F
FAITH, FAITHFULNESS.
(אמונה (em oo naw), firmness; אמנ (ah man), to be firm; it has
same word-root as "amen"; אמת (eh meth), firmness, stability;
it has the same root as preceding word; pistiV (pis tis), conviction) Faith is belief in something or trust in
some person. In theology it properly
describes human apprehension of the absolute or transcendent. It is a response to revelation as contrasted
with discovery of new knowledge. The
Hebrew aman means to “say Amen (so be it)” to God.
In
the postexilic period faithfulness to the law was the increasingly dominant
expression of faith. The faithful are
presented as ideals of law observing righteousness. In Jubilees the law is the revelation of
eternal and absolute truth and right, every detail is of perpetual relevance,
and no further revelation is necessary.
In IV Ezra, the law is indeed glorious and eternal, but its acceptance
by Israel as God's gift has not enabled them to keep it and become perfect;
evil could still triumph. Thus the law
cannot redeem; only God in his mercy can do that. Human trust cannot rest on possession of the
law, but only on God.
Judaism
as reflected in the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha understood faith in the
same sense in which the Old Testament speaks of it. The difference is that it contains a larger
element of loyalty to Hebrew traditions, and centers more closely round
observance of the law, and the temple.
Emphasis on the sovereignty and transcendence of God was deepened. Certain special doctrines are developed, if
not actually introduced. The chief of these concerns life after death; teaching
about angels and demons was much developed.
But on the nature of faith, nothing significantly new appeared.
This
Judaism was essentially practical, concerned with carrying out in daily conduct
the precepts of the law. Jews believed
in God, and the law called forth their highest energies because it was God's
greatest gift to them. In the Diaspora,
the Jews had to see their religion in contrast with polytheism. Proselytizing resulted in the conception of
faith as acceptance of a truer religion.
Believers and unbelievers could no longer be divided simply between Jew
and Gentile. It is a movement toward a
more intellectual understanding of faith.
In
Philo of Alexandria (20 B.C-49 A.D.) the biblical basis is clear, though Philo
drank deeply of the Greek spirit. For
him faith is essentially a turning away from the world to concentrate on God. His conception of faith has more in common
with the mystic's search for ultimate reality than with personal trust in God,
and in a sense he sees faith as one's duty to God.
For
rabbinic Judaism faith meant confidence in God.
One should habitually say all that the Merciful God does is for the
best. This faith moves over into the
sense of loyalty and faithfulness, as in the case of Abraham. The overriding connotation to faith for the
rabbi is obedience to the law in every detail.
In the last two centuries before the Christian era, the basis of faith
shifted from the Old Testament emphasis on God's saving acts in history and
human experience to treating the written record as divine revelation. God becomes a voice or a word rather than a
person.
As a
result, there was need of a new prophet to rescue the concept of faith as the
personal response to God, and as the precondition of moral obedience rather
than as identifiable with moral obedience.
The Qumran brotherhood, as revealed in the hymns of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
had a conception of God's “deep truth” and of themselves as its children or
inheritors. It is not clear whether this
is simply the late Jewish veneration for the Torah, or whether it has the more
mystic sense of revelation.
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FEAR (יראה (yaw ray), reverence, honor; פחד (pakh ad),
dread; אימה (ay mah), terror, dread; foboumai (foe boo may), awe, reverence) The concept of fear in the Bible is related
to a wide range of emotions, extending from simple uneasiness to utter terror,
caused by the apparent nearness of impending peril. It appears in theological and secular
contexts.
The
literature of the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphia appears to be little concerned
explicitly with the idea of fear, either in its secular or in its theological
sense. Even the expression “the fear of
the Lord” receives scant attention. Some
rabbis do establish a distinction between the love and fear of God by stating
that one who acts from love is greater than one who acts out of fear.
FIRE (אש (aysh); להת (law hat), flame; נור (noor); pur (poor))
Fire is used as a motif of theophany and of divine punishment and
purification. Fire is of course, also an
important part of domestic life.
Fire
is a consistent element of the description of God's appearing before humans
throughout biblical literature. In the
violent description of the end of the present age in apocryphal literature, we
have almost a theology of fiery judgment, complete with an abyss of fire (Enoch
18 and 90). Other examples of fire's use
as an image include: Enoch 10, 21, 67, 91, 100, 102, 108; II Baruch 48; III
Baruch 4; Judith 16; and IV Macabbees 9 and 12.
FRIEND OF THE KING
(מרע (may ray
ah), companion) In Maccabean
times a special privileged class was composed of these person.
G
GABAEL (Gabahl (gab ah ayl))
1. One of the ancestors of
Tobit.
2. The brother or son of Gabrias, and the
man with whom Tobias had left the deposit of money, which Tobias set out to
recover.
GABATHA (Gabaqa) In the
Additions to Esther, one of two eunuchs of Ahasuerus whose conspiracy against
him was discovered and revealed by Mordecai.
GABRIAS (GsbriaV, a Hebrew word spelled with Greek letters, meaning
uncertain) Brother or father of
Gabael, with whom Tobit had left the money Tobias went to recover.
GABRIEL (גבריאל, man of
God, or God has shown God's self mighty)
A celestial being, first appearing in a vision as a man, and called
"the man Gabriel." Outside of
the Bible, He is one of the four presences who look down from heaven, one of
God's glorious ones, and one of the holy angels. He is no longer only the revealer, as in
Daniel, but is the primary intercessor.
He must destroy the wicked, and cast them into the furnace that God may
be avenged.
The
Jewish Targum magnifies the importance of Gabriel. He leads Joseph to his brothers, he and
Michael participates in the burial of Moses, and he is sent by the Lord to
destroy the armies of Sennacherib.
Gabriel acts as a messenger before he is understood as an angel,
revealing the graciousness and powerful purpose of the One who sends him. (See
also the Biblical entry.)
GADDI (גדי, fortune
(?)) The name of John, eldest
brother of Judas Maccabeus, leader of the struggle for Jewish independence in
the second century B.C.
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The
term "Galilee of the Gentiles" or "of the nations" first
occurs in the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 9), referring to the territory of
Zebulun and Naphtali as occupied by a mixed population. The name reflects a popular reputation for
racial variety and mixture in and around these northern frontier districts,
because the genuine Israelite population in the Persian period was but a
minority among the dominant Gentiles.
When
Judea issued a summons to gather at Jerusalem for worship in the temple, the
response was meager. Simon Maccabee's
expedition to the north resulted in the defeat of the Gentile forces of Galilee
and the evacuation of many Jews to Judea.
The old boundaries extended 16 km north of Lake Huleh. The old chief city of Galilee,
Kedesh-Naphtali, northwest of Lake Huleh was lost to Tyre in the 100 years
before Christ. The region was not
governed by Jews any time after 734 until 80 B.C., when Alexander Janneus
subdued this Gentile region and attempted to Judaize the population.
In
the Maccabean era Galilee assumed more definite boundaries. To the south the "Great Plain"
Esdraelon provided a natural boundary with Samaria, from Mount Carmel to
Beth-shan. Bordering on Tyre to north,
Galilee reached to Lake Huleh, about 16 km north of the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan rift made a natural eastern
boundary, but the western boundary remains uncertain, except that it bordered
upon Syrian Phoenicia. In 63 B.C. all of
Palestine came under Roman rule. In 55
B.C., Kedesh-Naphtali was chosen as the administrative center for the
district. Herod Antipas made it his
capital and it remained the capital until replaced by Tiberias around 25
A.D. Its dimensions in Roman times
were roughly 40 km (E-W) by 56 km (N-S).
GAS (GaV) Ancestor of some among the sons of Solomon's
servants.
GAUZE, GARMENTS OF
(גליון (gil yone),
mirror, tablet) An item of finery
of the daughters of Zion
Gaza
and the Philistines continued into postexilic times, still being disliked by
the Jews. It resisted Alexander for two
months (332 B.C.). The Philistines had
disappeared by this time, and the population was made up of Persians and
Arabs. In Maccabean times it yielded to
Jonathan, but later plotted against the Jews and was virtually destroyed by
Alexander Janneus (96 B.C.). It was
ordered rebuilt by the Roman general Gabinius (57 B.C.).
GENNAEUS (GennaioV
)
Father of Apollonius who was
governor of a district in Palestine
GERASA ( Gerashnoi ) There is a city by this name 41.6 km north of Amman Jordan Sea of Galilee , whose existence is implied by the term “Gerasenes”
in Luke 8.
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The 1st Gerasa,
in Jordan is not mentioned in the Bible.
It stands on the Transjordan plateau about 32 km. east of the Jordan at
the base of a 1,190 m. mountain peak.
Its origins go back to the Early Iron Age (1200 B.C.). The Greek Ptolemies of Egypt possessed it in
the 200s B.C., after which the Greek Antiochus IV of Syria re-founded it and
gave it the name of Antioch. Alexander
Janneus of the Maccabean kingdom seized Gerasa around 82 B.C. It was taken by the Romans in 63 B.C., and
was really a city-state, for its authority extended over a larger district,
roughly 24 km in every direction but south, where it extended only 8 km.
GERIZIM, MOUNT (הרזים הר, mount of the Gerisites) A mountain directly south of Mount Ebalin
in central Palestine, with which it forms the sides of an important east-west
pass; Shechem lies at the east
entrance. Mount Gerizim stands about 880 meters above the Mediterranean and
about 210 meters above the narrow valley.
The only important east-west highway through the mountains
of Ephraim in this region passed
through the valley at its base. An
important north-south highway from Jerusalem to the Galilee area crosses the
other highway at the eastern entrance to the valley in the vicinity of Shechem.
A
temple was built on Gerizim by Sanballat at the time of the schism between the
Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritan
temple was destroyed by John Hyrcanus.
During a period of intense rivalry between the Samaritans and the
Christians in the 400s and 500s A.D., two churches were constructed on Mount
Gerizim at different times. (See
also Bible entry)
GERON (Gerwn) The text interprets geronta as “an Athenian
senator.” The name Geron is a
possibility as it appears in Greek inscriptions as a name.
The
name Gezer
GORGIAS ( GorgiaV ) One of the generals who, with Ptolemy and Nicanor, was
a friend of the king, appointed by Lysias to lead the campaign against Judas
Maccabeus. Becoming governor of the
district of Jamnia, he maintained mercenary troops and kept up a continuous
warfare against the Jews.
Gorgias marched with his army at night,
but Judas heard of it and left camp.
Gorgias entered Judas’ camp at night, and surmised the Jews were
fleeing. At daybreak Gorgias realized
that he had been trapped. Judas defeated
him near Jamnia. Two generals of the
Hasmoneans, Joseph and Azariah, who disobeyed Judas’ instruction, were defeated
by Gorgias.
GORTYNA ( Gortuna ) A city
located in a plain on the River Letheus in south central Crete ,
several miles from the sea. The cities
of Cnossus and Gortyna spent much of their time in hostility to each
other. I Maccabees 15 lists Gortyna
alone of Cretan cities among the places to which the Romans about 139 B.C. sent
letters on behalf of the Jews.
GOTHONIEL ( Goqonihl
(lion of God (?))) The father of Chabris, one of the elders
of Judith’s city Bethulia.
GOVERNMENT. The
basic structure of the religion-centered commonwealth which came into being on
Judean soil under Persian rule persisted, with modifications, to the
destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. The
high priesthood had political power which varied from considerable to
non-existant, but the office endured so long as the temple was in
existence. The scribe retained his
importance as adviser to foreign potentates and as the custodian, exegete, and
teacher of the Torah-based Jewish tradition.
Local government by town assembly, “rulers,” and “elders” went on much
as before, while the districts seemed to make up the territorial units for
taxation purposes.
FL-4
The
attempt, by ruling high priests to introduce Greek culture into Jewish
religious and political institutions met the fierce resistance of loyalist
Jews and ended in failure. At a “great
assembly” in 142 B.C., Simon, son of Mattathias was elected high priest. Within this re-covenanted commonwealth arose
the later parties of the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes, who differed among
themselves on questions of religious law, doctrine, and national policy. The successors of Simon’s son, John Hyrcanus
added the title “king” and reigned from 134-104 B.C. The Hasmonean exercise of despotic authority
was nevertheless inhibited by the Pharisees, who, between 106-76 B.C., led the
people in rebellion. Their tyranny was
further tempered by the “senate,” or body of elders and leading men.
The
independent Hasmonean commonwealth was ended in 63 B.C. by the Romans. The one significant, natively Jewish,
political institution of this time was the Sanhedrin, which, as a national
council, represented the interests of the Jewish population before their
Herodian or Roman rulers. Neither the
Herodian rulers nor the Sanhedrin had any more real authority during New
Testament times than the Roman would allow.
GREECE. The Greeks were a branch of the Indo-Europeans who
immigrated into the area. The Achaean Greeks
came first in 2000-1900 B.C., overland from the north and east. They settled chiefly in the central Peloponesus,
Thessaly, Boeotia, and the northeastern Aegean.
The Dorian Greeks came next in 1500-1200 B.C., and settled in the
eastern Peloponnesus, the Isthmus, Crete, the islands of the southern Aegean,
including Rhodes. Next came the Ionian
Greeks, who occupied Attica , Euboea , the islands of the middle Aegean ,
and the mainland of western Asia
Minor . Last were the Aetolian Greeks, who occupied
west central Greece, the northern Peloponnese, Elis, Aetolia, and the island
offshore. It is possible that in the
early period some stocks occupied areas from which they were later dislodged;
the division of territory just outlined is that of the ultimate settlement in
historical times.
Another as-yet-unsolved problem is the
relation of the invading Greeks to the older inhabitants and the Minoans. The character of the Minoans and their
customs reflect a stage of development far beyond that of the invaders from the
north, and have ties with Egypt Anatolia . Life about the Mediterranean
was hazardous around 2000 B.C., and the invading Greeks from the north were
desperate for food and for land. These
early Greeks destroyed, absorbed, salvaged, or transformed whatever stood in
their way. What survived was in many
cases only a name.
Eventually
the Greeks settled down, built cities, cultivated the land, absorbed the
survivors of the earlier cultures, and made the Greek language the common
tongue. The earliest Greeks were not a
maritime people, but it was not long before the necessities of their new
situation compelled them to become seafarers.
In time they became the best sailors in the ancient world. Another factor which turned them to the sea
was their own increasing population. By
the 700s B.C. a tide of colonization was in full course. The areas settled included the Black Sea
Coast, Sicily, southern Italy, Naples, Corsica, southern Gaul, North Africa,
the delta of the Nile, and even parts of Spain.
In every case the dialect, religion, customs, and institutions of the
founding city and its ancestral stock were maintained. No colony was permitted to infringe upon the
political or economic rights of the mother city. This led in time to great friction, and
perpetuated the disunity which prevented the Greeks from making a common stand
against Carthage and Rome.
It was
against a background of middle-class capitalism, rural poverty, and
irresponsible government by the local nobility and tyrants, that the democratic
movement got under way. Laws were passed
to check the power of individuals, but often without success. However, the irresistible drive and energy of
Greek culture surmounted all obstacles, political and economic, and the
advancement of Greek culture went steadily forward, hand in hand with the
demand for democratic self-rule.
Crisis of the 400s
B.C.—Scarcely had democracy gained its first permanent foothold in Greece
FL-5
In 490 B.C., Darius I crossed the
Aegean and landed at the Bay of Marathon.
The Athenians hastily sent messengers to ask Sparta for aid in the
defense, and mustered their comparatively small citizen army of 10,000 under
Callimachus to face 20,000-25,000 Persians.
The Greek general Miltiades counseled attack as the best defense. When the Persians finally advanced, the
Greeks fell upon their flank and by a tactic of “encirclement” crushed their
two wings. The Greeks lost 200 men, the
Persians 6,000.
But the Persian threat to Greek
freedom was not removed. Themistocles
advocated a strong navy, in order to
fend off any further attack by sea. By
heroic measures of persistence and persuasion, Themistocles induced the
Athenians to prepare a fleet; of the Greeks, only Athens and Sparta made
preparations for the pending invasion.
In the summer of 480 B.C., the Persians advanced both overland across
the Hellespont and then southward along the coast, and by sea, also along the
coast.
The
Spartan king Leonidas with 5,000 men undertook to check them at the Pass of
Thermopylae, about 144 km northwest of Athens.
His allies promptly dispersed, leaving only three hundred Spartans to
hold the pass. Led by a Greek traitor,
some of their troops crossed the mountains and attacked Leonidas from the rear,
wiping out this valiant and immortal band.
The Persian land forces moved southward and soon set fire to the city of
Athens.
At sea, a storm
destroyed a Persian fleet of 200 ships, and the Greek fleet withdrew to the Bay
of Salamis just west of Athens. The
Persians were determined to hold the Greeks in the trap and so Xerxes seated himself
on a throne overlooking the scene, prepared to enjoy it. The smaller Greek force attacked. Their smaller numbers and more maneuverable
ships had a decided advantage; the huge mass of the Persian fleet, crowded
together in a confused huddle was soon at a decided disadvantage. The battle lasted all day, and at the end the
Persian fleet was a total wreck; Xerxes retreated northward, re-crossing the
Hellespont and returned to Persia, leaving 50,000 men in Thessaly under
Mardonius. His easy victory the next
spring was turned to a swift defeat when the Spartans under Pausanias crossed
the Isthmus and threatened his rear. The
Greek spear proved superior to the Persian arrow at close quarters, and only
the Persian cavalry saved the army from extinction.
The tragic element in human history is nowhere more
evident than in the history of Greece during the following decades. The heroic stand of Athens and Sparta against
overwhelming odds should have led to peace and unity; alas, the Doric strain
and Ionic were too inharmonious. Athens
loved freedom, Sparta order; Athens culture, Sparta discipline; Athens creative
talent, Sparta concentrated political power.
Now, Athens is still a great city, while Sparta has been replaced by an
olive grove.
Athens
was determined to follow an independent policy, not bound by that of
Sparta. Themistocles rebuilt the walls
of Athens; the Athenian fleet was soon dominant everywhere in the Aegean. The triumphant citizenry of Athens soon got
out of hand. The citizen jury, with
6,000 members, undertook to try all cases and chaos threatened; but again a
leader came forward—the brilliant Pericles, under whom Athens soon regained her
ancient glory, and even far surpassed it, with the Acropolis, and especially
the Parthenon. But the administration of
Pericles saw the outbreak of war between Athens and Sparta, from 459-446, and
431-404 B.C. The 40 years of war ended
with both contestants crippled and exhausted, and no match for the fresh crises
which arose in the following century.
But
it was the glorious age of Athens’ greatest splendor. Athens was now the heart, soul, and mind of
all Greece, indeed of the whole Greek world.
Even peoples outside, such as the Romans, undertook to learn from
Greece. The greatest writers of Greece
belong to the 400s and 300s B.C.
Aeschylus, Sophocles (religion and history), Euripides, with his
criticism of every strain of falsity and pretense, Aristophanes, Menander,
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
A little later these were followed by Zeno,
Cleanthes, and Chrysippus, the great leaders of the early Stoics, who taught
men to live, free, and brave, in a world which threatened to crush independent
thought and action. There was also
Epicurus, Herodotus (historian), Thucydides (army tactician), and Xenophon. All
these men and many more were creative minds of the highest order. They belonged to the 400s and 300s B.C., and
they show how little the political and social conditions of an age determine
the manifestations of genius. It was
produced in spite of the handicaps of political disunity, confusion, and
eventually chaos. In the West, the
Carthaginian attack on Sicily failed. But the exposed position of Sicily and
South Italy imperiled the Greek foothold in the West. It was not long before
the western Greeks were caught between the contending powers of Rome and
Carthage.
FL-6
In the East, the weakened
state of both northern and southern Greece, as a result of the long Peloponnesian
War, led to continued efforts by outside powers to overwhelm the Greek
homeland. Despite the intrigues of
Persia, Philip of Macedon defeated the Greeks at Chaeronea in 338 B.C. and made
himself the champion of Greek interests everywhere.
Alexander the Great and Beyond—In 334 his son Alexander undertook a war of revenge against Persia for the conquest of Ionian cities on the eastern coast of the Aegean and also for the assassination of his father in 336. The story of Alexander’s
conquest of Asia Minor, the Syrian and Palestinian coast, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon,
Media, Parthia, Bactria as far as the territories lying immediately beyond the Indus is one
of the chief epics in military history. Although Alexander himself died soon after his return
to Babylon (in 323 B.C.), his decade of conquest had opened the whole East to the
infiltration of Western ideas. Stricken and defeated Greece, after only a century and a half of democracy, passed on the torch of Western civilization and culture to new hands and
new lands.
Alexander was followed by his
generals and their successors, and his new-won empire soon fell apart into
Egypt, ruled by the Ptolemies, Asia Minor, Syria, and the East, ruled by the
Seleucids, and Macedonia, ruled by the Antigonids. In 282 B.C., Pergamum freed itself, and the
Parthians and Persians broke away. By
198 Macedonia had fallen before the advancing Roman power, and in 146 it became
a Roman province. In the same year
Corinth was captured and destroyed by Lucius Mummius and Greece became the
Roman province of Achaia, which is the name it goes by in the New Testament.
But
as tragic as ancient Greece’s story was in its later stages and in the end of
its independence, Greece’s story was far from finished as far as its real
meaning for humankind was concerned.
“Captive Greece captivated her conqueror,” and Rome eagerly absorbed
all it could from Greek culture. The Roman generals Sulla and Lucullus took
shiploads of artistic treasures. Whole
temples were taken down and shipped to Italy.
The
Greek language and literature, Greek philosophy, Greek religious thought and
terminology permeated the whole East. As
a result, the world was prepared, as the Greek church fathers insisted, for the
coming of Christ and the preaching of the gospel; in Alexandria
GREEK
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY. This article deals chiefly with the new forms of
religious life and the new lines of philosophical speculation and ethical
theory which developed after Alexander the Great (323 B.C.) through the
Christian era.
The
rise of Macedon put an end to the independence of Greek city-states. After 338 B.C., Philip of Macedon was
undisputed master of the whole Greek Peninsula, and city-states were only
municipalities within an empire governed by a military autocrat. But the loss of political independence did
not carry with it the extinction of Greek civilization. Alexander the Great had his imagination fired
by the exploits of the Homeric warriors.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor. Every movement of his armies was preceded
and followed by sacrifices to the Greek gods.
New cities, largely peopled with Greeks and Macedonians, partly
colonies of veterans, partly settlers from the homeland, were founded all over
the East. Settlers of other nations also
came but were quickly assimilated into Greek culture. Even the Jews, who could not be wholly
assimilated, so far forgot their native language that translations of their
scriptures had to be made into Greek for their benefit.
FL-7
The effects of Greek
culture made itself felt as far east as Bactria India Western Asia and in Egypt
The
movement of cultural influence did not flow always in one direction. The kingdoms of the Ptolemies and the
Seleucids were the heirs of cultures more ancient than the Greek. By the middle of the 100s B.C., the native
forces of Syria, Babylonia, Persia, and Egypt were making themselves felt with
ever-increasing force. Even before the
time of Alexander, oriental cults had begun to secure a following in the Greek
homeland, and expanded westward beyond Greece Rome Rome
The result was a wide and deep
fusion of Greek and oriental elements to form a mixed culture. In religion, the great characteristic of the
period is the fusion of cults and identification the gods of one nation with
those of another, with the corresponding growth of a tendency toward monotheism
and the doctrine that all gods of the nations are variant manifestations of one
divine, universal power. The astral
religion of Babylonia becomes popular; in its wake comes astrology. In philosophy, the dominant school is
Phoenician Stoicism, which was
always more Semitic than Greek in spirit.
All the schools are characterized by individualism, and are essentially
philosophies of conduct, based on despair of the world as it is.
Old
Gods and Old Cults—The emergence of significant new forms of religious
expression must not blind us to the solid fact of the continued vitality and
even resurgence of the traditional Greek religion during the same period. Though undermined by the criticisms of the
philosophers and sophists, the old gods continued to receive on grand scale the
public worship of the Greek communities.
Every city continued to provide for the regular sacrifices to its
tutelary deities and for the priesthoods which offered them. Greek architects and masons were busy with
the construction of new temples to the Greek gods in all the new foundations of
Alexander. The Greeks who settled abroad
were ready enough to worship the local divinities, but they did not for that
abandon their own ancestral gods.
Zeus
especially attained a matchless renown.
His name became the symbol for the very idea of divinity. It was the attempt to establish him in the
temple of Jerusalem as Zeus Ouranios, which precipitated the revolt of the
Maccabees. In all parts of the Greek
world, festivals flourished. The old
Greek religion transformed the whole structure of Roman religion from the
middle of the 200s B.C. onward. The
Roman Jupiter became Zeus; Juno became Hera; Minerva became Pallas; Neptune
became Poseidon.
There
is evidence, nonetheless, that the religious needs of the time could no longer
be wholly satisfied with the old cults.
During Greek culture’s spread and its blending with Eastern religion, we
observe a remarkable growth of private religious associations; some of them
were a lot like guilds. There were many
which were formed for the worship of an alien god. Some of the cities, notably Athens, passed
legislation from time to time to regulate these cult associations, but it was
seldom that they were taken under the control of the community and made part of
the official religion. The common
worship of the patron divinity created a new sense of brotherhood and
fellowship that was stronger than the attachment felt to the city or the tribe.
Oriental
Religions in the Greek World—The victorious expansion of the oriental
religions is one of the most conspicuous features of the age. The first place among them belongs to the Serapis
cult, who is from the beginning a compound deity, partly Egyptian and partly
Greek. Serapis was associated with the
Egyptian goddess Isis, who gathers to herself the cults of Greek and Asian
mother goddesses and becomes the prototype of the Christian Madonna.
Serapis’ cult was introduced in Egypt by the first
Ptolemy around 300. At Memphis he was
identified with Osiris, the Egyptian lord of the realm of the departed and
associated with the cult of the Apis-bull.
He is thus from the beginning conceived as a universal god, lord of the
underworld as of the heavens, healer of diseases and giver of corn and
wine. The great Serapeum constructed at
Alexandria by Ptolemy was built on the Egyptian pattern, and while the
priesthood was at first purely Egyptian; the devotees were nearly all Greeks,
Macedonians, and other foreigners.
The
Serapis cult was carried into the Greek homeland in the first instance by
Greeks returning from Egypt; but it is more than likely that the cult owed its
rapid spread mainly to the zeal of its followers. In the course of the 200s B.C., Serapis has
his worshipers in nearly all the Greek coastal cities. In the 100s, Serapis makes his way eastward
to southern Italy and Rome. At first
there was opposition from the Roman authorities. Later emperors were glad to lend it the
countenance of the court and even to walk in its processions.
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Once
established in Greek and Roman territories, Serapis opened the way for the
goddess Isis, who proved to have a far greater popular appeal. In the old Egyptian religion she was the
sister and wife of Osiris. Among the
Greeks, she became the great goddess of the sea, the kindly and powerful
protector of sailors. She is also
identified with Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, Hecate, Hera, Hestia, Astarte,
Nanai, the Great Mother, and many lesser divinities. She established all the arts, crafts, and
institutions of social life and religion; she is the perpetual helper of the
human race.
The
Isis cult offered gaudy public ceremonies to attract devotees and impressive
secret rites to bind them to the service of the goddess. The two great festivals of the year were the
Heuresis or Finding of Osiris, and the Launching of the Ship. Throughout the year, sacrifices were offered
to the goddess daily, and private offerings could be presented at any time. The public cult was supplemented by private
disciplines resembling a penitential cure of souls.
Of
the Anatolian cults in Asia Minor, the oldest and most widespread was that of
the Great Mother, called Ma, Cybele, Agdistis, and many other names. By the Greeks she was identified with Rhea,
the mother of the Olympian gods. Her
temples were organized as powerful landholding corporations, owning thousands
of slaves, and employing a multitude of eunuchs and prostitutes as fertility
cult ministers. These temples were
states within the state, and their powers were only partially curbed by secular
rulers. The cult was shaped by Phrygian, Hittite, Syrian, and Persian sources,
so that by later Greek times it presented a complex and confusing
picture. The different temples influence
by Greeks developed different worship practices for the same deity. The great foreign conquests of this goddess
were in the Roman rather than the Greek world.
The moon-god Men also
held vast temple states in all the regions of Asia Minor. He seems to have gathered to himself all the
sparse remnants of moon cults which survived in ancient Greece; but he never
became a major deity outside Asia Minor.
The Phrygian deity Sabazios is identified at times with Zeus, and at
times with Dionysus, and was perhaps identified with the God Israel as Sabaoth
(Lord of Hosts). The insignia of the god
are numerous and varied—bull, ram, snake, toad, lizard, pine cone and palm
tree, barley ears, as well as solar and astral symbols. A distinctive cult object is the bronze hand,
used as a votive offering or an amulet, with its back and front covered with
the god’s insignia and often with tiny heads.
The success of the Syrian gods in winning
devotees abroad is relatively limited.
The great sky-god Hadad is identified with Zeus. His consort Atargatis, or Derceto, is more
widely worshipped. To the Greeks, and
also to the Romans, she is the “Syrian goddess,” and identified with
Aphrodite. Other local gods are
identified with Zeus. The dominant sun
worship of the later Empire owed much to the sun cults of Syria.
But
Syria plays its greatest role in the history of the Greek/Eastern hybrid
religion as the intermediary by which the astral religion of Babylonia entered
into its long association with Greek science.
It became astrology, which took shape in Egypt in the 100s B.C. and
exercised an extraordinary dominance over the minds of people until modern
times.
The
influence of Mazdaism, the pure and lofty religion taught by Zoroaster was
great in the realm of religious thought.
To later Judaism it contributed cardinal elements of its doctrine on the
end of this age and beginning of the new one, of resurrection, judgment, angels
and demons, and a prince of such demonic power as to almost rival the supreme
god. In one place in Asia Minor, the
Persian sun-god Mithras is represented in the same monument under the composite
title Apollo Mithras Helios Hermes. In
and after the 100s A.D. he becomes the favorite of the Roman legionaries. The goddess Anahita sometimes appears as his
consort. None of the Persian cults has
left any important traces in the Greek peninsula itself or in the Aegean
islands.
The
Mysteries—In earlier times, two main types of mystery cult were practiced
in the Greek world: the mysteries of Demeter at Eleusis Attica , and the mysteries of Dionysus in many different
places. The new mysteries of the Demeter
cult were founded in cities, and Eleusinian priests were called to aid in the
institution or in the reorganization of cults in Asia and in Egypt.
The
Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated by the Eumolpides family—one of the few
professional priesthoods known to Greek religion. Admission was open to all of Greek race,
including women and even, on occasion, slaves; yet they were administered by
the Athenian state as part of the official religion, and the whole population
of Attica participated in the rites.
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Two
pairs of divinities are involved in Eleusinian worship: Demeter and Daughter
(Kore); Pluto and consort (Persephone).
But Kore has long since become identified with Persephone, and Pluto
with Hades the lord of the underworld.
The Maiden is the daughter of Earth and the queen of the world of the
dead. The rape of Persephone by
Hades-Pluto, the return of the Maiden from the underworld, and the restoration
of spring, all lend themselves to the promise of a new life for humans beyond
the grave. With this is combined a story
of Demeter’s care for the royal child of Eleusis, on whom she would have
bestowed immortality by a bath of fire, had she not been interrupted by the
ill-timed intrusion of the terrified parents.
The goddess herself establishes the rites by which she is to be
worshipped. Her Hymn proclaims “he who
has had no part in the rites shall never have an equal lot in the dark realms
of death.”
The
mysteries of Dionysus are of an entirely different character, though they lead
to the same goal of participation in the divine nature and the consequent
immortality. They are marked in their
beginning by a wildness and frenzy amounting to madness. Dionysus is not a native deity of the Greeks;
he is of Thracian origin. His devotees
are mastered by a religious intoxication, by a sacred madness. Just as Demeter is the goddess of the grain,
and of nature in its cultivated aspects, Dionysus is the god of the vine, and
of nature in her wildness, her untamed savagery. In all this savagery, it is the spirit of the
god himself that possesses the devotees so that they attack and devour whatever
they encounter; and it is he himself, incarnate in the beast or the man who is
devoured that they take into themselves.
The night revels on the mountains,
the devouring of raw flesh, the savage frenzies of which the older stories
tell, had ceased to be practiced by the Greeks long before the Alexandrian
Era. Of most significance is the
“Orphic” doctrine of the soul as the divine element in humans, buried in the
body as in a tomb and attaining its full freedom and purity only when it is
delivered from the sepulchre of the body.
Dionysus, child of Zeus by Semele, is torn to pieces and devoured by the
Titans; the Titans are blasted by the lightning of Zeus, and out of their ashes
is created humans who thus possesses a dual nature—part divine and part
titanic, mutually hostile.
The
soul can be set free from its unnatural union with the titanic nature only as
it is liberated from the body; but it can be progressively purified of its
defilements by ascetic disciplines, by abstinence from flesh, by ritual
purifications, and by sacramental rites, often of a magical character. It experiences both reincar-nation and
Purgatory. This doctrine appealed to
some of the noblest of the Greeks.
Pythagoras was its greatest convert, and it underlies the doctrine of
the soul which is set forth by Plato.
Indirectly also it has played a great part in the historical development
of Christian ideas of the soul.
Ruler Cults and Deification—The
practice of according honors to sovereigns is one of the most conspicuous
features of the period’s public religion.
In part this was a device of statecraft, a political scheme for giving
the support of religious sanctions to a naked military dictatorship, and in
part it came from Eastern, and especially Egyptian ideas about a ruler’s
divinity. But from the earliest times
the Greeks themselves had accorded divine honors to men who had distinguished
themselves by outstanding services to their fellows. It was a general custom for the founders of
cities or of colonies to be honored with a local, public cult after death. There were also cults accorded to mythical or
semi-mythical “heroes” such as Theseus at Athens or Bellerophon at
Corinth. In all of them is reflected the
feeling that humankind’s nature is akin to the gods’ nature. Plato and Aristotle had both envisaged the
ideal ruler as a man whose gifts lifted him above common human stature, above
the restraints of the law applying to others, a man who walked among mortals as
a god.
These
hero cults were not rendered in the Greek world to living men, but to the
mighty dead. In 336 B.C., Alexander the
Great’s father, Philip, had his own statue carried in procession with those of
the 12 gods of Olympus. It remained for
Alexander to claim in full measure for himself the status of a god among
men. He received from his Persian
subjects the reverence which they were accustomed to offer to their own sovereigns,
but he sought in vain the same homage from Macedonians and Greeks. However, Greek cities did send envoys with
the title of theoroi to his court, as though they were officials charged
with religious functions. After his
death he was given a cult and a priesthood, which were eventually transferred
to Alexandria.
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The earliest
Ptolemies, the rulers of Egypt after Alexander, do not seem to have received divine
honors in their lifetime, but were honored after death. By the fifth generation they have been
admitted to the traditional place of the Pharaohs in the state religion. The first Seleucids, the rulers of Syria
after Alexander, were also deified after death.
Later, Antiochus II styles himself Theos (God) and Antiochus IV
(Epiphanes) regards himself as and receives worship as the manifest form of a
deity. Athens herself votes divine
honors to Demetrius Poliorcetes (“the Beseiger”), a great sea captain;
Demetrius and his father Antigonus are hailed as “savior gods.”
When Rome began to extend her conquests
into the kingdoms of the Eastern Mediterranean, she was still a republic
without any permanent head. Altars were
now dedicated by the Greek cities throughout the eastern part of the empire to
Rome, the city-goddess. The ruler cult
was transferred to the great proconsuls: Sulla; Pompey; Julius; Caesar; and Antony. They were
addressed as “God Manifest.” Cities were
eager for the privilege of building temples to Augustus, who was given the
highest titles of divinity.
The
ruler cult was the religion of success, the deification of power and will in
the men who shaped events and determined the course of history. Such titles as “Savior” and “Benefactor were
given partly in flattery, partly in hope.
In the cast of Augustus, they expressed the gratitude of war-weary
peoples to the man who had brought at long last an era of peace.
To
some it appeared that chance ruled the world; the supreme deity was Tyche
(Fortune). The cities of Greece had
begun to institute cults of Tyche early in the 300s B.C., and in the spread of
Greek culture she becomes the city-goddesses almost everywhere. Fortune was a capricious goddess, lifting a
man to the heights today and dashing his pride tomorrow; the wise, the rich,
the righteous, and the mighty all were at the mercy of Fortune. The defeated and the destitute could hope
that Fortune might change things in their favor. For others the ruling power was Fate,
governing all things with the iron rod of determinism. Here people were still left with the sense of
helplessness and frustration, subject to the decrees of a power that no supplication
could move and no wisdom circumvent.
Astral Religion and astrology—This
conviction of the all-embracing rule of Fate received strong support from the
star worship which was introduced into the Greek world in the 300s B.C., and
still more from astrology. Plato
recognizes that the astral deities knowledge has been borrowed by the Greeks
from non-Greeks, but is confident that “the Greeks will learn to worship them
in a nobler and more righteous fashion.”
The
home of the astral religion was Babylonia, where the worship of the “host of
heaven” had been practiced from a remote antiquity. From Babylonia, star worship spread into
Syria and Egypt, and so over the whole of the Greek and Roman world. The Greek mind had been prepared for the
invasion of astralism by Pythagoreas’, Plato’s, and Aristotle’s speculations. In heavenly bodies they perceived evidences
of true divinity. In the 100s B.C.,
astrology became one of Greek philosophy’s and science’s main
preoccupations. Several prominent
teachers made it the queen of the sciences.
The dominion was to endure for centuries.
Astrology
combined the appeal of science with that of religion. Once their presuppositions were granted their
methods were rigorously scientific; and the utmost confidence was placed in
their predictions. The validity of the
method was not called in question, any more than the science of medicine is
discredited today by errors in diagnosis.
Exact science and calculation lent its authority to the prediction of
events in human life.
Greek astrology was based upon the
doctrine of universal “sympathy.” The
heavens and the earth are so bound together in a unity of all life that
whatever comes to pass in the higher world is exactly reproduced in the
lower. The heavenly bodies are
divinities, and their movements determine the events of earth, the exact number
of days that one is destined to live, and the fortunes that will attend
one.
Within
this system, the planets are the governing powers. Among them are reckoned the sun and the moon,
as well as the five true planets known to ancient astronomy—Ares, Hermes, Zeus,
Aphrodite, and Cronos (respectively Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and
Saturn). Each planet has its personality
and imparts that personality to the individual born while it is in the
ascendant. The seven day planetary week
was established in this age; each planet had its day in turn, to which it gave
its name. More and more the Sun came to
be regarded as the leader of the heavenly host.
The sun is the visible symbol of the supreme Mind, the glorious image
of the invisible fiery essence that is the spirit of the universe.
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The
astral religion had profound effects in the whole domain of religious
thought. The divine stars might be given
the names of the traditional gods, but they were not burdened with the
immorality of the myths. The unceasing
regularity of their movements was a token of the perfect order, harmony, and
intelligence which reigned among them.
The human soul was a fragment of the same spirit of the universe. Driven by some compulsion, it had descended
from its ethereal home to be entombed for a time in an earthly body. The life to come is no longer conceived as
that of strengthless shades in a gloomy underworld, but as that of pure spirits
liberated to enjoy the bliss of an astral paradise.
Despite
these brighter aspects, astrology was a burden to the mind of humans, by reason
of its over-powering fatalism. Humankind
generally sought escape from the iron clasp of Destiny, through the mysteries,
by dedication to some god who was mightier even than Fate. Far more had recourse to magic; it was used
by all classes of the population.
Philosophical
Schools: Skepticism and Cynics—Post-Aristotelian
philosophy is no longer concerned with the city-state and with the life of
people within the community of their city, but with humans as individuals in
the mighty cosmos. The events of the
300s B.C. shattered the ancient pattern of the autonomous city beyond
repair. The time of Alexander brought
people into an incomparably vaster political structure. But neither the unstable empire of Alexander,
nor the vast imperial states could replace the city as the focus of human
loyalties. These military autocracies
could not be envisaged as the locus of a person’s highest life. The task now was to establish the
significance of the individual. The
great schools which Plato and Aristotle had founded, the Academy and the Lyceum
respectively, continued their activity.
The Academy became little more than a parasite on other schools, content
to expose the logical fallacies and absurdities of Epicurean and Stoic doctrine
and to profess an ultimate skepticism.
The Cynic philosophers were a succession of solitary
prophets, preaching the pursuit of individual freedom by the disregard of every
thing but wisdom and virtue.
Antisthenes, the first Cynic, laid out the conduct and the ruling
theories that were to characterize the Cynic teachers. He held that wisdom and virtue were the only
things to be desired, and felt that he had a divine mission to tear away the
shams of life and to expose every kind of hypocrisy and humbug.
Antisthenes’
fame was eclipsed by the greater fame of his disciple Diogenes, who, with his
home in a tub, his lantern, his staff and his beggar’s wallet, and his biting
retorts to great and small, became a legend in his own lifetime. His grotesque and offensive behavior was to
him part of the virtue of living according to nature, but such actions did not
keep the Athenians from esteeming him highly.
He thought of himself as the hound of Zeus, commissioned to rebuke the
faults of humankind and to turn human hearts to virtue—the true virtue which
wisdom teaches, not the sham virtue of current convention. The Cynic’s philosophy was not a cloistered
philosophy, but an aggressive missionary appeal which was preached in the
market place and the crossroads, using every means to compel men to
listen. For their street preaching, they
developed the form known as the diatribe, which was inherited by the early
Christian preachers of the gospel.
Philosophical
Schools: Stoics and Epicureans—The
Stoic philosophy derives its name from the Painted Stoa in the agora of Athens,
where its founder, Cypriot Zeno, lectured from around 304 B.C. to his death in
263. Over the next 500 years, it became
the most influential of all philosophies of the time. Zeno began his philosophical work as a
disciple of the Cynic Crates. He
continued to build on the principle that virtue is the highest good; and that
virtuous living consists in living in conformity with nature; but he combined
with this the doctrine that the essential nature of the individual is one with
the essential nature of the universe.
The individual must therefore live accordance with that right reason
(Logos) which is the governing principle of all things, or Destiny.
All things must be brought to the test of Reason, but
Reason is a universal principle, at once the soul of the world and the soul of
man, a general law to which all things are subject. Freedom is not the
arbitrary rejection of every restraint, but the voluntary acceptance of the
universal will which must be obeyed by all whether they will it or not. Accepting Destiny as the rule of a wise and
beneficent Providence, the Stoic has no concern for changes in his outward
circumstances, for they do not impair the integrity of his inward self.
The
Stoic could speak of man as a “living being formed for the life of the city,”
with the “city” in question being the universe itself. The Stoic conception of Reason as the determining
principle in humans, fixed wholly upon that which one shared in some measure
with every one else and with the universe itself. The one distinction that matters is the
distinction of wisdom and folly, of wise, virtuous living in keeping with right
reason which governs all things, and of foolish rebellion which causes
wickedness. Such a philosophy was admirably suited to meet the needs of vast
empires, which could not found a lasting system of government upon racial
superiority.
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The Stoic conception of deity owed
nothing to the popular religion of Greece.
The divine is a material substance which permeates the whole of
things. Spirit is involved, but spirit
as a material substance moving through all things and holding them in unity by
a certain power of tension. The name
Zeus may be used as a symbol, and the god of nations may be regarded as symbols
of different aspects or activities of the one universal Power. Stoicism thus accommodates itself to the
popular religion rather than attacking it.
Still more readily it accommodates itself to astrology confirmed by the
unvarying regularity of the stars in their courses. But there is no thought of a personal deity
who can aid people or comfort them.
There is nothing greater than the spark of divinity with oneself, a
fragment of the fiery substance which is the soul of the world.
Epicurus, the founder of the Epicurean
school, settled in Athens in 306 B.C. after a few years of teaching philosophy
in other cities, and there he remained for the rest of his life (died 270
B.C.). For him, the one end of human
life was happiness or sweetness, found through knowledge of the true nature of
things. The interests and aims of Epicurus
were wholly practical, not in the least speculative. Holding that “pleasure is the beginning and
the end of living the blessed life,” he framed all his doctrines with a view to
teaching people how to live pleasurably, believing that “Prudence teaches that
it is not possible to live pleasurably without living prudently, nobly, and
justly; nor to live prudently, nobly, and justly without living pleasurably;
for the virtues are organically united with the life of pleasure.”
The
pleasure he sets as the end of life is not to be found in endless revelry,
love-making, feasting on the best foods, or other self-indulgence, but in
“sober reasoning, searching out the causes of every choice and every
rejection.” Among the notions that must
be banished, the first is the common beliefs about the gods. For Epicurus, gods dwelt far off and took no
thought of humankind. Such beings have
no troubles in them-selves and bring no troubles on others, so there is no need
to placate them with sacrifices and offerings. The astral deities have no more to be said for
them than the gods.
The
Stoic conception of Destiny as the supreme divinity is absurd. No conscious wisdom moves and directs the
world; everything is sufficiently explained through mechanical causation. The physical theories of Epicurus show that
no divine intervention need be postulated to account for the world or the
heavens. He is not interested in natural
science for its own sake, but wants only to dispel the notion that these things
take place at the command of some divinity; the movement of the atoms accounts
for everything. The fear of death is
removed by the doctrine that death is extinction; death is the end of sentient
existence. “There is nothing to be
dreaded in life by him who has truly grasped that there is nothing to be
dreaded in ceasing to live.”
Theosophy
and Gnosis—From about the beginning of the 100 years before the Christian
Era, rationalism enters upon a decline in the Greek world. There is spreading disillusionment with
philosophy as an avenue to apprehension of the truth. Since the time of Plato and even earlier,
many Greeks had come think of the soul as something distinct from the
body. In the later times, there is a
growing conviction that the soul is a divine essence which has somehow fallen
into an evil condition. The interest in
ethics of Zeno and Epicurus is subordinated to the quest for the salvation of
the soul, the freeing of the soul from the bondage of the body and its ascent
to the realm of pure divine being, its true home.
The
dialogues of Plato contributed in no small measure to this development. In the Phaedo, philosophy is described
as a “practice of dying,” because it seeks the releasing, loosing, or
separation, of the soul from the body.
In this latter period, the Academy of Philosophy shakes itself loose
from Skepticism, and turns to the mystical element in Plato. This leads to Neoplatonic mysticism, which
was to make inestimable contributions to the mystical theology of the
church. Neo-Pythagoreanism also had a
widening popularity. This school makes
much of the mysticism of numbers, imposes a strict vegetarianism, teaches a
doctrine of transmigration, and holds that the body is the prison in which
the soul is confined to do penance for faults committed in a former existence.
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Popular
opinion held that the sages of Greece were far inferior to the wise men of the
Orient. Pythagoras, Democritus, Plato—all
the teachers of Greece were now imagined to have sat at the feet of Eastern
teachers. The Egyptian god Thoth, in the
guise of Hermes Trismegistus is seen as the revealer of literature that ranges
from the loftiest and purest mystical philosophy to alchemy and magic. A sacred book is venerated and accorded
authority in proportion to its antiquity.
In such an atmosphere, Jewish and Christian apologists make much of the
supposed antiquity of the Old Testament scriptures; Moses was centuries older
than Plato.
The religious thought
of these many schools may be called “gnostic” in the sense that they teach that
knowledge is itself salvation. Elements
from Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Babylonian sources are mingled with Greek
religious thought, which is itself compounded of Platonic idealism, humanistic
notions of the soul, and some tenets of the Stoic philosophy. Astrology usually enters largely into the
mixture. The redemption of the soul is
seen as an ascent through the spheres past the resistance of hostile
planet-divinities. It is sometimes
taught that the soul cannot escape from this material world except through the
intervention of a redeemer who descends through the hostile spheres and returns
victorious over the planets who control them.
The
Gnostic systems which constituted a great danger to Christianity throughout the
100s A.D. belong within this general climate of religious thought. The Christian Gnostics turned Christ into a
mythological figure, making him one of the emanations which they conceived as
mediators between the supreme God and the human soul, which was essentially one
with the divine, but imprisoned in a material body as the consequence of some
accident. The church never failed to
hold to the essential unity of the spiritual and the material—things visible
and things invisible are alike the creation of the one God, the Father
Almighty; and all his creation is good.
GUARDIAN (epitropoV
(eh pih tro pos)) The adult legally responsible for a
minor’s person and property. In a
general sense the Greek means “manager” or “agent”; but in legal usage it is
the regular term for a minor’s guardian.
In the Apocrypha, Lysias is called the guardian of the young Syrian king
Antiochus Eupator.
GYMNASIUM (gumnasion jum na ze on)
A place of physical exercise of Greek youths; a school of training,
sometimes used in a wider sense—e.g., of a philosophical school.
The
Greek king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanies (175-164 B.C.) established a
gymnasium in Jerusalem, most likely early in his reign. For the Greek, the gymnasium was an essential
part of life; it trained the body in harmony and beauty and provided a social
club for the youth. It was standard
practice to strip naked for the exercise. This exposed the circumcision of the
Jews, which the Greeks found abhorrent.
Young Jews became
reluctant to have their own sons circumcised and the Greek cult of worshipping
the body was closely associated with a nation of idolaters. So it was the gymnasium and the practices
associated with it that angered the pious Jews, the Hasidim, and that were part
of the cause of the Maccabean Revolt.
H
HADID (חדיד, sharp) A town of Benjamin Jerusalem
HAGGADAH (הגדה, the narration). All scriptural interpretation which is
non-legal or narrative in character, and which aims at the development of inner
piety and religious devotion. It is a
supplement to Halachah, and is meant to stir in the son of Israel the will to
an eager performance of his duty, through story, saga, legend, parable, homily,
maxim, proverbs, and wise sayings.
The
same method and often the same material are employed by the New Testament in
imparting its teaching, but it cannot be said to contain any Haggadah in the
strictly technical sense of the term.
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Helicarnassus
was Greek in its life and culture. There
is clear evidence from the last two centuries before Christ that numbers of
Jews lived there. The Romans sent
letters that the Jews be protected in their life and worship. The people of the city passed the appropriate
laws to ensure this.
HANUKKAH (חנוכה, consecration, dedication) The Feast of Rededication. After Juda Maccabee had cleansed the temple
from the pollution of pagan worship (165 B.C.), the 25th of Chislev
(December) was kept annually in memory of this.
HARP (kiqara,
(kith er ah)) A Greek stringed instrument listed with
lutes and cymbals as used in the celebration at the rededication of the temple
(Hanukkah). Perhaps of Semitic origin,
the cithara or cithern was an elaborate lyre with eleven or twelve strings of
equal length strung over a wooden sound box and fastened to tuning pegs on a
crossbar. It was used independently or
with other instruments or with singing.
HASADIAH (חסדיה, whom the Lord loves) Son of Hilkiah, and ancestor of Baruch.
HASIDEANS (חסידים, the pious ones) A militant religious community which
participated in the Maccabean Revolt.
They were zealous for the law, but their origins, organization and
ultimate purposes are unknown.
The
Hasideans are referred to in I Maccabees 2. It is probable that they existed in
the pre-Maccabean period. Soon after
the Maccabees revolted, a company of Hasideans united with them. There is little basis for the widely held
notions that Hasideans were interested only in religious reform and not in
national independence.
After
the war, during the struggle for power in the newly established revolutionary
state, party conflict seems to have developed between the Hasideans and the
Maccabeans over the Maccabean claims to the high priesthood. The author of I Maccabees points out the
mistake of the Hasidean who put their trust in a priestly family which turned
out to be neither trustworthy nor just.
HASMONEANS. (חשמונאי) The dynasty of Jewish high priests and kings who ruled
from 142 to 63 B.C. The book of I Maccabees portrays them as being divinely
ordained to save Israel. The very earliest members are sometimes known as the
Macabbees, but this name should only be applied to Juda Maccabee. This family’s reign produced 65-years of
peace and freedom, between the periods of Greek and Roman supremacy. The family derives its name from Mattathias’
great-grandfather. The name’s origin is
probably a place name (Heshmon or Hashmonah).
It has been interpreted as meaning “fruitfulness,” “temperer of steel,”
and “wealthy.”
The
Family’s Rise—The name Hasmonean is
not in the books of Maccabees, but comes from the Jewish historian
Josephus. The family first appears in 167
B.C., when the brave priest at Modin resists the demand for sacrifice to
heathen gods and slays the king’s officer.
Mattathias and his 5 sons fled to the mountains and from there he, and
other loyal Jews went out to pull down altars, forcibly circumcise children,
and put apostates to death. When the
old man died, his son Judas Maccabeus assumed leadership. After defeating 3 Syrian generals at Emmaus,
Judas met with Lysias, the Syrian regent to make peace. The Jews gained freedom of worship and the temple
was cleared of idolatry. There was a Rededication Feast (Hannukah) in 165.
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But
the Maccabees found that minorities of Jews were maltreated, and they did not
like the fortified citadel that Lysias had built in Jerusalem. Judas therefore continued the fight until his
death at Elasa in 161. His brother,
Jonathan, became military leader of the Maccabees and continued the struggle
with attacks upon the Syrian army. The Seleucid
dynasty in Antioch was weakening, and could not afford to support the priests
who were trying to spread Greek culture in Jerusalem. This increased the prestige of the Hasmonean
house and their adherents. The Hasmonean
had its beginnings when Jonathan, 10 years before the Jews gained complete
independence, allowed himself to be appointed high priest by the Syrian king,
Alexander Balas.
As
Balas was preoccupied with his own struggles, the Hasmoneans thrived
unmolested; they were given a good deal of territory by various Seleucids
claiming the throne. Jonathan’s army
could have supported any of those Seleucids, but he was captured and killed in
143; he was succeeded by his brother Simon Maccabee as captain and high
priest. Simon was granted many
concessions from Antioch. His final
victory was over the Syrian citadel in Jerusalem. He demanded of Demetrius II that the Jewish
people be free of overlords.
Rule
of the Hasmoneans: Simon (141-135); John Hyrcanus (135-105); Judas Aristobulus
(104)—In 141, Simon was given the
title of ethnarch or governor by his own people. The right of succession was
granted to his heirs. A period of peace
did much for the prosperity of Judea and it confirmed Simon’s administration,
priestly integrity, and justice. He was
perhaps the best ruler the Jews ever had in post-exilic times. Unfortunately, tragedy marred the end of his
rule, and in his old age Judea was invaded by the king of Syria. The two sons, Judas and John inflicted a
decisive defeat on the Syrian general near Modin. In 135, Simon and two of his sons perished at
Dok at the hand of his son-in-law and chief rival for power, Ptolemy son of
Abub. Simon’s son John, commonly known
as Hyrcanus, escaped.
John’s long regime began with him agreeing
to disarm his troops and to pay tribute.
He seized the opportunity afforded by Antiochus’ death in 128, and the
disputes about the succession to cease paying tribute. He forced the Idumeans to become Jews. In the future Jews regarded the Idumeans as
only Edomites and semi-heathens.
Hyrcanus’ savage revenge upon the Samaritans must have been a result of
the Samaritan’s aloofness during the Maccabean struggles. Samaritans had resisted both Maccabean and
Greek influences. John considerably
strengthened his country’s defenses by building fortresses and concluding a
treaty with Rome.
During
the high priesthood of John Hyrcanus, he transferred his sympathies from the
Pharisees to the Sadducean nobles. The
Pharisees looked upon the house of David alone as the true royal family, and
openly resented that Hyrcanus might venture to assume royal status. Both parties were by now becoming more
powerful and more mutually antagonistic.
Hyrcanus’ move toward the more political and aristocratic party set the
directions for future development in the Hasmonean dynasty. The names of his three young sons changed
from Judas, Matthathias, and Jonathan to Aristobulus, Antigonus, and Alexander Janneus.
Politically
it was a very successful period for the Jews, great strides being made toward
the full restoration of the royal Davidic throne of Judah. Aristobulus and Antigonus proved themselves
valiant soldiers when their father left them in charge of the siege of the city
of Samaria. Antiochus Cyzicenus came
there and was ignominiously defeated by the two brothers. News of these victories delighted Hyrcanus.
But
they also saddened the hearts of pious Pharisees, who thought that the high
priesthood was in danger of being profaned by worldly ambition. The Qumran community at the Dead Sea may well
have originated at this period as a protest against prevailing Hasmonean
worldliness. It was largely because of
Hyrcanus’ successful priesthood that the Messiah conceptions of the 100s B.C.
centered upon a priestly ruler descended from Levi. Many believe that Hyracanus was the first
Hasmonean ruler to take the title of king; but it is more likely that his
eldest son, Judas Aristobulus I was the first.
After John Hyrcanus, the rest of them aimed at being little more than
secular monarchs, and few had anything better than just average moral
character.
Before
he died, Hyrcanus decided that his widow should retain the civil power, while
his eldest son, Aristobulus, should assume the high priesthood. Aristobulus imprisoned all the family except
his brother Antigonus, allowed his mother to die of hunger in prison, and
proclaimed himself as Aristobulus, King of the Jews. He made sure that foreigners were more aware
of this than the Jews themselves. He
continued to strengthen the nation by extending its boundaries beyond Samaria
and Scythopolis, and by conquering the “Galilee of the Gentiles.”
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The
Galilee in which Jesus was brought up was really the creation of Aristobulus,
who forcibly proselytized a race which was essentially or largely Gentile,
making them accept circumcision and all the beliefs and customs of the
Jews. Mary, mother of Jesus, belonged to
Judea, but it is likely that some of the apostles of Jesus, whose forebears
were forced into Judaism by the sword of the Hasmonean kings, were of Syrian
and Greek descent. Aristobulus moved
away from the ideals of the Maccabees.
Out of jealousy and suspicion, he had unwittingly caused Antigonus to be
murdered by his bodyguard.
Rule
of the Hasmoneans: Alexander Janneus (104-78)—Aristobulus was succeeded by an imprisoned brother who
was now released by his sister-in-law.
Jonathan’s name was changed to Janneus, and in addition he took the
Greek name Alexander. He did this, not because he favored Greek culture in any
way; but because he was ambitious to complete his father’s work of Judaizing
all Coele-Syria.
In
him the Hasmonean dynasty really reached its height territorially. But the subjugation of so many cultured
Greek cities had a demoralizing effect on the civilization of Coele-Syria; his
reign was scarcely ever free of wars. He
was also considerably hindered by troubles nearer home. The Pharisees had assisted the Maccabees in
the struggle for independence, but at other times they had remained aloof. All their zeal had been for the law and the
support of Jewish institutions; they did not desire war and glory for their own
sake. They became less sympathetic
toward the Hasmonean house and increasingly critical of its claims to the high
priesthood and royal status. In
overcoming the enmity of the Pharisees, Alexander Janneus stooped to every kind
of savagery. In fact, we can never be
sure how prejudiced the report which the Jewish historian gives of the king’s
atrocities is.
During
a celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, he was officiating as high
priest. Disapproval of him as an immoral,
drunken, and bloodthirsty scoundrel caused the crowd to throw fruit at
him. And possibly to show his sympathy
for the Sadducees’ contempt for a Pharisaic ritual, he poured the water
libation over his own feet rather than on the altar. Whether this was a dangerous rising or not,
Janneus did not prevent his wild Asian mercenaries from falling upon the
outraged crowds and killing 6,000, if Josephus is right.
The people called to
their aid the Seleucid king Demetrius III Eucerus, a descendant of Antiochus
Epiphanes. After Janneus and his
mercenaries were decisively crushed at Shechem, it looked as if Demetrius was
planning to march on Jerusalem. Many of
the people returned to support the Hasmoneans.
Janneus soon captured the remaining leaders of the revolt, and crucified
800 of them, killing their families before their eyes.
The
spirit of the Pharisees was at a low ebb; thousands fled from the wicked man’s
dominion. In the Dead Sea Scrolls,
disposal of political enemies by crucifixion is blamed on “the Lion of
Wrath.” It is suggested that the Lion
is none other than Alexander Janneus.
Another scroll speaks of the Teacher of Righteousness being persecuted
by the Wicked Priest, who may also be Alexander Janneus. There is a great deal to be said for this
view, and the view that the Qumran community was started by Pharisees and
others who had fled Jerusalem. Janneus
waged several more campaigns and died while fighting on the other side of the
Jordan in 78 B.C. He bequeathed his
throne to Alexandra, the widow of his brother and apparently his own wife too,
and the high priesthood to his son.
Alexandra managed to make peace with the Pharisees.
Rule of the
Hasmoneans: Alexandra (78-69);
Aristobulus II (69-63)—Alexandra
or Salome ruled wisely and piously during nine years of unusual peace (78-69
B.C.), allowing the Pharisees a wide measure of control over internal
affairs. The were two sons: Hyrcanus the
high priest, who was of little importance; and his younger brother,
Aristobulus, who was a man of much greater competence and initiative. The noble Sadducean houses, despising
Alexandra for choosing to placate the Pharisees, looked to the younger son, who
did not share his mother’s views, for leadership. Sadducees were of the military class, and had
the fortresses under their control. His
mother relented and did her best to curb the excesses of the Pharisees. She wanted Hyrcanus to succeed her, but
Aristobulus was determined to gain power and raised his own army.
At Alexandra’s death and against her own wishes,
Hyrcanus had to make way for his younger brother. An Idumean named Antipater, whose son was to
become Herod the Great, persuaded Hyrcanus that he needed protection and
induced him to seek protection with the Nabeatean Aretas III, king of
Arabia. Antipater sought only his own
advantage, and was opposed by the determined Aristobulus and the old
aristocratic families.
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Aretas
promised to support Hyrcanus and to help regain the throne of Judea. Aristobulus had to flee when he was defeated
and his troops had deserted him. The
Pharisees were not sympathetic toward him, for he had shown that he hated them,
and they helped the Arabians lay siege to him and the priests on the temple
mount in Jerusalem in 65 B.C.
All
might have gone well for the fortunes of Hyrcanus, had not both the Hasmonean
princes separately appealed to Rome to assist them. Pompey gave his verdict in favor of
Aristobulus, having been promised large sums of money from both brothers. The Idumean Antipater and other supporters of
Hyrcanus sent an embassage personally to the Roman commander-in-chief. Aristobulus did the same. Moreover, there was a third and popular
deputation received by Pompey, probably from the Pharisees.
Aristobulus
became discontented and occupied the Alexandrium fortress. Pompey took this as a threat and marched
against him. Aristobulus sought peace, but his followers kept the gates shut
when the Romans came for their money.
Pompey imprisoned Aristobulus and succeeded in entering the city, because
the party of Hyrcanus and Antipater opened the gates. Aristobulus’ party retreated to the fortified
temple mount.
There
was a siege of three months. The walls
of the mount were breached by Pompey’s battering rams, the priests were cut
down as they ministered at the altar, and 12,000 Jews were slaughtered by
Pompey’s men in 63 B.C. The Roman
commander entered the Holy of holies, to see what riches were there and
afterward ordered that the place should be re-hallowed and the worship
continued as usual. He left behind a Roman garrison. Aristobulus and his family
were carried off by Pompey. Hyrcanus,
the elder brother, was allowed to function as high priest and ethnarch without
the title of king; tribute had to be paid to Rome.
It
was therefore the end of the Hasmonean dynasty in any real sense of the
word. The downfall largely came about
through the stupid folly of so eagerly calling for the assistance of foreign
powers in internal strife. But it is
doubtful that even the wisest of Jewish rulers could have maintained the
independence of his people once the Romans had entered upon the ruins of the
Syrian Empire.
The
End and Achievements of the Hasmoneans—The
Idumean Herod Antipater had prudently shown himself well disposed toward the
Romans. He might have been overthrown by
the repeated attempts of Aristobulus’ branch of the Hasmonean family to regain
power, but the Romans always came to his aid.
In 57, Alexander, the son of Aristobulus II, was defeated and
captured. Aristobulus and his other son,
Antigonus escaped captivity the next year.
Alexander led the rebellion; proconsul Gabinius crushed it. Aristobulus was released by Julius Caesar
after he had seized the power in Rome in 49.
Before setting out for Palestine, Aristobulus was poisoned by the
supporters of Pompey. In the same year,
his son Alexander was beheaded by order of Pompey himself in Antioch.
In
48, Antipater became Caesar’s devoted friend.
Judea was united under the high priest and ethnarch Hyrcanus. Antipater served Rome as procurator; under
him the laws and customs of the Jews were tho-roughly respected. Julius Caesar proved himself kindly disposed
toward the Jews, both in Judea and in Alexandria. Antipater’s brilliant career
was suddenly cut short by the poisoning hand of a Jewish rival for power in 43,
but not before he procured for his
eldest son, Phaesal, the post of governor of Jerusalem Galilee . After the victory of Antony
and Octavian, Hyrcanus was reduced to being no more than high priest, while
Herod and his brother were granted powers of tetrarch.
At
this point Antigonus, Aristobulus II’s surviving son, made one last attempt to
regain his father’s kingdom in 40.
Herod defeated him in battle, but the fierce invading Parthians
supported him and proclaimed Antigonus king.
Phasael and Hrycanus were captured while Herod escaped to Rome. He returned as king and declared war on
Antigonus. Although this war lasted for
more than 2 difficult years, Herod was finally successful. He took Jerusalem and slaughtered all his
opponents among the Sadducean aristocracy.
Herod had married Mariamne, the Hasmonean princess. During the early years of his reign he
murdered: the young high priest Aristobulus III in 35; the aged grandfather
Hyrcanus in 30; Mariamne herself in 29; and her mother, Alexandra in 28. He ordered his own sons, the last heirs to
the Hasmonean line, strangled to death in 7 B.C.
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The
achievement of the Hasmoneans, during the century of their ascendancy, was
distinguished and permanent. They were
the means by which Judaism and the Jewish state became a force to be reckoned
with, even by the Romans. They had brought
some other nations too under their rule and had impressed them beneath a religious
yoke. The Herodians failed to see that
the first essential was to preserve the Jewish state and its religion. They did not feel that such a destiny was
worth the sacrifice.
Within
the state, the increased study and reading of the Law resulted in a great
impetus being given to scribal activity in the way of copying, studying, and
teaching the Bible. Together with
reverence for the Scriptures went the belief in the resurrection of the dead
and the hope of a future life after death.
All the foundation stones of modern Jewry were well and truly laid
during the period of Hasmonean rule.
HASRAH (חסרה, poverty) Head of a family of temple servants who
returned from Exile with Zerubbabel.
HATIPHA (חטיפא, seize) Ancestor
and origin of the name for a family of temple servants among returned exiles.
HAURAN (חורן, cavern place) A district east of the Jordan Sea of Galilee ,
north of the Yarmuk River
Both
Jews and Greeks were settled there in large numbers in the 300s B.C.; after
that the region changed hands frequently.
It was conquered by the Maccabeans in the 100s, but came under Nabatean
control in 90 B.C. After being annexed
to the Decapolis, Augustus returned it to Herod the Great (See also the
main entry).
During
the Exile the region of Hebron was occupied by the Idumeans, in whose hands it
remained until 164 B.C., when Judas Maccabee captured and burned it. It was rebuilt during the reign of Herod the
Great with buildings erected over the site of the Cave of Machpelah. In 68 A.D., Cerealius, one of Vespasian’s officers,
captured and burned the city.
HEGEMONIDES. Syrian
officer appointed by Antiochus as “governor from Ptolemais to Gerar.”
HELIDORUS (HliodwroV) A high official in the court of the Seleucus IV
Philopator, who was sent to confiscate temple moneys at Jerusalem
HERCULES. The
god of the Olympic games held in Tyre Tyre
HEROD (FAMILY) (הורדוס, from the root meaning descent) The dynasty which under Rome
Family Origins—The family of Herod rose to significance in the reign of the Hasmonean queen Salome Alexandra. She and Alexander Janneus had two sons, Hyrcanus II, and Aristoblus. When Janneus died in 78 B.C. Salome retained the throne, but the high priesthood went to Hyrcanus II; Salome Alexandra’s died in 69 B.C. Hyrcanus was crowned king, but Aristobulus, aided by mercenaries and Sadducees, arose in direct rebellion and defeated Hyrcanus; to Aristobulus went the crown and the high priesthood. The grandfather of Herod was Antipater; Herod’s father was known as Antipas. The first Antipater was “general of Idumea.” The historian Josephus calls the second Antipater an “old and bitterly hated foe” of Aristobulus. Another historian states that Antipater was of a principal Jewish family of Babylonia. A later legend makes Antipater the son of a temple slave of Apollo at Ashkelon. The most frequent view depicts Antipater as a crafty self-seeker, devoid of worthy attributes. Antipater regarded himself as a Jew and was so regarded by his contemporaries.
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In the issue between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus, Hyrcanus was content to accept the subordinate position accorded to him after the reconciliation. The initiative to change matters was supplied by Antipater. Under his pressure Hyrcanus fled to Aretas III of Nabtea for safety and help. Aretas defeated Aristobulus, who fled from the battle to Jerusalem; on Passover, troops of Aretas and Hyrcanus besieged the temple (65 B.C.). At this juncture, the Roman general Scaurus arrived in Judea. Hyrcanus and Aristobulus appeared before Pompey at Damascus to press their rival claims. Hyrcanus’ case “was supported by more than a thousand of the most reputable Jews, whom Antipater had provided.” Pompey deferred his decision. When certain promises were broken by Aristobulus, Pompey moved against the Holy City, which fell to the Romans (63 B.C.). Hyrcanus, “because in various ways he had been useful to” Pompey, was restored as high priest. The Roman conquest extended beyond Palestine; Antipater did the tasks he was assigned by Hyrcanus and Caurus well. Aristobulus and his 2 sons tried to revolt. “[The Roman governor] Gabinius went to Jerusalem and reorganized the government in accordance with Antipater’s wishes” and slayed the Jewish general Peitholaus. Antipater married Cypros; their children were Phasael, Herod, Joseph, Pheroras, and Salome.
After Julius Caesar became master of Rome (49 B.C.), he released Aristobulus from a prison in Rome, and sent him to Syria to fight followers of Pompey; but Aristobulus was poisoned by friends of Pompey. Caesar received help from Antipater, and in return Caesar made him a Roman citizen and confirmed Hyrcanus as high priest. Antipater, now procurator of Judea, appealed to the restless Judean populace to be loyal to Hyrcanus. Antipater appointed his son Phasael governor of Jerusalem and his son Herod governor of Galilee. Antipater “was courted by the nation as if he were king.” After the death of Caesar (44), Cassius took control of Syria and levied tribute on the Jews. Antipater arranged for his sons and others to help collect the money. Malichus bribed a butler to poison Antipater; Herod killed Malichus by stabbing him.
Herod the Great: Governor—Herod was the second of Antipater’s five children, his birth may be set in 73 B.C. Jospehus speaks of his great physical constitution and precision in the use of the javelin and the bow. The title Herod bore was otrategos. He aroused admiration among Galilean Jews at his promptness in capturing and executing a “brigand” Ezekias and others. Hyrcanus ordered Herod to trial. Although most of the Sanhedrin condemned Herod, Hyrcanus’ directed an acquittal.
The Roman governor of Syria, Sextus Caesar, appointed Herod a Roman official as governor of Coele-Syria. Sextus was murdered by Bassus, a partisan of Julius’ foe Pompey; Antipater sent troops against Bassus. After the murder of Caesar in 44 B.C., Cassius came to Syria; Herod was among those designated to raise certain taxes. Cassius reappointed Herod as governor; Herod quieted turbulent Samaria and then marched toward Jerusalem. By this time Herod had a wife, Doris, and, by her a son, Antipater. Herod became betrothed to Mariamne, the granddaughter of Hyrcanus II; the latter betrothal won him an acceptance in Judean circles. Jewish leaders went to Mark Antony in Syria to lay accusations against Herod. Antony appointed Herod and Phasael “tetrarchs.”
Two years later, the Parthians, in support of claimants to the throne under the old dynasty, besieged Jerusalem and were partially successful in taking it. The Parthian general requested peace negotiations. After Herod’s allies entered into negotiations and were treacherously imprisoned, Herod set off for Masada and later Petra with his troops.
Back in Jerusalem, the Parthians began a pillage, which they extended into other parts of Judea. Antigonus was made king. Instead of help from the Nabatean king, Herod found orders to leave Nabatea promptly. He went to Egypt and then to Rome. The Romans had good reason to despise Antigonus for having joined up with their foes, the Parthians. Antony and Octavius named Herod the king of Judea.
In late 39, Herod sailed from Italy, marched through Galilee, captured Joppa, and then moved on to Masada. He then encamped on the west side of Jerusalem, and offered forgiveness and reconciliation. Antigonus replied that Herod was a commoner and an Idumean, that is, a half-Jew. Idumea, Samaria and Galilee had come over to Herod. After putting down a rebellion in Galilee, Herod moved on to Jerusalem to resume the interrupted siege. He married his betrothed, Mariamne; he won the siege and bribed the Romans into executing Antigonus.
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Herod the Great: King—It is convenient to divide Herod’s reign from 37-4 B.C. into the periods of: consolidation (37-25); prosperity (25-13); and domestic trouble (13-4). In consolidating, internal problems were immediately a pressing concern, such as the need to stop the foreign allies from profaning the temple and pillaging Jerusalem; Herod gave rewards to the Romans to prevent this. To the Jews closely allied with Herod, he conferred high honors. Two Pharisees Herod treated with deference; on the other members of the Sanhedrin he took bitter vengeance. Historians have often wished to equate protagonists and opponents in these struggles with Sadducees and Pharisees. The debated question of the emergence of the rabbis in this time has increased speculation. Christian scholars have been guilty of ignoring the historical value of rabbinic material almost entirely, while Jewish scholars place too much emphasis on it.
Two active Hasmoneans, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus, were threats to Herod. Herod invited Hyrcanus II to return to Judea from Babylon, promising to share the throne with him, but a few years later accused him of plotting to take the throne for himself and killed him. Meanwhile Aristobulus, as Herod’s brother-in-law was the most likely candidate for high priest. Herod ignored Aristobulus and called Ananelus to the position. The action incensed his mother-in law, Alexandra, who wrote to Cleopatra to intercede with Antony. Herod then appointed Aristobulus high priest. When Aristobulus officiated at the temple, his popularity sealed his fate. A little later, Herod ducked Aristobulus under the water till the young man drowned.
Alexandra had Cleopatra summon Herod. Since Herod’s mother, Cypros, and his sister Salome were constantly humiliated by the Hasmoneans Mariamne and Alexandra, Herod ordered his uncle Joseph to kill Mariamne if Cleopatra and Antony had him killed. Cypros and Salome had told Herod that Mariamne had often committed adultery and that she had sent Antony a picture of herself. Herod’s eloquence, and his bribery, won over Antony. After he returned to Jerusalem, Herod heard that Mariamne and Joseph had committed adultery. Mariamne demanded to know why he had secretly instructed Joseph to kill her. Herod concluded that her knowledge meant that she and Joseph really had committed adultery; he killed Joseph.
Civil war broke out (32) between Antony and Octavius. Herod was assigned to make war on the Nabateans. Cleopatra hoped that she would end up with Judea and Nabatea after they were weakened. Initially Herod was victorious, until he was treacherously attacked by Cleopatra’s troops. He sent envoys to Nabatea to sue for peace, but the Nabateans slew them.
Some months later, Antony was defeated by Octavius at Actium. In order to be the only possible ruler of Judea, Herod accused Hyrcanus II of plotting with the Nabateans, and executed him. Before leaving to accept his throne directly from Augustus, he had Alexandra and Mariamne sent to Alexandrium under guard. The historian Josephus gives us two conflicting accounts. In Jewish War, Herod is reported to have slain Mariamne and Joseph on returning from Antony in 35 or 34; in Antiquities, he slew Mariamne and Soemus in 29. At any rate, Herod was never able to accept sanely the reality that Mariamne was dead. Alexandra, Mariamne’s mother, was killed a year later. Three years later he slew his sister’s second husband.
Josephus begins the second period by specifying how Herod ruptured Jewish law. He held games honoring Caesar, he built a theater in Jerusalem and an amphitheater nearby. In 24 he erected a royal palace, and on the seacoast he built a harbor, a city which he named Caesarea. Such a period of prosperity rested on the confidence and good will reposed in Herod by Augustus. Herod was called “friend and confederate.” Herod, however much he seemed to bend to Rome’s will, was no petty or insignificant ruler, but an important king.
His infidelity to Judaism was not inconsistent with his rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. Rabbinic literature praises the beauty of the temple and sees it as “atonement for having slain so many of Israel’s sages.” Herod married again another Mariamne, alluded to as Mariamne II, his tenth wife. When Herod had married Mariamne I, he had pushed Doris and his son, Antipater aside. Having slain Mariamne, he restored Doris and Antipater to favor. Antipater III regarded succession as his. But to Alexander and Aristobulus the real succession required Hasmonean blood, which they possessed. The three contenders for the throne sought discredit each other with lies, thus adding to Herod’s mental confusion. Herod came to lack the ability to separate truth from lies.
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The rivalries between Antipater III and the sons of Mariamne I came into the open after 13. In 8, Herod took both Alexander and Aristobulus into custody. Both were condemned to death and executed in 7 or 6. And the family feuds were not over. Alexander had left two sons. In 5 Antipater was brought to trial for the poisoning of one of them, Pheoras and for plotting against Herod. In the midst of the trial a rebellion arose, centered on removing from the temple a golden eagle which Herod had put there. Herod’s physical strength was rapidly failing. He ordered the immediate execution of Antipater. Five days later Herod died.
The murders and usurpation of the throne by Herod cannot be condoned. But, when taken in context with the common practice of the royalty of his time, it must be said that his behavior mirrored that found in Rome itself. The greatest condemnation of Herod would have to be that he was fully as bad as all those around him who sought the power of a throne. Josephus’ account shows that Herod felt only indifference and unconcern for Jewish law and ethics.
Certainly his unadmirable career discloses qualities which, if addressed to worthy purposes, would have appeared admirable. His rise to power took place at a time of civil war and of internal upheavals. Out of this chaos, he carved a relatively tranquil kingdom out of an important segment of the Roman Empire. And within that kingdom that he bought at such a high price, he established a relatively high degree of order and peace in the midst of chaos.
HERODOTUS. A Greek historian of the 400s B.C. We know little of his life other than what we learn indirectly from his History. He was born the son of Lyxis and Dryo around 484 B.C.; sometime after 454, he lived in Athens, where he was probably acquainted with Pericles and Sophocles. We do not know where or when he died, but his death must have occurred around 424.
His History was developed from his extensive travels to places like the coast of the Euxine, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Egypt, and probably Cyrene. The main subject of the History is the relation between the Greeks and the oriental powers. His work is divided into nine books. The first three deal with the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses. The second three deal with the reign of Darius, Persian failure in Scythia and at Marathon, and Greek failure in Ionia. The third describes the reign of Xerxes and the defeat of Persia by Greece. Herodotus emphasizes the contributions which Athens made to Greece.
The Roman historian Cicero called Herodotus the “father of history,” although there have been many earlier historians. Herodotus’ history has an epic flavor. It seeks to discover causes of great events, but the author’s ability and perspective is seriously limited. Herodotus’ sources includes: eyewitness testimony; local traditions; archaeological material; written sources.
HIERAPOLIS ( ‘IerapoliV, holy city) A town in the southwestern part of Asia, 9.6 km north of Laodicea and 16 km west of Colossae. It is one of the important Greek and Roman cities in the Lycus Valley in the extreme southwest of the Phrygia region, known for its hot mineral springs. These hot springs were originally associated with another miraculous occurrence—a cave filled with lethal vapors and believed to be an entrance to the underworld. In ancient times a local Phrygian cult seems to have worshiped here. This early sanctuary may have given the city the name Hieropolis or “city of the sanctuary.”
The founding of Hierapolis as a city seems to be due to Eumenes II of Pergamum; It became an active commercial competitor with its neighbors. The position of the city was strategic, with its plateau rising about 90 meters above the river valley, and it was located on a branch road that led to Sardis. The city continued to prosper under Roman rule as part of the province of Asia.
HIERONYMUS (‘IerwnumoV) One of the district governors in Palestine under Antiochus V who “would not let [the citizens]live quietly and in peace.”
HILKIAH (חלקיה, portion of the Lord) 1. According to Baruch 1, an ancestor of Baruch, Jeremiah’s servant.
2. The father of Susanna (Susanna 2, 29, 63).
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HILLEL (THE ELDER) A Talmudic sage and leading scholar in the development of the law (60 B.C.- 20 B.C.).
Hillel was a native of Babylonia who came to Palestine in order to continue his studies in the advanced Palestinian academies. His eminent abilities were recognized when he established his view that the obligation to bring the paschal offering overrides Sabbath prohibitions; he was thereupon chosen to head a special commission on the temple ritual. His seven rules for the interpretation of scripture, were later the basis and model of still additional principles of interpretation.
Hillel and the school over which he presided, Bet Hillel, were inclined most often to liberal rather than conservative interpretation of the demands of the law. One of his students wanted to learn the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel told him, “What is hateful to thee do not do to thy fellow man. This is the whole Torah; all else is commentary. Now go learn that!” He also said, “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving humankind and drawing them to the Torah.” Hillel was responsible for two major enactments: the prozbul, in regard to the cancellation of debts in the sabbatical year; and a ruling in connection with the sale of houses in fortified cities.
HYDASPES (UdasphV) A river in the Elymais; it cannot be the one in the Punjab. The Greek might be corrupt for the CoaspiV, the Kerhah.
I
ICONIUM ( Ikonion) A city in Galatia, in South Central Asia Minor, visited by Paul and Barnabas on their first journey. It was considered the capital of Lycaonia during the Greek and Roman empires. It was a center of grain and fruits, known especially for its plum and apricot orchards; it was considered one of the most beautiful and fertile sites in the world. Xenophon in the 300s B.C. is the first historian to mention Iconium. The inhabitants of Iconium regarded themselves as of Phrygia, since they used the Phrygian language.
In the 200s B.C., Iconium was ruled and largely absorbed Greek culture from the Selucid kings. After the Battle of Magnesia in 187 it was placed under the rule of the king of Pergamum; by 165 B.C. it was governed by the Galatae. Mark Antony in 39 B.C. gave it to Polamon, but in 36 B.C. he placed it under Antymas. In 25 B.C. Iconium became a part of the province of Galatia.
IDUMEA (Idoumaia, [land] of the Edomites) A term used in the primary Greek Old Testament and by Josephus for Edom, the region SE of the Dead Sea. After the Exile it refers to the region South of Judea occupied by the Edomite refugees from Nabatean occupation of their homeland. Idumean authority eventually extended as far north as Beth-zur, 24 km south of Jerusalem.
In the Herodian dynasty, the Idumeans provided Palestine’s ruling house for nearly 150 years. Throughout the Seleucid, Hasmonean, and Herodian periods, Idumea changed hands frequently. In 125 B.C., John Hyrcanus annexed it to the Hasmonean state; in 63, Pompey detached it from Judea; in 37 Herod the Great reannexed it to Judea. Idumea went back and forth until it became a permanent part of the Syria province.
ILIADUN (‘Eiliadoun) Ancestor of some of the Levites who rebuilt the temple, not found in Ezra 3.
IMALKUE (Imalkoue) Some described him as “the Arab, who was bringing up Antiochus, the young son of Alexander Balas.” Trypho saw an opportunity to set up a rival to Demetrius and sought the aid of Imalkoue in a plot to proclaim Alexander’s son as King Antiochus VI.
IMMORTALITY. Once a relationship between Yahweh and Death had been affirmed there could be hope of a victory over death. Shortly before and during the period between Testaments, there was a profoundly religious current which contributed the most strongly to transforming the idea of the resurrection into a living faith. These ideas, however, were far from receiving unanimous acceptance. They were rejected by Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, and I Maccabees in the Apocrypha, and the Sadducean party remained faithful to rejecting immortality and resurrection.
(See also the main Biblical entry.)
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The texts of Qumran speak of a resurrection of the just, and in the Judaic writings of Alexandria the idea of a resurrection is replaced by the immortality of souls. Popular Judaism compromised between the beliefs inherited from the Old Testament and the Greek or Greco-Iranian ideas. The same combination of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul with that of the resurrection reappears in II Esdras.
INDIAN DRIVER (o
IndoV autou (o in dos aw too)) An elephant driver. Each war elephant of Antiochus V is said to have had its Indian driver.
ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF. See the entry in the New Testament Apocrypha and Later Versions appendix.
ISRAEL, HISTORY OF. During the Persian period that took place after the work of Ezra and Nehemiah, we have little secure knowledge of Jewish history. Alexander conquered Palestine and advanced into Egypt. There he founded Alexandria, which seems to have had a Jewish colony that spoke primarily Greek. The translation of the Old Testament is ascribed by tradition to the middle of the 200s B.C. There was also a considerable Jewish Diaspora, and with the spread of Greek power the Greek language became widely current, so that for other Jewish communities Greek renderings of the Old Testament would be valuable.
When Alexander came to his early end, his generals fell to quarreling. Gradually there emerged three principal divisions, of which two concerned the Jews. These were the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt and the Seleucid kingdom, which included Asia Minor, Syria, and Babylonia. These two kingdoms are referred to in the book of Daniel as those of the north and the south respectively. Palestine soon fell within the sphere of the Ptolemies, and for more than a century continued to owe them allegiance. Palestine remained a bone of contention between the house of Ptolemy and the house of Seleucus for a century.
Following the battle of Paneion in 198 B.C., Palestine was ruled by the Seleucids. Antiochus III was welcomed by some Jews. The Greek kingdoms continued Alexander’s policy of spreading Greek culture and marrying it to the culture of the east, which was also welcomed by some Jews; others clung to the separatism which Ezra had stamped deeply upon Judaism. The priestly house of Onias competed against the house of the Tobiads, who under the Ptolemies had secured the tax-farming rights which had formerly belonged to the high priest. Hence the Oniads favored the change, but soon found that they had secured no advantage.
Antiochus III became involved in war with Rome a few years after his annexation of Palestine. At the battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C. he was defeated and compelled to forfeit his control of Asia Minor. His successor, Seleucus IV, inherited treasury depleted by wars, and too small of a kingdom to afford the tribute to Rome. When Seleucus turned to high taxes and robbing temples, his unpopularity among the Jews was increased, even though the attempt to rob the temple was foiled.
When Seleucus was murdered by Heliodorus, who proclaimed the infant son of Seleucus as king, Antiochus, brother of Seleucus, soon landed in Syria to eliminate Heliodorus. He took his nephew under his protection, and then eliminated him and put himself on the throne. It is not surprising that the elements in Palestine who didn’t like the Seleucids, disputed Antiochus IV’s right to rule them. Antiochus Epiphanes, as he came to be known tried to seize power in Egypt as well, but Egypt appealed to Rome for help.
Humiliated and angry, Antiochus fell back on Jerusalem. In the meantime Onias had been removed from office and the high priesthood had been sold to the highest bidder. The religiously loyal had been driven to Onias’ side. Before Antiochus came, the new high priest had been executed. Antiochus IV was determined to destroy the religion of Judaism, because he believed that opposition to him would die along with Judaism. All the Jewish faith’s practices were forbidden, and the temple was desecrated and turned into a Zeus shrine.
This situation brought about the Jewish revolt under the Maccabees. Led first by Judas, the rebels scored initial successes, until the temple was recovered, cleansed, and rededicated. The death of Antiochus IV in the east led to a period of confusion in the Seleucid kingdom. Judas Maccabeus was himself killed in 161 B.C., but he was followed by his brothers Jonathan, and Simon in turn. The result was the Hasmonean (See Hasmonean entry in this section of the Appendix) rule, which continued down to the Roman annexation of Palestine. The Maccabean family was a priestly house, so the successors of Judas assumed the high priesthood.
It was this period which saw the rise of the Jewish parties known as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes. According to Josephus the Essenes already existed in the middle of that century, and it’s possible that this sect was the author of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Whether they were or not, the sect of the Scrolls probably took its origin in some way from the troubles of the Maccabean Age.
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Near 100 B.C. there was much tension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and this continued into the next century. The Pharisees found themselves in opposition to the Hasmonean king Alexander Janneus, and appealed to Demetrius III for aid. A large number of Pharisees were crucified by Janneus as a result. Palestine became involved in Roman civil wars, and the army of Pompey came to Jerusalem and brought the Jews under Roman control. Herod the Great, an Idumean, skillfully exploited the dissension in the Hasmonean family, and secured the title of king, though he was without a kingdom as yet. He succeeded in winning his kingdom in 37 B.C. By his adroitness in dealing with the ever-changing situation, he continued to hold the kingdom until his death in 4 B.C. (See also the main Biblical entry on Israel).
ISTALCURUS (IstalkouroV) According to I Esdra 8, the father of Uthai, one of the “sons of Bigvai” who returned from the Exile “in the reign of Artaxerxes”; it could be a corruption of “Uthai and Zaccur” in the parallel Ezra 8.
ITURAEA (Itouraioi) A region northeast of Galilee in Anti-lebanon country settled by Arab people of Ishmaelite stock; included in the tetrarchy of Philip, traditionally considered descendants of Ishmael’s son Jetur. It is difficult to define the boundaries of Ituraea, as it is not certain whether Ituraea and Trachonitis were wholly distinct districts or overlapped or were identical. Originally the Ituraeans were a hill-country people living on the Western slope of Anti-lebanon. In the century before Christ under the rulers Ptolemy and Lysanius the kingdom encompassed its largest area, extending westward to the sea, eastward to Damascus, and included the lands of Panias and Ulatha, down to the northern borders of Galilee.
To the Greeks and the Romans the Ituraeans were uncivilized bandits, designated both as Syrians and Arabians, renowned for their skill as bowmen. Their name appears first in the 100s B.C. Shortly before Roman rule in Palestine, they formed a strong confederacy scattered through the entire Lebanon region, ruled by Ptolemy, son of Mennaeus. Pompey destroyed many fortified Ituraean places in the Lebanon. Lysanius I inherited the tribal principality from Ptolemy. At his death in 36 B.C., large portions of the principality were given to Cleopatra. In 20 B.C. Herod the Great received from Augustus the tetrarchy of Zenodorus, successor to Lysanius and vassal of Cleopatra
(See also the entry in the main section.).
IVY (kissoV (kis sos)) Antiochus compelled Jews to march in the procession for the pagan god Dionysus wearing ivy wreaths, which were sacred to Dionysus.
J
JABNEEL (יבנאל, God causes to be built) 1. The westernmost location point on the northern border of Judah, 6.4 km from the Mediterranean Sea and 14.4 km north-northeast of Ashdod.
Jabneel or Jamnia is mentioned with other cities along the Syro-Palestinian coast as being alarmed at the approach of Holofernes. Jamnia served as a base of operations for the Seleucid generals. The Apocrypha attributes the capture of Jamnia to Judas Maccabee; the Jewish historian Josephus attributes the capture of Jamnia to Simon
Maccabee. In 63 B.C. Pompey occupied Jamnia; Gabinius ordered it rebuilt. After the
death of Cleopatra, Herod added it to his domain. (See also the entry in the main section).
JESUS (Greek form of Jeshua or Joshua, the Lord is salvation) 1. Grandfather of Jesus son
JEWELS AND PRECIOUS STONES (כלי (kel ee), vessel; אבנים יקרות (‘oh beh neem yaw kaw
JOARIB ((Iwarib,, Greek form of יויריב, Yahweh will defend his cause) The head of the
JODA ((Iwda) Son of Iliadun; head of the Levites appointed to repair the temple after the
JOHN (יוחנן (yok an an), the Lord has graciously bestowed him) 1. The father of Mattathias,
JADDUS A man who married Agia, one of the daughters of Barzillai, and took the name of his
father-in-law. After the return under Zerubbabel his descendants were excluded from
serving as priests, since their genealogy was not found in the priestly register.
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JAMBRI A tribe, presumably the Amorites. When Jonathan became leader and left the
command of the irregular troops to John, the Jambri made John captive and took
everything he had. Jonathan ambushed a wedding party of the sons of Jambri and took
their spoils.
JANNEUS, ALEXANDER (JONATHAN). King of Judea from about 103-76 B.C. His half
brother Aristobulus I, on becoming king, imprisoned Alexander. When Aristobolus died,
Alexander succeeded him. Alexander Janneus was concerned with imperialism. He
besieged Ptolemais, but was repulsed with great losses. Cleopatra sent two Jewish
generals to help Alexander against her banished son, Ptolemy Lathyrus. Alexander was
most successful in his expedition against Philistia and Gaza.
The friction between Janneus and the Pharisees began at this time. The Pharisees
disliked his warlike tactics, and on the Feast of Booths the people pelted him with their
citrons. He allowed the mercenaries free run, and they killed 6,000 Pharisees. Janneus
was unsuccessful against the Arabs and returned to find the Pharisees opposed to him
and seeking his death. They negotiated with Demetrius III to fight their own king; in time
they returned their support to Alexander, who responded by executing 800 Pharisees.
Alexander continued his warlike campaigns, battling against the Arab king Aretas,
but was shamefully defeated by him. Alexander’s main purpose was to increase the
boundaries of Judea. Hence he came into conflict with the Pharisees on political matters;
all his gains were temporary. Salome Alexandra, succeeded him as ruler, introducing a
favorable Pharisaic rule.
JASON 1. Jason I, high priest from 174-171 B.C. He was Onias III’s brother, whom he
supplanted as high priest. When Onias III fled to Egypt, Jason maneuvered to obtain the
priesthood. Jason promised to build gymnasiums in Jerusalem and to give a lot of money
to King Antiochus. He also sent 3,000 silver drachmas to the Olympic games at Tyre for
sacrifices; this sum was diverted by the messengers to outfitting ships.
Joseph ben Tobias’ sons, however, found Jason too conservative in his notion of
spreading Greek culture. A false rumor had spread that Antiochus had died. Jason then
attacked Jerusalem, killing his own countrymen unmercifully, and driving out Onias-
Menelaus. Antiochus attacked Jerusalem and aided Onias-Menelaus; Jason fled to the
Ammonites, and then from city to city, despised as a tormentor of his fatherland. He died in
exile among the Lacedaemonians, accursed because he was not buried with his fathers.
2. Jason II, son of Eleazar; one of the delegations sent to Rome by Judas
Maccabeus to establish a treaty of friendship and alliance.
3. Jason of Cyrene, author of II Maccabees. The Epitomist, an Antiochean Jew,
condensed it. Jason’s work is the only authentic document of the civil war among Jews in
the period before the Hasmoneans.
JATHAN He was kinsman of Tobit, who recalls accompanying Ananias and Jathan to
Jerusalem for worship.
JEALOUSY (קנא (kin aw), zealous) The biblical idea of jealousy includes the range of
attitudes from the intense hatred of one person for another out of envy to the positive
emotion of single-minded zeal. The term “jealousy” is used for both humans and God, both
as “jealousy of” something and as “jealousy for.” The jealousy of God tends to fall into the
background in the intertestamental period. Human jealousy in its two characteristic
directions appears in the literature of this time. “Jealousy and anger shorten life,” but
righteous jealousy for the law is commended. See also the entry in the main biblical
section.
JERAHMEEL (ירחמאל, whom God will pity) The archangel Jeremiel, appointed over the
resurrection.
(See also the Biblical entry in the main section).
JEREMIAH, LETTER OF. A letter purporting to be written by Jeremiah to the exiles of Judea
at the time of their deportation to Babylon. It is rambling and fragmentary and difficult to
analyze because of it illogical and repetitious structure.
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The Letter of Jeremiah is not a letter, nor was it written by Jeremiah. The unknown
author was influenced by Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles of 597. The “letter” begins by
addressing itself “to those who were to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the
Babylonians, to make known unto them in accordance with what had been commanded to
him by God.” This work is more sermon than letter, its 73 verses divided into 10 parts,
each of which emphasizes the lifelessness of wood and metal images. There is no logic or
order in the whole work. There is a refrain repeated 11 times in the letter: “Thereby they
are known not to be gods; therefore, fear them not.” The sole purpose of this anonymous
writer was to show his people the vileness of idolatrous practice and to warn them against
it.
The exact date is difficult to determine. Many Jews were attracted to alien cults
throughout the Greek period, 330 B.C. onward, so that the warning in the letter might have
been uttered any time during this period. Scholars are in disagreement as to whether the
original was in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek.
JERICHO (יריחו, place of fragrance) The major city at the south end of the Jordan Valley; the
key defense position for the western section of the wide plain. The Old Testament city was
built above one of the largest springs in all of Palestine.
A small Greek-style fortress was erected here to guard the road from the Jordan
Valley to Jerusalem. Simon Maccabee was treacherously killed at Jericho by his son-in-
law Ptolemy. The Roman general Pompey captured two forts called Threx and Taurus at
Jericho in 63 B.C.
Herod the Great founded New Testament Jericho, which served as his winter
capital; its balmy winter climate was in striking contrast to Jerusalem’s cold, damp winters.
Herod’s work shows an early cut-stone period, and a later Roman phase, which has
constructions similar to those which Augustus was building on the Tiber. Jericho was an
expansive site, with pools, parks, villas, and the normal civic buildings of a Greco-Roman
metropolis. Some of the buildings were oriented to the stream which ran through the city.
There was a sunken garden with fifty statuary niches. The walls of some of the buildings
were over a meter thick.
JERUSALEM (ירושלם, foundation of Shalem (peace)) Palestine’s chief city; sacred to Jews,
Christian, and Muslims.
For more than a century after the conquests and death of Alexander the Great,
Palestine was involved in the struggle between the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids
of Syria. In 320 B.C., Ptolemy captured Jerusalem. While Palestine was under Egyptian
rule, Jerusalem was secure and prosperous. Our sources for this period are scanty, and
there is little to report concerning Jerusalem. Excavations have found remains of buildings
from the Greek or the Hasmonean period, but they cannot be connected with anything
recorded in the literature of the time. Buildings for athletic contests and dramatic
presentations were apparently built in the Tyropoeon Valley. The fighting between Egypt
and Syria caused much damage at Jerusalem, both directly and indirectly; special
privileges and exemptions were granted to the Jews to repair the damage. This favorable
treatment, however, gave way to more oppressive measures.
Meanwhile the growing influence of Greek culture had produced division among the
Jews themselves. Contenders for the high priesthood made this sacred office a matter of
royal favor, purchased by bribes and political subservience. The Selucid King Antioch sent
a “chief collector of tribute, and he came to Jerusalem with a large force.” The city was
plundered and burned, its houses and walls torn down, and many of its people killed or
taken captive. “Then they fortified the city of David with a great strong wall and strong
towers.”
In the tangled history of the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans, Jerusalem was
deeply involved. Devastated and in ruins, its population decimated, the city was controlled
by the garrison in the Syrian citadel. Judas Maccabeus was able to purify and rededicate
the temple in 164 B.C. Two years later he besieged the citadel, but King Antiochus V
Eupator came to the garrison’s relief and had the temple’s protecting wall destroyed.
Demetrius I made Alcimus high priest and sent Bacchides with him to Jerusalem to
overthrow Judas. The Hasidim sought peace, but 60 of them were treacherously seized
and killed. Nicanor was sent with an army, which was defeated by Judas; Nicanor lost his
life in the decisive battle of Adasa. After the death of Judas at Elasa, Jonathan fought
against Bacchides, who now fortified many cities in Judea.
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Demetrius’ reign was threatened by Alexander Epiphanes; both contestants tried to
win the adherence of Jonathan, who now undertook to restore the dismantled walls of
Jerusalem. Alexander conferred the high priesthood upon Jonathan. Demetrius countered
by offering to make Jerusalem tax-free and to yield the citadel to Jonathan. This and the
next promise to give up the citadel, however, were not kept. Jonathan obtained from
Demetrius the confirmation of his high priesthood.
Jonathan built Jerusalem’s walls still higher, erected a high barrier between the
citadel and the city to separate it from the city; “he also repaired the section called
Chaphenatha.” At the height of his success Jonathan was deceived and imprisoned by
Trypho. Trypho attempted to relieve the citadel but was frustrated by a heavy snowfall.
The Syrian-Greeks were forced out of the citadel and the Jews took possession in 141
B.C.
Jews were now settled in the citadel, and Simon “fortified it for the safety of the
country and of the city, and built the walls of Jerusalem higher.” Where this citadel was is
uncertain. Some assumed it was on the same hill as the temple. To find a more convincing
location for the citadel, one must assume that the designation “city of David” does not
mean in I Maccabees what it means in the Old Testament. The relations between the
citadel and the temple and the great difficulty the Jews had in capturing the citadel are
much clear and more consistent on the supposition that the citadel was directly across
from the temple on the larger, higher hill to the west of it. For several years after the
capture of the citadel Jerusalem enjoyed peace. When Antiochus VII demanded the return
of the citadel, Simon bluntly refused.
After the assassination of Simon and the accession of his son John Hyrcanus,
Antiochus VII invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem. Hyrcanus put out of the city all the
people except the fighting men. The poor wretches suffered horribly in the space between
the two armies and many died. Antiochus granted a truce and even sent a liberal offering
for the festival. The king’s demand for a garrison in the city was rejected. A period of
prosperity and conquest followed. To support his many military ventures, Hyrcanus
plundered the tomb of David. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Hyrcanus also
built a tower or fortress on the site later occupied by the fortress Antonia on the northwest
corner of the temple enclosure.
The reign of Alexander Janneus was decidedly eventful, but most of what
occurred at Jerusalem was connected with the temple rather than the city, such as the
crucifixion of 800 rebels and the slaughter of their families. The reference to the palace
occurs in the reign of his widow and successor, Alexandra. Later Aristobulus attempted to
wrest the kingdom from his mother, whereupon she seized his wife and children as
hostages and imprisoned them in the fortress north of the temple.
After the queen died, her elder son was defeated by Aristobulus, who became king
and occupied the palace, while Hyrcanus retired to the former dwelling of Aristobulus and
later fled to Petra and took refuge with the Nabatean king Aretas, who attacked
Aristobulus, defeated him and besieged him in the temple at Jerusalem. Aristobulus won
the support of the Romans, who compelled Aretas to give up the siege. Aristobulus then
decisively defeated Aretas and Hyrcanus.
When Pompey, returning from Armenia, heard the pleas of Aristobulus, Hyrcanus,
and the Jews who wanted neither of them, he found Aristobulus so intransigent that he
imprisoned him and besieged Jerusalem. Pompey filled the ravine and ditch protecting the
temple hill and made a ramp for his siege engines. After a siege of 3 months, the wall was
breached, and a frightful massacre followed. During the Hasmonean period the city had
undergone considerable modification. The fortress built by John Hyrcanus north of the
temple, the Hasmonean palace above the Tryopoeon Valley, and the bridge across the
valley have been mentioned. The temple area was extended at its southwestern corner by
partly filling in the Tyropoeon Valley.
After the fall of Jerusalem in 63 B.C., Hyrcanus was left in charge as high priest and
ethnarch. Attempting to rebuild the wall, he was restrained by the Romans. In spite of
Pompey’s consideration for the temple, its treasure was robbed by his lieutenant Crassus.
After the death of Pompey, Hyrcanus, and Antipater allied themselves with Julius Caesar.
Antipater became governor of Judea, and they were allowed to restore Jerusalem’s walls.
Antigonus was defeated by Antipater’s son Herod, then governor of Galilee.
After the assassination of Julius Caesar and the defeat of Brutus and Cassius,
Mark Antony made Antipater’s sons Phasael and Herod tetrarchs of Judea. Antigonus and
the Parthians attacked Jerusalem and made his way into the city. Driven back, Antigonus
was compelled to take refuge in the temple enclosure. The people and the pilgrims who
had come for the feast of Pentecost took his part, and Phasael and Herod were shut up
again in the palace.
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Phasael and Hyrcanus now tried to negotiate with the Parthian general, but he
made them prisoners. Herod slipped out of Jerusalem, took his family to Masada, went to
the Roman Senate, who appointed him king of the Jews. In 37 B.C., Herod besieged the
city, with Roman help; there was frightful carnage in the sacred courts, but Herod
prevented his foreign soldiers from entering the temple or pillaging the city.
So began Herod’s long reign, which rivaled that of Solomon in the magnificence of
its building enterprises, particularly the rebuilding of the fortress at the northwest corner of
the temple area., which he named Antonia in honor of Mark Antony. Herod used it as his
own palace. It was connected with the temple enclosure both by stairways and by
underground passages. After the death of Herod’s favorite wife, Mariamne, her mother
tried to win the commanders of Antonia to her side, but the plot was foiled; Herod’s reign
became more and more that of a dictator.
A theater and an amphitheater were built, as well as a place for athletic games.
A theater and an amphitheater were built, as well as a place for athletic games.
These expressed Herod’s interest in Hellenistic culture but alienated Jewish religious
leaders. Herod built also a new palace at or near the site of the ancient Corner Gate. It
was strongly fortified and protected by three great towers, named Hippicus, Phasael, and
Mariamne.
Herod’s most famous building project was, of course, the reconstruction of the
temple; he roughly doubled the size of the sacred area. Herod extended the area both to
the south and to the north, filling in not only the Tyropoeon Valley on the southwest but
also the ravine on the northeast and the ditch across the ridge between the ravine and the
Tyropoeon. The city wall was pushed further to the north. The area on the south which had
been occupied by the pre-exilic royal palace was included in the temple enclosure. The
famous “Wailing Wall” on the western side of the area is part of the wall around the temple
area; other portions are to be seen on the south and east sides; nothing remains of the
temple itself. To secure funds for his projects, Herod broke into the tomb of David, as
Hyrcanus had done before him. When two of his guards were killed by a supernatural
flame, the king withdrew and built a monument of white stone at the mouth of the tomb.
JESUS (Greek form of Jeshua or Joshua, the Lord is salvation) 1. Grandfather of Jesus son
of Sirach. 2. Son of Sirach; author of Ecclesiasticus. See Sirach, Son of.
JEWELS AND PRECIOUS STONES (כלי (kel ee), vessel; אבנים יקרות (‘oh beh neem yaw kaw
roth)) Stones valued for rarity, beauty, association, especially stones polished, cut or
engraved for use as ornaments.
The 2 lists from Exodus and the list from Ezekiel (See Biblical entry in the main
The 2 lists from Exodus and the list from Ezekiel (See Biblical entry in the main
body) become identical in the primary Greek Old Testament. The Jewish historian
Josephus makes mentions of it in 2 works, Jewish Wars and Antiquities. The 12 stones on
the breast-piece indicated by flashing or sparkling that God was present. The oracular
qualities of the breast-piece stones were considerably elaborated in later times by rabbis. The Jewish philosopher Philo provides an extensive interpretation of the temple
and the high priest’s garments. The 2 emeralds on the shoulders of the high priest
represent either the sun and the moon or the 2 celestial hemispheres, with the 6 tribal
names representing zodiac signs. The 12 stones on the breast-piece are a more detailed
representation of the same thing. The 4 rows represent the 4 seasons. The high priest’s
robe signifies that the whole cosmos worships with him; the Jewish high priest, as opposed to other priests is the mediator for all humankind. Josephus agrees with this interpretation,
but differs in details. He adds in particular a note about the oracular power of the 12
stones, which ceased to function 200 years earlier. Philo indicates that the stones were
distinguished from one another by color, with each color corresponding to a sign.
Cosmic symbolism also penetrated Jewish worship in Palestine and elsewhere to
an amazing degree from the 200s to the 500s A.D., as the synagogues of this period
show. The zodiac, the four seasons, and Helios often occupy a central position in floor
mosaics. The mythology which supports both the 12 jewels and the mosaics is identical.
This imagery was probably known to the author of Revelation, which is strongly indicated
by the fact that he connects the names of the 12 apostles with the foundation jewels.
JOAKIM ((iwakim) 1. Zerubbabel’s son who came from Babylonia as leader of a group. 2. Susanna’s husband.
JOARIB ((Iwarib,, Greek form of יויריב, Yahweh will defend his cause) The head of the
priestly family from whom the Maccabees traced their descent; in the time of David it was
called Jehoiarib.
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JODA ((Iwda) Son of Iliadun; head of the Levites appointed to repair the temple after the
return from the Exile.
JOEL (יואל, Yahweh is God) In the literature that was attributed to some legendary figure, the
archangel Joel, who was the same as Jaoel, Jahoel, or Jehoel.
JOHN (יוחנן (yok an an), the Lord has graciously bestowed him) 1. The father of Mattathias,
and grandfather of Judas Maccabee.
2. The oldest of the five sons of Mattathias and the grandson of the John
2. The oldest of the five sons of Mattathias and the grandson of the John
mentioned above. Judah led the Hasmoneans initially, even though John was older.
Almost all that is known of him is about his death. He was carrying family property to
Nabatea for safekeeping, but was killed by the marauding Jambri tribe.
3. Envoy from the Jews to Lysias; Antiochus Epiphanes’ general. 4. Accos’ son and
Eupolemus’ father.
JONAH (יונה, dove) One of the Levites who was found to have foreign wives at the return from
JONAH (יונה, dove) One of the Levites who was found to have foreign wives at the return from
the Exile.
JONATHAN (יונתן, whom the Lord has given) 1. Son of Mattathias, and one of the remarkable
JONATHAN (יונתן, whom the Lord has given) 1. Son of Mattathias, and one of the remarkable
family under whose leadership the Jewish nation achieved independence. Jonathan
succeeded Judas in the leadership after his death. Simon succeeded him upon Jonathan’s
death.
2. Son of Absalom. He was sent by Simon Maccabee on an important errand.
JOPPA (יפוא, beautiful) A city 56 km west of Jerusalem built on a rock hill 35 meters high
2. Son of Absalom. He was sent by Simon Maccabee on an important errand.
JOPPA (יפוא, beautiful) A city 56 km west of Jerusalem built on a rock hill 35 meters high
which projects beyond the coastline to form a small cape. A natural breakwater is formed
by rocks 100-120 meters offshore. The northern entrance is narrow, shallow and
treacherous. A rock around 3 meters high at this entrance was said to have been the one
to which Andromeda was chained to be devoured by a sea monster. It is possible that the
harbor was once somewhat larger and better protected by the natural breakwater, then in
better repair.
At the destruction of Sidon by Artxerxes III (358-338 B.C.), Joppa became an
independent city. Alexander the Great established an important mint there. After changing
hands three times, it finally returned to Ptolemy I (323-283) after the Battle of Ipsus in 301.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes landed at Joppa in 168 en route to Jerusalem to plunder the
temple. In 164, the Jewish minority in Joppa suffered at the hands of non-Jews; 200
hundred Jews were drowned. Judas Maccabee retaliated by burning the harbor
installations. In 147 the high priest Jonathan and his brother Simon defeated the Syrians
and occupied Joppa. After Ptolemy’s and Alexander Balas’ deaths, Trypho granted the
coastal plain to Jonathan. In 143 Jonathan sent Simon with a Jewish garrison to secure
the city. After Trypho killed Jonathan, Simon renounced his loyalty to Trypho, strengthened
Joppa’s fortifications, and forced the Greeks to leave; Joppa remained Jewish for 200
years.
Antiochus VII tried to regain control, but Simon routed his troops under Cendebeus
in 138. Joppa continued to change hands until the Roman occupation under Pompey in
66. In 47 B.C., Julius Caesar returned it to the Jews for services rendered by Antipater.
Herod captured Joppa in 37, but because of Joppa’s opposition, he then established a
rival port 56 km to the north, which he named Caesarea.
See also the entry in the main section.
JORAH (יורה, autumn rain) Head of a family returning after the Exile.
JOSEPH (יוסף, he shall add) 1. Son of a certain Zechariah; a military commander under Judas
JORAH (יורה, autumn rain) Head of a family returning after the Exile.
JOSEPH (יוסף, he shall add) 1. Son of a certain Zechariah; a military commander under Judas
Maccabee (163 B.C.). Joseph and Azariah were ordered not to take any action, but they
did so and were routed in defeat.
2. An ancestor of Judith (Judith 8).
JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS (Hebrew name Joseph ben Mattathias) See entry in Main Section.
JUBILEES, BOOK OF. One of the most important books that were written under a fictitious
2. An ancestor of Judith (Judith 8).
JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS (Hebrew name Joseph ben Mattathias) See entry in Main Section.
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JUBILEES, BOOK OF. One of the most important books that were written under a fictitious
name, in this case Moses. It gives a graphic picture of Judaism in the 200 years before
Christ. Its purpose was to show that Judaism had been the same from the very beginning
of known history. The whole history of the world is divided into jubilee periods of 49 years.
The book had various titles: Jubilees; the Little Genesis; the Apocalypse of Moses;
the Testament of Moses; the Book of Adam’s Daughters; the Life of Adam. The existing
manuscripts are in Ethiopic, Greek, Latin, and Syriac. The original was written between
153 and 105 B.C., and there is disagreement as to whether it was written in Hebrew or
Aramaic. Its historical background reflects the period of the Maccabeans. The book is
generally regarded as the work of one author, probably a Pharisee of the strictest sect. He
held the strictest views on circumcision, the Sabbath, and the validity of the law, and
believed in angels, demons, and immortality. He draws freely upon earlier books.
The author’s purpose was to rewrite the facts in such a way that it would appear
that the law was rigorously observed by the patriarchs. He attempts to prove that his own
book was God’s revelation to Moses from an angel, which is a new way to present this
material. His desire was to save Judaism from Greek culture’s demoralizing effects by
glorifying the law and picturing the patriarchs as irreproachable. The “Angel of the
Presence” reveals to Moses the history and religious laws of Genesis-Exodus 3. All world
history is divided into jubilee periods. Jewish tenets are emphasized, and great
importance is attached to feast observance.
In this book the development of angelology and demonology has progressed. Much legendary matter is introduced, and anything is omitted that would put the patriarchs in an
unfavorable light. The book is valuable as showing the development of angelology and
demonology. Emphasis is also placed on Jewish tenets and customs, and the importance
of preserving the difference between Jews and Gentiles is stressed.
JUDAS. 1. See Judas Maccabeus. 2. Son of Chalphi, and one of the commanders of
Jonathan’s army.
3. Son of Simon, and nephew of Judas Maccabeus. Following the death of Judas
Maccabeus, the younger brother Jonathan was placed in command. After Jonathan’s
imprisonment, Simon, second eldest, was elected leader. When troops under Cendebeus
invaded Judea, Simon called in his two older sons, Judas and John. He said, “Take my
place and my brother’s, and go out and fight for our nation.” Judas and Mattathias,
together with their father, Simon, were treacherously killed by their brother-in-law and host,
Ptolemy.
4. An otherwise unidentified Jew, one sender of a letter addressed to Aristobulus
and the Egyptian Jews.
5. Judas of Galilee, a Jewish leader who, with a Pharisee named Zadok, promoted
a rebellion against Roman authority in 6 or 7 A.D. He either was a Galilean or his rebellion
was centered there. The Jewish historian Josehpus credits Judas with having founded the
“fourth sect” of the Jews of his day, later called Zealots. Josephus also mentions a Judas,
son of Hezekiah, who revolted against Rome in 4 B.C. It is impossible to say with certainty
whether he was the same man as Judas of Galilee.
JUDAS MACCABEE. Leader of the Jewish revolt against Antiochus. Judas was the heir of a
family tradition which regarded piety and patriotism as identical. He was the third son of
Mattathias, a priest.
When the Greek invaders offered Mattathias and his sons a supposedly flattering
opportunity to become “friends of the king,” Mattathias replied that even if everyone else
departed from the religion of the fathers, he and his family would not “desert the law and
the ordinances.” Mattathias slew a collaborator who offered Greek sacrifice, and the revolt
was on. In a farewell address, the aging Mattathias recounted the frequent deliverances
God has wrought in history for his faithful people: “Judas Maccabee has been a mighty
warrior from his youth; he shall command the army for you and fight the battle against the
peoples.”
Those who gathered around Judas “gladly fought for Israel”. Apollonius came from
Samaria; Judas defeated him and took his sword. Judas then routed a large Syrian army
under Seron with a small force. King Antiochus entrusted half his army to Lysias, who sent
40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry against Judah under the command of Ptolemy, Nicanor,
and Gorgias. At Emmaus, Judas routed picked troops under Gorgias, and at Beth-Zur
defeated troops under Lysias. The way was now cleared for cleansing the defiled temple.
The re-dedication ceremony (Hanukkah) took place “on the 25th day of the ninth month.”
But other Gentile groups still harassed, and Judas fought with the sons of Esau, the sons
of Baean, the sons of Ammon, and the Nabateans. Lysias agreed to make peace, but his
successors conspired with Jewish rebels under Alcimus to carry on the conflict. Judas lost
his life at Elasa in an engagement with reinforced armies under Bacchides.
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II Maccabees emphasizes the warrior’s resourcefulness. Forced into hiding, Judas
“kept himself and his companions alive in the mountains as wild animals do.” The words
he addressed to his troops “filled them with good courage and made them ready to die for
their laws and their country.” Before the battle of Mizpah he and his men fasted and put on
sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on their heads, and rent their clothes.” At battle’s end he
and his men “blessed the Lord who shows great kindness to Israel and gives them the
victory.” II Macabbees represents him as miraculously aided in his exploits by
“appearances which came from heaven.”
Judas was careful to observe the provisions of the law regarding classes exempt
from military service. One of the enemy generals observed “how ready they were either to
live or to die nobly.” He bequeathed to his people a legacy of courage and devotion to the
nation which is not only among the most illustrious in Hebrew annals, but is of significance
also for New Testament study.
The cleansing of the temple from the defilement wrought by Antiochus Epiphanes
gave the nation a new festival, called Hanukkah or “Renewal.” John 10 refers to it as: “. . .
the feast of Dedication at Jerusalem.” Among the followers of Jesus were fierce patriots
who longed for a new deliverance from foreign rule. Even after the Resurrection the
question still was asked: “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus’
cleansing of the temple must have brought to some minds thoughts of an earlier cleansing.
JUDEA (‘Ioudaia) The southern part of western Palestine, formally called Judah. The name
Judea appears first in Greek, in Ezra-Nehemiah and the apocryphal Maccabees. In the
Persian period it was a very small area around Jerusalem governed by Nehemiah,
extending only 16 km south of Jerusalem to Beth-zur.
The town of Modein on the northern border of Judea proper was where the
Maccabean Revolt first flared in 168 B.C. In the Judean hills the war for Jewish
independence was fought and won. A small empire was governed by Hyrcanus and
Janneus, and under the Maccabees, Judea adopted an expansionist policy, assimilating
Galilee, Samaria, and Idumea, and the entire coast down to Ashkelon. This was not
considered an enlargement of Judea, but rather the creation of a small empire with Judea
ruling over the subject lands. When the Romans established Herod the Great over much
the same territory, he was designated king of Judea.
JUDGMENT DAY The books written after the Old Testament was considered complete were
JUDGMENT DAY The books written after the Old Testament was considered complete were
written between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D., a span of 300 years. Many of these writings
contain little or no expectations of judgment and salvation, and there is no uniformity of
belief in them; indeed, conflicting concepts of the end of history may be present in a single
work. Babylonian, Persian, and Greek influence can be detected in them.
The inter-testamental expectations are based upon a three-tiered conception of the
The inter-testamental expectations are based upon a three-tiered conception of the
universe, with heaven above the earth and Sheol, the place of the departed spirits, or
Gehenna (Hell), the place of punishment of the wicked, below it. Along with this went the
belief in the composite nature of man as having two mutually dependent parts, body and
soul—both necessary and good, both created by God. Under certain Greek influences,
some Jews accepted the idea that the soul was immortal, but that the body was
unnecessary, if not evil.
Most of the inter-testamental writings express belief in but one age, with no
Most of the inter-testamental writings express belief in but one age, with no
expectation that it will ever end. This age was seen as moving toward the establishment of
God's theocracy on earth. Belief in the resurrection of the dead and in a final judgment
often belonged to this expectation. A basically different view also came into favor. It was a belief in two completely separate and distinct ages: the present, evil, temporal age under
Satan's control; and the future, righteous, eternal age under God's immediate dominion.
The earlier teaching, in keeping with Old Testament doctrines, was that the souls of
The earlier teaching, in keeping with Old Testament doctrines, was that the souls of
both the righteous and the wicked went directly to Sheol at death, there to remain forever
as disembodied spirits. Sheol was a dark, dreary, dismal place under the earth; normally it
was a place neither of punishment nor of reward. This concept began to change in the
postexilic period. Instead of being the permanent home, Sheol came to be considered as
an intermediate place for the departed spirits. The belief in a particular resurrection of the
righteous alone presupposed that the wicked would remain in Sheol.
In Enoch 22, Sheol is divided into three separate places. One has a spring of water
In Enoch 22, Sheol is divided into three separate places. One has a spring of water
and is for the righteous. The second is for those among the wicked who died without
suffering retribution; they will be resurrected that they may be punished for their sins. The
third will be the final dwelling of the wicked who have been adequately punished while
living. For the most part, there was no connection between God and Sheol.
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Not all the dead, however, went to Sheol. Some believed that special figures went
to Paradise or Heaven. Also, there was the belief that the souls of the righteous go to
heavenly "treasuries" at death to await the resurrection. The book of Jubilees offers a
curious deviation in that times will gradually get better, God's law will be studied and
obeyed, the righteousness will become established, and people will live to be a thousand
years old. In the Assumption of Moses 10, there is seemingly no expectation that the dead
will raised. In the Apocalypse of Abraham the righteous will be separated from the wicked,
who will descend to the abyss.
It was only just that the righteous dead share in the joys of God's reign or of the
messianic kingdom. Likewise, it was only just that the wicked dead be punished. In some
of the sources the resurrection is to be general. In the Apocalypse of Moses, IV Ezra,
Enoch 51, and II Baruch 50, there is a general resurrection. In several passages in Enoch
and II Baruch, however, only the righteous will be raised; apparently the souls of the
wicked will remain in Sheol. There is a description in II Baruch 50 of the resurrected body.
At first the body will be precisely as they were during life. The bodies of the righteous will
be glorified until they have the splendor of angels. As the wicked see this glorious
transformation, their own bodies will waste away.
Along with the belief in the resurrection went a final judgment expectation, and the
Along with the belief in the resurrection went a final judgment expectation, and the
establishment of the theocracy in this age. The pattern for this kind of judgment was
probably set in Daniel 7, with the "ancient of days" seated on his throne as the books are
opened, prepared to give judgment. Similar descriptions are given in Enoch 90 and IV
Ezra 7. Actually, the final judgment is perfunctory, almost automatic, for people are judged
by what they have done, as their deeds are inscribed in the heavenly books. God is
usually the judge, as might be expected. In Enoch 45 and 69 the heavenly Messiah, the
Elect One or Son of Man, instead of God, will sit on a throne and pronounce judgment. For
the most part, the wicked’s punishments and rewards for the righteous have been
indicated. The ungodly will be consigned to eternal punishment, where they will be
continually tortured by fire and at times be eaten by worms. The righteous will be
rewarded in Paradise, in heaven, or on earth. There will be an end to all sin, sickness, toil,
oppression, persecution, and even death.
The view on judgment and salvation held by Jews who were influenced by Greek
culture deserve attention. Philo the Alexandrian believes that the soul had existed in
heaven before its life on earth and was good, but that the body of matter was evil, and
was indeed the prison house of the soul. At death each soul would leave it body-prison
permanently; those who had lived good lives would return to heaven, those who had lived
evil lives would go to Tartarus or Hell to an eternity of punishment. The view in the Wisdom
of Solomon has a similar view of the soul. When one dies, each individual is judged
personally. IV Maccabees is a document encouraging endurance and martyrdom. The
wicked are not only punished in this life, but their souls will enter upon an eternity of
punishment by fire. As for the righteous, the martyrs, when they are put to death, their
souls will ascend to heaven, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will receive them.
JUDITH (יהודית, Jewess) A wealthy widow whose charms brought deliverance to the Hebrew
people. When drunken Holofernes, general of the invading army, invited her to his tent,
she cut off his head. Judith was descended from Merari, son of Levi; Merari’s sons carried
the heavy portions of the tabernacle. The name Judith suggests the personification of that
pious devotion to Israel which leads one to offer all to the nation.
JUDITH, BOOK OF. The fourth book in the Old Testament Apocrypha. It tells how a small
Jewish town, inspired by the example of a devout woman, resisted the overwhelming
might of a heathen army.
Contents and Literary Character—King Nebuchadnezzar of Assyria, decides to
punish vassal states that did not supplied troops. Commanded by Holofernes, the punitive
army subdues various insubordinate nations, but the Jews remain stubborn. Holofernes
finds his advance barred by the inhabitants of Bethulia.
Holofernes asks Achior of the Ammonites about the Jews. He tells Holofernes the
whole Jewish history, and bids Holofernes to find out if there is any sin against their God”;
if there is he will overcome them easily. But if there is no disobedience, Holofernes should
refrain from attacking the Jews, “for their Lord will defend them.” Holofernes orders Achior
bound; the Jews find Achior, and take him to Bethulia. The chieftains advise Holofernes to
seize the spring at the foot of the mountain; Holofernes does so. When Bethulia has been
under siege for 34 days, the cisterns are empty. The citizens lose heart and decide to
surrender.
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Judith is perturbed. The town’s surrender would open up the way to Jerusalem. In
an address to Bethulia’s rulers and citizens, she entreats them to persevere. Judith
declares that she will leave the town with her maid, and that God will accomplish
Bethulia’s delivery. She puts on festival garments in order to entice any man she might
meet. She proceeds with her maid to the heathen enemy’s camp. Judith assures him that
Achior has spoken the truth. The Jews will sin, because they will take consecrated food to
assuage their hunger. Pleased by Judith’s words no less than by her appearance,
Holofernes asks her to stay as his guest. When his officers have left Holofernes
alone with Judith, the general the worse for drink, falls asleep. Judith seizes his scimitar,
and severs his head from his body. She returns to Bethulia with the head. The citizens of
Bethulia attack the army besieging them; leaderless, they are put to flight. Judith sings
praises to the Lord.
Only in chapter 8 does Judith enter the story. Strongly Jewish as the writer is in his tendency and though, his presentation is markedly affected by Greek style. The author
thought up the central figure of his story, to whom he attributed all the characteristics of
piety familiar to him, and to whom he ascribed the deed of Jael from the Song of Deborah
(Judges 4). The numerous contradictions of history appear to have been intentionally
introduced so as to warn readers of the fictional character of the story.
Form, History, Theology and Apocryphal Status—Modern scholarship is agreed
Form, History, Theology and Apocryphal Status—Modern scholarship is agreed
that the book was originally composed in Hebrew sometime between 150 and 125 B.C.,
(i.e. the time of the Maccabean revolt). The Old Testament (OT) quotations conform,
however, to the primary Greek OT. Though the scene is set in a time shortly after the
return from the Babylonian exile, the period to which the story refers is evidently of a later
date. Bethulia, at the time when the book was written, was inhabited by Samaritans.
Bethulia is identified by most scholars with Shechem, which was captured in 128 B.C. by
John Hyrcanus I. One aim of the writer may have been to plead with Samaritans to make
common cause with the Jews against pagan enemies.
The description of Nebuchadnezzar is one who wanted “to destroy all the gods of
the land, so that all nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone.” This description
appears to suit Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Other aspects of the book appear to represent
the Seleucid enemy that the Maccabees fought. The plot as a whole portrays a time of
national distress for the Jews, when partisan resistance would have appeared a justifiable
means in the struggle for self-preservation.
Judith exemplifies a type of piety which lays great stress on rigorous compliance
with ritual requirements such as prayer and observing the sabbaths. Judith’s prayer is: Your strength is not in numbers, nor your might in stout men.
You are the God of the lowly, a helper of the oppressed.
Protector of the neglected, the savior of those without hope.
Yes—God of my father, and God of the inheritance of Israel,
Lord of the heavens and of the earth, creator of the waters,
King of all your creation, . . .
Make every nation & every tribe of yours realize that you are God, the God of power and might, and that the people of Israel have not to protect them but you.
The modern reader may feel repelled by the writer’s immoderate praise of a woman
Protector of the neglected, the savior of those without hope.
Yes—God of my father, and God of the inheritance of Israel,
Lord of the heavens and of the earth, creator of the waters,
King of all your creation, . . .
Make every nation & every tribe of yours realize that you are God, the God of power and might, and that the people of Israel have not to protect them but you.
The modern reader may feel repelled by the writer’s immoderate praise of a woman
who first excites the passion of a man and then kills him in his sleep. However, this story
was written at a time when survival depended upon the resourcefulness and ruthlessness
of individual Jews. The work contains no explicit mention of the resurrection faith, but a
Day of Judgment is mentioned. Judith’s punctilious observance of ritual laws mirrors a
type of Pharisaic piety.
The Hebrew original of Judith is lost. No fragments from the book have come to
light among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The book of Esther came to enjoy canonical status
while Judith did not. The eclipse of Judith may be due partly to the fact that the story
took place in Samaritan territory. Of greater importance may be the consideration that the
story of Esther is associated with an annual feast, while Judith has no such connection
with practical life. Of the Greek translation, there exists three later revisions that differ in
minor details. The book now enjoys canonical status in the Roman Catholic and Greek
Orthodox churches.
K
KEDRON A town near Modin; identified with modern Qatra. Kedron was fortified by
AntiochusVII of Syria in order that he might attack Judea in the time of Simon Maccabeus.
KETAB ( Khtab) Head of a family of postexilic temple servants.
KHIRBET KERAK. An important archaeological site on the southern shore of the Sea of
Galilee, west of the Jordan River’s mouth, and near a ford of the same river and a major
intersection with a north-south route. This made the site an important center of trade. The
mound covers nearly 25 hectares (60 acres) and extends about 1 km along the shore. The
site seems to have been more or less continuously occupied from the Late Chalcolithic
(3200 B.C.) through the Early Bronze (2300). An enormous building was also found in this
later period. Several tombs of the Middle Bronze (1600) have been discovered on the
mound. The site was unoccupied for over 1,000 years, so it was not mentioned in the
biblical narrative. During the Greek period a new city was built. It is probably to be
identified with Philoteria, a city named in honor of the sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The
Roman period is represented by a fortress of the 100s-200s A.D.
KILAN. Head of a family who returned from captivity.
KITTIM (כתים, Cyprus) Kittim was used at first in the Old Testament for the island of Cyprus.
The name derived from the city-state of Kition on the southeast coast of the island. Kition
was the important Phoenician establishment on Cyprus. Although there was still a large
native population, the island was by the 700 B.C. essentially Greek in population. For the
Israelite, Kittim was a land across the sea and associated with ships.
The Kittim are mention in Jubilees, and in the Testament of Simeon; the Kittim are
listed as enemies of the Jews and among those to be destroyed The Kittim are also to be
found in the dead Sea Scrolls. The army of the Kittim will in the end take over the wealth
of the last priests of Jerusalem. This description best fits the Romans. In the War of the
Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, the Kittim are listed among the enemies of the
“sons of light.” The day in which the Kittim will fall will be one of great battle. The Kittim are
not limited to a particular area, and some are established in Egypt. Based on this usage,
various Old Testament passages were interpreted as applying to the Romans.
KNOWLEDGE (ידע (yaw dah)) The verb “to know” is used in an everyday sense, and in a
scientific sense, where knowledge is concerned with the general features or the “essence”
of things. The former usage implies a personal relationship between knower and thing
known; the latter implies an objective understanding of the object, simply as something
which affects one’s self-consciousness.
The Jewish literature between the end of the Exile and the days of Jesus continues
the Old Testament view of knowledge. However, the rabbis lose sight of the basic
encounter with God, and the law of God is understood as the ability to interpret the Torah
so as to find in it strict rules to live by. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, a new concept of
knowledge appears, namely a special illumination which the Spirit of God has imparted to
certain individuals. This type of knowledge comes closest to the prophetic experience in
the Old Testament. But the “Teacher of Righteousness” excels in that he possesses a new
spirit by which he can spontaneously to grasp the exact meaning of the Torah.
(See also the entry in the main section.)
KOLA (Cwla) A locality mentioned in the book of Judith. Possibly identical with Holon in
Joshua 15.
KONA (Kona) A locality mentioned in Judith 4; the location is unknown.
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L
LACCUNUS (LakkounoV) One of the sons of Addi who put away their foreign wives and
children in the time of Ezra. Possibly it was derived from a different division of the letters in
Chelal and Beniah of Ezra 10:30, namely the last letter of “Chelal was added to the next
word and the Hebrew “b” was changed to a “k.”
LACEDAEMONIANS (Lakedaimonioi) The inhabitants of Lacedaemon, or Sparta, the capital of Laconia in Southern Greece. Friendly relationships with the Jews were established as
early as around 270 B.C., stemming from their mutual friendship with Egypt and their
common conception of a community of law. Since Jason the high priest found asylum
there in 168, most likely a Jewish colony existed in Sparta. There is no doubt that there
were declarations of friendship made at this time by the Romans and the Spartans.
Mention is made of a blood relationship between the Spartans and the Jews, apparently a
widely diffused legend in the East. Finally, I Maccabees 15 records a declaration of
friendship between the Roman Senate and the Jews, addressed also to neighboring
countries including the Spartans.
LADDER OF TYRE A prominent landmark, apparently a mountain 19 km north of Ptolemais.
The Ladder of Tyre was the high ridge which bounds the plain of Acre on the north, rising
to over 300 meters. From the south side, silhouetted against the sky, these mountains
would give the impression of a huge ladder by which one might ascend into land of Tyre.
The western end of the ridge drops sheer into the sea. The Ladder was the northern
border of the region over which Simon Maccabee was made governor by Antiochus VI.
LAMECH (למך) According to the Yahwistic writer, Lamech was the son of Methushael, of the
line of Cain, the husband of Adah and Zillah. In line with the Yahwist’s interest in
explaining the origin of various aspects of society, this genealogy accounts for the origin of
nomads, musicians, and smiths. In the Dead Sea Genesis Apocrypha, Lamech confronts
his wife, Bat-Enosh, with the suspicion that their son is not his. Lamech asks his father,
Methuselah, who turned to his father Enoch, from whom he is sure of learning the truth.
LAODICEA. One of the cities of southwestern Asia Minor, in the Valley of the Lycus, a
tributary of the Maeander. The site occupied by Laodicea is an almost square plateau
some 30 meters above the river valley. To the south lie the high mountains Sabacus and
Cadmus. The city was located on the ancient highway leading up from Ephesus through
the Maeander and Lycus valleys to the east and ultimately to Syria; Colossae is 16 km to
the east.
As a city, Laodicea was founded by the descendants of Alexander the Great’s army
around 250 B.C. It was meant to be a Seleucid stronghold in the area. In 190 B.C.,
Laodicea came under Pergamenian rule, but prosperity increased under the Roman after
133 B.C. Although the region of the Lycus Valley is subject to earthquakes and Laodicea
was hit several times, once in 60 A.D. Laodicea had wealth and prominence that was
related to her fertile land and good grazing grounds for the sheep, whose raven-black
wool made her famous. Special garments and carpets were woven from it. In this industry
Lacodicea was a prominent partner and competitor of the Ionian cities and its neighbors
Colossae and Hierapolis.
Its prosperity led to the development of financial operations and banking at
Laodicea. The city struck its own coins from the 100s B.C. on, with references to the local
river gods and cults. The population of the city included Greek-speaking Syrians, Romans,
and Romanized natives, as well as a prominent and wealthy Jewish contingent. In 62 B.C., the annual contributions which the Jews were accustomed to send to Jerusalem were
seized and sent to Rome.
LASTHENES (LasqenhV) Governor of Coel-Syria in the days of Jonathan the Hasmonean.
When Jonathan and his government were recognized by Demetrius, he received a copy of
a letter by Demetrius to Lasthenes, in which the Jews were extolled as friends. The letter
to Lasthenes delineated the boundaries of Judea and assured the exemption from taxes.
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LAW IN FIRST-CENTURY JUDAISM (See also the entry in the Old Testament (OT)/
Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix)—The term torah in Judaism is
usually translated as “law,” but actually it ranges in meaning from teaching or instruction to
the totality of divine revelation. The nature and content of this revelation cannot be
determined for 3 reasons. First, the period was one of fluidity; second, the law was so
variously interpreted by Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes that no integrated
description of it can be given. Third, the rabbinic sources directly dealing with the law are
later than the first century, and represent only the Pharisaism of Rabbi Johanan ben
Zakkai. But, by careful sifting of these sources, which contain traditional material going
back to the first century and earlier, certain positions can be safely be suggested.
In the postexilic period as the law came to occupy such a central place in the life of
the Jewish community, the law and the wisdom tradition became much more closely
related to each other. The next step was taken in the intertestamental period. This was a
further stage in the development of the notion of the law as a divine reality. The names
given to the OT varied; the books of Maccabee referred to it as “the law and the prophets,”
or “the law, the prophets, and the writings.” Possibly the first term used to designate the
whole of the Law was “the book,” (Biblia, the origin of our word, “Bible”). The law had
become Israel’s consolation.
The apocryphal Ecclesiasticus was rejected because its author lived in “recent”
times, when the Holy Spirit had departed from Israel. The same would apply to documents
similarly dated, including gospels and other Christian books. During the time when Persian
rule gave place to Greek rule in Palestine, the change to Greek rule interrupted the
Soferim’s activity as an authoritative body, and faced the nation with bewilderingly new
conditions. There had to be expansion of interpretation and new adaptability, and this
meant a growth of oral tradition. This received some regulation with the Sanhedrin’s
authority as a body of priests and laymen, beginning in 190 B.C. This body taught and
interpreted the law and sought to regulate the people‘s lives.
Thus, various factors inevitably produced a rich oral tradition alongside the written
and the question arose as to the authority of the traditions. By the use of midrashic
methods of interpretation, each tradition was grounded in the Scriptures. In the Mishna we
have a running commentary on the scriptural text, as the basis of certain commandments.
In the Greek period, when there was a rapid growth in oral tradition, the Mishnaic method
became more important than the midrashic, though both methods were still used.
What is clear is that although the oral law came to be presented in isolation from
the text of scripture, it was regarded as of equal obligation as the written law. It was the
attempt to connect oral law with the Mosaic law that led to the development of rabbinic
exegesis, as only a few oral laws explicitly state that they were revealed to Moses. By the
first century, the Mishnaic method had become so customary that written collections of
oral laws were made. The earliest code mentioned in post biblical times is the Sadducean
criminal code down to the time of Queen Alexandra (78 B.C.)
We have been concerned with the law mainly as God’s demands. But, so profound
was Judaism’s devotion to the law, that it was not content merely to regard it as God’s
agent for human redemption. The law was seen as an entity, a living, unified reality; it was
also given cosmic significance. The oral law was traced back to Sinai, but the whole law
was given greater antiquity, even a pre-cosmic existence. The way was prepared for this,
long before the first century B.C., through identifying wisdom with law. In Ecclestiasticus, Baruch and IV Maccabees, the identification was made explicit, as was its existence
before the cosmos was created.
LIFE. The literature written in the time between the Old and New Testament, and especially
the wisdom literature, began to realize that the collective experience of the chosen people
did not square with the real individual experience. Wisdom is the light by which the
individual learns to combine obedience to God’s law with a maximum of happiness. This
wisdom is considered the source of true life and of happiness. Life is sweet because the
good and wise person has the key to happiness.
In the apocalyptic literature, it is by means of the resurrection and Final Judgment
that the success of the wicked and the misery of the righteous are to be only temporary.
The righteous ones will eventually be compensated for their present sufferings, whereas
the evildoers will then receive their due. Large sections of Judaism, and particularly the
Sadducees, refused to hold such beliefs.
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LOD (לד) LYDDA (Ludda) A town of Benjamin near the southern border of the Plain of
Sharon, about 18 km southeast of Joppa. It was the ancestral homeland of more than 720
exiles who returned from the Babylonian exile. Its strategic location at the intersection of
the great trunk road between Egypt and Babylon and the main highway from Joppa to
Jerusalem, made it often-contested territory.
Under the name Lydda, it was head of one of the districts of Samaria which
Demetrius Nicator ceded to Judea in 145 B.C. Jewish rights in the site were removed by
the Roman general Pompey, but Caesar promptly restored them. Around 45 B.C. the site
was captured by Cassius and its inhabitants sold into slavery.
LUCIUS (LoukioV (loo kee os)) A Roman consul who sent a letter to Ptolemy VII of Egypt and
to other Near Eastern rulers, stating the Roman Senate’s backing for the Jewish state
governed by Simon Maccabee. Identification of Lucius is difficult, since his full name is not
given. The following are possibilities:
Lucius Caecilius Metelus, consul in 142 B.C.
Cnaeus or Lucius Calpurnius Piso, consul in 139 B.C.
Lucius Valerius, praetor in 47 B.C. (The Jewish historian Josephus mentions him in his Antiquities.)
LYCAONIA ( lukaonia) A region in south central Asia Minor. Its border varied and often do
not appear clearly defined. The region was, for the most part, a high, treeless plateau, not
well watered and with a more than average salt content in the soil. The origin of the
Lycaonians is uncertain. These wild and warlike people were able to keep free of Persian
domination, but from Alexander the Great’s time they were under outside control. Under
the Seleucid rulers the introduction to Greek culture made some progress.
See also the article in the main section.
The Romans gave Lycaonia to the king of Pergamum but actually continued to
exercise ultimate control over the area. The southern part was given to Polemon in 39
B.C. and soon after, in 36 B.C., was given to Amyntas, king of Pisidia, who was then made king of Galatia. On his death in 25 B.C. the Romans took over his kingdom and made it
the province of Galatia.
LYDIA (PLACE) A country in southwest Asia Minor which received its name from an old
component in the peninsula’s population. Its territory lies mostly in river valleys. The
Lydians never seem to have been interested in the sea; their own strength lay inland.
Their capital, Sardis, was located deep in the Hermus Valley. In prehistoric times the
region belonged to a culture which developed local traits typical of western Asia Minor.
Indications point to a contrast between a conservative inland element and a more active
coastal region where commerce and warfare had more scope.
The Persians successors to the Median Empire proved too strong for the Lydian
kingdom. After an undecided battle between Cyrus and Croesus, Cyrus pursued the
unsuspecting Lydians west and captured Sardis in 546 B.C. Lydia continued as a satrapy
of the Persian Empire until 334 B.C. After the Battle of the Granicus in 334 B.C., Lydia fell
to Alexander the Great, who restored some of its cultural autonomy. In 133 B.C. Lydia was
bequeathed to Rome by Attalus III. Under the Roman emperors Lydia was prosperous as
a part of the province of Asia.
LYSIAS (SYRIAN) (LusiaV) The regent appointed by Antiochus Epiphanes to rule Syria in
166-165 B.C. Lysias sent Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias with a large army against Judas
Maccabeus; this failed miserably. Next, Lysias came himself and encamped at Beth-Zur,
south of Jerusalem. Either Judas was successful in a skirmish with Lysias or it was
inconclusive; a peace treaty was signed which took away restrictions on Judaic worship. It
also led immediately to Judas’ cleansing of the temple, and to the origin of the Hanukkah
Feast.
The next year, 164, on the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, Lysias invaded Judea once again. He defeated Judas Maccabeus at Bethzacharia, and laid siege to Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, General Philip had set himself up in Antioch, and Lysias was compelled to
make terms with the Jews. He beat Philip but was unable to resist another claimant,
Demetrius, and met his own death in 162.
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LYSIMACHUS (LusimacoV) 1. Son of Ptolemy. Tradition says that he translated the book of
Esther into Greek.
2. Brother of the Menelaus who supplanted Jason as high priest. Menelaus named
“his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood.” Lysimachus helped himself
to some of the temple wealth, which angered the people. Lysimachus sent against them
3,000 troops. The people “picked up stones, some blocks of wood, and handfuls of ashes .
. . As a result, they wounded many of them, and killed some, and put them to flight; and the temple-robber himself they killed . . .”
LYSTRA (h Lustra) A town in the central part of southern Asia Minor. Lystra is an ancient
site in the Lycaonia district; Lystra was one of the most prominent regional centers.
Iconium 32 kilometers to the northeast.
The Lycaonians were a small Anatolian tribe speaking their own idiom; Lycaonian
was still spoken in the 500s A.D. The site of Lystra has been known with certainty since
1885. The mound is a prehistoric tell with accumulations dating back to the 2000s and
1000s B.C., but actively inhabited in classical times. The name of Lystra presumably goes
back to pre-historic times, and the plain around Lystra is fertile.
The choice of this well-watered site for an early settlement is logical one, although
the location was barely of commercial or strategic advantage. It existed as a rural
settlement into Greek and Roman times. For a short time in the 100s B.C., Lystra was
under control of local potentate Antipater. Augustus decided to make use of the old but
inconspicuous settlement of Lystra to found one of his military colonies as a Roman
stronghold against the mountaineers to the south. Its name became Julia Felix Gemina
Lustra. The Romanization of the mountainous districts of northern Pisidia was also
furthered by road construction under Augustus’ rule.
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