The Age of the Maccabees (Illustrated)

by Annesley Streane

  Judea, during this troubled time, had to suffer much, but it was due to the wisdom of Antipater that she did not suffer more. To his honor it must be said that he made the utmost of the difficult and perilous circumstances in which the Jews were then placed, and by abandoning a hopeless struggle with Rome obtained the most favorable conditions possible for the people whose interests he had in charge. Personal ambition, no doubt, entered into his calculations—it is an element in the character of almost everyone who aspires to rule—but the important fact remains that he possessed a clearer view of the times in which he lived, and utilized his knowledge in the performance of far greater services to the Jewish nation than the Jewish aristocracy who reviled and opposed him. By futile insurrections and by fostering discontent the aristocracy added vastly to the miseries of the population. By their opposition to the Romans they were in reality throwing themselves across the path of the Divine purpose, which was working itself out in history by binding the Mediterranean peoples under one form of civil rule, as a preliminary to the advent and propagation of the Christian faith.

  The Sadducees never ceased to contrast Antipater as an outsider with the Maccabean family, and the glories won for the nation by its earlier members. The Pharisees resented his slighting treatment of the Sanhedrin, and of their tenets generally. They sought to attack him through his sons Herod and Phasael, whom he had made governors respectively of Galilee and Jerusalem. The former (the future “Herod the Great”), a clever and ambitious youth, aged probably twenty-five at this time, had already done good service in his northern province by exterminating the bandits who had invested that region. His enemies at Jerusalem took advantage of his executing one of these miscreants to induce the weak Hyrcanus to summon him before the Sanhedrin, to whom at that time was reserved the power of life and death. Herod came, but overawed the assembly by his showy appearance and armed retinue. Hyrcanus ex officio presided. The names of two others of the judges are preserved, Shemaiah and Abtalion, famous among Rabbis. The following utterances of theirs are preserved in The Sayings of the Jewish Fathers: “Shemaiahsaid, Love work; and hate lordship; and make not thyself known to the government. Abtalionsaid, Ye wise, be guarded in your words; perchance ye may incur the debt of exile, and be exiled to the place of evil waters; and the disciples that come after you may drink and die, and the Name of Heaven be profaned”.

  Although among the most renowned Jewish scholars of their day, their wisdom was scarcely of so practical a character as to add strength to the tribunal, which seems to have been in considerable awe of the accused. When there appeared an imminent danger that the authority of the court would be openly defied, Hyrcanus adjourned the trial, the accused withdrew, and in place of holding himself in readiness to obey any further summons, marched with hostile intent against Hyrcanus. He was with difficulty persuaded by his brother Phasael and by Antipater to relinquish his warlike purpose, and return to Galilee.

  After a short-lived recovery of power in Syria by the party of Pompey, Cesar’s assassination (March 15, 44 BC) gave Antony the leadership. Cassius, whom Cesar had appointed proconsul of Syria, proceeded to that province, after assisting in the murder of his chief. He levied seven hundred talents upon Palestine, by way of contribution to war expenses, and in default of prompt payment of this heavy exaction, seized and sold as slaves the inhabitants of several Jewish towns. Herod, who fortunately for himself was able to pay the 100 talents which were his share of the impost, was made procurator of Coele-Syria.

  Antipater’s position had at this time become insecure through the rising power of one namedMalichus, as to whose origin little or nothing is known. Through bribery he procured Antipater’s death by poison at a feast given by Hyrcanus (43 BC). Herod obtained permission from Cassius to avenge his father’s murder, and availed himself of it by means of hired assassins.

  After the defeat at Philippi (42 BC), Cassius committed suicide. Turbulent times followed in Palestine. Roman troops had been withdrawn to supply the needs of those contending for the rule of the Empire. It is clear that the Jews as a whole had by no means even now accepted the Idumean sway. Phasael had to put down an insurrection in Jerusalem, while Antigonus made an abortive effort to recover the kingdom for the Maccabean family, and though worsted by Herod in an encounter on the borders of Judea, and driven from the country, yet he managed for a while to retain some hold upon the northern part of Palestine.

  The same spirit was shown, though in more peaceable fashion, by the repeated complaints made against the sons of Antipater by representatives of the upper classes before Antony, who was for the time master of the eastern part of the Roman world. He refused to act upon their wishes, confirmed Phasael and Herod in their position, and proceeded to lay a severe impost upon Palestine as upon other provinces, in order to defray the expenses alike of his warlike operations and his luxury.

  A Parthian invasion of Syria was made use of by Antigonus as affording him another opportunity of recovering his hereditary rights. He was already established within Jerusalem, and his followers engaged in street encounters with those of his opponents, when the Parthians, appearing before the walls, invited Phasael and Hyrcanus to go out to the camp of Barzaphanes, the satrap in command, for the purpose of arranging terms. They fell into the snare, and were at once thrown into prison. Phasael there committed suicide. Hyrcanus’s ears had been cut off by the direction or the act of Antigonus, in order that on account of this mutilation there might under no circumstances be a resumption of his position as high priest; and he was thereupon led by the Parthians into exile. Herod meanwhile had succeeded in making his escape from Jerusalem, and after various wanderings reached Rome.

  This probably was the most critical period of his eventful life. But fortune speedily smiled on his ambition. The triumvirs, Antony and Octavian, who had just been forced by the legions, weary of fighting, to patch up a reconciliation, united to do honor to the fugitive. At their motion the Senate (40 BC) nominated him king of Judea. He did not hesitate to offer sacrifice after the manner of the pagan ritual on entering upon office. Thus within a week of his arrival the exile found himself with a crown upon his head, and the power of Rome at his back. So far his task was an easy one. He now had to seek to add to the name the reality of power.

  The Parthians (40 BC) had allowed Antigonus to call himself both king and high priest. His position, however, was a precarious one. He bought off for the moment the hostility of the representative of Rome in Syria, P. Ventidius, but failed to create any enthusiastic following for himself in his kingdom. Herod, on the other hand, though received with some support, found that the general attitude both towards him and his rival was one of indifference. This was the case even on the part of the Roman troops, who were in the pay of Antigonus for the purpose. Herod at first devoted himself to the difficult task of subduing the bandits who still infested Galilee; but it was not till he had had an interview with Antony, at Samosata, and thereby had obtained more active support from this all-powerful source, that he was able to prosecute with effect his purposes against Antigonus, in whose favor Galilee had declared. Now, however, after a rapid and success¬ful progress through the country parts, he laid siege to Jerusalem (37 BC). During the time while engines of attack were in course of erection, he celebrated his marriage withMariamne. She was his second wife, a grand-daughter of Aristobulus II, and thus a descendant in the fourth generation of John Hyrcanus. It is probable that he intended by this union of the rival families—his own and that of the Maccabees—to render the position which he now claimed more acceptable to the people at large.

  After a little more than eight weeks Herod, with the help of the Roman general, Sosius, captured the city. Pillage and slaughter followed. It was only by lavish gifts that Herod succeeded in dismissing the Romans from Jerusalem, and persuading them to leave the country. Antigonus pleaded for mercy at the feet of Sosius, who spurned him, calling him Antigone. He took him to Antioch, where Antony soon after caused him to be beheaded. Herod could now c
ontemplate the final ruins of the Maccabean dynasty. After a three years’ struggle he had entered upon his kingdom with the full support of the arbiters of the world.