[Page 161].—Alexander acknowledged the merits of Israel.] The narrative of Alexander’s expedition to Jerusalem is contained in Jos. Ant. xi. 8. According to him, Alexander, while occupied in the siege of Tyre, ordered Jaddua the high-priest to send him supplies, and as he refused on the ground of having sworn allegiance to Darius, Alexander, incensed at the refusal, set out as soon as he had finished the sieges of Tyre and Gaza to punish the Jews. He had advanced as far as Sapha, on his way to Jerusalem, when he was met by the high-priest and the whole sacerdotal order. On seeing the name of Jehovah, which was inscribed on the high-priest’s[high-priest’s] tiara, Alexander prostrated himself before him; and when Parmenio asked him how he, whom the rest of mankind adored, should prostrate himself before the Jewish pontiff, he replied that he recognised in his figure and vestments the person who had appeared to him in a dream before he left Macedonia, and had encouraged him to undertake the expedition, by assuring him that he should overturn the throne of Darius. Accompanying the high-priest to Jerusalem, he was shown by him the prophecy of Daniel, in which it was clearly marked that he should overthrow the Persian monarchy. Before he left the city, he promised to the Jews that they should be governed by their own laws and exempted from tribute every seventh year.
The truth of this narrative has been severely attacked by Moyle, Works, ii. 26. and others, see Hudson’s note, p. 503; and defended by Chandler on Daniel, and Prideaux, An. 332, St. Croix, Examen Critique, ed. 2. p. 547. Besides the suspicion which is thrown upon it, by its being unnoticed by the historians of Alexander, it contains circumstances both improbable and contradictory. The high-priest, who shows to Alexander the prophecy of Daniel, in which he is foretold as the conqueror of Persia, refuses submission to him, because he had sworn allegiance to Darius. But can it be believed that if he had known that Alexander was the person predicted long before by Jehovah, as his instrument for overthrowing the dominion of Persia, he would have been withheld by an oath of allegiance to the sovereign, whose reign the prophetic word declared to be ended? So little scruple was there on this subject, that, according to Josephus, many Jews enrolled themselves in his army to fight against Darius. Alexander too is made to know at once, that the characters inscribed on the tiara of a high-priest were the names of Jehovah; and Parmenio asks him why he, who was adored by all, (προσκυνόυντων αὐτον ἁπάντων) adored the Jewish high-priest; though Alexander never received these honours till his overthrow of Darius at Arbela had intoxicated his mind. The circumstance of the dream certainly may be true; but it has much the air of a romantic fiction. On the whole it appears most probable that the Jews made their submissions to Alexander as Justin says the princes of Syria generally did, (x. 10.) either during the siege of Tyre, or afterwards, when Curtius tells us that he reduced the neighbouring cities which refused his yoke, iv. 5.
[Page 162].—Hecatæus of Abdera.] According to Josephus (Cont. Ap. i. 22.) he was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and a friend of Ptolemy Lagi. He wrote a treatise expressly relating to the Jews, and mentioned especially the firmness with which they adhered to their laws in the midst of persecution. He shows so much more knowledge of Judaism, and speaks of it so much more respectfully, than the heathens commonly did, that the work has been suspected to have been the forgery of some Hellenistic Jew. See Origen, cont. Cels. lib. i. p. 13, ed. Spencer. This was the opinion of Scaliger. Spencer, in his note on the passage in Origen, defends its authenticity. The reader will observe the sarcasm, in Myron’s mention of Hecatæus as a native of Abdera, a town proverbial for the dulness of its inhabitants; Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes.
[Page 162].—Antigonus of Socho.] See Prideaux, Conn. An. 263. He was the first of the Mishnical school of Jewish doctors, who taught that the law and the traditions were of equal obligation. The founder of the sect of Sadducees was his son. Socho, from which he took his name, was a small town half way between Jerusalem and Eleutheropolis. Reland, Palæst. 1018. 2 Chron. xi. 5.
[Page 163].—Favour shown by Antiochus the Great to the Jews.] See Jos. Ant. xii. 3. 3.
[Page 163].—Antiochus Epimanes.] Τὸν Ἐπιφανῆ Ἀντίοχον, ὅν διὰ τὰς πράξεις Πολύβιος Ἐπιμανῆ καλεῖ. Athen. ii. 23. The history of the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus will be found in Joseph. Ant. Jud. xii. 5. seq. xiii. 1-9. The first book of the Maccabees, after a brief notice of the empire of Alexander the Great, takes up the Jewish history (i. 10.) at the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, and continues it to the death of Simon, a period of about forty years.
[Page 167].—Modin.] The site of the birthplace of the Maccabees is not exactly known: it must have been near the sea, since their monument was a mark to sailors, 1 Macc. xiii. 30. Eusebius places it near Diospolis or Lydda. Reland, p. 901. Maundrell says he passed near it in an excursion from Bethlehem to the convent of St. John; but this is probably a mistake.
[Page 168].—Judas surnamed Maccabeus.] Different etymologies of the name Maccabee are assigned. That which derives it from מקבת a hammer, (q. d. Martel) seems more probable than the common one; (according to which it originated in their inscribing on their standards the initial letters of Exod. xv. 11.) because it appears to have been the surname of Judas before the war began. See 1 Macc. ii. 4.
[Page 170].—Festival of the new altar.] Jos. Ant. xii. 11. 7. It is this which the Jews of Jerusalem exhort the Jews of Egypt to observe, in the epistles which begin the second book of the Maccabees. But this book is of little authority, and the epistles in particular manifest forgeries. See Prideaux, An. 166.
[Page 170].—Alexander Balas.] He claimed the throne of Syria, as a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and had been supported by Jonathan, the Jewish high-priest. When he had defeated Demetrius and seated himself on the throne, he married Cleopatra, sister of Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt. It was at the celebration of these nuptials (B.C. 150) that Jonathan was distinguished in the manner related in the text. 1 Macc. x. 60. Jos. Ant. xiii. 4. 2.