I've been burying myself in Greek history today in preparation for my midterm exam on Monday. I just spent the last couple hours reading up on the Maccabean revolt and wanted to post my thoughts as a way of studying and digesting.
The Maccabean revolt was all about the struggle between Hellenization and religious/political freedom for the Jewish people. After Alexander the Great, Israel ended up in a bad position, because it stood right in between the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid kingdoms. While under the control of the Ptolemies, the Jews had a pretty good amount of religious freedom. Many of them settled in Alexandria and in order to take part in the educational privileges there, and were thus further educated in Hellenistic culture as well. During this time, the Hebrew Bible had to be translated into Greek so that the Jews could read it. There was a great deal of hellenization happening with the Jews. But as with any time of change, there were still people who struggled with figuring out how to maintain religious faithfulness in a changing world.
Once the Seleucid empire conquered the Ptolemaic kingdom, Israel had a worse time. Antiochus III left the kingdom a mess when he lost against Rome in the Battle of Magnesia. Rome forced them to pay one of the heaviest fines in its history, and it had to be repaid within 12 years. By the time Antiochus IV came into power, his constant work was to scrounge up enough money to pay Rome back. Several Jewish figures took advantage of this by bribing Antiochus IV to obtain the position of high priest. Eventually, Menelaus secured the role as he offered the highest price and also promised to promote hellenistic ways, which Antiochus IV loved. Menelaus allowed Antiochus into the Temple treasury to take money to pay Rome. This infuriated the Jews all the more, but the last straw came when Antiochus built a small altar on top of the altar of burnt offering and sacrificed a pig to Zeus. He then commanded all the Jews to do the same in various locations. Antiochus IV really brought death upon himself for forcing the Jews to make sacrifices to Zeus. What was he thinking? This last action prompted the beginning of the Maccabean revolt.
Mattathias, the first leader of the Hasmoneans (family line of the Maccabean revolt), killed a Jew for trying to follow Antiochus' orders. He then called for all those who wished to be faithful to the law to join him in their guerrilla efforts to overthrow the Seleucid throne. Mattathias died before they made the attack, but Judas Maccabeus succeeded him as leader. He successfully led the revolt against Antiochus IV and thus established a period of Hasmonean leadership in Israel (164-63 BC).
What's interesting to note is that by the end of Hasmonean rule, the Hasmoneans themselves were becoming more and more hellenized. Although they originally fought for religious freedom, they themselves became more and more tolerant and embracing of Hellenistic culture. This brings in the idea that Judas Maccabeus himself may not have been so purely Jewish as he might seem. Perhaps there were already traces of Hellenism in him. Remember back when they were under Ptolemaic rule, Jews eagerly embraced the culture in Alexandria. It is possible that hellenization trickled through the Jewish community through their own people. We cannot make a clear distinction between diaspora, hellenistic Jews and the Jews in Judea.
However, as a response to this hellenization, once again sects of Jews formed who began to reconsider what it meant to be a faithful Jew -- Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, to name a few.
Fascinating time of history... when cultures collide, there is always a struggle for reconciling between them.
