Antiochus IV

The Legacy of the Maccabees

The Maccabee Rebellion

"The period of Alexander, who took possession of Palestine in 332 [B.C.E.], passed off fairly quietly for the Hebrews. Their troubles came during the struggle between the Diadochi, since both the Seleucids and the Ptolemies coveted southern Syria and it only finally became a possession of the former in 195 [B.C.E.]."
"The Hebrews of Palestine remained markedly hostile to the ideas and practices which had grown up among other peoples. Their resistance to the introduction of Gentile rites and customs into Jerusalem was the background of many famous scenes in their rebellion. Meanwhile all their writings in the last centuries of the Old Testament period emphasize their firm resolve to defend their traditions jealously and to keep their people apart from the world around them."
     - Luigi Pareti, The Ancient World

In 167 B.C.E. " the Jews in Judaea underwent the great event of their war with King Antiochus, a successor of Alexander, who attempted to persecute them and impose Greek ways on their religion and culture."
     - Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version

"And he will make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for half of the week he will remove sacrifices and drink offerings. And upon the temple a devastating desecration (will come) until an end is put to the devastation."
     - Daniel 9:27

"The history of this doleful period is laid out in the two Books of the Maccabees in the biblical Aprocrypha; Jewish texts written in Greek with all the clarity and intelligence of a good Hellenistic historian. They tell of the plunder of Zerubbabel's Temple and its treasures, of plots and wars and of the terrible sufferings that in 168 BC has accompanied the enforced proscription of the Jews' religion by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes."
     - John Romer, Testament

"At the beginning of the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a conflict broke out between two members of the High Priest Levite family. The conflict resulted in High Priest Onias III going to Egypt. There he set up a new temple at Heliopolis northeast of what is now Cairo. This temple functioned until 70 C.E. when the Romans destroyed it along with the one in Jerusalem.
"Jason, the other High Priest, paid large tribute to the King. This way he stayed in charge until 172 B.C.E. At that time, factions of Jews objected to his closeness to the Greek king. So they sent him to exile in Sparta. A lapsed Jew named Menelaus in 170 B.C.E. bought the High Priestly office. To outraged Orthodox Jews, the Temple sacrifice became an abomination. In 168 B.C.E., Jason returned from Sparta and deposed Menelaus.
"During this time, Antiochus was campaigning against Egypt. Jason soon fell under the suspicions of the King who thought the returned High Priest was conspiring against him. The king then came back from his conflict with Egypt, entered Jerusalem, and slaughtered his opponents. As punishment for this supposed conspiracy, in 167 B.C.E. he dedicated the Temple to the Olympian Zeus."
     - Tom Simms (CrossTalk)

"On the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year [167 B.C.E.], he [an agent of Antiochus IV] erected a devastating desecration on the altar of burnt offering."
     - I Maccabees 1:54

"His generals burned the sacred scrolls, banned circumcision and the celebration of the Sabbath, and set up a pagan altar and established ritual prostitution inside the Temple."
     - John Romer, Testament

"Women who had had their children circumcised were put to death...with their babies hung round their necks."
     - I Maccabees 1:60, 61

"The indignation of the common people was immediate and ferocious and caught the Syrians by surprise....The wars that followed ran through several generations."
     - John Romer, Testament

"...A revolution broke out in Judah under the leadership of the men known as the Maccabees ('Hammers'), the five sons of the High Priest Mattathyah bar Hasmon."
     - William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, let there be an end to all your abominations in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant with all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my sacred offerings: but you have appointed foreigners to act for you in keeping my charge in my sanctuary.
"Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary."
     - Ezekiel 44:6-9

"The earliest mention of a future Resurrection is found in the Apocrypha. In 2 Maccabees - an abridgment of a lost book originally written in Greek by a certain Jason of Cyrene in about 150 B.C.E. - the hope for Resurrection forms an integral part of the story of the woman and her seven sons who suffered martyrdom for the sanctification of the Name of God."
     - Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

[One of the seven martyr brothers says:] "It is meet that those who perish at man's hands cherish hope divine that they shall be raised up by God again..."
[Their mother says:] "It is the Creator of the world who fashions man and devises the generating of all things, and He it is who in mercy will restore you to the breath of life."
     - 2 Maccabees 7:14, 23

The first expression of hope for Resurrection was actually written more than a decade earlier in Daniel 12:2-3.

"In the subsequent rebellion, supported by Rome, Judas Maccabaeus reoccupied Jerusalem in 165 [B.C.E.], and together with his brothers asserted the independence of the country."
     - Luigi Pareti, The Ancient World

The Temple was rededicated in 164 B.C.E. and the restoration of the Temple to Jewish worship is celebrated annually in the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah.

"So it was observed by the lighting of the menorah so that the light of God could be visibly restored to the Temple. Dedication also came in the dead of winter in the northern hemisphere, and thus it captured that ancient prehistoric observance of the moment when the sun ceased its retreat into darkness and began its return to longer days."
     - John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 60

"Now the 7 lamps [of the menorah] signified the 7 planets; for so many there were springing out of the candlestick."
     - Josephus, Wars, Book V, Ch.5:5

"Having assigned the central position to the sun...those above him being Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars; then comes the Sun himself, and next to him Mercury, Venus, and the Moon....namely the candlestick."
     - Philo, Who is the Heir of Divine Things, XLV

"I wish to suggest that the real origin of the custom to light lights was the emotional and spiritual reaction of most of the Jews who actually lived through the war. It was a reaction of memory for those killed or tortured in the war. I suggest that the origin of Hanukah lights was as memorial lights for the dead.
"No historical source about the Maccabean wars, or of the original celebration of Hanukah mentions 'lamps', YET it is clear from Josephus (Antiquities 12:325), and even more so from the Mishnah (BK 6:6), that it was a universal, well-known and accepted custom of all Jews to light 'Hanukah lamps', special oil lamps for Hanukah, and place them in front of their doors. The Mishnah preserves the custom and testifies to the fact that it was a very widespread custom, but does not fix it as halacha. Yet, the people, the Jews, kept on doing it, so that eventually the rabbis HAD TO grant 'mitzvah status' to that popular custom."
     - Rabbi Michael Graetz, "Hanukah: By My Spirit, says the Breath of Life"

"The earliest copy of the book of Daniel is dated around 125-100 B.C.E. The O.T. apocryphal book 'Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach', written in Hebrew around 200-180 B.C.E., lists the (Jewish) 'famous men' in chapters 44-51: Joseph (the counterpart of Daniel at the Pharaoh's court) and the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) are named, but not Daniel. Furthermore, the book of Daniel was not originally included in 'the prophets', suggesting a late composition."
"The book of Daniel can be divided in two main parts, which are very different in content: a) Chapters 1 to 6, written mostly in Aramaic: it follows the alleged career in Babylon of a righteous Jew called Daniel, with legendary tales and unrealistic stories. Here, Daniel's claim to fame is to interpret dreams for the king Nebuchadnezzar (as Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dream: Ge41:1-32). The moral of this part seems to be that one can remain a Jew and be very successful in a foreign court (as Joseph in Ge41:39-57), stay healthy on Jewish food and customs, and in difficult times be rescued by God. And the hope is given that the series of world empires hold on Judea will come to an end (the dream of the large statue...). Here, Daniel is referred to by the third person."
     - Bernard Muller, "The Prophesies of Daniel"

Referred to by Ezekiel, "Daniel was the hero of a poem written one thousand years earlier, an upright king who sat by the town gate judging the cause of the widow, adjudicating the case of the fatherless."
     - William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"b) Chapters 7 to 12, written mostly in Hebrew: starting back from the Chaldean kings (Belshazzar), Daniel himself is the recipient of a series of visions about future events (happening beyond Daniel's lifetime) leading to 'an end to sacrifice and offering' (9:37) and preceding the inauguration of a new eternal kingdom at 'the time of the end' (12:4). Repeatedly, Daniel is given explanations, some by angel Gabriel and others by the demigod.
"From chapter 8 to the end, Daniel refers to himself constantly as 'I' or 'I, Daniel' (46 times!) and 'me' (23 times)."
     - Bernard Muller, "The Prophesies of Daniel"

"The date of the complete work appears in the latter half of the book, the visions. The Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the temple in December, 167 B.C., as we see in Daniel 7:11-14. Verse 8:14 implies the writer has seen the rededication of the sanctuary in December, 164 B.C.E. The passage 11:40-45 shows that the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes was in the future. The Seleucid King died in April, 163 B.C.E. We can thereby date the visions almost to the month. They are clearly an immediate apocalyptic forecast."
     - Tom Simms (CrossTalk)

"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
     - Daniel 9:25-26

"According to the 1290 days indication, this event happened around April of 164 B.C.E., a very appropriate time in order to disturb the Passover Jewish sacrifices."
     - Bernard Muller, "The Prophesies of Daniel"

"Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days."
     - Daniel 12:12

"Written later in the spring. The same ex-Jews and soldiers were chased back one and a half months later (likely in early June of 164 B.C.E.)"
     - Bernard Muller, "The Prophesies of Daniel"

"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
     - Daniel 12:2-3

"Previously, there were Jews who had believed in a new age to be brought about by God: some also thought of a shadowy afterlife of uncertain scope. In the 160s the belief hardened. During the Jews' great war of resistance, martyrs were dying valiantly, but surely they were not dying for ever? Our Bible's first clear account of a bodily resurrection and eternal life for saints and sinners in a text as late as the 160s BC. It was impelled by a historical crisis and, in order to impose itself, was palmed off on someone [the legendary figure of Daniel] who never wrote it."
     - Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version

"The four visions of Daniel 7, 8, 9, and 10-12 were intended to reassure faithful Jews, persecuted between 176 and 164 B.C.E. by the Syrian monarch Antiochus IV Epiphanes, that, just as Babylonians, Medes, Persians, and Greeks had come and gone, so also would the Syrian onslaught swiftly pass."
     - John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)

According to Bernard Muller, ("The Prophesies of Daniel"), the beasts can be defined as:
7:4 "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings." - Belshazzar (Neo Babylonian empire). Daniel's vision supposedly occurred during Belshazzar's reign.
7:5 "And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth" - Cyrus the Great (Persian empire). The three ribs are Media, Lydia and Babylon.
7:6"After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it." - Alexander the Great (Greek/Macedonian empire). The four heads are the Hellenist kingdoms which resulted from the division of Alexander's empire.
7.7 "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong" with "huge iron teeth" and " ten horns" - Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Seleucid kingdom). The ten horns are the ten kings who preceded Antiochus.

"Daniel interprets his own dream, (switching from Aramaic to Hebrew) and tells us explicitly who is speaking about in 7:13 -- none other than the People of Israel, the 'people of the holy ones of the Most High', [verses 18, 22 and 27], who because of their tribulations at the hands of the Gentiles achieve a higher-than-human status."
     - A. Salzberg

"The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever--yes, for ever and ever."
     - Daniel 7:17-18

Like each of the beasts, "one like a son of man" is the leader who symbolically personifies his kingdom, in this case the "saints" of Israel.

"...It appears that Daniel had a temporal ruler in mind, whom he calls Mashiah Nagid ('Anointed Prince')..."
     - Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"The obedience of the Son of Man (and those associated with him) leads through suffering to vindication and to a role as judge."
     - Graham N. Stanton, The Gospels and Jesus, The Oxford Bible Series (1989), paperback, p. 229

As an Angel
The form of the ideal leader of the "saints" of Israel is envisioned as an angel.

"In Daniel 7 the expression 'son of man' appears, and this heavenly figure is extremely important for Christian understandings of Jesus. The heavenly son of man appears in the vision in Daniel 7:13 in which an Ancient of Days appoints a human figure ('one like a son of man') to execute justice in the destruction of the evil ones. This human figure is best understood as an angel. Later on in Daniel, resurrection is promised both for the faithful dead and for the most heinous villains, who will be resurrected so that they may be sentenced to eternal perdition. Hammaskilim ('those who are wise'), apparently the elite of the apocalyptic group, will then shine as the stars in heaven (Dan 12:3). This scripture essentially states that its righteous leaders will be transformed into angels, since the stars were identified with angels in biblical tradition (e.g., Job 38:7)."
     - Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 305

"...While the morning stars sang together and all the angels [Hebrew 'the sons of God'] shouted for joy? "
     - Job 38:7

"Those who are wise [or who impart wisdom] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."
     - Daniel 12:3

As the Pre-Existant Messiah
The Son of Man "first appears as pre-existent in the apocryphal First Book of Enoch, which was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic about 150 B.C.E. From that period on, the concept of the Messiah who was created in the six days of Creation, or even prior to them or who was born at variously stated subsequent dates and was then hidden to await his time, became a standard feature of Jewish Messianic eschatology."
     -Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts

"Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were formed, his name [the Son of Man] was invoked in the presence of the Lord of Spirits. A support shall he be for the righteous and the holy to lean upon, without falling; and he shall be the light of nations.
"He shall be the hope of those whose hearts are troubled. All, who dwell on earth, shall fall down and worship him; shall bless and glorify him, and sing praises to the name of The Lord of Spirits.
"Therefore the Elect and The Concealed One existed in his [the Lord of Spirits] presence, before the world was created, and forever."

"From the beginning the Son of Man was hidden,
And the Most High has preserved him
In the presence of His might,
And revealed him to the elect."
     - 1 Enoch 48:3-5, 62:7

See Ancient Traditions of the Messiah for Micah's description six hundred years earlier of a descendent of David "whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. The phrase Son of Man was used both in the collective sense (the human race) and a singular sense (a human being) in earlier Hebrew literature .

Rise and Fall of the Hasmoneans

"Four of Mattathyah's sons died in the twenty-five-year war of independence that followed the Maccabees' revolt. Then in 143 B.C.E., despaired of ever defeating the fanatic rebels, Antiokhos VII signed a peace treaty with Mattathyah's surviving son, Shimeown, that recognized Judah as an independent state. Officially, Shimeown was only High Priest and military governor, but as he was founder of the Hasmonean dynasty he is usually regarded as its first king."
     - William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"The establishment of the Hasmonean state strengthened the status of the many Jewish communities of the Diaspora - those communities living in foreign lands, whose roots went back many generations. Hundreds of thousands of Jews continued to live in Mesopotamia and throughout the Mediterranean world. Natural increase, the absorption of converts, and the transfer of Jewish captives to foreign countries contributed to the growth of these Jewish communities, which achieved considerable political influence."
"Diaspora Jewry also assisted Judea by providing financial support for the Temple: the half-shekel contribution, which Jews in various centers would collect and transfer to Jerusalem, became a regular source of income and support in Hasmonean times."
     - The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor}

"The use of Greek by large groups of Jews in the Diaspora [most marked by the vicissitudes of Palestine suffered during Antiochus IV] facilitated proselytizing, which was pursued with tenacity and skill among people of all ranks and achieved success in all districts [100,000 Jews lived in Alexandria and 30,000 in Rome by the time of Jesus]. The majority of the new disciples remained, however, at the level of sympathizers, perhaps because circumcision, which was indispensable for becoming fully Jewish, was a distinct obstacle for pagans...In 139 BC...the Jews were first expelled from Rome for making converts there."
     - Luigi Pareti, The Ancient World

"For some years there was peace and quiet, until a man called Alexander Balas landed at Ptolemais (Akko), aiming to win the throne of Syria. He promised to make Jonathan the high priest in return for his support (152 BC). When Balas was killed in 145, his conqueror, Demetrius II, confirmed Jonathan's position. Finally, a Syrian general, Trypho, who was fighting Demetrius, took Jonathan prisoner and executed him (143 BC)."
     - Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus

"The territorial expansion [of the Greeks] has been gradual, until Johanan Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus finally broke the back of the Hellenistic cities [following the collapse of the Seleucid kingdom in 127 B.C.E.]..."
     - The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor}

"According to ancient tradition, the High Priest was chosen from the family of Zadok, as had been true since at least the time of Solomon. But when, in the second century B.C.E., the Jewish dynasty of the Hasmoneans wrested control of their country from the Syrians, they had simply appointed themselves High Priests."
     - John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)

The first historical mention of the feud between the Pharisees and the Sadducees was "when the Pharisees started spreading gossip that one of the Maccabean Kings grandmother had been a captive. This was not true according to Josephus, the early Jewish historian, but good gossip is always more powerful than boring truth."
     - Bruce Evry, "Agrippa - The Last King Of Israel"

Jonathan, a friend of Hyrcanus, told him that the Pharisees were also of the opinion that he should step down from the priesthood.

"It was this Jonathan who chiefly irritated him [Hyrcanus], and influenced him so far, that he made him leave the party of the Pharisees, and abolish the decrees they had imposed on the people, and to punish those that observed them. From this source arose that hatred which he and his sons met with from the multitude."
     - Josephus, War Chapter XIII, Section10:6

"The final blow was the Pharisees throwing citrus fruit at one of the Maccabean Kings during a festival at the Temple in Jerusalem."
     - Bruce Evry, "Agrippa - The Last King Of Israel"

"By 88 BC the Pharisees and other patriots were so outraged by the conduct of the Jewish priest-king, Alexander Jannaeus, who had been ruling from 103 and died in 76 BC, that they asked the Greek king of Syria to help them fight him. When Demetrius II (95-88 BC) came and defeated Jannaeus, some of the rebels who had invited him changed their minds, fought on Jannaeus' side again, and drove out the Syrian army."
     - Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p. 105

"He fills his cave with prey, his den with game"
     - Deuteronomy 21:23

"[And chokes prey for its lionesses; and it fills] its caves [with prey] and its dens with victims (Nahum 2:12ab).
"This refers to the Lion of Wrath [...ven]geance against the Flattery-Seekers, because he used to hang men alive, [as it was done] in Israel in former times..."
     - Commentary on Nahum 4QpNah1 Fags 3-4 1.6-9

"The event is the Battle of Shechem in 88 B.C.E., when the Hasmonean monarch Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.E.), having defeated the Syrian ruler Demetrius III Eucerus (95-78 B.C.E.), took a terrible revenge on the Pharisees, 'those who seek smooth things [Flattery-Seekers],' who had invited the latter south as their supporter. That terrible revenge was massive live crucifixion, restoring that last line's lacuna...'[as it was thus done] from of old in Israel'"
     - John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)

"Alexander Jannaeus...had 800 of the rebels crucified in front of his palace, and their wives and children slaughtered before their eyes."
     - Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p. 105

(2) Annexation by Rome

"Those that succeeded Moses continued for some time in earnest, both in righteous actions and in piety; but after a while there were others that took upon them the high priesthood, at first superstitious and afterward tyrannical persons. Such a prophet was Moses and those that succeeded him, beginning in a way not to be blamed, but changing for the worse. And when it openly appeared that the government was become tyrannical, Alexander was the first that set up himself for a king instead of a priest; and his sons were Hyrcanus [II] and Aristobulus [II]."
     - Strabo, B. XVI. p. 761, 762

"Through their victories, the Jews became a majority again in the Land; and they remained one even after the collapse of the Hasmonean state. The Hasmonean conquests were accompanied by a migration of Jews from Judea and the neighboring areas to the fertile lands of the Shefela, to Galilee, and to Transjordan."
"At the same time a process of hellenization was evident: one obvious manifestation was the adoption by the rulers of Greek names in addition to their Hebrew ones. Their example was followed by most important officials in the political administration and in the army."
"...Some Pharisaic leaders were prepared to compromise with it [the Hasmonean dynasty] - on condition that some extreme features here removed. Their spokesmen was Shim'on Ben Sherah, an illustrious sage and a man of action. It was he who, during the reign of Alexandra, brought about the restoration of Pharisaic domination and acceptance of the laws of the Pharisees as the laws of the state."
     - The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor)

When Alexander Jannaeus died in 76 B.C.E. his widow, Salome Alexandra, with the assistance of the Pharisees (whom Josephus describes as being the real power in the government) had her elder son Hyrcanus made High Priest.

The Hebrew phrase qilelat 'elohim denotes that those committing high treason are accursed 'by God and men (below).

According to the Mishna, "the rabbi and Pharisaic leader Simon ben Shetah...hanged eighty women (witches) at Ashkelon (tala semonim nasim be' asqelon)....In actuality, influential men and political enemies of the Pharisees, not women practicing sorcery, must have been 'hanged' (=crucified) under the rule of the Queen Alexandra Salome, the wife and successor of Alexander Janneus; this is the event behind the rabbinic tradition about Simon's mass execution. According to Josephus, the Pharisees became highly influential and politically powerful after the death of Janneus. They persuaded the queen to eliminate those who had participated in the crucifixion of the eight hundred adversaries of Janneus, mentioned by Josephus (War 1.79-80; Ant 13.380ff. and in [Nahum Pesher] 4QpNah)."
"...The motif of witchcraft was introduced in order to justify the penalty of crucifixion. The practice of sorcery and witchcraft could be condemned as blasphemy, because the secret name of God was used in incantations (cf. b.Shab 75a). Thus the crime of qilelat 'elohim ['accursed by God and men'] (Deut 21:23) was committed, which had to be punished by crucifixion."
     - Otto Betz, "Jesus and the Temple Scroll" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), pp. 85, 86

Alexandra's younger son, Aristobulus [II], had ambitions of his own and took up residence in the royal palace in place of Hyrcanus. At the urging of Antipater, the appointed ruler of Idumea (south of Palestine) , Hyrcanus gathered an army from Nabatea and marched on Jerusalem, besieging Aristobulus and his Sadducee supporters in the Temple. Scaurus, the Roman general from Syria intervened and sent the Nabatean troops home. When the Roman Consul Pompey arrived in Damascus, ambassadors from both bothers appealed to him to intercede on their behalf.

"Pompey decided in favor of Hyrcanus, whose supporters opened the gates of Jerusalem to the Romans; but he met determined resistance from Aristobulus' army on the Temple Mount."
     - The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor}

"Josephus comments on the awe inspiring impression that the zeal of these supporters of Aristobulus made on the Romans as they steadfastly went about their priestly duties in the Temple even as they were being slaughtered there."
     - Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

"And now did many of the priests, even when they saw their enemies assailing them with swords in their hands, without any disturbance, go on with their Divine worship, and were slain while they were offering their drink-offerings, and burning their incense, as preferring the duties about their worship to God before their own preservation. The greatest part of them were slain by their own countrymen, of the adverse faction [Pharisaic collaborators], and an innumerable multitude threw themselves down precipices; nay, some there were who were so distracted among the insuperable difficulties they were under, that they set fire to the buildings that were near to the wall, and were burnt together with them. Now of the Jews were slain twelve thousand; but of the Romans very few were slain, but a greater number was wounded."
     - Flavius Josephus, War of the Jews, Bk I, Ch I, Sn 7 and Sn 5

"After a three month's siege...the Temple fortress was taken, and in 63 B.C.E. the whole of Judea was absorbed into the political framework of the Roman Republic."
     - The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor}

Aristobulus was eventually killed, along with his son Alexander, in the turmoil during the Roman civil war that followed a decade later.

Pompey made Judea "his private fiefdom until his defeat by Julius Caesar at Pharsala in 48 B.C.E. Caesar officially annexed Judea to Rome, as Pompeus had not, and appointed an Idumaean (Edomite) named as its procurator."
     - William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"Caesar showed particular benevolence towards the Jews, and created a special legal status for them which survived in its broad outlines into later times. The Hebrew 'ethnos' was considered similar to a corporation, with an ethnarch, protected by Rome, at its head; members of the Diaspora were allowed to belong to it and to preserve the national religion. The Roman state dispensed them from military service, and from attending tribunals on the Sabbath; and they were allowed to administer their own property. It is certain that the Hebrews of the Diaspora, from their main centers, maintained most active relations with Jerusalem on religious matters. All Hebrews sought to go to the temple at Jerusalem on great occasions as it was considered the one true place of worship, although of course each local community had synagogues with its own leaders and men who had accepted a religious calling."
     - Luigi Pareti, The Ancient World

"When Herod was twenty-five years old (in 47 BC), his father [Antipater, ruler of the Idumeans] put him in charge of Galilee, with Phasael [his older brother] governing the Jerusalem region. Herod took up his task energetically. Bandits were terrorizing the area, so he rounded them up and put them to death, including the leader, Hezekiah."
     - Alan Millard, Discoveries From the Time of Jesus, p 44

"At Antipatros's death in 43 B.C.E his son Herod, who had married a Hasmonean princess, was named king of Judea, Samaria and Galilee by the Trimvir Octavian (Augustus). There was, however, a surviving Hasmonean pretender, Antigonos bar Aristoboulos."
     - William Harwood, Mythologies Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus

"The assassination of Caesar in 44 B.C.E dragged Judea into a war that engulfed the whole Mediterranean world: in particular, the Parthian invasion of Syria during 40 B.C.E brought chaos to the Land. Antigonus the Hasmonean, who had been rejected by Caesar, seized the opportunity to ally himself with Rome's enemies and reclaim the throne of his fathers. The great majority of the Jewish nation supported Antigonus, who became king of Judea, thus reviving the Hasmonean monarchy. As a counter-measure, the Roman generals Mark Antony and Octavian proclaimed Herod, the son of Antipater, as king. And once the Romans had routed the Parthians and were in a position to release large forces for operations against Judea, Antigonus was doomed. In 37 B.C.E. Jerusalem fell to the legions after a five-month siege, and Antigonus, the last of the Hasmonean kings was executed."
     - The Jews in Their Land (David Ben-Gurion Editor}