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Chapter 9-The Hasmoneans  
     
1.
 Judah liberated Jerusalem in 165 BCE and restored the Temple. Fighting continued, and Judah and his brother Jonathan were killed. In 141 BCE an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean dynasty.
 
2.
 When Simon was killed in 135 BCE, his son John Hyrcanus took his place as high priest and king.
  
3.
 After defeating the Seleucid forces, Judah's nephew John Hyrcanus established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean dynasty in 152 BCE — thus establishing priests as political as well as religious authorities.
 
4.
 Now all this so far is stock standard historical context that is generally accepted by both Christian and Jewish scholars but for one thing- the true nature of the dispute with the Pharisees and Essenes towards the Sadducees that now had total control of the Temple.
  
5.
 Remember, up until the point of the “Syrian influence”, the Persians and then Greeks/Egyptians had favoured high priests of the ancient Essene line, who then in turn supported publicly the Pharisees, while privately choosing not to be involved in the sacrifice of animals, nor defiling their vows of purity.
  
6.
 But instead of restoring the Temple to purity, it seems the Hasmoneans not only did not return the high priests, it chose to return to the open practice of “wickedness” of ancient times.
  
7.
 The scriptures of Macabees and biblical scholars quote a polite sanitized argument saying the dispute was about legitimacy of bloodlines for the Hasmoneans to be kings.
 
8.
 This may well be so, but it also seems to be a rather convenient “smoke screen” for something far more evil- namely the return to old Judaic rituals of blood sacrifice in the Persian temple built to discourage such behaviour.
 
9.
 An oblique reference to this can be deduced by the reference to the worship of other gods and the mentioning of Zeus.
 
10.
 Zeus features strongly in the Orphic pantheon of gods and is equivalent to Baal. Therefore, saying Zeus was worshipped in the temple by the early Maccabeans is a sneaky way of saying the worship of Baal/Dagan/Satan had returned to its key place of worship after a four hundred year absence.
  
11.
 Although the Pharisees had opposed the wars of expansion of the Hasmoneans, the political rift between them became wider when Pharisees demanded that the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus choose between being king and being High Priest.
 
12.
 In response, Alexander Jannai openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites in the Temple. His actions caused a riot in the Temple and led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees.
  
13.
 Josephus, the traitor commander who saved his life and then went on to live in Rome and write edited history claimed Alexander’s rules was both bloody and cruel.
 
14.
 Outraged at being affronted by the Pharisees, he had his soldiers slay 6,000 of the offenders. This brought on a civil war which lasted six years and cost 50,000 Jewish lives.
 
15.
 When the war eventually ended, Josephus records that Alexander transported some of his Jewish prisoners of war, most of them probably Pharisees, "to Jerusalem, and did one of the most barbarous acts in the world to them; for as he was feasting with his concubines, in the sight of all the city, he ordered about eight hundred of them to be crucified; and while they were living, he ordered the throats of their children and wives to be cut before their eyes " (bk. 13, ch. 14, sec. 2, The Antiquities of the Jews).
 
16.
 Alexander became increasingly unpopular among the Jews because of the civil war and his pro-Sadducee, hellenizing tendencies. The influence of the Sadducees was prevalent until his death in 76 B.C. On his deathbed, Alexander encouraged his wife, Salome Alexandra, to make peace with the Pharisees, since they had influence with the majority of the population.
 
17.
 In a statement which calls to mind a major criticism Jesus had of some of the Pharisees of his day, the Babylonian Talmud records Alexander telling Salome, "Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees, but the hypocrites who ape the Pharisees " (Sotah 22b). Once in power, Salome took her husband's advice and began favoring the Pharisees. This was not difficult for her, because her brother, Simon ben Shetech, was the leader of the Pharisees at this time.
 
18.
 During Salome's reign (76-67 B.C.), the Sadducees lost much of their authority. Although Salome was the recognized leader of the nation, it soon became obvious that the Pharisees had gained significant influence.
 
19.
 They were brought into the Sanhedrin and became the major force in national politics. In reality, they became the actual power behind the throne.
 
20.
 Now in a position to avenge earlier persecution from the pro-Sadducean faction, they had some of those who had advised Alexander put to death. After an outcry from the Sadducees, including her son Aristobulus II, Salome allowed them to leave Jerusalem for several surrounding fortresses.
 
21.
 Upon her death her elder son, Hyrcanus, sought Pharisee support, and her younger son, Aristobulus, sought the support of the Sadducees.
 
22.
 The conflict between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus culminated in a civil war that ended when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE and inaugurated the Roman period of Jewish history.  

 
 
 

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