Beacon Lights of History, Vol 2: Jewish Heroes and Prophets — Judas Maccabaeus, Part 1

RESTORATION OF THE JEWISH COMMONWEALTH.

After the heroic ages of Joshua, Gideon, and David, no warriors appeared in Jewish history equal to Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers in bravery, in patriotism, and in noble deeds.

They delivered the Hebrew nation when it had sunk to abject submission under the kings of Syria, and when its glory and strength alike had departed.

The conquests of Judas especially were marvellous, considering the weakness of the Jewish nation and the strength of its enemies.

No hero that chivalry has produced surpassed him in courage and ability; his exploits would be fabulous and incredible if not so well attested.

He is not a familiar character, since the Apocrypha, from which our chief knowledge of his deeds is derived, is now rarely read.

Jewish history resembles that of Europe in the Middle Ages in the sentiments which are born of danger, oppression, and trial.

As a point of mere historical interest, the dark ages that preceded the coming of the Messiah furnish reproachless models of chivalry, courage, and magnanimity, and also the foundation of many of those institutions that cannot be traced to the laws of Moses.

But before I present the wonderful career of Judas Maccabaeus, we must look to the circumstances which made that career remarkable and eventful.

On the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity there was among them only the nucleus of a nation: more remained in Persia and Assyria than returned to Judaea.

We see an infant colony rather than a developed State; it was so feeble as scarcely to attract the notice of the surrounding monarchies.

In all probability the population of Judaea did not number a quarter as many as those whom Moses led out of Egypt; it did not furnish a tenth part as many fighting men as were enrolled in the armies of Saul; it existed only under the protection afforded by the Persian monarchs.

The Temple as rebuilt by Nehemiah bore but a feeble resemblance to that which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed; it had neither costly vessels nor golden ornaments nor precious woods to remind the scattered and impoverished people of the glory of Solomon.

Although the walls of Jerusalem were partially restored, its streets were filled with the débris and ruins of ancient palaces.

The city was indeed fortified, but the strong walls and lofty towers which made it almost impregnable were not again restored as in the times of the old monarchy.

It took no great force to capture the city and demolish the fortifications.

The vast and unnumbered treasures which David, Solomon, and Hezekiah had accumulated in the Temple and the palaces formed no inconsiderable part of the gold and silver that finally enriched Babylonian and Persian kings.

The wealth of one of the richest countries of antiquity had been dispersed and re-collected at Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, and other cities, to be again seized by Alexander in his conquest of the East, then again to be hoarded or spent by the Syrian and Egyptian kings who descended from Alexander's generals, and finally to be deposited in the treasuries of the Romans and the Byzantine Greeks.

Whatever ruin warriors may make, whatever temples and palaces they may destroy, they always spare and seize the precious metals, and keep them until they spend them, or are robbed of them in their turn.

Not only was the Holy City a desolation on the return of the Jews, but the rich vineyards and olive-grounds and wheat-fields had run to waste, and there were but few to till and improve them.

The few who returned felt their helpless condition, and were quiet and peaceable.

Moreover, they had learned during their seventy years' exile to have an intense hatred of everything like idolatry,--a hatred amounting to fanatical fierceness, such as the Puritan Colonists of New England had toward Catholicism.

In their dreary and humiliating captivity they at length perceived that idolatry was the great cause of all their calamities;

that no national prosperity was possible for them, as the chosen people, except by sincere allegiance to Jehovah.

At no period of their history were they more truly religious and loyal to their invisible King than for two hundred years after their return to the land of their ancestors.

The terrible lesson of exile and sorrow was not lost on them.

It is true that they were only a "remnant" of the nation, as Isaiah had predicted, but they believed that they were selected and saved for a great end.

This end they seemed to appreciate now more than ever, and the idea that a great Deliverer was to arise among them, whose reign was to be permanent and glorious, was henceforth devoutly cherished.

A severe morality was practised among these returned exiles, as marked as their faith in God.

They were especially tenacious of the laws and ceremonies that Moses had commanded.

They kept the Sabbath with a strictness unknown to their ancestors.

They preserved the traditions of their fathers, and conformed to them with scrupulous exactness; they even went beyond the requirements of Moses in outward ceremonials.

Thus there gradually arose among them a sect ultimately known as the Pharisees, whose leading peculiarity was a slavish and fanatical observance of all the technicalities of the law, both Mosaic and traditional; a sect exceedingly narrow, but popular and powerful.

They multiplied fasts and ritualistic observances as the superstitious monks of the Middle Ages did after them; they extended the payment of tithes (tenths) to the most minute and unimportant things, like the herbs which grew in their gardens; they began the Sabbath on Friday evening, and kept it so rigorously that no one was permitted to walk beyond one thousand steps from his own door.

A natural reaction to this severity in keeping minute ordinances, alike narrow, fanatical, and unreasonable, produced another sect called the Sadducees,--a revolutionary party with a more progressive spirit, which embraced the more cultivated and liberal part of the nation; a minority indeed,--a small party as far as numbers went,--but influential from the men of wealth, talent, and learning that belonged to it, containing as it did the nobility and gentry.

The members of this party refused to acknowledge any Oral Law transmitted from Moses, and held themselves bound only by the Written Law; they were indifferent to dogmas that had not reason or Scriptures to support them.

The writings of Moses have scarcely any recognition of a future life, and hence the Sadducees disbelieved in the resurrection of the dead,--for which reason the Pharisees accused them of looseness in religious opinions.

They were more courteous and interesting than the great body of the people who favored the Pharisees, but were more luxurious in their habits of life.

They had more social but less religious pride than their rivals, among whom pride took the form of a gloomy austerity and a self-satisfied righteousness.

Another thing pertaining to divine worship which marked the Jews on their return from captivity was the establishment of synagogues, in which the law was expounded by the Scribes, whose business it was to study tradition, as embodied in the Talmud.

The Pharisees were the great patrons and teachers of these meetings, which became exceedingly numerous, especially in the cities.

There were at one time four hundred synagogues in Jerusalem alone.

To these the great body of the people resorted on the Sabbath, rather than to the Temple.

The synagogue, popular, convenient, and social, almost supplanted the Temple, except on grand occasions and festivals.

The Temple was for great ceremonies and celebrations, like a mediaeval cathedral,--an object of pride and awe, adorned and glorious; the synagogue was a sort of church, humble and modest, for the use of the people in ordinary worship,--a place of religious instruction, where decent strangers were allowed to address the meetings, and where social congratulations and inquiries were exchanged.

Hence, the synagogue represented the democratic element in Judaism, while it did not ignore the Temple.

Nearly contemporaneous with the synagogue was the Sanhedrim, or Grand Council, composed of seventy-one members, made up of elders, scribes, and priests,--men learned in the law, both Pharisees and Sadducees.

It was the business of this aristocratic court to settle disputed texts of Scripture; also questions relating to marriage, inheritance, and contracts.

It met in one of the buildings connected with the Temple.

It was presided over by the high-priest, and was a dignified and powerful body, its decisions being binding on the Jews outside Palestine.

It was not unlike a great council in the early Christian Church for the settlement of theological questions, except that it was not temporary but permanent; and it was more ecclesiastical than civil.

Jesus was summoned before it for assuming to be the Messiah; Peter and John, for teaching false doctrine; and Paul, for transgressing the rules of the Temple.

Thus in one hundred and fifty or two hundred years after the Jews returned to their own country, we see the rise of institutions adapted to their circumstances as a religious people, small in numbers, poor but free,--for they were protected by the Persian monarchs against their powerful neighbors.

The largest part of the nation was still scattered in every city of the world, especially at Alexandria, where there was a very large Jewish colony, plying their various occupations unmolested by the civil power.

In this period Ewald thinks there was a great stride made in sacred literature, especially in recasting ancient books that we accept as canonical.

Some of the most beautiful of the Psalms were supposed to have been written at this time; also Apocalypses, books of combined history and revelatory prophecy,--like Daniel, and simple histories like Esther,--written by gifted, lofty, and spiritual men whose names have perished, embodying vivid conceptions of the agency of Jehovah in the affairs of men, so popular, so interesting, and so religious that they soon took their place among the canonical books.

The most noted point in the history of the Jews in the dark ages of their history, for two hundred years after their return from Babylon and Persia, was the external peace and tranquillity of the country, favorable to a quiet and uneventful growth, like that of Puritan New England for one hundred and fifty years after the settlement at Plymouth,--making no history outside of their own peaceful and prosperous life.

They had no intercourse with surrounding nations, but were contented to resettle ancient villages, and devote themselves to agricultural pursuits.

They were thus trained by labor and poverty--possibly by dangers--to manly energies and heroic courage.

They formed a material from which armies could be extemporized on any sudden emergencies.

There was no standing army as in the times of David and Solomon, but the whole people were trained to the use of military weapons.

Thus the hardy and pious agriculturists of Palestine grew imperceptibly in numbers and wealth, so as to become once more a nation.

In all probability this unhistorical period, of which we know almost nothing, was the most fruitful period in Jewish history for the development of great virtues.

If they had no heathen literature, they could still discuss theological dogmas; if they had no amusements, they could meet together in their synagogues; if they had no king, they accepted the government of the high-priest; if they had no powerful nobles, they had the aristocratic Sanhedrim, which represented their leading men; if they were disposed to contention, as so many persons are, they could dispute about the unimportant shibboleths which their religious parties set up as matters of difference,--and the more minute, technical, and insoluble these questions were, the fiercer probably grew their contests.

Such was the Hebrew commonwealth in the dark ages of its history, under the protection of the Persian kings.

It formed a part of the province of Syria, but the internal government was administered by the high-priests.

After the return from exile Joshua, Joachim, and Eliashib successively filled the pontifical office.

The government thus was not unlike that of the popes, abating their claims to universal spiritual dominion, although the office of high-priest was hereditary.

Jehoiada, son of Eliashib, reigned from 413 to 373, and he was succeeded by his son Johanan, under whose administration important changes took place during the reign of Artaxerxes III.

, called Ochus, the last but two of the Persian monarchs before the conquest of Persia by Alexander.

The Persians had in the mean time greatly degenerated in their religious faith and observances.

Magian rites became mingled with the purer religion of Zoroaster, and even the worship of Venus was not uncommon.

Under Cyrus and Darius there was nothing peculiarly offensive to the Jews in the theism of Ormuzd, which was the old religion of the Persians; but when images of ancient divinities were set up by royal authority in Persepolis, Susa, Babylon, and Damascus, the allegiance of the Jews was weakened, and repugnance took the place of sympathy.

Moreover, a creature of Artaxerxes III.

, by the name of Bagoses, became Satrap of Syria, and presumed to appoint as the high-priest at Jerusalem Joshua, another son of Jehoiada, and severely taxed the Jews, and even forced his way into the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary of the Temple,--a sacrilege hard to be endured.

This Bagoses poisoned his master, and in the year 338 B. C.

elevated to the throne of Persia his son Arses, who had a brief reign, being dethroned and murdered by his father.

In 336 Darius III.

became king, under whom the Persian monarchy collapsed before the victories of Alexander.

Judaea now came under the dominion of this great conqueror, who favored the Jews, and on his death, 323 B. C.

, it fell to the possession of Laomedon, one of his generals; while Egypt was assigned to Ptolemy Soter, son of Lagus.

Between these princes a war soon broke out, and Laomedon was defeated by Nicanor, one of Ptolemy's generals; and Palestine refusing to submit to the king of Egypt, Ptolemy invaded Judaea, besieged Jerusalem, and took it by assault on the Sabbath, when the Jews refused to fight.

A large number of Jews were sent to Alexandria, and the Jewish colony ultimately formed no small part of the population of the new capital.

Some eighty thousand Jews, it is said, were settled in Alexandria when Palestine was governed by Greek generals and princes.

But Judaea was wrested from Ptolemy Lagus by Antigonus, and again recovered by Ptolemy after the battle of Ipsus, in 301 B. C.

Under Ptolemy Egypt became a powerful kingdom, and still more so under his son Philadelphus, who made Alexandria the second capital of the world,--commercially, indeed, the first.

It became also a great intellectual centre, and its famous library was the largest ever collected in classical antiquity.

This city was the home of scholars and philosophers from all parts of the world.

Under the auspices of an enlightened monarch, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, the version being called the Septuagint,--an immense service to sacred literature.

The Jews enjoyed great prosperity under this Grecian prince, and Palestine was at peace with powerful neighbors, protected by the great king who favored the Jews as the Persian monarchs had done.

Under his successor, Ptolemy Euergetes, a still more powerful king, the empire reached its culminating glory, and was extended as far as Antioch and Babylon.

Under the next Ptolemy,--Philopater,--degeneracy set in; but the empire was not diminished, and the Syrian monarch Antiochus III.

, called the Great, was defeated at the battle of Raphia, 217. Under the successor of the enervated Egyptian king, Ptolemy V. , a child five years old, Antiochus the Great retrieved the disaster at Raphia, and in 199 won a victory over Scopas the Egyptian general, in consequence of which Judaea, with Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, passed from the Ptolemies to the Seleucidae.

Judaea now became the battle-ground for the contending Syrian and Egyptian armies, and after two hundred years of peace and prosperity her calamities began afresh.

She was cruelly deceived and oppressed by the Syrian kings and their generals, for the "kings of the North" were more hostile to the Jews than the "kings of the South."

In consequence of the incessant wars between Syria and Egypt, many Jews emigrated, and became merchants, bankers, and artisans in all the great cities of the world, especially in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Egypt, where all departments of industry were freely opened to them.

In the time of Philo, there were more than a million of Jews in these various countries; but they remained Jews, and tenaciously kept the laws and traditions of their nation.

In every large city were Jewish synagogues.

It was under the reign of Antiochus IV.

, called Epiphanes, when Judaea was tributary to Syria, that those calamities and miseries befell the Jews which rendered it necessary for a deliverer to arise.

Though enlightened and a lover of art, this monarch was one of the most cruel, rapacious, and tyrannical princes that have achieved an infamous immortality.

He began his reign with usurpation and treachery.

Being unsuccessful in his Egyptian campaigns, he vented his wrath upon the Jews, as if he were mad.

Onias III.

was the high-priest at the time.

Antiochus dispossessed him of his great office and gave it to his brother Jason, a Hellenized Jew, who erected in Jerusalem a gymnasium after the Greek style.

But the king, a zealot in paganism, bitterly and scornfully detested the Jewish religion, and resolved to root it out.

His general, Apollonius, had orders to massacre the people in the observance of their rites, to abolish the Temple service and the Sabbath, to destroy the sacred books, and introduce idol worship.

The altar on Mount Moriah was especially desecrated, and afterward dedicated to Jupiter.

A herd of swine were driven into the Temple, and there sacrificed.

This outrage was to the Jews "the abomination of desolation," which could never be forgotten or forgiven.

The nation rallied and defied the power of a king who could thus wantonly trample on what was most sacred and venerable.

Two hundred years earlier, resistance would have been hopeless; but in the mean time the population had quietly increased, and in the practice of those virtues and labors which agricultural life called out, the people had been strengthened and prepared to rally and defend their lives and liberties.

They were still unwarlike, without organization or military habits; but they were brave, hardy, and patriotic.

Compared, however, with the forces which could be arrayed against them by the Syrian monarch, who was supreme in western Asia, they were numerically insignificant; and they were also despised and undervalued.

They seemed to be as sheep among wolves,--easy to be intimidated and even exterminated.

The outrage in the Temple was the consummation of a series of humiliations and crimes; for in addition to the desecration of the Jewish religion, Antiochus had taken Jerusalem with a great army, had entered into the Temple, where the national treasures were deposited (for it was the custom even among Greeks and Romans to deposit the public money in the temples), and had taken away to his capital the golden candlesticks, the altar of incense, the table of shew bread, and the various vessels and censers and crowns which were used in the service of God,--treasures that amounted to one thousand eight hundred talents, spared by Alexander.

So that there came great mourning upon Israel throughout the land, both for the desecration of sacred places, the plunder of the Temple, and the massacre of the people.

Jerusalem was sacked and burned, women and children were carried away as captives, and a great fortress was erected on an eminence that overlooked the Temple and city, in which was placed a strong garrison.

The plundered inhabitants fled from Jerusalem, which became the habitation of strangers, with all its glory gone.

"Her sanctuary was laid waste, her feasts were turned into mourning, her Sabbath into a reproach, and her honor into contempt."

Many even of the Jews became apostate, profaned the Sabbath, and sacrificed to idols, rather than lose their lives; for the persecution was the most unrelenting in the annals of martyrdom, even to the destruction of women and children.

The insulted and decimated Jews now rallied under Mattathias, the founder of the Asmonean dynasty.

The immediate occasion of the Jewish uprising, which was ultimately to end in national independence and in the rule of a line of native princes, was as unpremeditated as the throwing out of the window at the council chamber at Prague those deputies who supported the Emperor of Germany in his persecution of the Protestants, which led to the Thirty Years' War and the establishment of religious liberty in Germany.

At this crisis among the Jews, a hero arose in their midst as marvellous as Gustavus Adolphus.

In Modin, or Modein, a town near the sea, but the site of which is now unknown, there lived an old man of a priestly family named Asmon, who was rich and influential.

His name was Mattathias, and he had five grown-up sons, each distinguished for bravery, piety, and patriotism.

He was so prominent in his little city for fidelity to the faith of his fathers, as well as for social position, that when an officer of Antiochus came to Modin to enforce the decrees of his royal master, he made splendid offers to Mattathias to induce him to favor the crusade against his countrymen.

Mattathias not only contemptuously rejected these overtures, but he openly proclaimed his resolution to adhere to his religion,--a man who could not be bribed, and who could not be intimidated.

"Be it far from us," he said, "to forsake law and ordinances.

We will not hearken to the king's words, to turn aside to the right hand or to the left."

When he had thus given noble attestation of his resolution to adhere to the faith of his fathers, there came forward an apostate Jew to sacrifice on the heathen altar, which it seems was erected by royal command in all the cities and towns of Judaea.

This so inflamed the indignation of the brave old man that he ran and slew the Jew upon the altar, together with the king's commissioner, and pulled down the altar.

For this, Mattathias was obliged to flee, and he escaped to the mountains, taking with him his five sons and all who would join his standard of revolt, crying with a loud voice, "Let every one zealous for the Law follow me!"

A considerable multitude fled with him to the wilderness of Judaea, on the west of the Dead Sea, taking with them their wives and children and cattle.

But this flight from persecution speedily became known to the troops that were quartered on Mount Zion, a strong fortress which controlled the Temple and city, and a detachment was sent in pursuit.

The fugitives, zealous for the Law, refused to defend themselves on the Sabbath day, and the result was that they all perished, with their wives and children.

Their fate made such a powerful impression on Mattathias, that it was resolved henceforth to fight on the Sabbath day, if attacked.

The patriots had to choose between two alternatives,--to be utterly rooted out, or to defend themselves on the Sabbath, and thus violate the letter of the Law.

Mattathias was sufficiently enlightened to perceive that fighting on the Sabbath, if attacked, was a supreme necessity, remembering doubtless that Moses recognized the right of necessary work even on the sacred day of rest.

The law of self-defence is an ultimate one, and appeals to the consciousness of universal humanity.

Strange as it may seem, the Sabbath has ever been a favorite day with generals to fight grand battles in every Christian country.

Mattathias, although a very old man, now put forth superhuman energies, raised an army, drove the persecuting soldiers out of the country, pulled down the heathen altars, and restored the Law; and when the time came for him to die, at the age of one hundred and forty-five years,--if we may credit the history, for Josephus and the Apocrypha are here our chief authorities,--he collected around him his five sons, all wise and valiant men, and enjoined them to be united among themselves, and to be faithful to the Law,--calling to their minds the noted examples from the Hebrew Scriptures, Abraham, Joseph, Joshua, David, Elijah, who were obedient to the commandments of God.

He did not speak of patriotism, although an intense lover of his country.

He exhorted his sons to be simply obedient to the Law,--not, probably, in the restricted and literal sense of the word, but in the idea of being faithful to God, even as Abraham was obedient before the Law was given.

The glory which he assured them they would thus win was not the _éclat_ of victory, or even of national deliverance, but the imperishable renown which comes from righteousness.

He promised a glorious immortality to those who fell in battle in defence of the truth and of their liberties, reminding us of the promises which Mohammed made to his followers.

But the great incentive to bravery which he urged was the ultimate reward of virtue, which runs through the Scriptures, even the favor of God.

The heroes of chivalry fought for the favor of ladies, the praises of knights, and the friendship of princes; the reward of modern generals is exaltation in popular estimation, the increase of political power, the accumulation of wealth, and sometimes the consciousness of rendering important services to their country,--an exalted patriotism, such as marked Washington and Cromwell.

But the reward which the Jewish hero promised was loftier,--even that of the divine favor.

The aged Mattathias, having thus given his last counsels to his sons, recommended the second one, Simon, or Simeon, as the future head of the family, to whose wisdom the other brothers were to defer,--a man whose counsel would be invaluable.

The third brother, Judas, a mighty warrior from his youth, was appointed as the leader of the forces to fight the battles of the people,--the peculiar vocations of Saul and of David, for which they were selected to be kings.

On the death of Mattathias, mourned by all Israel as Samuel was mourned, at the age of one hundred and forty-five, and buried in the sepulchre of his fathers at Modin, Judas, called "The Maccabaeus" ("The Hammer," as some suppose), rose up in his stead; and all his brothers helped him, and all his father's friends, and he fought with cheerfulness the battles of Israel.

He put on armor as a hero, and was like a lion in his acts, and like a lion's whelp roaring for prey.

He pursued and punished the Jewish transgressors of the Law, so that they lost courage, and all the workers of inquity were thrown into disorder, and the work of deliverance prospered in his hands.

Like Josiah he went through the cities of Judah, destroying the heathen and the ungodly.

The fame of his exploits rapidly spread through the land, and Apollonius, military governor of Samaria, collected an army and marched against a man who with his small forces set at defiance the sovereignty of a mighty monarchy.

Judas attacked Apollonius, slew him, and dispersed his army.

Ever afterward he was girded with the sword of the Syrian,--a weapon probably adorned with jewels, and tempered like the famous Damascus blades.

Seron, a general of higher rank, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian forces in Palestine, irritated at the defeat and death of Apollonius, the following year marched with a still larger army against Judas.

The latter had with him only a small company, who were despondent in view of the great array of their heathen enemies, and moreover faint from having not eaten anything that day.

But the heroic leader encouraged his men, and, undaunted in the midst of overwhelming danger, resolved to fight, trusting for aid from the God of battles; for "victory," said he, "is not through the multitude of an army, but from heaven cometh the strength."

This resolution to fight against overwhelming odds would be audacity in modern warfare, which is perfected machinery, making one man with reliable weapons as good as another, and success to be chiefly determined by numbers skilfully posted and manoeuvred according to strategic science; but in ancient times personal bravery, directed by military genius and aided by fortunate circumstances, frequently prevailed over the force of multitudes, especially if the latter were undisciplined or intimidated by superstitious omens,--as evinced by Alexander's victories, and those of Charles Martel and the Black Prince in the Middle Ages.

The desperate valor of Judas and his small band was crowned with complete success.

Seron was defeated with great loss, his army fled, and the fame of Judas spread far and wide.

His name became a terror to the nations.