Hasmonean Kingdom

The only independent Jewish state between the Babylonian exile and the twentieth century, founded by a successful revolt and destroyed by its own civil war. It began when Antiochus IV of the Seleucids tried to suppress Jewish practice and desecrated the Temple around 167 BCE, provoking the rising led by Mattathias and his son Judah Maccabee. The rededication of the Temple in 164 is commemorated as Hanukkah. Judah's brothers Jonathan and Simon converted military success into political independence by playing rival Seleucid claimants against each other, and Simon was recognised as high priest and ruler in 141. His successors, John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus, expanded the kingdom to roughly the borders attributed to David, conquering Samaria, Idumea and the Galilee and forcibly converting the Idumeans - which is how Herod's family became Jewish. Combining the high priesthood with kingship offended many, and the Pharisee and Sadducee division that shaped later Judaism hardened in this period; Jannaeus is said to have crucified eight hundred opponents. The dynasty then fell out with itself: two brothers appealed to Pompey, who settled the matter in 63 BCE by taking Jerusalem and making Judea a Roman client. Herod extinguished the line. The books of Maccabees record the revolt but are not in the Hebrew canon. Jerusalem was the capital and the Temple its centre. The Dead Sea Scrolls community at Qumran formed in reaction to Hasmonean rule. Their coins are among the first Jewish coinage. The name comes from an ancestor, Hasmoneus. Josephus is the principal narrative source and wrote a century later.

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