The War of the Hasmoneans

Abstract

The Maccabean revolt contains in nuce all the elements of a war, which is to say a putatively commanded by God and carried out on behalf of religious goals. The war's religious justification produced parameters that could not always be harmonized easily: on the one hand the warfare's character had to be recognizable in praxis. On the other hand, the interests of dynastic power were meant to be promoted, not hindered. This chapter suggests that these parameters remained stable although the Hasmoneans adjusted the concrete formation of the holy war to suit changing circumstances. It distinguishes three phases: the phase of the wars of annihilation under Judas und Jonathan, the phase of the wars of expulsion under Simon, and the phase of wars of annexation under John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus, and Alexander Jannaeus. The chapter addresses each of these phases before drawing some general conclusions. Keywords:Hasmoneans; war; Maccabean revolt