Ancient Levant · Chronicle VIII of IX
The Ancient Levant
The Septuagint, the Maccabean Revolt, and the Hasmonean kingdom.
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Ptolemaic RulePolitical
After Alexander's death, Judea falls to the Ptolemies of Egypt, one prize in the wars of his successors.
Alexander's generals carved his empire into rival Greek kingdoms, and Judea, on the border between Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria, was fought over for a century. Under the Ptolemies the Jews kept their Temple and Law and prospered, while Greek cities, coins, and customs spread through the surrounding land.
Ptolemaic RuleReligious
Jewish scholars in Alexandria translate the Torah into Greek for the great diaspora of Egypt.
For the many Jews of Alexandria who now spoke only Greek, scholars translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek — the Septuagint, named for its legendary seventy translators. It was the first great translation of the Bible, the version read by Greek-speaking Jews and later by the early Christians, and a landmark meeting of Hebrew faith and Greek language.
Seleucid RuleMilitary
Antiochus III defeats Egypt at Panium and brings Judea under Seleucid rule.
The Seleucid king Antiochus III took Judea from the Ptolemies and at first confirmed the Jews' right to live by their ancestral laws. But his costly wars with Rome drained the treasury, and his successors would look on the Temple's wealth and the Jews' distinct religion with a more dangerous eye.
Seleucid RuleCultural
Ambitious priests buy the high priesthood and turn Jerusalem into a Greek city, splitting Jewish society.
A faction of the Jewish elite embraced Greek ways, bought the high priesthood from the king, and built a gymnasium beneath the Temple. To some this was welcome modernity; to others, a betrayal of the covenant. The bitter struggle between Hellenizers and traditionalists tore Jerusalem apart and invited disaster.
The PersecutionReligious
Antiochus IV outlaws the Jewish religion and desecrates the Temple, provoking open resistance.
Intervening in Jerusalem's strife, Antiochus IV banned circumcision, the sabbath, and the Torah, and rededicated the Temple to Zeus — an outrage the book of Daniel calls 'the abomination of desolation.' It was one of history's first religious persecutions, and it turned simmering discontent into rebellion.
Maccabean RevoltMilitary
The priest Mattathias and his sons raise a guerrilla revolt against the Seleucids and the Hellenizers.
The rebellion began when the priest Mattathias refused to sacrifice to the Greek gods and, with his sons, took to the hills. His son Judas, nicknamed Maccabeus ('the Hammer'), proved a brilliant guerrilla commander, defeating far larger Seleucid armies in the rugged country of Judea.
Maccabean RevoltReligious
Judas Maccabeus retakes Jerusalem and purifies the Temple — the origin of the festival of Hanukkah.
Three years after its desecration, Judas recaptured the Temple, tore down the pagan altar, and rededicated it to the God of Israel. The eight-day celebration became the festival of Hanukkah, the 'Feast of Dedication,' commemorating the rededication and the survival of the Jewish faith against overwhelming odds.
Hasmonean KingdomPolitical
Under Simon, the last Maccabee brother, Judea wins full independence as the Hasmonean state.
Simon secured freedom from Seleucid taxes and was acclaimed both high priest and ruler, founding the Hasmonean dynasty. For the first time since the Babylonian conquest, the Jews governed themselves — a hard-won independence that combined kingly and priestly power in a single family.
Hasmonean KingdomReligious
The Hasmoneans expand their realm, while Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes divide Jewish society.
Kings like John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus enlarged Judea, conquering neighbours and forcibly converting the Idumeans. Prosperity and power bred division: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the withdrawn Essenes — perhaps the community behind the Dead Sea Scrolls — offered rival visions of Jewish life that would shape the age of Jesus.
Roman InterventionMilitary
The Roman general Pompey intervenes in a Hasmonean civil war and captures Jerusalem for Rome.
When two Hasmonean brothers fought over the throne, both appealed to Rome, and Pompey settled the matter by besieging and taking Jerusalem, even entering the Temple's Holy of Holies. Judea's brief independence was over; it became a Roman client, and soon the stage for a new and fateful chapter.
2 more entries, to 63 BC
