A HISTORY OF NEW TESTAMENT TIMES IN PALESTINE 175 BC-70 AD

CHAPTER V

SIMON AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF JUDAISM

(143-135 BC)

In full confidence of a speedy victory over a discouraged and disorganized people, Trypho marched from Ptolemais, carrying with him the unfortunate Jonathan as his prisoner. His route led him south through the maritime plain and then east by Adida toward Jerusalem. But at Adida he met Simon, who had gathered troops at his own expenses and had voluntarily assumed the leadership of Judea. Trypho did not wish a battle here anymore than at Bethshean. To fall back was dangerous, since Simon had already seized Joppa. Yet he forced Simon to give him 100 talents of silver together with two of Jonathan’s sons, on the promise that the high priest should be released on these terms. But after Simon had performed his part of the contract Trypho refused to release Jonathan and moved south along the Shephelah, apparently intending to come upon Jerusalem by the way of Idumea and Hebron. Simon moved along the hills parallel to the invader, a Jewish Fabius. Prevented by a snowstorm from forcing the southern approach to Jerusalem, Trypho marched around the southern end of the Dead Sea into Gilead, and there, at an unidentified town, Bascama, he killed Jonathan and went back to Syria. There he caused the boy king, Antiochus VI, to be killed, and reigned in name as well as power. Some time afterward Simon took the bones of his brother to Modein and buried them by the side of his father and his brothers, erecting a large monument and seven pyramids in honor of his family.

It was to be Simon’s good fortune, without performing great exploits, to break still more the political dependence of Judea upon Syria and thus to enable Judaism, both outwardly and inwardly, to advance another stage in its evolution. Throughout the quarter of a century of struggle he had borne his share of dangers and anxieties from the time that the dying Mattathias had bidden the four brothers listen to him as their counselor. As it was, the order of the three men’s leadership was fortunate. In the days of Judas military daring was the one thing the oppressed nation wanted; in Jonathan’s days, a mixture of military daring with more or less unscrupulous diplomacy; but in the days of Simon a man was required who should not only be ready to fight and intrigue, but should also be able to hold foreign politics in equilibrium while he was reconstructing the Jewish state, preparing the way for political independence, and, what was of especial importance, developing a party upon whom his house could rely for support.

It was in this latter particular that the administration of Simon was to be of significance to Jewish history. Hitherto the Jews had been broken roughly into the Hellenist, the Chasidim, and the Maccabean parties. The assumption of the high-priesthood by the Maccabees had momentarily fused the two latter into a religio-nationalist party, which, thanks to its success in dealing with Syria as well as its severity with all Syrian sympathizers, had become the dominant force in the state.

But the fusion that gave rise to this party never destroyed the identity or character of its two constituents, and as the pressure of foreign danger weakened each began to reassert itself. On the one hand, there were those who favored a narrow religio-political policy, and on the other those who wished to see the Jews a nation among nations. The spirit of the former party was that of Chasidim and scribism, and it was to develop into Pharisaism. The spirit of the other was the last relic of sympathy with Hellenistic culture and was to mark the Sadducees. Accurately speaking, the Maccabean dynasty belonged to neither party, but used each in turn. Judea was to taste the bitter and sweet of national politics, in which a family, supreme in religion as well as in administration, was to carry through an hereditary policy by the aid now of one and now of the other of two rivals.

It was no small danger that confronted Simon at the murder of Jonathan, though by no means so desperate as that occasioned by the death of Judas. If, indeed, his brother had been killed, and if he himself was confronted by an arrogant king backed by a powerful army, he was the constitutional head of a nation, no longer poverty-stricken, but possessed of military resources and prestige. Quite as important was the struggle between Demetrius and Trypho, which enabled him to strengthen and provision his fortresses in Judea. At last the excesses of Trypho’s soldiers led Simon to send an embassy to Demetrius II with rich presents and to propose an alliance against their common enemy, as well as an adjustment of the tribute. In this he was completely successful. Demetrius granted pardon for all of the Jews’ doings, confirmed them in their possession of the strongholds they had built (although no mention is made of Joppa and the other cities Jonathan and Simon had captured), and remitted all tributes. Thus, to quote the exultant words of 1 Maccabees, “was the yoke of the heathen taken away from Israel” (143-42 BC).

From this time the Jews began to reckon in their own cycle, the first year of which would thus correspond with 170 of the Seleucid. Documents and contracts were now dated according to the year of Simon, although the Seleucid cycle was used parallel. As a further proof of his practical independence Simon now began to issue coins bearing on one side Holy Jerusalem, or Jerusalem the Holy, and on the other, the word “shekel” or “half shekel”. Each bore the year of coinage, probably of the cycle of Jerusalem rather than of Simon’s reign.

Victories of Simon

Although it is not expressly stated, it is altogether probable that even before this time Simon had officiated as high priest, for as such Demetrius II recognizes him. But the hereditary right of his family, not yet recognised, was now to be formally fixed. The influence of the Chasidim and scribes is here very evident, as well as the thoroughly religious character of Simon’s administration. Shortly after the retreat of Trypho Simon had captured Gazara, driven out its heathen inhabitants, and colonized it with “men who observed the Law”. Almost at the same time the Syrian garrison in Jerusalem had been starved into surrender and allowed to leave the country. Thus, a quarter of a century after the beginning of their struggle (May, 142 BC) the people of Jerusalem celebrated their deliverance from the hated guard with the same enthusiasm as that with which their fathers, under Judas, had celebrated the cleansing of the temple. The citadel was purified and held as a stronghold, while Simon also erected a palace for himself on the opposite mount. Then the Jewish people (September, 141), —priests, people, princes of the people, and elders of the land,—in gratitude for his great services, chose Simon high priest, general, and ethnarch, “forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet”. Except him no priest was to gather an assembly or wear a badge of supreme authority, and his word was final as regarded the sanctuary and the state. Thus, by no decision of a Syrian king, but by the Jewish people itself, greater authority than had been the high priest’s before the days of Antiochus Epiphanes was settled upon a new family. A military state had become an hereditary theocracy. The chief of outlaws had become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Yet in one particular the new dynasty gives possible evidence of the beginning of a nation. Simon, as his coins show, was at the head of a city, but in the “great congregation” that shared in the establishment of the new high-priestly family one can see the uncertain rise of the people as against the first estate of the priests.

And another important change is to be seen. From the days of Joseph, the son of Tobias, who had been a fiscal if not a civil official in Judea, by the side of the high priest, there had been in Jerusalem some special representative of the Syrian control, like Apollonius or Bacchides. But now this Syrian official disappeared and the civil authority was vested in Simon as ethnarch, just as the military and religious powers were his, by virtue of his being high priest and military governor. With so much power vested in his hands, both by the vote of the people and the act of the Syrian king, Simon was but little short of an independent ruler.

Yet, singularly enough, we know but little of the years of prosperity that followed the inauguration of the new house, but all information that we can recover evidences that prosperity, in which “the ancient men sat in the streets”, “the young men put on glorious and warlike apparel”, and “they sat each man under his vine and his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid”. The most rigid Judaism prospered. Heathen were exterminated with a relentlessness worthy of Antiochus Epiphanes. Sorcerers were hanged in companies. The temple was filled with new and magnificent utensils, and its service enriched with new collections of Psalms, in which the triumphant nationalism burst out in thanksgiving to Jehovah and glorification of the new dynasty. And, if there was no prophet in the land, there was yet the hope of his coming, and the heart of the poet was filled with prophetic visions. Jehovah had sworn, and would not repent. The new high priest was to be forever after the order of Melchizedek, and Jehovah, at his right hand, would strike through kings in the day of his wrath. With the high praises of God in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands, the saints would execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the nations. And, though few details have survived, it would seem as if the international policy of Simon, without violent struggles, was singularly successful. Even before his formal recognition by the people as the head of a dynasty, he had followed the custom of his brothers and sent again the former ambassador of Jonathan, Rumenius, to Rome. There, thanks partly to the present of a golden shield worth 1000 minas, he obtained a renewal of the treaty already made with Judas and Jonathan, in which Rome guaranteed the rights of the Jews and gave to Simon jurisdiction over all Jews, both within and without Judea. The Senate also sent letters to various states and cities, warning them not to trouble Jerusalem. The same embassy also made a treaty with Sparta.

Once only was the peace of Simon’s reign seriously endangered. Almost at the time Rome was thus becoming the Jews’ confidante, if not champion, Demetrius II, with whom Simon had maintained the best possible understanding, engaged in a campaign with the Parthians, and was captured by their king, Mithridates I (139-138 BC). Trypho was accordingly left in undisputed possession of the kingdom. But only for a few days. Antiochus (VII) Sidetes, the brother of Demetrius II, immediately began preparations for seizing the throne. In need of all possible help, he wrote Simon, promising him the right to coin money, freedom from tribute, release from all debts to the crown, and the confirmation of all other rights and privileges. Simon was won over without difficulty, and waited for the opportunity to furnish his new master aid. The opportunity came when, after having defeated Trypho in Upper Syria, Antiochus besieged him in the fortress of Dora, on the coast. Simon then sent Antiochus a force of two thousand men and considerable treasure and arms, but success had made the king less friendly, and he refused to accept the aid, repudiated all his agreements, and sent one of his friends, Athenobius, to force Simon either to surrender Joppa, Gazara, the citadel of Jerusalem, and all the conquered territory outside of Judea, or to pay the enormous sum of 1000 talents. Simon refused to surrender the cities or territory on the ground that they had all either formerly belonged to his people or had done him much injury, but at the same time offered to compromise by the payment of 100 talents. Whereupon, Athenobius, overcome with the luxury of the appointments of the high priest’s house, returned to Antiochus in a rage. The king determined to punish such independence. He himself pursued Trypho north through Ptolemais and Orthosias, to Apamaea, where he besieged and killed him, but in the meantime he sent his general, Kendebaus, south against Simon. Jamnia and the neighboring town of Kedron became the centre of Syrian incursions into Judea. John Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, was in charge of the troops at Gazara, and by the advice of Simon he and his brother Judas moved upon the invaders. The extent to which the military spirit of the Asmoneans had led to a reorganization of their army is to be seen in the fact that now, for the first time, they employ a small force of cavalry. Jewish generalship and enthusiasm carried the day, and for the remainder of his reign Simon was not troubled by foreign invasion.

And yet Simon, like his four brothers, was to die by violence. A son-in-law, Ptolemy, became ambitious to usurp Simon's place in the nation, and plotted to kill him. His opportunity came when in February, 135 BC, the high priest came on a tour of inspection to the little fortress of Dok, which was in charge of Ptolemy. There, at a banquet, Simon and two of his sons, Mattathias and Judas, were treacherously killed, and his wife was taken prisoner. Ptolemy also made every effort to seize Hyrcanus, but without success, and this failure, notwithstanding his loyal messages to Antiochus VII, completely prevented his succeeding his victim. Hyrcanus it was who inherited the high priesthood, and with it the military and civil leadership of the Jews.

 Thus a little more than thirty years after the first uprising of Mattathias, the last and, unless we mistake, the greatest of his five sons was carried to the tomb he had himself built, having seen his family maintain a successful revolt against a great empire, his people grow from the narrow limits of a city-state into a miniature nation, the high-priesthood together with the supreme military and civil power made hereditary among his own descendants, and Jerusalem and Judea possessed of religious and nearly complete political liberty.