Traditionalist and Hellenized at once
Date
140BCE
140–63 BCE
The descendants of Mattathias ruled Judea for nearly eight decades, imposing Judaism on neighboring peoples while adopting Greek-style names, palaces and coins.
Sourced narrative
Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.
12 statements
01A dynasty 'forever'
By around 140 BCE, according to 1 Maccabees, the Maccabees had secured their hold on Judea. Simon was proclaimed the Jews' high priest and ruler 'forever', which turned the family into a dynasty: the Hasmoneans, a name possibly taken from the family's place of origin. Even after the Seleucids returned the Jews' right to their laws, the Hasmonean campaign continued: Simon captured Gezer, drove out its non-Jewish population and resettled it with Jews.
02Conquest and conversion
John Hyrcanus, son of Simon, held power between 134 and 104 BCE. After conquering the Idumeans, descendants of the Edomites, he allowed them to stay on their land only if they became Jews. This forced conversion imitated Antiochus's attempt to make Jews give up their own way of life.
His son Aristobulus I presented the Itureans, a people settled in present-day Lebanon, with the same option.
Hasmonean power peaked under Alexander Jannaeus, whose reign ran from 103 to 76 BCE: an effective conqueror, cruel and resented by many of his subjects, he took the Greek cities of the coast and forcibly converted their inhabitants. Josephus implausibly states that he killed 50,000 Jews.
03Restoring tradition
There is literary and material evidence of an effort to restore the traditional way of life: 1 Maccabees imitates the style of Joshua and Samuel; Hanukkah seems to have been based on biblical models when introduced by the Maccabees (Sukkot and the dedication of the First Temple); Hasmonean coinage employs the old Hebrew script; and pottery suggests that foreign wine and goods were being boycotted.
04Imitating the Greeks
The Hasmoneans did not reverse Hellenization. They maintained relations with the Spartans, the Romans and, under John Hyrcanus, the Seleucids themselves; they adopted Greek names (Alexander, Alexandra), built palaces and tombs on Hellenistic models and minted coins with Greek legends. One of them was nicknamed Philhellene, 'friend of the Greeks'. The Hasmoneans became unpopular, but not necessarily for adopting Greek customs: what counted against them were their questionable claim to the high priesthood, taxes and conscription for their wars, cruelty and the misuse of communal funds (John Hyrcanus drew funds from David's tomb to pay mercenaries).
05Becoming Jewish
In this period, being Jewish also comes to mean a commitment to a way of life, not just descent or place of birth. Some scholars see here the transition from Israel to the Jews. The strongest evidence is the first conversion stories: the Idumeans and other non-Jews under the Hasmoneans, Achior in the book of Judith and Antiochus himself in 2 Maccabees. Some Jewish sources describe this way of life with the Greek term politeia, 'citizenship'. Josephus says that Moses invited into the community all who wished to live under the same laws, since it is not only family ties that make someone a member (Against Apion 2.210).
Context
2 Maccabees is the abridgment of a five-volume work, now lost, by one Jason of Cyrene. Although it sets Judaism against Hellenism, it was written in Greek and imitates Greek literature: the problem, as 2 Maccabees 4:13 puts it, was 'Hellenization carried to an extreme', that is, Greek practices contrary to the laws of Moses. It is in this period that the term Judaism first appears, a Greek word for a way of life defined by the laws of Moses and by practices such as circumcision, the Sabbath and Temple worship. 2 Maccabees is the earliest known text in which both Judaism and Hellenism appear as terms.
§ 01Geography
Where it happened
§ 02Museum
Objects and images
§ 03Historiography
What scholars debate
Scholarly debate · 01
How deep was the Hellenization of Judea in the second century BCE?
2 positions · no single answer · take a seat →
- A
Still superficial
Some scholars
On this view, the impact remained relatively superficial.
- B
Transformative
Other scholars
On this view, Hellenization changed Jewish culture at its very core.
§ 04Network
Connections
§ 05Bibliography
Further reading
Shaye Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 1987).
Jewish sectarianism (the basis of the chapter's account, according to the authors) · recommended in Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 87
Erich Gruen, Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
The impact of Hellenization on Jewish tradition · recommended in Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 87
§ 06Apparatus
Sources on this page
- 01Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 520inspect
- 02Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77inspect
- 03Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77inspect
- 04Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77inspect
- 05Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77inspect
- 06Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 78inspect
- 07Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 77inspect
- 08Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 78inspect
- 09Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 79inspect
- 10Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 79inspect
- 11Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 78; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 79inspect
- 12Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 76; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 78inspect
- Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
- Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
- Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
- Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
- Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.