Free The Age of the Maccabees (Illustrated) by Annesley Streane Page B

Jordan, a success which was
followed, according to Jewish (probably exaggerated) tradition, by great
cruelties practiced upon the neighboring inhabitants. Soon the combined army
and fleet of Egypt, led respectively by Cleopatra and her son Alexander,
brought Ptolemy’s hopes to a close, and he was obliged to return to Cyprus. The
opposition of the Jews in Egypt was the only thing which saved Judea from
becoming thereupon subject to Cleopatra’s rule. Her army had been despatched
under the command of two Jews, Helkias and Ananias. Theformer had died during
the expedition. The latter strongly protested against the annexation, pointing
out that his countrymen in Egypt would not be slow to visit upon the queen what
they were certain to consider a gross breach of faith.
    Janneus soon renewed
his attempts upon various outlying cities, and with success. He captured Gadara
on the Lake of Galilee and other towns, and after nearly a year’s siege
obtained possession of Gaza (96 BC) through an act of treachery. The resistance
was fierce to the end, and the overthrow complete. Before the siege the town
was one of the busiest and most prosperous in Palestine; afterwards it was
little better than a huge ruin, in which fire and spoliation had done their
worst.
    On the ecclesiastical
side Janneus was far from popular. The Pharisees, who had the warm support of
the people, were offended at the indifference with which the high priest
regarded the details of ritual, to which they attached the utmost importance.
Simon ben Shatach doubtless fomented these quarrels, and the stories which have
come down to us concerning him, while many of them are childish, and doubtless
not without considerable accretions of tradition, yet show at any rate a man
who had the skill to secure a powerful share in the conduct of affairs. At
length a crisis came. It could only be with deep-seated resentment that pious
Jews could look on and see a wild warrior like Alexander Janneus discharging
the duties of high priest in the holy place, certainly not with the
conscientious and painstaking observance of the ordinances regarded by the
Pharisees as Divine. Even while he was discharging his priestly office it is
said that for the first time they broke out in open rebellion. During the feast
of Tabernacles, whenevery one taking part in it was required to carry a palm
branch and a citron fruit as a festal emblem, Alexander was once, as he stood
beside the altar about to offer sacrifice, pelted by the assembled people with
the citrons. At the same time they insulted him by calling out that he was the
son of a prisoner of war, and was unworthy of the office of sacrificing priest.
Alexander was not the man to bear this quietly. He called in the aid of his
mercenaries, and 600 Jews were massacred.
    Thus unpopular at home,
Janneus proceeded to gratify his military instincts by leading his hired troops
to attack Obedas, king of the Arabians. His enemy outmaneuvered him, shut up
his forces in a narrow valley, and defeated them with great slaughter. Escaping
to Jerusalem with difficulty, he found his people in revolt, and for the next
six years (94-89 BC) he was engaged in civil war, dismissed by Josephus in
scarcely more than the statement that “in the several battles that were fought
on both sides, Janneus slew not fewer than fifty thousand of the Jews”. The
disfavor with which he was regarded by the majority of his people was
counterbalanced in several ways. His Sadducean leaning induced that party to
assist him, and they formed by far the wealthiest portion of the community, and
could avail themselves besides of the Temple treasury. The provinces on the
east of Jordan, which had been taken from Obedas, were restored to him, and
this probably secured him from feeling sufficient interest in the contest to
intervene. Egypt, as we have seen, owing to the strong Jewish element there,
was unable to make use of the divisions in Palestine for any purpose of
aggrandizement, while