John Hyrcanus Research Articles

Jewish Antiquities XIV. 205, 207–08 and 'The Great Plain'

This paper revisits the question of 'the villages in the great plain) granted by Julius Caesar and the Senate to Judaea in the senatus consultum of 47 B.C.E., cited by Josephus in AJ xiv. 202–10. Since several plains in Palestine, other than Esdraelon, were known as 'the great plain' in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, the prevailing scholarly assumption that Caesar and the senate returned to John Hyrcanus II private royal estates in the plain of Esdraelon is shown to be unwarranted. Caesar and the Senate restored to Jewish control 'the villages in the great plain' together with the seaport city of Joppa, mention being made also of Jewish rights to Lydda. It is argued here, therefore, that Rome added to Judaea the strategic and fertile farmlands of the south Sharon, that is, the territory between the Yarkon river and Lydda.

The Samaritans and Early Judaism: A Literary Analysis

The Samaritans and Early Judaism: A Literary Analysis, by Ingrid Hjelm. JSOTSup 303. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000. Pp. 318. $85.00. All tradition is, of course, story. As such, it involves coherent retelling of beginnings, past events, and even future ones, interpreted from center of a people's experience in world at a particular time and place. Then again, story may be told from an outsider's point of view. Hjelm's excellent monograph on historically elusive Samaritans provides yet another lesson that prevailing tradition offers merely a collective perspective (albeit an ultimately meaningful one for those who celebrate it) on actually happened, and that sometimes meaningful perspectives are required for bringing a clearer view of historical reality into focus. Hjelm asserts that origin and history of Samaritans cannot be drawn at face value from accounts of Josephus, literature of prevailing Pharasaic-rabbinic Jewish tradition, NT, or even Samaritan sources themselves. Rather, a critical evaluation of authorial intent must be made on basis of all available sources in order to determine where and to what extent authors and editors have accommodated historical realities for ideological purposes. Carefully applied, this methodology results in a historian's perspective of traditions in question, relatively free of biases produced by meaningful stories competing for preeminence or, as our author puts it, the problematic presence of past traditions over against present innovations, and two groups who claim authority for each of their (. 266). Hjelm's thesis in nuce that prevailing view of Samaritan origins and history, often described in terms of questionable heritage, expulsion, and dissidence, must be abandoned. Underlying this view ideologically revisionist standpoint of a relatively late, Jerusalem-centered Judaism. Indeed, historical hot-spot for any real Jewish-- Samaritan conflict to be found in second and first century B.c.F., with emergence and maintenance of an independent Judaean temple state campaigning for political consolidation in region. On side of polemic, Samaritan historiography, Hjelm rightly notes, is as little reliable at face value as similar Jewish historiography. We cannot simply read such `historiographies, independently of each other (p. 272). The methodology theoretically sound, but it still leaves much to reader for testing weight of Hjelm's assertions. The chapters of book follow in logical order. Chapter 1 provides necessarily selective overview of a century of scholarship on Samaritan question, beginning with variations of paradigm that viewed Samaritan origins on basis of Assyrian resettlements (2 Kgs 17); one or another later accounts (a priestly expulsion in Neh 13, accounts of Josephus, or books of Maccabees concerning Hellenistic period); and, finally, irreconcilable break resulting from John Hyrcanus's second-century B.C.E. destruction of Samaritan temple. Chapter 2 provides current state of Samaritan studies, focusing especially on alternative theories that, on one hand, posit a relatively later date for origin of a distinctive Samaritan tradition or, on hand, view Samaritans as original Israelites. The most notable champion of latter view E. Nodet of Ecole Biblique, whose influence on Hjelm's own work apparent. The next three chapters offer a broad but cursory overview of relevant Samaritan and non-Samaritan primary texts. …

The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties

Bell & Howell Information and Learning: Foreign text omitted. The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties, by Shaye J. D. Cohen. Hellenistic Culture and Society 31. Berkeley: University of California Press 1999. Pp. xv + 426. $45.00. This invaluable book weaves together ten of Shaye Cohen's meticulous essays about Jewish identity in the Greco-Roman period (eight revised versions of previously published essays and two new ones). Part 1 posits that Jewish identity was elusive and uncertain in late antiquity due to the lack both of a normative definition of and of objective criteria to establish such a definition. The study interacts closely with other studies that argue that identity is a construct based on social discourse and not on a simple set of shared beliefs, practices, or languages. The first chapter presents the problem of identity by outlining the Rorschach test of classification of Herod, whose father was a but not his mother. These included (by Plutarch and Josephus), non-Jew (by the rabbis), and even Arab (by some early Christians). Chapter 2 puts to rest centuries of anachronistic depictions of late antique Jews: a careful review of the Greco-Roman sources demonstrates that Jews were indistinguishable from others based on looks, clothing, speech, names, or occupation. The third chapter traces the Greek term (...). Cohen builds on E. Bickerman's crucial observation that both Jews and non-Jews used the terminology of (...) to refer to Jews, setting them up as an entity parallel to the other (...) of the late antique world. Cohen then attempts to locate uses of the term (...) that point to distinct nuances in meaning: political, religious, ethnic, and geographical. Cohen argues that only in some cases should the term (...) be translated as Jew. Disqualifying some uses of the term (...) as really referring to Jews is a slippery endeavor, as his examples show. For possible examples of geographical nuances Cohen turns to inscriptions made by manumitted slaves; here the use of the term (...) might appear to imply little more than a slave's geographical origin. This is not entirely persuasive since there is no clear evidence from the inscriptions that excludes these slaves from the Jewish (...) in a fuller sense, that is, that observed Jewish customs, were loyal to the Jewish God, and even shared a common Jewish ancestry (genealogies are also a social construct). As to the definition of (...) as primarily being religious, although for generations Judaism has been primarily envisaged as a religion, it is hard, as Cohen notes, to find clear evidence of such a definition of Judaism in antiquity. Cohen nevertheless argues that what is ultimately distinct about Judaism is the manner in which worship their gods (p. 7) or a Jew is someone who worships the God whose temple is in Jerusalem (pp. 78, 97). This conclusion does not emerge from the rich late antique data he himself presents. A prime example of (...) as a function of a politics is provided for Cohen by reports about the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus, who (according to some ancient sources) conquered and forcibly circumcised the neighboring Idumeans, after which were referred to as (...). In Cohen's judgment the Idumeans did not become real (...). Instead they still retained their prior ethnicity and much of their prior religion and culture, but joined the Judaean people and declared loyalty to the God of the Judaeans (p. 105; cf. p. 118). The question must be asked: In whose eyes did not become real (...) like the others? The importance of the forced circumcision case is exactly that it shows us a moment when circumcising someone was deemed to make him part of the (...). Part 2 focuses on boundaries and boundary crossing. …

IF DAVID HAD NOT CLIMBED THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

AbstractThe history of Israel has always been a virtual history. Until recently, historical debate in the field has confined itself almost entirely to a discussion about alternative fictional scenarios for the past: the patriarchs and the conquest stories as an alternative to the exodus and settlement narratives; Moses or Ezra; Josiah or John Hyrcanus. Evidence, when it has been of interest to the field at all, has ever been in regard to any given scenario's persuasiveness. The story of David on the Mount of Olives is used as an example of the theological world at stake in the Bible's virtual history; particularly in regard to the motif of Yahweh as 'the lord of history'. Recognition of such virtuality in the biblical tradition aids the contemporary historian of intellectual history. The story of Jesus on the Mount of Olives is used to illustrate this.

John Hyrcanus I's destruction of the gerizim temple and Judaean-Samaritan relations

In recent years there has been a surprising surge of scholarly interest in the Samaritans. Much of this interest some would say a disproportionate amount has focused on their ancient history, before the "classical" period whose beginning is marked by the literary activities of Marqah and Baba Rabba, assigned by most scholars to the 3rd or 4th centuries CE. Yet, despite the fact that Samaritan antiquity is so poorly attested, renewed scholarly interest in it is both understandable and appropriate. For we know enough about the ancient inhabitants of Samaritis (I use the district's Hellenistic name to distinguish it from the Greek city of Samaria) to appreciate their often critical importance for the history of the region and of ancient Judaism and Christianity. Most ancient Samaritans, like most ancient Judaeans and, later, Christians, seem to have considered themselves "Israelites" and to have acknowledged that they had some sort of special relationship with their southern neighbors. The main concern of this paper is to describe some of the complexities and vicissitudes of this relationship, which many scholars believe was an important factor in the formation of Jewish and Samaritan identity in Hellenistic and Roman antiquity. I will focus on a formative episode in Judaean-Samaritan relations, the destruction of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim, near Shechem, by the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus I in the 120s BCE.

Semites, Iranians, Greeks and Romans: Studies in Their Interactions (review)

Reviewed by: Semites, Iranians, Greeks and Romans: Studies in Their Interactions Peter W. Flint Jonathan A. Goldstein . Semites, Iranians, Greeks and Romans: Studies in Their Interactions. Brown Judaic Studies 217. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. Pp. x + 257 Jonathan Goldstein is best known among scholars of the Bible, early Judaism and nascent Christianity for his books on 1 and 2 Maccabees in the Anchor Bible series. In this volume of collected essays and reviews he provides a panorama of his other writings and research over a period of 23 years, ranging from 1966 to 1988. The eleven articles reveal the author's wide range of interests and expertise, and are divided into two main sections. Part One is aptly entitled "Intercultural Borrowing," and contains five essays, two of which deal with intertestamental history. "Jewish Acceptance and Rejection of Hellenism" proposes that the Jews of Palestine were initially not hostile to Hellenism, but came to reject many of its traits as a result of their experiences in the "critical period" (i.e., the oppressive rule of Antiochus IV). In "Tales of the Tobiads," Goldstein examines the problems and apparent contradictions in Josephus' account of Joseph the Tobiad and his son Hyrcanus in Book xii of the Antiquities. In the remaining three essays of this section, the town of Dura-Europos on the Euphrates features prominently. "The Central Composition of the West Wall of the Synagogue of Dura-Europos" deals with the synagogue's religious, historical and architectural significance, while "The Syriac Bill of Sale from Dura-Europos" examines P. Dura 28, one of the oldest Syriac papyri (243 CE). Goldstein furnishes an annotated transliteration and translation of the text, a brief synopsis of its grammar and orthography, and a detailed commentary. In "Review of Goodenough," the author evaluates vols. IX-XII of Erwin R. Goodenough's renowned Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, making frequent reference to the Dura synagogue. According to Goldstein, Goodenough's "solid achievement" in the twelve volumes of Jewish Symbols was his comprehensive collection of a vast body of figured remains, which can be ascribed only to Jews, and his demonstration that these contain a limited number of motifs, some from Jewish sources and other clearly pagan in origin. Part Two, "Religious Resistance to Foreign Rule," contains the remaining six essays, one of which is "Uruk Prophecy," where Goldstein deals with a fragmentary tablet discovered at Uruk in 1969. This text belongs to a genre of Babylonian literature for which he proposes the term "present-future prophecy," in preference [End Page 85] to "Akkadian prophecy" (A. K. Grayson & W. G. Lambert) or "Akkadian apocalypse" (W. W. Hallo). Specific intertestamental books are the subject of three more essays, one of which is self-explanatory: "The Testament of Moses: Its Content, Its Origin, and Its Attestation in Josephus." In "The Date of the Book of Jubilees," the author argues that Jubilees was most probably written between 169 and 167 BCE. This contrasts with the dates proposed by R. H. Cares (late in the reign of John Hyrcanus I [134-104 BCE]) and James VanderKam (between 161 [pace Goldstein] and 140 BCE). In the "Apocryphal Book of Baruch," Goldstein concludes that Baruch was translated into Greek from a Hebrew original which was composed by a single author in 163 BCE, during the reign of Antiochus V. The remaining two items focus on the books of Maccabees with which the author is so familiar. In his "Review of Doran's Temple Propaganda," Goldstein examines Robert Doran's proposals regarding the purpose and character of 2 Maccabees. He agrees with several theses: for instance, that the Abridged History (2 Macc 3:1-15:39) should be viewed in the wider context of ancient Greek historiography, and fits the pattern of ancient tales depicting how a god miraculously defends his temple and his chosen territory. However, Goldstein is more critical of other aspects of Doran's book: for example, his treatment of the prefixed letters in 2 Maccabees ( 1:1-10a and 1:10b-2:18). The final essay in the collection is entitled "How the Authors in I and II Maccabees Treated the 'Messianic' Promises." In response to the series of disasters...

The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I

The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I

Joseph Sievers, The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. x, 171 pp.

Joseph Sievers, The Hasmoneans and Their Supporters: From Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I. South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. x, 171 pp. - Volume 17 Issue 2

Korte notities over vroeg-joodse epiek

We have only very scanty remains of the corpus of Hellenistic Jewish epic poetry. From the poems of Sosates, ‘the Jewish Homer’, not even one line has been preserved. From Philo Epicus’ On Jerusalem three fragments (23 lines) in obscure Greek are extant, dealing with Gen. 22, the Joseph story, and the water-supply system of Jerusalem. Several haggadic features in the first fragment recur in later intertestamental and rabbinic literature. From Theodotus’ On Shechem (or On the Jews) six fragments (47 lines) are extant. He is not a Samaritan author, as has often been assumed, for, as in other Jewish sources, his rendering of Gen. 34 (the murder of the inhabitants of Shechem) blackens the Shechemites and excuses their murder by Levi and Simeon. It probably served to justify John Hyrcanus’ destruction of Shechem and the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim.

The Seal Impression from Jericho and the Treasurers of the Second Temple

at least one violent destruction of the site (by John Hyrcanus in 128 B. C.?); (3) and after this destruction there was a comparatively brief, but extensive, reoccupation of the site at a time when the city's defenses were in ruins and hasty attempts were being made to repair them. In a tentative way we would suggest a date for the final phase of the city's life between 128 and a time not far removed from 100 B. C.

A Hoard of Coins of John Hyrcanus

A Hoard of Coins of John Hyrcanus