt and Syria.
The Hellenistic heresy was not yet rooted out, for
the miserable Onias was still High Priest, while
the Macedonian garrison still held the castle on
Akra. No settled form of government had been
established, for the Prophet divinely commissioned to
dictate new ordinances had not appeared. The
Samaritans were still flourishing, and the rival temple
on Gerizim was, in the eyes of the heathen, not
inferior to the Jerusalem sanctuary. Judas had never
ventured to attack these enemies of his countrymen
in the strong mountains which surround Shechem,
and it was not until another thirty-five years had
elapsed that this final triumph was attained by his
nephew.

But though all this was still to be done, the amount
achieved was not less important. Real freedom was
attained, the temple service was re-established, the

The Situation Reviewed. 133

law of Moses was observed, and the Jew could
circumcise his children, and study the Torah as his
conscience commanded, without fear of cruel persecu-
tion. Peace and security existed within the borders
of Judea, and from this centre the future state was
destined to grow steadily larger. The insolence of
the Idumean nomads and of the Ammonites and
Eastern Arabs had been repressed by the brilliant
successes of the Hasmoneans in the south, north, east,
and west.

A strong nucleus had been formed in the hills
round Jerusalem by the gathering in of the scattered
Israelites of Galilee and Peraea, and the vitality of
the new kingdom and of the reformed religion was
superabundant.

Finally, the power of Judas himself had, in this one
year, been immensely increased. His military genius
and good fortune, his prudence and wisdom, had been
alike placed beyond dispute, while the purity of his
motives and the soundness of his faith were generally
recognised. He was, in fact, the darling of the
people — the national hero in whose life the prosperity
of Israel was bound up — the appointed instrument
through whom deliverance was given by the Most
Hish.

CHAPTER V.

DEFEATS AND DEATH OF JUDAS.
163-161 B.C.

IT is sad that the sequel to the history of the
patriotic Maccabaeus should be a story of mis-
fortune and untimely death, and that the brilliant
successes just described should have been followed by
a series of defeats.

Antiochus Epiphanes being dead, Lysias, the
actual guardian of the heir-apparent, and protector of
the realm, proclaimed the boy Antiochus Eupator,
who was only nine years of age ; and in the spring of
the year 163 B.C. he advanced with a force of 100,000
foot and 20,000 cavalry to the relief of the garrison in
Jerusalem, which had succeeded in sending a messenger
to report that they were closely invested by the Jews
under the Hasmoneans.

It was a Sabbatic year, and offensive warfare and
tillage were alike unlawful to the Jews. The Greek
advance appears to have been very rapid, and Beth-
sura on the watershed had been already invested

Beth-Zacharias. \ 3 5

before Judas, raising the siege of the Akra citadel,
advanced to meet Lysias.

The ppsition which he chose was one which again
gave evidence of his mihtary capacity. It was indeed
the last natural line of defence south of Jerusalem,
but it was one which could neither be outflanked nor
masked, but which must be attacked and won before
any advance could be made.

About nine miles south of the Holy City the
watershed of the country becomes very narrow, and
a high ridge, rising to more than 3000 feet above the
sea, commands a good view on the north, east, and
west. The main road from Hebron creeps along the
eastern side of this mountain, and runs above a pre-
cipitous valley, being thus carried through a dangerous
defile commanded by the hill. Immediately north
of this pass is the open dell in which are the
great reservoirs vulgarly called Solomon's Pools.
Here also is the spring of Etam, where were Solomon's
gardens, and whence, in later times, Pilate's great
aqueduct brought water to the Temple. Under the
brow of the high ridge above mentioned there are
other clear springs, and the field of battle was thus
well supplied with water on the side of the defence.

Looking down from the ridge towards the sea,
a deep and narrow valley is seen sinking suddenly,
the head formed by an intricate network of small
ravines, which seam the sides of the great hill-spurs

136 Judas MaccabcBus.

running out westwards. Two other main roads,
from the plains, pass beneath the brow of the
mountain, on the west and north-west. The first,
from. Beth-Gubrin and Adullam, ascends to Gibeah
of Judah, and thus to the ruins of Beth-Zacharias,
which stand at the southern end of the high ridge.
The second runs along the northern side of the valley
of Elah, descending westwards, by the rock Etam,
towards Shochoh and Beth-Shemesh. By either of
these routes an enemy might have advanced on
Jerusalem, and the position taken up by Judas com-
manded both, as well as the southern watershed
road from Hebron, by which Lysias was actually
advancing.

The sides of the mountain were steep and rugged ;
the top was barren, and gleamed with a cap of white
chalky soil. On the west, a low belt of precipice ran
along the ridge near the summit, but on the north, in
rear, the ground was more open than in front.

From this mountain summit, now only known by
the modern name of Ras Sherifeh, " the high hill-top,"
a view could be obtained embracing many a famous
scene of Jewish history. On the north, the Holy City
itself was visible, and Bethlehem, the home of David,
standing among its olive groves, and vineyards. On
the west, the eye ranged over the dusky rolling
ridges which stretch towards the Shephelah and the
plains of Philistia. The rock of Samson's Etam, a

The Elephants. 137

barren stony knoll, was a conspicuous feature, and
the white cliff of Gath was dimly visible on the edge
of the Philistine plain.

Turning eastwards, the valley of the other Etam,
with rugged cliffs and terraces of rock, formed the
foreground. The white peaks and sharp ridges of the
desert round Tekoa were visible behind, and, furthest
of all, the blue wall of the Moab mountains closed
the view.

Such was the battle-field selected by Judas. But
although he showed his usual skill in the choice of a
defensive position, he had to contend with more
formidable foes than any he had before encountered.
Lysias seems to have appreciated the strength of his
enemy, and to have spared nothing which could
ensure success. His army was nearly twice as large
as that defeated at Bethsura two years before, and a
new and terrible feature was added in the thirty-two
elephants which accompanied the forces.

Surprise is the essence of success in war. Whether
it be the novel invention of a needle-gun, or the use
of a sling, campaigns have been won again and again
by the introduction of a new weapon or an unexpected
method of attack. The Jews had withstood the Greek
infantry ; they had even found courage to oppose
horsemen when fighting in a country unfit for cavalry ;
but the soldiers of Judas had probably never before
seen an elephant.

138 Judas MaccabcBiis.

The unwieldy animals had been brought up even
to the hill-tops, and were marching along the rocky-
paths in single file. On the back of each was a
wooden tower, whence the archers sent a continual
shower of arrows, and a regiment of 1000 footmen
with a squadron of 500 horse accompanied each
elephant. The Jews saw with astonishment the
docility of the beasts, governed each by a single
negro, and a report spread that they had been rendered
furious by the sight of "the blood of grapes and
mulberries," in anticipation of the battle.

Bethsura had been closely invested, and the main
body of the army advanced to assault the position at
Beth-Zacharias. The elephants and their attendant
forces marched by the main road, which lay down a
flat open valley towards the narrow pass already
noticed ; but Lysias had taken the precaution of
scouring the hills on either side of the road, well
knowing that a sudden flank attack might be expected
from a general of Judas' genius.

A glorious and formidable spectacle was presented
by the great army, as it marched on. The sun shone
on the brazen helmets, the mail coats, the shields of
gold. The noise of the tread of the footmen, the
rattling of the harness, the trumpeting of the elephants,
and the shouts of the whole host were re-echoed by
the surrounding hills, and struck terror into the hearts
of the Jews. In vain did Judas encourage his men

Death of Eleazar, 139

to attack the vanguard. In vain did his heroic
brother, Eleazar, sacrifice his life to show how easily
the elephants might be defeated. Choosing out the
leader, whose rich trappings suggested that some
person of importance — perhaps the King Antiochus
himself — might be concealed in the tower, Eleazar
transfixed it with his weapon, and perished beneath
the huge animal as it fell. He won for himself
"a perpetual name;" but the Jewish army was dis-
comfited, and Judas retired to Jerusalem, and prepared
to stand a siege.

The Greeks, who, for five years, had failed to pene-
trate into the hills of Jerusalem, at length invested
the capital. Bethsura fell almost immediately after
the battle of Beth-Zacharias, its inhabitants having
been unable, in consequence of the Sabbatic year,
to re-provision the place. With a moderation which
contrasts with the fierce intolerance of the Jews when
victorious, Antiochus allowed the citizens of this
fortress to depart uninjured, and afterwards estab-
lished a strong garrison in the town.

And now the party of the "pious," and the four
surviving Hasmonean brothers, were shut up in the
Temple fortress, and the garrison of the Akra citadel
besieged in turn their former besiegers, in concert
with the great army which had relieved them. The
sufferings of the Jews were increased by the fact
that, as it was a Sabbatic year, no corn had been

140 Judas Maccabcsus.

sown which might now replenish their exhausted
granaries.

Humanly speaking, the Jewish revolt was at an
end, and the heroic leaders appeared doomed to
certain death; but, by a coincidence truly dramatic,
the situation suddenly changed with news which
reached Lysias just at the commencement of the
siege of Jerusalem.

Philip, the foster-brother of Antiochus Epiphanes,
had been appointed guardian by the dying tyrant to
the youthful heir, and was at this time returning from
Persia to Antioch. Lysias had, however, no intention
of giving up his power, and was therefore obliged to
return at once to the Syrian capital, there to encounter
the new protector. A peace was hastily patched
up wdth the Jews, and the Greek military honour
being satisfied by the victory of Beth-Zacharias, it
was agreed that all idea of compelling the Jews to
abandon their religion should be relinquished, and
that they should only be required to pay the ordinary
tribute, being in other respects left entirely free to
obey their national laws.

The besieged were happy to escape so easily,
remembering the cruelties of the fatal year i68 B.C.
They marched out of the Temple stronghold, trusting
to the promises of the King ; but the latter, in
defiance of his oath, caused the great rampart-walls
to be broken down, and took away with him the High

The Family of Zadok extinct. 141

Priest Onias, whom he regarded, no doubt, as one of
the main instigators of the Jewish discontent, and whom
he subsequently put to death at Aleppo. Returning
to Antioch, Lysias found it in possession of Philip ;
he besieged the city, and killed his rival after it fell.

The campaign of 163 B.C. thus brought fortune, at
once good and evil, to the Hasmoneans. Their
reputation must have been seriously compromised by
defeat, and we never hear again, in the lifetime of
Judas, of those enthusiastic and confident hosts which
he formerly commanded. It was evident that the
Greeks were still able, by putting forth their strength,
to crush any resistance that Jewish arms could
offer, and the Hasmoneans found themselves com-
pelled to rely on an alliance with another heathen
nation, their own strength being insufficient to
withstand that of the armies of the Seleucidae.

But, at the same time, the last barrier to Hasmonean
ambition had been removed. The family of Zadok
had become extinct in Palestine, and the chosen
deliverers of the nation had the first claim as members
of the first order of priestly families to the office of
the High Priesthood. During the life of Onias, they
had made no attempt to usurp the position. Such
scruples were now no longer necessary. It is not
certain that Judas became High Priest, but it seems
at least that he was so regarded by the party of the
Chasidim. Josephus does not enumerate his name in

142 Jtidas Maccabceus,

the list of the High Priests (Ant. xx. lo), but gives
that of the High Priest nominated by Antiochus to
succeed Onias instead. On the other hand, in relating
the history of the revolt, he speaks of Judas as being
High Priest for the last three years of his life, or
from the time of the death of Onias.

Alcimus was the priest chosen by the Greeks to fill
the office. He was a descendant of Aaron, but not
of the family of whom Onias had been the last in
Palestine. He also belonged to the party of the
Hellenisers, and the hatred and suspicion with which
the Chasidim regarded him seems to have exceeded
that excited by Onias. He outlived Judas, and his
death at Jerusalem, in 159 B.C., was supposed to be a
judgment caused by his determination to pull down
the wall of partition, in the Temple, which divided
the heathen from the Jews, a bulwark characteristic
of Jewish orthodoxy, and a work held sacred as
having been executed in the time of the " prophets "
Ezra and Nehemiah.

The original family of the High Priests traced back
its descent through Jesus, son of Josadek, who came
back with Ezra, to Zadok, the first appointed High
Priest after the building of Solomon's Temple, and
thus to Aaron himself. Only one representative of
this house remained, another Onias, son of him who was
murdered at Aleppo. He was at this time scarcely
more than a child, and escaped to Egypt, where he

The Egyptian Schis77i. 143

found refuge among the Mizraimites, to whose party
he belonged.

The result of this revolution was of no little
importance to the subsequent history of Judaism.
Hitherto the party of unorthodox Jews living in
Egypt had acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of
the High Priest at Jerusalem ; but now the only true
High Priest became a resident in Egypt. Thus,
while the party of the Chasidim at Jerusalem
could reproach their Egyptian brethren with their
return to the land of bondage in disobedience to the
commands of Moses, the Mizraimites might now
retort that the sanctuary at Jerusalem could no
longer be considered the religious capital, since the
head of the faith had quitted it, and since his office
was usurped by a family not consecrated with the
holy oil with which Aaron was christened.

Yet further, they quoted a passage from the
Book of Isaiah — greatest and most revered of the
Prophets — to prove that a Temple was to be built in
Egypt, such as Onias built about the year 160 B.C.

" In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in
the land of Egypt" — so ran the prophecy. The
name of the city Ir-ha-Heres, mentioned in the same
passage, was by the Mizraimites rendered " city of the
sun," and supposed to refer to Heliopolis, where Onias
erected his Temple, while by the Jerusalem school the
name was translated to mean " city of destruction."

144 yudas Maccabcsus.

A complete schism arose between the Egyptian
and Palestinian Jews, and the religion of the former,
freed from the restraints of strict orthodoxy, developed
rapidly into a mystic and allegorical interpretation of
the whole teaching of Moses.

^The Temple established at Heliopolis remained
standing until about Ji B.C., and though built in
imitation of that at Jerusalem, it differed in several
respects. It was situate about twenty miles from
Memphis, and formed a kind of fortress. It was sixty
cubits high, and built of large stones, but the outer walls
were of brick, with stone gateways. A single lamp
of beaten gold burned inside, instead of the seven-
branched candlestick, and this change of symbol was
no doubt connected with a modification of the original
doctrines of Judaism.

Feasts peculiar to the Egyptians were also insti-
tuted, and the festival of the first fruits was
observed with special customs, and known as the
Feast of Baskets. Sacred dances, in which women par-
ticipated, became part of the ceremonial, resembling
the Feast of Maidens held yearly at Motza, which was
possibly instituted by the Hellenists in Palestine.

A separate priesthood was established in Egypt,
and thus, by the time of Philo, the Judaism of the
Mizraimites presented a most marked contrast to the
Judaism of Palestine, with the development of which
we are more especially concerned. '

Revolution at Antioch. 145

In the year 162 B.C., Demetrius, the nephew
of Antiochus Epiphanes, who had been sent as a
hostage to Rome, but who was the rightful heir to
the throne of the Seleucidae, escaped from Italy and
landed at Tripoli. One of those sudden revolutions
characteristic of the East now occurred. Lysias and
the boy-king Antiochus Eupator were seized and
slain, and Demetrius sat on the throne of his father,
Seleucus.

The party of the Hellenisers, headed by the High
Priest Alcimus, came to the new king, and accused
Judas of having driven them from their native land,
and of being an enemy to the sovereignty of the
Greeks. The King at once appointed Bacchides, one
of his most trusted generals, to accompany Alcimus
to Jerusalem, there to install him, and to collect the
tribute.

The new governor entered Judea with peaceful
protestations, but Judas was too wary to trust him-
self in the power of the Hellenists. Many of the
Chasidim, however, were less cautious. "For," said
they, " one that is a priest of the seed of Aaron is
come with this army, and he will do us no wrong."

Trusting to the oaths and promises of Bacchides,
some of the pious went out to meet him ; but,
according to the Jewish historian, those oaths were
quickly broken, and no less than sixty of the Chasidim,
probably leaders of the party, were executed.

K

146 Judas Maccabcsus.

After establishing Alcimus in Jerusalem, Bacchides
left the city, and fixed his camp at a place called
Bezeth, or Beth-Zetho. The position of this village,
as Josephus calls it, is not known with certainty, but
the most probable suggestion is perhaps that it was
the same as Bezetha, afterwards part of Jerusalem — a
position well fitted for the Greek camp intended to
overawe the city.

From Jerusalem, the bands of foreign soldiers and
the Hellenists, under Alcimus, went out to hunt down
Judas and the Chasidim, who in turn revenged them-
selves on the party now in power whenever an oppor-
tunity occurred. Thus the land was desolated once
more, not by foreign persecution, as in 168 B.C., but
by internal dissension and civil war. It appears that
Judas and his party were the more successful, for
Alcimus again went to Antioch, and a new general,
named Nicanor, was sent to Judea, with yet stricter
orders to suppress the seditious party of the Chasidim.

Nicanor reached Jerusalem, and, like Bacchides,
endeavoured to entice Judas into his power. They
even arranged a meeting, but it became known to the
Jewish patriot that his death was meditated, and he
consequently kept at a safe distance, his prudence
being as remarkable as his courage. Frustrated in
his attempts to destroy Judas by treachery, Nicanor
endeavoured to take him by force. A fight ensued at
the village of Caphar Salama, a place near the borders

Nicanors Thi^eats. 147

of Samaria, and not improbably the modern Selemeh,
in the plains below Modin ; but in this assault Nicanor
was defeated, and forced to retire on the citadel in
Jerusalem.

Nicanor returned to vent his rage on the unhappy
inhabitants of the Holy City. The priests came to
meet him, and showed him the sacrifices daily offered
for King Demetrius ; but the baffled general treated
their advances with scorn, and swore that if he could
not defeat Judas, he would revenge himself by burning
the Temple. Even the Hellenists had cause to repent
their alliance with a heathen of so violent a character.
The weeping priests stood before the altar, and
besought the Divine mercy.

" Be avenged," they cried, " O Lord, of this man
and his host, and let them fall by the sword ; remem-
ber their blasphemies, and suffer them not to continue
any longer."

Thus, with the curses of the whole nation on his
head, Nicanor marched out to seek Judas, and to join
a new army which was advancing to meet him near
Bethhoron.

Once more Judas Maccabaeus appears on the scene
as the saviour of his distracted country. While the
two armies marched to concentrate near his native
town of Modin, he appeared suddenly in rear of
Nicanor, and established himself in a strong position,
guarding the northern approach to Jerusalem. The

148 Jtidas MaccabcEiis.

new battle-field chosen by the indomitable hero
was close to the little village of Adasa, situate
on the Judean watershed, four miles north of Jeru-
salem, at the point where the ancient high-road
bifurcates, the one branch passing northwards, along
a shallow depression, under the white hill on which
stands Ramah of Benjamin, the other crossing the
flat open valley, which in summer is covered with
corn, and rising towards a crumbling ruin on a bare
shapeless down, and thence running, north of Gibeon,
to Bethhoron.

Here it is that the ploughman still points out the
dusty heap which represents the site of an old town,
and which is called "the ruin of Adasa." If
interrogated, he will tell the legend of a great battle
once fought here, from which the open valley has
obtained the title " Valley of Blood."

The scenery round Adasa is some of the most
dreary in Palestine. The flat valley head runs up
close to the watershed, the ground is treeless and
barren, the rock, when visible, being a white soft
chalk, and the ploughland a deep-red loam. The
surrounding downs have the usual tame outline of the
chalk in Palestine, and hide from sight the more pic-
turesque mountains of Samaria to the north ; while the
hill of A(^asa shuts out the view of Gibeon, standing
on its isolated hill in the plain of Helkath Hazzurim.
About a mile to the south of Adasa was Mizpeh, on

Adasa, 149

the flat ridge behind which Jerusalem Hes concealed,
and the conical summit of that mysterious mountain
now named Neby Samwil breaks the hill-line on the
south-west. It is an uninviting and bleak plateau,
which the traveller crosses hastily as he approaches
the Holy City ; but the position, astride the two main
roads, in open ground, was one not easily outflanked,
and it was selected with the usual military instinct
which always distinguished Judas' choice of vantage
ground.

At Adasa, Judas collected 1000 men, and lay in
ambush awaiting Nicanor.

In later times, the story ran that a vision presented
itself to him in the darkness, and that he encouraged
his men in the morning by relating it to them. He
seemed to see Onias the First, the famous brother
of Simon the Just, who had been dead for a
century and a-half, holding up his hands in
intercession for the nation, like Moses at Rephidim.
The appearance of an aged man of majestic mien,
with white hair, was next seen by the dreamer, hold-
ing in his right hand a sword of gold. The voice of
Onias proclaimed that this was Jeremiah the prophet,
and the vision addressed Judas with the comforting
assurance, "Take this holy sword, a gift from God,
with the which thou shalt wound the adversaries."

The sober historian who compiled the first Book of
Maccabees does not, however, mention this vision.

150 Judas MaccabcEus.

His narrative throughout is remarkable for the
absence of the supernatural element, which forms so
important a feature in the later unhistoric accounts of
the deeds of Judas. In the authentic accounts also
the Greek army is stated to have numbered 9000
men, while in the second Book of Maccabees the
number of the slain alone in the battle of Adasa is
computed at 35,000 ; such are the fabulous additions
which have gradually gathered round the veritable
story of many an episode of Jewish history.

On the barren wolds of Adasa, Judas and his men
bivouacked in the cold on the night of the 12th of
Adar (the beginning of March). The next day was
the anniversary of the fast kept by Esther, when
all her people lay under sentence of death, and when
the religion of Israel seemed doomed, as on the eve of
the battle of Adasa, to sudden extinction.

The morning came, and the Greek army advanced,
probably quite unaware of the ambush laid for them ;
for the army of Judas might, from the nature of the
ground, have been easily concealed until the enemy
was close at hand. In spite of the great prepon-
derance of numbers, the foreign forces were routed
at the first onslaught, and Nicanor fell, fighting
courageously. The soldiers of Judas pursued the
enemy to the sound of the trumpet, and the townsmen
and villagers rose throughout the hill district, as the
heathen were driven, for yet a third time in history,

The Feast of Purim. 151

down the valley of Ajalon, and fled to the fortress of
Gezer, which appears to have been in the hands of
the Greeks.

The head and right arm of Nicanor were cut off
and carried to Jerusalem. Thus, while the inhabitants
of the Holy City had observed the fast of Esther with
fear and anxiety, dreading the fate which might befall
the Holy House if Nicanor should return victorious,
and carry out his threat of burning the Temple, they
had now additional cause to celebrate with joy and
thanksgiving the great feast of Purim, commemorating
the deliverance by Esther. On that day, the 14th
of Adar, palm branches were borne as at the great
feasts of Tabernacles and Lights. Wine was drunk
(and it is clear from the Talmud that by wine the
Jews did 7tot understand the unfermented juice of the
grape), and ever after, the day was remembered as the
anniversary of two great deliverances — the repeal of
the harsh sentence of Ahasuerus, and the saving of
the Temple from its threatened destruction by Nicanor.

The head of the defeated general, and his hand,
which he had raised with a blasphemous oath against
the Holy House, were brought to Jerusalem, and
hanged up opposite the Temple. Thus for a while
the patriotic party triumphed, but the victory of
Adasa is the last bright gleam in the story of Judas'
life.

The experiences of the last two years seem to have

152 Judas MaccabceiLs.

produced a sad conviction in the minds of Judas and
his followers that deliverance was not to be expected
without human aid. The first flush of excitement
which followed the successes of the three battles at
the passes, and of the trans-Jordanic campaign, had
died away. The Greeks had put forth their strength,
and had razed the Temple walls to the ground. It
was evident that another invasion would soon follow,
when the news of Nicanor's defeat and death should
have reached Antioch, and Judas cast about him for
an ally to assist him against Demetrius.

The power of the Romans had been already shown
in Asia Minor at an earlier period. Antiochus the
Great, the father of Epiphanes and the protector of
Hannibal, had been defeated by them at Thermopylae,
and forced to send his son as a hostage to Italy. The
history of Roman conquests in Europe and in Africa
had also come to the ears of Judas. The Republic
was resting, and recovering its strength, after the long
struggle of sixty-four years with Carthage, which was
now humbled, though not as yet destroyed.

In Greece also, after four years of hard fighting,
Perseus, son of Philip the Fifth, the last King of
Macedon, had been defeated at Pydna by ^milius
Paullus, and had been slain in the same year in which
the revolt had commenced at Modin. Spain had
been completely mastered by the elder Scipio about
forty years before. And the advantages obtained by

Alliance ivitli Rome. 153

Roman friendship were shown in the case of Eumenes,
King of Pergamus, who obtained from the Senate
the government of Lydia, Mysia, and the Thracian
Chersonese, which had been recovered from Antio-
chus, and were now bestowed on the Roman ally who
had assisted in his defeat.

To Rome, therefore, Judas now turned for assistance.
The Romans were favourably disposed towards any
enemy of Demetrius Soter, and Jewish courage and
aptitude for war stood in high repute among the
heathen ever since the time of Alexander the Great.
Motives of policy also may have induced the Senate
to look favourably on an alliance with the Jews, who
were a Semitic people, speaking a language akin to
that of the Carthaginians, and who might perhaps be
won over to the side of the hereditary enemy unless
their adhesion to Rome were secured. Thus a
defensive and offensive alliance presented advantages
not only to the Jews, but also to the Romans them-
selves.

The conclusion of such an alliance speaks well for
the political prudence of Judas. It becomes evident
that he was no mere fanatic, who, hoping against
hope, expected by the righteousness of his cause to
prevail against the immeasurably greater power of the
civilised heathen. He saw that times had changed
since the ancient days of the conquest of Palestine
by Joshua, and that Israel could no longer hope to

154 Judas MaccabcBiLS,

extirpate the heathen, but stood rather in danger of
being annihilated by them.

Thus, while his zeal for freedom and for purity of
religion among his fellow-countrymen was unabated,
his prudence suggested to them an alliance with a
powerful and enlightened western nation, conspicuous
in the heathen world for the toleration which they
had shown towards the various religions of the
many nations which they had subjugated, no less than
for their honourable adherence to treaties, and for the
vigorous support which they afforded their friends.

At the same time, the foresight of Judas was not
sufficient to enable him to predict the disastrous con-
sequences of thus calling on one heathen nation to
assist Israel against another. No one could have
anticipated that, by their own degeneracy, the Has-
moneans were destined to disappoint the fond hopes
of the nation, or that, by their turbulence and the
virulence of their internal dissensions, the Jews were
to place themselves at the mercy of Rome. The
alliance seemed at the time to promise nothing but
good, and to afford a protection to the infant state
re-created by Judas, which should give free scope to
its powers of growth at a critical period of its
existence.

Thus, immediately after the battle of Adasa,
Eupolemus and Jason were sent as ambassadors to
Rome; and although Judas did not live to see their

Return of Bacchides. 155

return, a treaty was concluded which specially bound
the Romans to defend the Jews as friends and allies
against their common enemy, Demetrius Soter. But
the journey to Italy was a long one, and before
the ambassadors could return, Bacchides had once
more been despatched to Judea with Alcimus. In
the spring of 161 B.C., he marched down through
Galilee, and, according to Josephus, attacked the caves
of Arbela, above the Sea of Galilee, where many Jews
had found refuge. About the time of the Passover,
he reached Jerusalem with a large force.

Judas seems to have been surprised, and was either
unable to collect a sufficient force at so short a notice,
or found it impossible to instil once more into his
countrymen any portion of his own heroic courage.
Still he had thrice the number with him that he had
commanded at Adasa. It appears that he was at the
time in Modin, and he collected his forces at a place
called Eleasa, which is no doubt the present IVasa,
near the nether Bethhoron. He determined to repeat
the strategy which had 'proved successful at Adasa,
and marched eastwards towards the narrow and
difficult pass, north of Gophna, through which the
Greek army under Bacchides had just advanced from
Samaria.

The advantage of surprise was not, however, gained
in his last fatal campaign. Bacchides was apparently
aware of the force advancing against his line of com-

156 yudas MaccabcBus.

munication, a route by which none of his predecessors
had ventured to enter Judea: he, therefore, imme-
diately retreated northwards towards the pass, and
encamped with 20,000 foot and 2000 horse at Beeroth
of Benjamin, south of Bethel.

The country which thus became the theatre of war
is perhaps the most rugged in Palestine. The narrow
road runs along the watershed, and on the north-west,
the traveller, after passing Bethel, looks down on
a deep stony valley, beyond which rise rugged
mountains crowned by villages which stand out like
fortresses along the sky-line. The steep hillsides
have been laboriously stepped with terraces, on which
the bright green foliage of the fig presents a vivid
contrast to the ruddy colour of the rocks, while in
parts the trailing vines hang down over the rude
retaining walls, forming a long curtain of apple-green
foliage. The district is well watered, and full of
traces of ancient habitation and cultivation. To the
north is the pass in which the small spring now called
"the robber's fountain" drips out beneath a precipice ;
and, to the east of this, a perfectly bare and dark-grey
rocky mountain rises to a greater height than any
other point in Palestine south of Upper Galilee. This
mountain is the ancient Baal Hazor, where Absalom
had sheep-shearers, and from its summit, in clear
weather, the snowy dome of Hermon is seen above
the chain of Ebal.

Berzetho, 157

The great boundary valley which now separated the
hosts was at one time the border of the kingdom of
Israel ; for Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron were frontier
towns, taken by Abijah from Jeroboam ; and of the
two latter, Ephron was beneath the brow of Baal
Hazor, and the other, Jeshanah, stood on the brink of
the valley, at the present 'Ain Sinia, near Gophna.

Judas and his men had reached the northern brink
of the great valley at Berzetho (the present Bir ez
Zeit)y ten miles north-east of Eleasa, and only about
three miles from the pass. His endeavour seems to
have been to gain the heights above the main road,
for it is specially noted that he directed his main
attack on the eastern or right flank of Bacchides*
army.

It was no longer an enthusiastic and confident host
that he led. The Jews were dismayed at the inferiority
of their numbers, and when the morning of the battle
came, Judas found that, out of 3000 men, all but
800 had deserted him. Those who remained en-
deavoured to dissuade him from fighting ; but the
Greeks were already in motion to attack the strong
position which he held, and the hope which had
sustained him at Bethhoron and Emmaus, at Bethsura
and at Adasa, was still strong in his heart. Never-
theless, there was a sort of presentiment in his words,
" If our time be come, let us die manfully for our
brethren, and let us not stain our honour."

158 Judas MaccabcBUs>

The Greek army was divided into two wings, with
cavalry on either flank (though the ground was ill
adapted for the use of this arnj), and with light
infantry, archers, and slingers in front. Bacchides
himself commanded the right wing, which protected
the line of his communications.

With all the old impetuosity of attack which had
characterised his successful battles, Judas broke in on
the right wing and drove it to the mountains ; but the
numbers he led were too few; the pursuit was too
rash ; the left wing of the Greek army attacked the
pursuers in rear, and, thus shut in between two
enemies, the little band of Judas was surrounded and
annihilated.

"Judas also was killed, and the remnant fled."

So, like the English Harold at Hastings, the hero
died at bay, fighting to the last. His body was
afterwards recovered by his brethren and carried to
Modin, where he was laid beside his father, and
where a great lamentation was made over him.

Thus perished the best, the bravest, and the most
famous of the five Hasmonean brothers. From the
stony knoll where he lay buried, his countrymen could
point on every side to scenes of victory — eastward,
to the slopes of Bethhoron, the scene of his first
resolute defence of the entrance into Judea; south-
wards, to Emmaus, the scene of his famous night
attack ; westward, to Caphar Salama, where he had

Death of Judas, 159

defeated Nicanor ; but the disastrous fields of Beth-
Zacharias and of Berzetho were not in sight.

So also, as we review the history of the hero, his
defeats seem to fade from our notice, when we
remember the brilliant victories he won, and the
substantial benefits he bestowed on his country.

From the story of his actions, we have been able to
form some kind of idea of the character of the man.
We know that he was strong and brave, and we may
believe that he was beautiful, for he came of a family
conspicuous for personal beauty. We have seen that
he possessed a simple and constant faith in the Divine
power to give the victory to those who were not
strong, and the race to those who were not swift ; that
he maintained the primitive purity of the Hebrew
religion, untainted by any of those latitudinarian
tendencies which debased the more spiritual worship
of the Jew by the admixture of the grosser and more
material conceptions of the heathen. At the same
time, we have seen that Judas was not a mere fanatic ;
that he knew the advantages which civilisation and
organisation gave to his foes ; and that he felt the
necessity of obtaining allies to assist his countrymen
in their struggle for freedom.

That Judas possessed military genius we can hardly
doubt, when we consider how well he understood the
advantages which might be obtained by a careful
choice of position, by sudden surprise, by well-sustained

i6o Judas MaccabcEus.

and rapid pursuit, and by falling on the flank and
rear of the enemy. That he was energetic, determined,
enduring, and cautious, we gather from the story of
each of his campaigns and battles.

Nor was his wisdom as a ruler and politician less
remarkable. He found his countrymen spiritless and
scattered. He not only taught them the value of
their mountain fastnesses, and the tactics which gave
them advantage over trained troops, but, what was
more, he founded a state forming a nucleus round which
the scattered Israelites of Peraea and Galilee gathered
rapidly, and which gradually extended its borders to
include all Southern Palestine.

But perhaps the most important act in Judas'
career was the conclusion of a treaty with Rome.
His foresight provided a protection for Jewish freedom
and faith which probably saved them from utter
extinction ; yet, at the same time, the alliance which,
in the next thirty years, made Judea an independent
kingdom, proved, in another century, the cause of the
final destruction of the Holy City and of the Temple ;
so little can man foresee the results of his most care-
fully considered actions.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SURVIVING BROTHERS.
161-114 B.C.

n^HE hero died, and the nation mourned him ; but
■'■ his work was done, and the long-lost freedom of
Israel was once more regained. Jewish nationality
had revived, and had become consolidated, purged
from the Hellenising element, and freed from foreign
tyranny. A period of trouble did indeed follow the
defeat and death of Judas, but there was no longer
any danger of the extinction of Judaism as a religion,
or of the loss of Hebrew nationality.

Judas had sown the seed, and had fostered the
tender plant, but he was taken away without seeing
the fair fruit which ripened later. His personal
history is comprised in the brief story of eight years
of struggle and war which has been narrated in the
last three chapters ; but the tale is incomplete without
a glance at the history of the next half-century, during
which the prosperity of the Jews rapidly increased
and reached its acme.

L

1 62 Judas MaccabcBUS.

The fatal year i6i B.C. was the first of seven during
which the foreign persecution raged throughout Judea.
The Hellenists, protected by Bacchides, regained
their former ascendency ; and the Chasidim, with the
Hasmonean family, were obliged to fly to the desert.
The wars of the preceding years had prevented the
tilling of the land, and a famine now resulted, so that
the very ground (as the historian says) appeared to
rebel against the unfortunate Jews.

The main object of Bacchides appears to have been
to exterminate the Hasmonean family. The cause of
freedom was now so entirely identified with the name
of the sons of Mattathias, that the Greek general's
efforts were directed rather towards the persecution
of the heroic house which had delivered Israel than
to a general persecution of the race and religion.

On the death of Judas, his youngest brother,
Jonathan, who had gained the nickname of Apphus,
or "the wary," was chosen High Priest and leader.
It is curious that Simon and Johanan, both older than
either Jonathan or even Judas, do not appear to have
taken the lead even after the death of him who was
considered the boldest and most skilled in war. The
character of Jonathan is the least admirable of all the
five. His history is one of constant intrigue, and his
successes were due to craft and duplicity rather than
to valour and wisdom.

Yet for eighteen years he led the nation, and

Flight to the Desert. 163

it was only after his death that the wise Simon
assumed the position of leader, when he was already
advanced in age, and the only survivor of the
five famous brothers. In spite of right of birth, and
of the deference due to his father's dying counsel to
"give ear to him alway," he remains in the back-
ground until all the rest are dead and gone, and then
appears as the most successful of the five. His
character was, however, best suited for the conduct of
government in time of peace, when wisdom and policy
were of more avail than bravery and enterprise, and
this is perhaps the real reason why, in the days of
combat and struggle, the fierce spirits of the younger
brethren eclipsed for a time the more solid character
of Simon.

The news of the choice of Jonathan as the successor
of Judas reached Bacchides, who at once endeavoured
to seize for execution the new rebel chief.

The Hasmoneans and their followers fled to the
dreary wilderness which extends south-east of the
mountain-town of Tekoa, and there lived, like the
surrounding Arabs, in tents by a great well, or tank,
named Asphar.

The site of this place has been hitherto unknown,
but seems probably to be represented by the remark-
able isolated hill in this desert, about twenty miles
from Tekoa, which still bears the name Safra es Sana,
or " Safra of the tank." It commands a view of the

164 Judas MaccabcBus.

whole of the desolate wilderness lying above the cliffs
of Engedi, and is one of the few places where water
can be found in the desert.

The Judean desert, or Jeshimon, has been the
refuge for outlaws since the days of David, and to
it the Syrian still flies for refuge from the myrmidons
of Turkish justice. The Hasmoneans did not, how-
ever, feel secure west of Jordan, and Johanan, the
eldest brother, was therefore sent to contract an
alliance with the Nabatheans, who had already
proved friendly to Judas during his expedition
to Bashan. On his way, he was attacked by a
tribe called Ambri, near Madeba, and slain. The
two surviving brothers soon after crossed the
Jordan, and fell upon his murderers while they were
celebrating a marriage. By a bloody massacre they
avenged the death of their elder brother, and after-
wards sought refuge from the Ammonites on the one
side, and from Bacchides on the other, by hiding in
the cane brakes and tamarisk marshes which surround
the course of the Jordan.

Bacchides was close on their heels, and it appears
that Simon and Jonathan were hemmed in by the
Greeks and by the river, probably in one of the great
loops which are formed by the tortuous course of the
stream. They fought with the courage of despair,
and defended themselves even on the Sabbath day, in
accordance with the decision which Mattathias had

Death of Alcimits. 165

pronounced eight years before, that self-defence was
not forbidden by the Law as an infringement of the
Sabbath rest.

Bacchides had now obtained the mastery of the
Judean hills, and turned the example of Judas to
good account. He strengthened the frontier fortresses,
which protected the various approaches to the capital,
and shut out the Chasidim in the desert. He, more-
over, took hostages from all the chief inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and imprisoned them in the Akra
Castle.

In the year 159 B.C., Alcimus, the de facto High
Priest, appointed by Demetrius, and supported by
Bacchides and the Hellenists, died, as before related,
at Jerusalem. Bacchides was at this time absent at
Antioch, and active persecution of the Chasidim
ceased for two years, during all which period, however,
they appear to have been shut out of the cultivated
country. With the absence of Bacchides, the Has-
moneans regained confidence, and the Hellenists
sent hastily to Antioch, hoping that an adequate
force might be able to surprise and defeat the
small band which adhered so firmly to the deter-
mination to remain free. They were, however, once
more disappointed, and the "wary" Jonathan retired
to a desert fortress called Bethbasi — a name sugges-
tive of a marshy site — which Josephus identifies with
the old border town of Beth-Hoglah, by the beautiful

1 66 Judas Maccabceus.

blue spring, surrounded- by a cane brake, near the
mouth of Jordan, on the west of the river.

Bacchides attacked the new fortress, but was dis-
comfited, and obliged to raise the regular siege ; for
Jonathan succeeded in leaving the town, and fell by
night on the camp of the Arab contingent which was
assisting the Greeks, while Simon, by concerted plan,
made a simultaneous sortie.

The defeated Bacchides revenged himself on the
Hellenists in Jerusalem, many of whom he executed,
and so left the country, and disappears from the
story, having probably fallen into disgrace at Antioch
in consequence of his failures. Jonathan profited by
his success, entering into a sort of truce with Bacchides
before he left, and exchanging prisoners. Thus, in
the year 157 B.C., the persecution came to an end, but
it was not until 153 B.C. that the two brothers ventured
to settle at Michmash, a city in a naturally strong
position, close to that friendly desert to which they
would be able to retire at once if again attacked by
the Greek forces.

Thus the dark days of persecution which followed
the death of Judas passed away ; and from the year
153 B.C. the power and influence of the Hasmoneans
revived, and steadily increased year by year.

The story of the next ten years is one of continual
intrigue and conflict. The rival claimants of the
throne of Antioch, descendants of Demetrius, the

Alexander Balas. 167

rightful heir, and of Antiochus Epiphanes, the usurper,
struggled with varying success against one another.
The "wary," or, to speak more plainly, the crafty
Jonathan profited by these dissensions, and wrung
concession after concession, privilege after privilege,
from either side. He availed himself of the seasons
of anarchy to refuse payment of any tribute, and to
enlarge and strengthen the borders of the Judean
kingdom. The nation increased steadily in wealth
and importance, and the demands of the successive
Greek suzerains were more and more reduced as
the power of the Greeks declined and the strength of
the Jews became greater.

In the year 152 B.C., Alexander Balas, the supposed
son of the old persecutor and usurper Epiphanes,
landed at Accho, and established a rival capital at
that port, while Demetrius ruled in Antioch. The
assistance which might be obtained from the Jews
now became a matter of importance, and Demetrius
sought to conciliate Jonathan by giving up the hostages
whom Bacchides had taken from the chief families in
Jerusalem, and who were kept prisoners in the Castle
of Akra. Jonathan, in return, was to furnish a con-
tingent of armed men, and to attack Alexander from
the south.

Armed with royal authority, and recognised as the
head of his nation, Jonathan hastened from Michmash
to Jerusalem, and read to the astonished Hellenists

1 68 Judas MaccabcBits.

and to the garrison of the tower the letters of Deme-
trius. It does not, however, appear that he had any
intention of loyally assisting Demetrius, but meant
rather to turn the unexpected good fortune which
had befallen him to account in strengthening himself
against the Hellenists. Alexander Balas was the
acknowledged favourite of Rome, and Jonathan knew
enough of the power of that nation to be aware that
it was politic to adhere to the allies whom Judas had
secured, even when they favoured a descendant, or
putative son, of the tyrant against whom Judas had
revolted.

The first result of the acknowledgment of Jonathan
by Demetrius was the abandonment of Judea by the
Hellenists. The foreign garrisons established by
Bacchides deserted the fortresses, and fled from the
country, and only in Bethsura and in the Castle of
Akra were any Greeks left. The second result was
that Alexander Balas also made overtures to the
Jews, and acknowledged Jonathan as High Priest,
sending him a purple robe and crown of gold, in
which he first appeared publicly at the Feast of
Tabernacles. Armour was prepared, soldiers were
enrolled, and the Jews appeared ready to join one or
other of the rivals ; but Jonathan was only preparing
for action on his own account, and succeeded, with
consummate skill, in carrying out a policy of
." masterly inactivity."

Death of Demetrms Sotcr. 169

Demetrius became alarmed, and promised yet larger
concessions ; toleration of the Jewish religion through-
out Asia^the remission of tribute and taxes, the return
of the captives taken to Antioch, the extension of the
Jewish frontier towards Samaria, the establishment of
Jerusalem as a free city, and of the Temple as a
sanctuary for all who fled into it, the rebuilding of
the city walls, and a large money subsidy, together
with the promised demolition of the hated Castle of
Akra, and the gift of the town of Accho (or Ptolemais),
when taken, to the Jews. Such were the promised
privileges with which Demetrius endeavoured to bribe
the nation which he had oppressed for ten years. In
return, he asked for 30,000 men, who were to attack
Ptolemais simultaneously with a force advancing from
Antioch.

To these alluring promises Jonathan and the Jews
turned a deaf ear. They were too good to be true,
and the dread of incurring the wrath of Rome out-
weighed them. Demetrius attacked Alexander,
without receiving any help from Jonathan ; he was
defeated, and drowned in a marsh ; and although the
Jews had held an entirely neutral position, they appear
to have gained favour with the victorious Alexander,
and Jonathan was named Meridarch, or tributary
Prince of Judea.

Five years passed away, and in 147 B.C. another
claimant appeared on the scene. Demetrius, the son

I/O Judas MaccabcBUs.

of Demetrius Soter, landed in Cilicia, whence he
threatened Antioch.

A certain general, named ApoUonius Daiis, was
chosen by Alexander Balas as governor of Coelesyria.
He proceeded to garrison Joppa and Jamnia, and
declared in favour of the new claimant, Demetrius
Nicator. He challenged Jonathan, as the friend of
Alexander, to battle in the plains ; and, for the first
time in the Hasmonean history, the Jews fought a
successful battle against cavalry, and unaided by the
rugged character of mountain country.

The Jewish army amounted to 10,000 men. They
first took possession of Joppa, thus cutting off Apol-
lonius from Antioch. The Greek general, with 8000
foot and 3000 horse, made a feigned retreat towards
Ashdod, endeavouring to draw Jonathan into the
plains. The Jews, caught between the main force
and an ambush of 1000 men, were subjected, for the
whole course of one day, to the assaults of cavalry.
They stood firm, and the horses were finally tired out
by the soft and heavy nature of the ground. In the
afternoon, Simon, the brother of Jonathan, with a
reserve body, attacked the infantry of the enemy, and
the squares, which, under cover of their shields, had
resisted so stoutly the repeated cavalry charges, broke
up and pursued the defeated Greeks even as far as
Ashdod, Vvhich was taken, and where the temple of
Dagon was burnt.

Death of Alexander Balas. 171

If the battle of Emmaus may be compared with
Austerhtz, the battle of Ashdod may, with equal
propriety, be likened to Waterloo. It was the victory
of a stubborn general clinging to his position through
a series of fierce attacks, and finally relieved by an
ally, converting the defence into an irresistible attack.

Ascalon submitted to Jonathan immediately after
this battle, and Alexander Balas sent him a golden
brooch, or buckle, and bestowed the lands of Ekron
on the Jews, thus joining the port of Joppa to the
hills bounded by Gezer.

Demetrius Nicator was, however, successful. He
was assisted by Ptolemy Euergetes, King of Egypt,
to whom he had offered Coelesyria as a bribe, and
whom Alexander Balas, although he had married
Ptolemy's daughter Cleopatra, had endeavoured to
poison at Ptolemais. Demetrius took Antioch, and
Alexander fled to Arabia, where he w^as beheaded by
an Arab chief named Zabdiel. Cleopatra, his widow,
became the wife of the victorious Demetrius.

Jonathan was now on the losing side, but appears
to have felt strong enough, as the ally of Rome and
the conqueror of Apollonius, to resist Demetrius. He
took the opportunity of the dissensions at Antioch to
renew the attack on the Akra citadel, which, with the
frontier town of Bethsura, was now the last refuge of
the Macedonian garrisons and of the Hellenists.
Demetrius ordered him to desist, but Jonathan went

\'j2 Judas Maccabcsiis.

to Ptolemais, and there, by heavy bribes, induced
him to fulfil the promises of his father, Demetrius
Soter.

The three coveted frontier districts, Lydda, Rama-
them, and Apherema, were taken from Samaria
and given to Judea ; the country was declared
free of tribute, and the taxes were remitted. P'or
these immunities, Jonathan paid the sum of 300
talents.

In the year 146 B.C. further troubles occurred, and
again the Hasmoneans profited by them, increasing
their own power in proportion as the strength of
the rival Seleucidae was diminished by dissension.
Trypho, an old general of Alexander Balas, brought
from Arabia the youthful Antiochus, son of Balas,
and proclaimed him King. Jonathan at once declared
afjainst Demetrius, who had even consented to the
withdrawal of the garrison of Akra, in return for a
contingent of 3000 Jews, who had been sent to
Antioch.

Trypho succeeded in taking Antioch, just as
Demetrius himself had previously done ; for it would
appear that as each new pretender obtained power, he
so abused it as to become more hateful to his subjects
than his predecessors, and thus the support of the
oppressed populace appears to have been always given
to the new comer.

While civil war thus raged again in the north,

Battle of Kadesh. 173

Jonathan attacked Ascalon and Gaza, and his brother
Simon took Bethsura, the last of the strongholds of
the forei_gn garrisons. He next advanced into Galilee,
and met the generals of Demetrius on the old battle-
field of Hazor, in the mountains near Kadesh Naph-
tali, where Joshua of old had defeated the Canaanites.
Here, though caught in an ambush, he succeeded in
rallying his men, and won a victory.

The power of the nation now increased rapidly.
The league with Rome was renewed, and another was
contracted with the Lacedemonians. The generals
of Demetrius were met on the occasion of their next
expedition long before they even reached Galilee, and
were opposed by Jonathan near Hamath ; they had
not even the courage to attack him, but retreated by
night, leaving their camp-fires burning to deceive the
Jews.

The fortress of Akra was now the last stronghold
of the foreigners, and a thorn in the side of Jewish
rulers. Jonathan determined to starve out the
garrison, and to build a wall which should divide
Jerusalem, and separate the upper town, or Upper
Market, from the Castle. This wall may possibly
have been that afterwards described by Josephus
as running from west to east on the crest of the
highest hill on the south side of the Tyropceon, a
line of fortification which is not mentioned as existing
in the time of Nehemiah, or at any earlier period.

1/4 Judas Maccabceus.

The garrison were thus cut off from the water-
supply at Siloam, and were unable to attack the
worshippers approaching the Temple enclosure from
the city.

At the same time, Joppa and Ascalon were con-
quered by Jonathan, and an expedition was under-
taken by him against the Nabatheans, during which
he succeeded in penetrating as far as Damascus. A
new frontier fortress was also built in the region
recently acquired from the Samaritans. It was a
city called Adida, the modern Haditheh, perched on
a knoll in the low hills of the Shephelah, just above
the plains of Lydda. The old walls of Jerusalem
above the Kedron were also repaired.

Three years passed, and Trypho began to plot
against the boy-king whom he had set on the throne
of Antioch. He appears to have mistrusted Jonathan,
whose new fortresses and increasing army he regarded
with suspicion. The Jews had paid no tribute, and had
changed sides three times during the struggles of the
two opposing parties at Antioch. Trypho, therefore,
determined to get rid of the wily Hasmonean prince,
and advanced into Galilee, where Jonathan met
him.

Tempting him with false hopes of the acquisition
of Ptolemais, Trypho succeeded in luring the too
confident Jonathan into that city, with a following
of only 1000 men. He then threw- him into prison,

Death of Jonathan. 175

and soon after marched down the plain of Sharon,
bringing the unfortunate Hasmonean with him in
chains. ,

Simon, the last of the brothers left to lead the
Jews, hastily collected an army, and occupied the new
fortress of Adida, which guarded the first approach
from the plains near Lydda to the famous pass of
Bethhoron. He also threw a garrison into Joppa,
thus threatening both flanks of the enemy.

Trypho advanced, and demanded the payment of
100 talents as tribute, and hostages for the fidelity of
Jonathan when released. Both were sent ; but Trypho
still advanced, and finding the Bethhoron pass closed,
went south to ascend, if possible, by Adora, and so
northwards along the watershed. The strategy of
the first year of the revolt was thus repeated, and
Simon watched the enemy from the hills just as
Judas had watched Lysias before the victory of Beth-
sura. An urgent appeal was sent to Trypho from the
garrison of Akra, advising him to advance by the
difficult and little-known route which led along the
desert east of the watershed. But it was winter ;
heavy snow in the high Hebron hills impeded the
movements of the cavalry, and Trypho found himself
obliged to retire. He retreated into Ccelesyria, and
thence made a raid into the country of Gilead, where
he put the unhappy Jonathan to death, after having
kept him so long a prisoner with his army.

iy6 Jtcdas Maccabceus,

It is impossible to feel the sympathy for Jonathan
which the fate of Judas Maccabasus calls forth. His
career of seventeen years had been, on the whole,
successful ; but it is a history of intrigue and con-
tinual change of policy, rather than of bold resistance
and unflinching assertion of independence. The wily
Jonathan was finally outwitted, and died igno-
miniously ; but the brave Judas fell fighting for the
defence of his country against overpowering odds.

The death of Jonathan, in 143 B.C., brought good
rather than evil fortune to the Jewish nation. The
calm and prudent Simon took his place, and the
last years of his life witnessed the constant growth of
freedom and prosperity for which the five brethren, of
whom he was now the last survivor, had fought so
stoutly for twenty-five years.

Simon succeeded in recovering the bones of
Jonathan, and erected at Modin a sepulchre for his
lather, mother, and brothers. This curious monument
has now disappeared, but seems to have been regarded
as one of the greatest architectural triumphs of the
nation. Seven pyramids stood over the seven graves,
and cloisters with monoHths and bas-reliefs surrounded
the tombs. Ships were carved on the walls of the
monument which could be seen from the sea, and
trophies of armour were also represented. It would
be most interesting to recover the remains of this
important building, if they could be found. Curiously

Akra Taken, 177

enough, a very fine structural tomb has been discovered
at Modin ; but the crosses on the tesselated pavement,
and the general character of the work, show it to be
of late Christian origin, and the seven pyramids and
seven tombs have yet to be found in the neighbour-
hood.

Simon's first care was to strengthen Judea, which,
after the repulse of Trypho, became once more a free
country. He built up the frontier fortresses, and gar-
risoned and provisioned them. Meantime, Trypho
had killed the boy-king, and had proclaimed himself.
Simon entered into a league with Demetrius, who
was at the time in Cilicia, and, in return for his
proffered assistance, the country of Judea was
declared free of tribute for ever. At the same
time, Gaza, the last of the Philistine towns not
conquered by the Jews, was taken, and in the year
141 B.C., on the 23rd day of the second month, or
about the middle of May, the Castle of Akra at last
surrendered, the garrison being starved out. Joppa
was fortified as a harbour, a little later, and the
league with the Romans was renewed. The country
became rich, and hired soldiers were, for the first time
in Jewish history, employed by Simon. From the
year 142 B.C., when the immunity from tribute was
acknowledged by Demetrius, the rightful successor
to the throne of the Seleucldae, the Jews reckoned
the first year of their independence, and thus the

M

178 Judas MaccabcBUS.

commencement of the rule of Simon saw the fulfil-
ment of the great schemes of his brother Judas.

The knoll on which the Akra Castle had stood was
levelled by Simon after the capture of that fortress,
and no building on that site could in future look down
on the Temple hill. The rock was used to fill up
the narrow valley east of the Akra hill.

The friendship of Rome was of the greatest value
to the Jews at this period. It was principally because
they were known to be Roman allies that Demetrius,
forgiving the former treachery of Jonathan, was now
willing to confer so many benefits on the nation, and
this fact is acknowledged even by the Jewish historians
of the period. In the year of 139 B.C., a further
privilege was granted Simon, that of coining money
in his own name, a practical recognition of his
independence. This right was conferred by Antiochus
Sidetes, brother of Demetrius Nicator; but, a little
later, the same monarch, after having defeated
Trypho, the usurper, at the maritime city of Dora,
situate at the north extremity of the plain of
Sharon, once more demanded a tribute from the Jews
of 500 talents, or else the surrender of Joppa and
Gezer, and the right to garrison Jerusalem.

Thus Simon, who had fought from his youth up,
found himself in the last years of his life again
obliged to resist the heathen. He refused any pay-
ment for the cities which had been won by Jewish

Battle of Cedron. lyg

bravery, and appointed his son, John Hyrcanus, the
governor of Gezer.

Cendebeus, a general of Antiochus, was despatched
to attack Judea. Simon sent his eldest son Judas
and his second son Hyrcanus to resist him, being
himself too old to take the field. They collected
at Modin a force of 20,000 men, and marched down
to the plains. This is the first action in which the
use of cavalry by the Jews is noticed, and we
are thus able to mark the advance in prosperity
which had been made since the first days of the
revolt.

Jamnia, which had been the refuge of defeated
armies for so long, was still in the power of the
Greeks. Cendebeus fortified it, as well as the neigh-
bouring town of Cedron (now Katrah), which stands
over the corn valley of Sorek on a knoll facing the
sandy ridge of Makkedah. The Jews, marching
down from the north, boldly crossed the deep
trench in the middle of the valley, through which
a sluggish stream flows down towards Jamnia, and
advanced with their scanty cavalry in the centre
and the infantry on either wing. The holy trumpets
were blown, and the attack had apparently all the
fury of the early victories of Judas. Cendebeus
was defeated, and Cedron was taken, the defeated
host being pursued as far as Ashdod, which was also
burnt, for the third time in thirty years.

i8o yudas MaccabcBus.

Simon, the last of the five brethren, was not, how-
ever, destined to die in his bed. His four brothers
had all perished by violence, two in the field and two
by treachery. The same fate overtook him in his old
age. His daughter was married to a certain Ptolemy,
who was made governor of the Jericho district.
This man conceived the ambition of destroying the
whole Hasmonean family, and of succeeding to their
position. He entertained Simon and two of his sons,
Judas, the eldest, and Mattathias, the youngest, at
a banquet in the fortress of Doch, which stood above
the beautiful spring welling up beneath the steep cliffs
of the mountain which overhangs Jericho. Simon
and his sons had feasted and " drunk largely," when
armed men were introduced, and the venerable High
Priest was slain with his sons and servants.

The plot, however, was not entirely successful, for
John Hyrcanus, the second son of Simon, was at
Gezer, and escaped the massacre. He no sooner
heard of it than he hastened to secure Jerusalem, and
to put to death the myrmidons of Ptolemy who were
sent to kill him.

Thus, in the year 135 B.C., the last of the five
famous brothers was slain. He had been the only
one to see the complete fulfilment of the hopes of
freedom which Judas had been the first to entertain ;
but it was not until the time of his successor, Hyrcanus,
that the summit of Jewish prosperity was reached.

Antiochiis Sidetes. i8i

John Hyrcanus succeeded in troublous times. He
had first to attack Ptolemy, who held prisoner the
wife of Simon, and endeavoured to make him desist
from the siege of Doch by threatening to kill his
mother. The event occurred in a Sabbatic year, and
the new High Priest rigorously observed the Law by
relinquishing the siege. Ptolemy then killed his
captives, and afterwards fled to Philadelphia.

In the same year, Antiochus Sidetes, taking advan-
tage of the Jewish customs, attacked Judea and
besieged Jerusalem. The precedent introduced by
the Hasmoneans allowed, however, of defensive opera-
tions during the Sabbath and Sabbatic year, and the
city was stoutly defended. A truce was obtained by
Hyrcanus at the Feast of Tabernacles, and the
moderation shown by Antiochus, who sent presents
to the Temple during the cessation of hostilities,
produced so good an effect, when contrasted with the
intolerance of his namesake, Epiphancs, that a peace
was arranged, and John agreed to pay tribute for
Joppa, Gezer, and other border towns : he, however,
stoutly refused to admit a garrison into Jerusalem,
and succeeded in carrying his point, giving instead
500 talents, and hostages for his fidelity to the new
agreement.

In the terms of this treaty we mark the great
advance made by the Jews. Had such proposals
been suggested in the earlier period of the revolt, the

1 82 Judas MaccabcBUS.

generals of Epiphanes would have treated them with
contempt. The suzerains of Antioch had now been
forced to recognise the national vitality of the Jews,
and to acknowledge that no permanent peace could be
expected in Judea unless the nation were left free to
follow its own laws, and to obey its native chiefs.
Jerusalem might be reached after a hard-fought cam-
paign, but could not be permanently held without
immense expenditure of men and money. It was
evidently a wiser policy to avoid the risk of incurring
the wrath of Rome by establishing friendly relations
with her allies ; and all that could now be expected
from the semi-independent Prince of Judea was
a yearly tribute and a contingent of trained
soldiers.

It is said that, on this occasion, Hyrcanus opened
the tomb of David and took out 3000 talents, with
part of which he paid Antiochus. But the story
seems very doubtful, and contrary to Jewish habit.
It was perhaps a tradition by which the common
people accounted for the wealth of the Hasmonean
family.

The history of Hyrcanus for the next twenty-
five years is one of continually-growing prosperity.
The rule of the wise Antiochus terminated in 129
B.C., when he was slain in battle. Then in three
years' time, three kings succeeded one another in
Antioch, and the rapidly-increasing' weakness of the

The Summit of Jewish Prosperity. 183

Seleucidae allowed the Jews to become practically
independent.

Hyrcanus attacked and destroyed the city of
Samaria in 129 B.C. He levelled the temple on
Gerizim to the ground. He conquered the Idumeans
on the south, and forced them to accept circumcision.
He retook Joppa, Gezer, Adora, and Mareshah, and
he obtained the recognition by the Romans of the
first of these as a Jewish port. In the year 1 14 B.C.
he became entirely independent, and thus, half-a-
century after the death of Judas Maccabaeus, the
summit of Jewish prosperity was attained under the
wise rule of his famous nephew.

It will, perhaps, have been clear that the main
objects for which the Jews strove throughout this
period were those to which Judas had attached im-
portance, namely, the securing of the frontiers and
of the great passes by fortresses, the destruction of
the foreign garrison in Jerusalem, and the establish-
ment of a treaty with Rome which might overawe the
Asiatic heathen world. This policy, first inaugurated
by Judas, was pursued by his successors, and to it the
freedom and prosperity of the country were due. With
success, however, the ambition of the nation enlarged
its sphere of action, and thus the destruction of
Samaria, the conquest of Philistia, and the acquisition
of a port at Joppa, were important results, scarcely
contemplated in the earlier days of the rule of Judas.

184 Judas Maccabceus.

In the preceding chapters we have thus traced the
growth of independence and the revival of national
prosperity. It remains to consider the great historical
results which followed the full attainment of freedom,
and the causes which led to the rapid loss of a liberty
so hardly won.

CHAPTER VII.

THE RESULTS OF INDEPENDENCE.

'T^HE summit of Jewish prosperity consequent on
■*■ the revolt of Modin was reached, as shown
in the last chapter, about half-a-century after that
event. We have seen that even the rude shock which
was suffered by the infant state in the loss of the
patriotic founder, Judas Maccabaeus, was not fatal ;
and that, in consequence of the alliance which he had
contracted with the powerful Roman republic, the
independence which he had won for his country was
preserved as long as that country was worthy of it,
and as long as his brothers and their immediate
successor displayed the same courage, the same
wisdom, and the same singleness of heart by means
of which Judas had freed the land from its foreign
tyrants.

The change which had been wrought in the half-
century of which the history has been sketched, was
far greater and more marked than that which the

1 86 Judas MaccabcBus.

lapse of time had effected in the course of the three
preceding centuries.

Not only were the Jews now independent, and free
even from tribute, ruled by their own High Priests, and
governed according to the Law of Moses, but the
wealth of the country had increased, and the social
condition of its inhabitants had also been materially
modified. The limits of the Httle Judean state in the
most prosperous days of the life of Judas had been
confined, as has been shown, to the mountains round
Jerusalem. But the conquests of Jonathan, Simon,
and Hyrcanus had added to this original territory
rich lands in the lower hills, in the fertile Philistine
plains, and in the well-watered mountains of Hebron.

Along the plain of Sharon, Strato's Tower (after-
wards Caesarea), with Apollonia and Joppa, were now
counted as Jewish towns. In Philistia, Ashdod,
Ekron, Ascalon, and Gaza, with the three towns of
Anthedon, Raphia, and Rhinocolura, south of Gaza,
had been won ; in the low hills east of Philistia,
Mareshah and the hill-fortress of Adoraim ; in
Samaria, the three border towns of Lydda, Apherema,
and Ramathem ; in Lower Galilee, Tabor, Carmel,
and the district of Bethshean. On the east of Jordan,
Moab, Gilead, and Bashan had been overrun, and
Seleucia, Gamala, Heshbon, Madeba, Semba, Oronas,
Gelithon. Zara, and Pella were garrisoned.

Thus the borders of the land were extended until

Increased Wealth of Jtidea. 1S7

the Jewish possessions were five times as great as in
the year 164 B.C., and the boundaries seem to have
been almost the same which we find given by the
Tosaphta in the second century of our era, though,
perhaps, slightly curtailed on the north and in the
extreme south.

Not only were these boundaries enlarged, but the
neighbouring tribes beyond them had been brought
into subjection. The Samaritans had been conquered
and their Temple was destroyed ; the Idumeans had
been obliged to accept circumcision. Yet more
important was the acquisition of a seaboard, and of
the hardly-won port of Joppa ; for although, as
previously shown, the Jews do not appear to have
been addicted to trade even so late as the Herodian
period, still the country was opened to foreign
merchants, and communication was established with
the Levantine and Egyptian coast towns.

Nor are indications wanting to prove that the
wealth of the country had materially increased
during the period of increasing prosperity. Simon
and Hyrcanus were rich men, remarkable for their
treasure of gold and silver plate. They were able to
equip and maintain a large body of mercenaries
at their own expense, and a golden shield of 1000
pounds weight was sent by Simon to Rome. We
find also in the year 139 B.C. the first mention of the
existence of cavalry among the Jews ; and those who

1 88 Judas MaccabcBUS.

are familiar with the modern native inhabitants of
Palestine well know that the increase in the number
of horses is the first sign of increased wealth in the
country.

Nor must the introduction of a native coinage,
and of a special Jewish money, in which the Temple
tax was paid, be forgotten as an indication of a settled
and prosperous condition of the land.

Such being the successful outcome of that ap-
parently unimportant insurrection which was initiated
by one impulsive and unpremeditated act of the
aged Mattathias at Modin, we may well inquire
how it came to pass that the success was so transient,
and why it was that, within a century, the Jews were
once more a conquered nation, ruled by foreigners,
and not destined to become permanently a free
people.

It was indeed a glorious historical opportunity
which the nation allowed to slip by. It was a time
when the power of the Seleucidse was no longer any-
thing more than a name, and when the shadow of
Rome had as yet scarcely touched the coasts of Asia —
when the energies of other nations were absorbed
by internal struggles, or by preparations for future
action. It was thus a time most favourable for the
establishment and consolidation of a great Hebrew
monarchy, which might have played a part in the
politics of the world, and have aspired to inherit the

Decline of the Nation. 189

Asiatic conquests of Alexander the Great and the
empire of the Seleucidae, which was falling so fast
into ruins.

It was not by the inroads of foreign conquerors that
the liberty so hardly won was snatched from the Jews :
it was through their own incapacity for freedom that
they became once more subjected to a foreign
despotism. The corruption of the native princes, the
violence of internal dissensions, and the unsuitability
of archaic institutions to a modified social condition
of the nation, were the true causes of the decline and
fall of the independent Jewish monarchy.

The Jews may be compared to the French in one
respect, namely, that they are a people who require
a master. From the time of Moses to the days of
Herod, they were ever a "stiff-necked" race. Their
times of prosperity coincided with the lives of indi-
vidual rulers of special genius, rather than with any
period of national revival of energy and progress ; and
thus their history is one of constant vicissitudes, and
their good fortune has always been mainly dependent
on the personal character of their rulers.

The story of the decline of Jewish independence is
a melancholy record of fatal infatuation and mis-
directed energy in a proud and gifted people ; but it
is also the history of a most important and interesting
period, for in it we trace the origin of that special
condition of the nation, and of that special develop-

I90 Judas MaccabcEUS,

ment of the national religion, which prepared the way
for Christianity. The history of the first century
before Christ is the sequel to that of the war of
independence ; and a sketch of the events immediately
succeeding the full attainment of freedom, and of the
rapid development of those religious schools which
existed in the time of our Lord, is a fitting appendix
to the account which has been given of the life and
times of Judas Maccabaeus.

The most remarkable characteristic of the early
Hasmonean period was the expectant attitude of the
nation. It was a prophetless age, and a time when
the nation was eagerly looking forward to the appear-
ance of a new prophet, a divinely-commissioned
teacher, who should instruct the people as to their
future. This expectant attitude was shared by Judas
and his brothers. They made no attempt to usurp
any permanent authority, and claimed only to be the
dictators chosen until the divinely-appointed leader
should appear. They succeeded, indeed, to the vacant
office of High Priest, but their ambition never
prompted them to claim the title of King.

In the last years of the rule of Hyrcanus a change
occurred in this expectant condition. The nation
had become prosperous ; the Hasmonean house had
become rich. The sons of Hyrcanus represented the
third generation of hereditary chiefs and rulers, and
their aged father was, in fact, though not by title, the

Hyrcanus and the Pharisees. 191

independent King of Judah, no less than the religious
head of the nation. He coined money in his own
name, he retained hired soldiers at his own expense,
he lacked only the name of king, and, though too
wise to assume it, he yet became obnoxious in his
last years to the suspicions of those of the more
zealous of the Chasidim, who perceived that the
Hasmoneans had, in fact, combined in one the two
dignities of prince and pontiff.

The original party of the Chasidim, or " pious," had
developed into the strong sect of the Pharisees, repre-
senting the views of the populace and of the more
fanatical lower classes. The original party of the
Karaites had also grown into the Sadducean and
Baitocean sects, representing the religion of the higher
class and the calm philosophy of the better educated.
The popular party was the one which had raised the
Hasmoneans to their powerful position ; the educated
party was that to which they most naturally inclined
when their position was won.

Thus, even before the death of the venerated
Hyrcanus, a coldness had arisen between the ruling
family and the party to which it owed its rise. The
cause is most clearly explained by Josephus, who
relates that Hyrcanus demanded of the Pharisees
whether they could accuse him of having in any way
departed from the Law. The general answer was a
commendation of all his actions ; but one of the

192 Judas MaccabcBUs,

younger and less temperate of the Pharisees reminded
Hyrcanus that he held the office of High Priest as
well as that of civil governor, and advised him to
resign the former, to which he was not legally entitled,
his mother having been a slave.

This imputation Hyrcanus considered to be an
insult, and he was yet further enraged by the very
lenient view which the Pharisees, as a body, took
of the offence committed by Eleazar. He therefore
separated himself from this party, and appears to
have even punished those who adhered to the innumer-
able observances which these Puritans had imposed on
the nation. Thus the Sadducees once more recovered
the ascendency which they had possessed before the
time of Alexander the Great.

In this episode we see the first symptoms of national
disintegration, and the first cause of the decay of the
Hasmonean power. The populfir party saw with
displeasure the assumption of actual hereditary and
royal power by the family of which the members
had been hitherto considered merely as temporary
leaders. They were also shocked by the innova-
tion on the old constitution in the combination of
the two offices of priest and king in a single person.
The quarrel of the Hasmonean family with the
Pharisees resulted not only in the overthrow of that
illustrious house, but also in the ruin of the Jewish
nation.

Change in the Coiftage. 193

In the year 106 B.C. John Hyrcanus died. His
name was held in afTectionate and reverent remem-
brance by the nation as the last great ruler of the
Hasmonean family. In later times, he was credited
with having been favoured with the gift of prophecy,
and several predictions made by him are recorded by
Josephus, including the sad presage of the corruption
and ruin of his house.

At this time we meet with a significant change in
the Jewish coinage. The coins of Hyrcanus bore the
simple inscription, " Johanan, the High Priest," in the
ancient Jewish character ; but the coins of his son,
Alexander Jannaeus, bear on the one side "Jonathan,
the King," in Hebrew, and on the other, in Greek,
" Alexander, the King." In this change we see not
only the formal assumption of regal power, which was
made by Aristobulus and Alexander immediately
after their father's death, but, yet further, a falling
away from the original spirit of the Hasmonean
family, in the use of Greek language, which caused
the title of Philhellen to be given to the unhappy
Aristobulus.

Hyrcanus appears to have known the worthlessness
of his sons, and to have felt the necessity of conform-
ing to the national prejudices in the separation of the
civil and religious offices which he had held simul-
taneously. Thus, while Aristobulus succeeded him
as High Priest, the civil supremacy was left by

N

194 Jtidas Maccabceus,

Plyrcanus to his wife, the mother of his five
sons.

But on the death of Hyrcanus, the smouldering
dissensions of the two opposing parties burst into
flame. The sons threw off the cloak which had
covered their ambition, and Aristobulus, after im-
prisoning his mother, boldly proclaimed himself
King without relinquishing his office of High Priest.
Intrigues and counter-intrigues followed, and within
a year the miserable usurper of the throne of David
died, after having murdered his favourite brother,
Antigonus, and after having starved his mother to
death.

Alexander Jannaeus, the third son of Hyrcanus,
succeeded to his brother's office of High Priest, to his
brother's childless wife, and to his brother's title of
king. He reigned, indeed, twenty-seven years, but
the whole period was passed in a fierce struggle
against the Pharisees, in which the fortunes of war
fluctuated from side to side ; and although in the end
Alexander was successful, he felt that the struggle
must result in the destruction of his house, unless his
successors were prepared to bow to the national will.
By his dying advice, Salome, his widow, made peace
with the Pharisees, and internal dissensions were for a
moment calmed.

The corruption of the Hasmonean family was the
second great cause of the downfall of the nation.

Decay of the Has^nonean House. 195

Judas and his brethren had been remarkable for their
patriotism and for their self-abnegation. Hyrcanus,
in the .next generation, aroused the jealousy of the
stricter interpreters of the Law, but was, nevertheless,
revered and loved. The degeneracy of his sons was
shown in the sudden assumption of royal rank to
which they had no claim. In their days, Jew was
arrayed against Jew, and foreign mercenaries were
employed by both parties. But the quarrel was for
the moment closed by the wise concessions of Salome,
and the last disgrace was reserved for the fourth
generation, when, in the year 64 B.C., the heathen
Pompey was called in to arbitrate between the miser-
able sons of Alexander Jannaeus, Hyrcanus and
Aristobulus. The capture of Jerusalem by the
Romans occurred during the following year.

It was thus that the fairest hopes of the nation
were disappointed in the decay of the great family
whose first representatives had delivered Israel. The
history of these internal dissensions is in itself of little
interest ; but the effect on the temper of the nation,
and on the national hopes for the future, was of no
small importance.

There is something strangely pathetic in the
unwavering and passionate faith which the Jews,
through all ages, have held so firmly in the
final triumph of their race over the surrounding
heathen, and in the future time of happiness and

196 Judas Maccabceus,

prosperity to which, even in the darkest years of
affliction, they have ever looked steadily forward.
Again and again those bright hopes seemed about to
be fulfilled. In the time of Ezra, the scattered Israel
of the captivity was re-assembled only to fall under
the heavy yoke of the Seleucidse. In the days of
Judas, the nation struggled successfully for freedom,
and the expected Prophet was awaited eagerly ; but
time passed on, earthly ambition corrupted the
purity of patriotism, internal feuds weakened the
liberated nation, and the strong arm of Rome crushed
Israel down once more into bondage. Yet, even after
this second bitter disappointment, the Jews looked
forward with undiminished eagerness to the future,
and consoled themselves under defeat and in decay
with the hope of a future King whose right to the
throne of David should be beyond dispute.

The Hasmoneans had been guilty of two innova-
tions : they had combined the two offices of priest
and king, and they had assumed the royal dignity,
which belonged, in Jewish estimation, only to
the House of David. Still, the family was of pure
Jewish stock, descendants of Aaron, and immediate
successors of the great deliverer of Israel, Judas
Maccabaeus. But when the Hasmonean House had
fallen into, decay, and the crafty Idumean Herod had
assumed the power which they had failed to maintain,
there was no longer any doubt in the Jewish mind as

The King' Messiah, iq7

to the usurpation of a title which belonged only to
the descendants of David. Herod was not even a
Jew, and neither the commands of Moses nor the
predictions of the Prophets could be supposed in any
way to refer to him.

Thus the expectation of a future native King, which
had perhaps first sprung up at the time of the quarrel
between Hyrcanus and the Pharisees, waxed stronger
and stronger, until, by the time of Christ, it had
completely taken possession of the heart of the
people. The expectancy of the days of Judas was
the expectancy of an immediate restoration of the
Theocracy under a prophet divinely inspired and of
indisputable authority. But that mood of the national
mind passed away, and as the learned pored more
earnestly over the writings of the Prophets, they
became more deeply imbued with the conviction that
a future King of the lineage of David was promised
to them. It was no son of Hasmon that Isaiah
described as a " rod from the stem of Jesse," and it
was no Gentile Herod that Jeremiah intended in
speaking of the " branch of the House of David."

The earliest Jewish literature in which the expecta-
tion of a King-Messiah forms a conspicuous feature
appears about the time of the death of Hyrcanus.
The Book of Enoch, so remarkable for its Messianic
predictions, is dated about that period. In it the
Chasidim are represented by the symbol of lambs.

1 98 Judas MaccabcBUS,

Jonathan is the lamb slain by ravens, and Hyrcanus
is supposed to be intended by the great horn shooting
forth later. In the year 124 B.C., the earliest Sibylline
book was written, the influence of which, about the
time of Christ, we trace in Virgil's Georgics. A crop
of similar literature sprang up between the time of
Hyrcanus and the Christian era, and the nation was
consoled for its loss of a great opportunity by the
promise of an immediate deliverance, and of per-
manent prosperity to follow.

The subject of the future King was studied with the
same minute care and attention which characterised
the whole of the Pharisaic interpretation of Scripture.
In the Targums, which, though committed to writing
much later, were yet founded on ancient traditional
interpretation of the Law and the Prophets, we find
ample evidence of the eagerness with which the Jews
seized on the faintest indications of prophetic promise
of a Messiah.

Of the seventy passages in Scripture which were
held to be of Messianic character, only two contained
the word Messiah, and in one of these exceptional
passages it is coupled with the name of Cyrus. In
the large majority of cases, it is very difficult to trace
the connection which existed in Jewish thought
between the words of the original and the additional
comment of the Targum.

It is also striking to find that, in their eagerness to

The Book of Daniel. 199

refer every promise of good to the immediate future,
the Jews classed even those passages in the prophets
which distinctly and by name speak of Cyrus and
Zerubbabel as being predictions of the future Anointed
King. It is yet more remarkable that they carefully
avoided any comment on those passages to which the
Apostles of Christ afterwards appealed with so much
force, and which represent the chosen One as a
man of sorrows, despised and rejected, cut off
from the land of the living, and made an offering
for sin.

The great influence which was exerted on the
nation by the Book of Daniel, is evidenced by the
frequent references in the gospels to its predictions,
and by the number of later works which imitate its
style ; but the Jews have never classed this book
with the writings of the earlier prophets. Their
prophetic canon closed with Malachi ; and Daniel was
classed in the third and inferior category of Hagio-
grapha, with the poetic books, and the later histories
subsequent to the time of the captivity. The Book
of Daniel contained a distinct prophecy, following the
detailed history of the overthrow of Antiochus Epi-
phanes — a prophecy of Messiah the Prince, who
should be cut off after seventy Sabbatic years. It is
a most suggestive fact that, on this passage, there is
no Messianic Targum. The Jew consoled himself
with a passionate belief in the future glory of Messiah,

200 Judas MaccabcBUs,

and shut his eyes resolutely to any intimation of the
rejection of that Messiah by the chosen people.

The expectation of a future King of the line of
David was the immediate outcome of the decadence
of the great Hasmonean family. The rise and pros-
perity of that family, on the other hand, fostered
the development of the great sect of the Pharisees,
and of the monastic spirit which characterised the
Essenes. Both these sects exerted an influence on
the infancy of Christianity, and they were thus im-
portant results of the period of independence.

With the triumph of the Chasidim under Judas, and
with the death of Onias and the flight of his son to
Egypt, the heretical school of the Mizraimites dis-
appeared from Palestine. The orthodox Jews who
remained in the country were all agreed in the funda-
mental principle of accepting the Law of Moses as
the only rule of life, and in rejecting every innovation
derived from foreign sources.

There were, however, many points of view from
which that Law might be regarded. It might be
regarded as a civil and religious code, prescribing
certain duties and prohibiting certain crimes. It
might be considered as an inspired work, containing
all that was necessary for salvation, and divinely
ordained to be for ever sufficient for the wants of the
nation. Or, again, its principles might be accepted,
and rules founded on them might be taught, fitted for

The Sadducees. 201

the more advanced civilisation and more complex
social condition of the people. Thus, while all the
Palestinian Jews agreed in the acceptance of the Law
as divine in origin, and destined to endure through all
time, various schools arose which took various views
of the spirit in which the Law should be studied.

The more ancient school, that of the Karaites, and
of the earlier High Priests after Ezra, contented itself
with a literal interpretation of the commands of
Moses. What was written in the Law they obeyed
literally, neither adding to nor diminishing from its
injunctions. This was the spirit of the better class of
the Sadducees. They held that any intelligent man
could understand the plain letter of the Law ; they
consequently never implicitly followed any leader, and
were in the habit of referring back, each for himself,
to the written Scripture. All their tenets were in
accord with this frame of mind. They looked forward
to the temporal blessings promised by Moses, and to
the temporal punishments which he had predicted as
the results of disobedience. They held that they were
themselves responsible for their own actions, and that
God could not be considered the author of the evil
which such as disobeyed His plain commands brought
on themselves.

They found in the Law no doctrines as to the
spiritual world, and their views concerning it were
accordingly indistinct. The more intellectual were

202 Judas MaccabcBus,

content to remain in an attitude of philosophic doubt
on a subject with regard to which Moses had taught
nothing ; the more ignorant, or narrow-minded, found
it easiest to deny altogether the possibility of a future
life not revealed by the great Law-giver.

Such were the tenets of the literalists. It was the
religion of the prosperous, the powerful, and the
cultivated. To those who had riches, it was easy to
believe that they had received the blessings promised
for obedience in this life ; those who had happiness in
this world were less anxious to look forward to the
world to come. And thus Josephus tells us that the
Sadducees were " able to persuade none but the rich."

The mass of the people were neither happy nor
rich ; their piety was not rewarded by the promised
blessings of land, fruit, and victory, and they stood
sorely in need of a comforting hope of future
recompense.

It was for this simple reason that the Pharisees
attained such complete mastery over the popular
mind. They taught those doctrines which naturally
most fascinated the poor. They offered themselves
as leaders whom the ignorant might follow with
implicit faith ; they surrounded the Law with imposing
ceremonial, calculated to inspire awe and respect ;
they pointed out to the unfortunate and the oppressed
a glorious future of eternal happiness.

The spirit of the Pharisaic school Was in full accord

The Pharisees. 203

with the general tendency of the Semitic mind. They
surrounded the figure of Moses with a halo of sanctity,
and inculcated the same veneration in descending
order, as due to his recognised successors and inter-
preters, down to the men of the great Synagogue.
They upheld the authority of tradition as superior to
individual intelligence, and taught that no Scripture
should be of unauthorised, or private, interpretation.
To use the language of the present day, the believer
was to listen " to the voice of the Church in all
ages," rather than to his own understanding of the
Scriptures.

Thus it was from the Pharisees that the great mass
of Jewish literature proceeded. The Sadducees
referred back constantly to the original ; they were
content with the " Bible only." The Pharisees handed
down the traditional interpretations which they
derived from the fathers, and commented on them.
Thus arose Targum, Talmud, and Apocrypha,
crystallising the thought of earlier teachers, drawing
tighter and tighter the bands which bound down
the Jewish mind, and which gradually paralysed its
freedom of action.

The mass of comment which thus accumulated was
not the result of mere idle speculation or curious con-
troversy. The true motive was the conviction that
the right understanding of the words of Moses was
all important. It was necessary that not a shadow of

204 Judas MaccabcBUS,

doubt should exist as to the complete and accurate
fulfilment of his commands. Thus, in its most
minute details, every ordinance was settled by a com-
plicated system of exegesis, and a " hedge" was made
round the Law itself to prevent even an approach to
the forbidden being possible for the unwary. Such
was the not unworthy origin of that inflexible and
tyrannical system which brought the pious Pharisee
into a bondage allowing no freedom of action even in
the most trivial of his daily duties.

From the veneration with which this school regarded
the Pentateuch, it naturally arose that the Law came
gradually to be considered as intended for all time,
and as including all that it was necessary for man to
know.

The doctrines not actually contained in the Books
of Moses were elicited thence by a species of logic
which we sometimes recognise as pure casuistry, and
sometimes fail at all to comprehend. It is evident
that institutions suited to a pastoral age must have
proved insufficient, or even positively ill-adapted, in a
more complex condition of society. The Pharisee
escaped from such difficulties by the invention of
" legal fictions," as in the case of the Sabbath-day's
journey, or of the law of Yeboom, in which, by
additional legislation, the original commands of the
Law were entirely evaded. In many cases, on the
other hand, the western mind entirely fails to trace

SheoL 205

any connection between the doctrine of the Scripture
and the deductions drawn from it by the Rabbis.

The ■ Pharisees were divided into many sects, and
the doctrines of individual teachers were often con-
tradictory ; but the authority of tradition, the all-
sufficiency of the Law, when rightly explained, and
the necessity of infinite precision in obeying its com-
mands, were the main features of doctrine common to
all grades of the sect.

The Pharisaic teaching as to the future was well
calculated to console and awe those to whom it was
addressed. The cold scepticism of the philosophic
Sadducee neither touched the imagination nor com-
forted the heart of the poor. The popular teachers
spoke of a cavernous abode beneath the earth — a
Sheol or Hades — where the souls of Jews, good or
bad (for Gentiles, like the brute beasts, had, they said,
no souls at all), awaited the final judgment. The
good wandered in Elysian fields, with sunshine and
angelic comforters ; the evil lay in a purgatory
which was to be but the prelude to eternal agony,
tormented in corporeal bodies by fiery worms, and in
view of a lake of flame.

To such a fate, the Pharisee taught, men were
predestined by God, though in some respects their
destinies were due to their own wills.

As to the future which was to succeed the actual
present, the doctrines of various schools differed.

2o6 Judas MaccabcBUS.

Some of the more material thinkers expected an
earthly paradise, peopled by Jews clothed with new
corporeB.1 bodies. The reign of Messiah was to be
that of an earthly King, ruling in Jerusalem. The
land was to be fertile beyond all that had ever been
formerly known on earth. Gigantic grapes, which
could scarce be drawn by a yoke of oxen ; enormous
ears of corn ; huge olive trees, were described in
language which could not fail to strike the imagina-
tion of the populace. Upon a thousand hills in some
unknown land Behemoth was fattening for the final
feast ; Leviathan slept in the deeps, prepared as food
for the great day ; and gigantic geese in the most
remote desert were seen by one Rabbi already fattened
for the millennium.

Great longevity, innumerable wives and children,
and unfailing happiness, were promised to the devout
as a recompense for present suffering, and for painful
fulfilment of the iron mandates of the Law.

At the other extremity of the scale were those who
looked forward to a spiritual rather than an earthly
reward. They pictured the reign of Messiah as
following, rather than preceding, the destruction of
the present earth. The immortal spirits of the just,
together with those yet living on earth at the judg-
ment day, were to be caught up into the sky, where
the new Jerusalem would hang suspended a mile
above the surface of the hills of Palestine. A. heavenly

Origin of Monasticism. 207

temple with a continual service, a companionship
with the saints of past ages, and the felicity of
beholding the Divine face for ever, were the promised
blessings, according to the more transcendental of
Rabbinical writers.

Such, then, was the double tendency of Jewish
orthodoxy after the extinction of the Hellenising
heresy, and such were the principal schools which
disputed together in the time of our Lord. There
were, however, two other sects which require some
description, as being the direct and natural outcome
of the gradual growth of Jewish civilisation. The
first was the sect of the Essenes ; the second, the
school of Hillel. Like the Sadducees and Pharisees,
both these smaller sects were orthodox in their
acceptance of the Law, and in their rejection of
foreign customs ; but they differed in their apprecia-
tion of the adaptability of the Law to the existing
wants of the nation.

We have seen that, from the time of the expulsion
of the Hellenists and the extinction of the family of
Onias, heresy ceased to spread or to exert any power
in Palestine ; the nation shrank back from any
contact with strangers, and turned its eyes inwards
from beholding the vanity of Gentile philosophy and
idolatry.

It is true that, under Herod, the Jews were forced
to see, without any audible murmur, the re-introduc-

2o8 Judas Maccabcsus,

tion of heathen games into Jerusalem. It is true that
a sect arose of time-serving Herodians, who thought
it permissible to " bow the knee to Rimmon," and to
conform to the laws of a foreign political power which
they had no strength to resist — a sect which was
vigorously opposed by the fanatical Zealots who
refused to recognise any King but Jehovah. But
these were questions of politics rather than of
religion, and the result of an antagonism between
Judaism and the Gentile world, not of any such
attempt to harmonise philosophy with faith as had
been made by the Mizraimites and Hellenists before
the revolt of Judas.

Yet, although the observance of the Law was con-
sidered, after the attainment of freedom, to be the
most important duty of every Jew, it is clear that, as
society developed, and the prosperity of the land
increased, it was no longer generally possible to devote
the whole life to the religious observances demanded
by that Law, which had been so much more easily
fulfilled in the old days of pastoral existence in the
wilderness. Hence originated that tendency to
seclusion from the world which we mark also in the
earlier Rechabites, dwelling in tents, and owning
neither lands nor houses.

The successors of the Rechabites were the Essenes,
who first appear in history at the time of the assump-
tion of royal dignity by Aristobulus, son of Hyrcanus,

The Essenes. 209

or about a century before the Christian era. In
Egypt, the same movement among the Mizraimites is
marked by the appearance of the contemplative
Therapeutae, who were much like the modern Indian
Fakirs.

Among the Essenes we find the monastic spirit
fully developed, and, in many respects, we trace so
close a resemblance to the early Christians, that we
are led to the conclusion that the Apostles must
have made many converts among the Essenes, even if,
under the name of Essen, Josephus does not describe
the disciples of Christ. As indicating the monastic
character of the sect, we may point to their austerity
and seclusion, to their vows of chastity, their charit-
able actions, their initiation, and various grades of
sanctity. From Pliny we learn that the Essenes
inhabited the Judean desert, dwelling in those
numerous caves which are now found throughout its
extent. The points of resemblance to the Christians of
Apostolic times are chiefly the non-observance of sacri-
fices, community of goods, and prohibition of oaths.

The Essenes had no fixed or abiding city. In every
town they appointed some one to help and entertain
those of their own sect journeying through the place.
In their conventual establishments they wore a
peculiar white dress and distinctive girdle, and were
employed in husbandry during the intervals of
religious exercise and purification.
o

2 10 Judas Maccabceus,

The doctrines of the Essenes were, however, tinged
by foreign influence. In their neglect of the Temple
sacrifices, and in their condemnation of wedlock, they
departed from the full observance of the Law. They
were even not free from the ancient Mehistanite
heresies brought from Babylon. They preserved care-
fully the " names of the angels," which the Rabbins
say were first learned by the Jews during the captivity.
Josephus notices their veneration for the sacred rays
of light, and Philo says that they turned towards the
rising sun to pray. They were complete fatalists, and
believed in the immortality of the souls of both good
and bad — a belief which was not common to the large
majority of the nation, who believed only in the
immortality of the righteous. The resurrection they
understood with Philo to be the liberation of the soul
from bondage in the body, when, bursting as from a
prison, it should mount upwards with joy. They
also approached the Egyptian school in their allegori-
cal interpretation of many parts of Scripture.

The seclusion of life which marked the Essenes— the
natural result of the growth of Jewish civilisation —
rendered them peculiarly venerable in the eyes of the
multitude. To the poor they were known as skilled
herbalists and charitable physicians. In the towns
the white garments of the ascetic might occasionally
be seen ; and the awe of the populace was enhanced
by traditions of prophecies which had been made by

The School of Hillel. 2 1 1

various Essenes, and which had been fulfilled in a
most remarkable manner. The respect for constituted
authority, which was part of the initiatory vow of the
order, rendered the Essenes, moreover, less obnoxious
to the ruling class than the turbulent Pharisees or the
impracticable Zealots. Such was the character of the
first monastic order which appeared among the Jews,
and of which the main peculiarities were but repeated
in the Christian hermits and monks of the fourth
century of our era.

The great institutions of the Law of Moses
which were intended to bring peace and order,
and to prove a blessing to the nation, became,
through nervous terror of transgression, a curse
rather than a boon. Year by year, and decade
by decade, the bondage became more grievous, and
the iron bands were drawn tighter. The human
intellect was dwarfed, the human will was deadened,
by the growing accumulation of minute and trivial
observances imposed on the devout by the self-tortur-
ing ingenuity of their teachers. Chinese etiquette
is scarcely less irksome than were the prescriptions of
the Pharisees ; and it was not in human nature to
bear for ever patiently the tyranny of the narrow-
minded and fanatical, who, like the followers of
Shammai, " made the Law heavy."

Thus we are led to understand the origin of the
third great orthodox school, which found a leader in

212 Judas MaccabcBUS.

the illustrious Hillel. This great man, who is said to
have been a descendant of the House of David, came
to Jerusalem from Nehardea, in Babylonia, in the
very year in which the last male descendant of the
Hasmoneans was murdered by Herod the Great. He
had already distinguished himself by arranging, in
six books, the innumerable treatises of the Mishna, or
second law. He had been brought up in the atmo-
sphere of the Zoroastrian religion, which had many
points of attraction for the Jew, notably its detestation
of graven images. He had been exempt from the
narrowing and deadening influence of the Jerusalem
school. Thus with Hillel arose a form of doctrine
which, though near akin in system to that of the
Pharisees, was yet marked by a nobler and more
generous interpretation of the meaning to be attached
to the words of Moses. Many of the recorded sayings
of Hillel breathe the same spirit which is found in the
teachings of Christ; and his disciples "made the
Law light," not because they lightly esteemed its
authority, but because they revived the nobler and
more beneficent spirit of the original.

While such was the internal growth of the nation,
its external relations are also worthy of a slight
notice.

The first result of the revolt was the expulsion of
the Hellenists from Palestine, and their dispersion in

yewish Influence on the Gentiles. 213

Egypt, Syria, and the islands of the Archipelago.
The energy of the national character, one of the
most marked traits of Jewish nature, urged many of
the more adventurous to wander even as far as Greece
and Rome. From the centre, which never ceased to
exist in Babylonia, the Jews spread over Asia Minor
and towards India and the Caucasus. The remnant
of the other tribes of Israel which did not return to
Samaria, was in the same way dispersed, and Jewish
jealousy at Jerusalem originated the idea, which is
still so commonly believed, that the ten tribes never
returned to Palestine, but were lost in an unknown
country, where, according to mediaeval Jewish writers,
they still existed as a nation.

Jewish influence on the heathen world is marked
by the connection between Jewish and Roman litera-
ture. It was due, perhaps, to two main causes. In
the first place, they presented the striking spectacle of
a people perfectly and irrevocably convinced of their
own superiority and of their knowledge of the truth.
They came amongst listless speculators, cynical
sceptics, and dreaming philosophers, and announced
the certainty of their own faith.

In the second place, they brought a pure and noble
conception of the spiritual nature of the Divinity
amongst those who were wearied by the vain and
blasphemous fables of a corrupted mythology. The
augur who met an augur might mock secretly the

214 Judas Maccabcetis,

credulity of the multitude ; the Jew who met a
Jew could only complacently admire their common
superiority in knowledge and piety to the rest of the
world. The force and energy of character peculiar
to this wonderful people thus imposed respect on even
the aesthetic Greek and the proud and philosophic
Roman.

Such, then, were the important historical results of
the heroic struggle which had been brought to a
successful issue by Judas Maccabseus.

The insidious advance of Hellenism was arrested,
and the heresy was crushed for ever in Palestine.
The Jew was left free to follow the religion of his
forefathers without fear of persecution.

The study of the sacred books then became so
intense that the nation fell at last into a bondage of
its own creation, and by the time of Christ the burden
became too heavy to be borne.

The growth of civilisation naturally developed a
tendency, among the more pious and contemplative,
towards seclusion from the busy world, and thus
fostered the birth of the monastic spirit.

Finally, a natural reaction, from the narrowness
of the Pharisaic doctrine, produced the school of
Hillel ; and thus, by the Christian era, it was becom-
ing clear, to the nobler minds among the Jews, that
the religion of the future was to be found neither in
the cold and often cynical materialism of the Sad-

Finis. 2 1 5

ducee, nor in the hollow formalism of the Pharisee,
endeavouring to tie the living faith of the present to
the dead body of the past, and to revive, by the plea
of authority, the obsolete doctrines of a less cultivated
age ; but that it was to be found in the right under-
standing of the spirit of Scripture, and in the belief
in those ancient yet ever new doctrines of God's love
for His creatures, of the fellowship of all nations, and
of the duties of man to man throughout the world.

Had Antiochus Epiphanes stamped out the Jewish
faith, no such development would have resulted.
Had Judas Maccabseus lacked the genius through
which he triumphed, the lessons of love and duty
which were taught by Christianity would, humanly
speaking, never have been proclaimed to the world.

APPENDIX.

GENEALOGY OF THE HASMONEAN FAMILY.
Hasmon, of the sons of Jehoiarib. — i Chron. xxiv, 7.
Johanan.

Simeon.

I
Mattathias, died 167 B.C.

I p ^ ^ j f

Johanan Simon Judas Eleazar Jonathan

(Caddis). (Thassi). (Maccabgeus). (Avaran). (Apphus);

d. 161 B.C. d. 135 B.C. d. 161 B.C. d. 163 B.C. d. 143 B.C.

\ •

I I I 1

Judas. John (Hyrcanus). Mattathias. Daughter = Ptolemy,

d. 135 B.C. d. iq6 B.C. d. 135 B.C.

\

II I II

Aristobulus L Antigonus. Alexander (Jannaeus). Son. Son.
d. 105 B.C. d. 105 B.C. d. 78 B.C. = Alexandra.

I I

Hyrcanus II. Aristobulus II.

d. 30 B.C. d. 49 B.C.

Alexandra = Alexander. Antigonus..

d. 28 B.C. I d. 49 B.C. d, 27 B.C.

Mariamne = Herod the Great. Aristobulus.

d. 29 B.C. d, 35 B.C.

INDEX.

"Abomination of desolation," 82.
Adasa described, 148 ; battle of,

150.
Adida, new fortress, 174.
Agficultural operations, 45.
Akra, or Millo, citadel built, 82;

described, 113; garrison starved

out, 177.
Akrabbim, battle of, 119.
Alcimus, the High Priest, 142.
Alexander Balas lands at Ptolemais,

167 ; takes Antioch, 169.
Alexander the Great visits Jerusalem,

11; founds Alexandria, 12; dies,

13-

Alexander J annaeus, 193.

Alexandria, 59.

Ancient Palestine, 40.

Antiochus Epiphanes usurps the

throne, 14; dies, 131.
Antiochus the Great, 14.
Antiochus Sidetes, 181,
ApoUonius persecutes the Jews, 81;

dies, 89.
ApoUonius Daiis, 170.
Architecture, Jewish, 43.
Arms and armour, 49.
Art, Jewish, 28.
Ashdod, battle of, 171.
Aspliar, pool, 163.
Atonement, day of, 34.
Azarias defeated, 128.

Bacchides enters Jerusalem, 146;

fortifies J udea, 165.
Berzetho, scenery near, 157 ; battle

of, 158.
Bethhoron, battle of, 91.
Bethsura, battle of, 99; invested,

138 ; taken by Simon, 173.

Beth-Zacharias, battle of, 136.
Bezeth, or Beth-Zetho, 146.
Bozrah taken by Judas, 122.

Cabbala, 64-66.
Caphar Salama, battle of, 147.
Cedron, battle of, 179.
Cendebeus, 179,
Character of peasantry, 48,
Character used in writing, 23.
Chasidim, 87 ; execution of, 145.
Chronology, 18.
Coinage, i88, 193.

Dametha, 123.

Daniel, Book of, 199.

Demetrius Nicator lands in Cilicia,

170; takes Antioch, 171; killed,

171.
Demetrius Soter, 145.
Dispersion of the Jews, 213.
Dress, Jewish, 49.

Education, Jewish, 26,
Eleasa, now Il'asa, 155.
Eleazar Avaran, 85 ; dies, 139.
Elephants, 138.
Emmaus, battle of, 96.
Essenes, 209.

Feasts and fasts, 33.

GORGIAS defeated by Judas, 92 ;

defeats the Jews, 129.
Government, Jewish, 24.
Gymnasium at Jerusalem, 78.

Hasmonean family, 85 ; genealogy,

216.
Hazor, battle at, 173.

2l8

Index.

Heathen festivals, 79.
Hebron, taken by Judas, 130.
Heliopolis, temple at, 144.
Hidiut, or "ignorant," 22, 35.
Hillel. 212.

Jason, his innovations, 49; builds a.
gymnasium, 78 ; dies in Sparta,
17-

Jerusalem described, no.

John Hyrcanus, governor of Gezer,
180; destroys Samaria, 183; be-
comes a Sadducee, 192 ; dies, 193.

Johanan Caddis, 85 ; killed, 164.

Jonathan Apphus, 85 ; flies to the
desert, 163 ; decoyed by Trypho^
174; killed, 175.

Joseph ben Zacharias, 120; defeated,
128.

Judas Maccabaeus kills Apollonius,
89 ; defeats Seron, 91, and Gorgias,
96, and Lysias, 99, and Idumeans,
119; takes Bozrah, 122; becomes
High Priest, 142; defeats Nicanor,
147; his vision, 149; dies, 158; his
character, 159.

Karaites, 56, 201.

Language, Hebrew and Aramaic,

22, 35. 60.
Lysias left viceroy, 92 ; besieges

Jerusalem, 139.

Maccabeus, "the hammerer," 85.

Marriage, birth, and death, 39.

Mattathias kills the Greek Commis-
sioner, 86; alters Sabbath law, 88;
dies, 88 ; advice to his sons, 89.

Men of the Great Synagogue, 11.

Menelaus, 15, tj.

Messiah, 68, 197; Malhamah, loS;
prophecies concerning, 198.

Millennium, views concerning, 206.

Miriam strikes the altar, 82.

Mizpeh, gathering at, 95.

Modin described, 84; tombs at, 176.

Motza, feast of, 79.

Music, Jewish, 28.
Mythology, Jewish, 57.

Nan^a, temple of, 92.
New moon, 32.

Nicanor defeated by Judas, 147;
killed, 150.

Onias flies to Egypt, 142; builds a

temple, 144.
Orders of priests, 30.

Pastoral life, 47.
Pharisees, 57, 203.
Poetry, Jewish, 29.
Prophet, expectation of a, 70.
Ptolemy, sonofAbubus, 180.
Purim, feast of, 151.

Rome, contemporary history, 153 ;
league with Jews, 154 ; league
renewed, 173.

Sabbath law altered, 88.

Sadducees, 56, 201.

Samaritans, 70 ; dispute with Jews,

73-
Science, Jewish, 27,
Semitic character, 52.
Septuagint translat;on, 13, 6t, 73.
Seron, 90.
Simon Thassi, 85, 120 ; war in

Galilee, 127; watches Trypho, 175;

his death, 180.
"Standing men," 31.
Synagogue service, 26.

Temple of Jerusalem in ruins, 102 ;

purified, 103 ; service renewed, 104.
Timotheus, the Ammonite, 124,
Trypho takes Antioch, 172; decoys

Jonathan, 174.

Wisdom of Solomon, 6>j.
Women, position among the Jews,
38.

Zeidaniyin, family of, 116.

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