3. The Maccabean period. (B. C. 166-40.) But the darkest hour precedes the day; the cruelties of the Syrians caused a new and splendid epoch to rise upon Israel.
1.) The revolt of Mattathias. In the year 170 B. C. an aged priest, Mattathias, unfurled the banner of independence from the Syrian yoke. He did not at first aim for political freedom, but religious liberty; but after winning a few victories over the Syrian armies he began to dream of a free Jewish state. He died in the beginning of the war, but was succeeded by his greater son, Judas Maccabeus.[I]
2.) Judas Maccabeus gained a greater success than had been dreamed at the beginning of the revolt. Within four years the Jews recaptured Jerusalem and reconsecrated the temple. (The anniversary of this event was ever after celebrated in the Feast of Dedication, John 10. 22.) Judas ranks in history as one of the noblest of the Jewish heroes, and deserves a place beside Joshua, Gideon, and Samuel as a liberator and reformer.
3.) The Maccabean dynasty. Judas refused the title of king, but his family established a line of rulers who by degrees assumed a royal state, and finally the royal title. In the year 143 B. C. Jewish liberty was formally recognized, and the Maccabean princes ruled for a time over an independent state. Between 130 and 110 B. C. Edom, Samaria, and Galilee were added to Judea. The latter province had been known as "Galilee of the Gentiles" (Isa. 9. 1); but by degrees the foreigners withdrew, and the province was occupied by Jews who were as devoted and loyal as those of Jerusalem.
4.) The rise of the sects. About B. C. 100 the two sects, or schools of thought, the Pharisees and Sadducees, began to appear, though their principles had long been working. The Pharisees ("separatists") sought for absolute separation from the Gentile world and a strict construction of the law of Moses, while the Sadducees ("moralists") were liberal in their their theories and in their lives.
4. The Roman period. (B. C. 40-A. D. 70.) It is not easy to name a date for the beginning of the Roman supremacy in Palestine. It began in B. C. 63, when Pompey the Great (afterward the antagonist of Julius Cæsar) was asked to intervene between two claimants for the Jewish throne, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Pompey decided for Hyrcanus, and aided him by a Roman army. In his interest he besieged and took Jerusalem, and then placed Hyrcanus in power, but without the title of king. From this time the Romans were practically, though not nominally, in control of affairs.
1.) Herod the Great. We assign as the date of the Roman rule 40 B. C., when Herod (son of Antipater, an Edomite, who had been the general of Hyrcanus) received the title of king from the Roman Senate. From this time Palestine was regarded as a part of the Roman Empire. Herod was the ablest man of his age, and one of the most unscrupulous. He ruled over all Palestine, Idumea (ancient Edom), and the lands south of Damascus.
2.) Herod's temple. Herod was thoroughly hated by the Jews, less for his character than for his foreign birth. To gain their favor he began rebuilding the temple upon a magnificent scale. It was not completed until long after his death, which took place at Jericho about the time when Jesus Christ, the true King of the Jews, was born (Matt. 2. 1, 2).