Revolution Politically Considered Essay

The word Maccabean comes from Judas Maccabeus, the leader of the Judaic repulse against Syria which took brand from 167 160 B. C. E. In second Maccabees 15 v 30 he is depictd as The perfect champion of his fellow citizens. The history is preserve in the Apocryphal Biblical passwords Ist and 2nd Maccabees, the sources written closest in time to the up to nowts and to a lesser extent by the Jewish initiatory century C. E. historian Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities ( Books XII and XIII) who wrote some 200 days later.Martin Cohen ( The Hasmonean rotation Politically Considered,1975, page 21) describes all three of authors, those of the Maccabean books and Josephus, as organism overly partisan and seems to be saying that the so called sinners werent as black as they be painted. Some might say further that his article is in danger of going too far the some other way in parts. The name means hammer and was used to describe Judas immense strength. It was then taken as a nam e by his brothers, two of whom succeeded him, and other followers.The conflict had been stirred when, later on a termination of increasing Hellenisation, Syrian getr Antiochus IV Epiphanes gave orders forbidding certain Jewish customs and practices and turned the Temple into a shrine for the pagan god Zeus the idol the Jews refer to as the abomination of desecration mentioned in Daniel 11. Judas Maccabeus and his followers incited a revolt. In 164 B. C. E they were able to regain make of the Temple, which was then cleansed and rededicating to the God of Israel. To this day Jews celebrate the feast of Hanukkah to recall these events.The story ends with the death of Nicanor in 2 Maccabeans 15 and also the idea of dedicating a special day to its remembrance- the thirtieth day of the twelfth month. The use of the menorah, the 7 branched candlestick, is a reminder of the same events. Members of Judas family, the Hasmoneans, go along to rule in Israel until the Romans arrived in f orce in 63 B. C. E. Ist Maccabees was originally written in Hebrew, but that version is now lost and the text used is taken from the Hellenic Septuagint.The book is set in the period of Greek rule and covers the period of revolt from 175 to 134 B. C. However it also describes how many Hebrews truly welcomed the coming of Greek customs, even to the extent of trying to pass themselves run into as Greeks. In 1st Maccabees 1 v 15 the generator tells how some were trying to hide the marks of circumcism i. e. the very mark of their Jewishness. In 2nd Maccabees the events be again related, but this time seemingly with the objective of showing Gods continued care for his people.It begins by spine Alexandrian Jews to keep the feast of Hanukkah and looks back at the events that led up to the inaugural celebration. At the same time it castigates several people the classic Jewish priests, in particular including High Priest Jason who was said to contrive sent money for statue of Herak les, something Martin Cohen ( Page 15 ) sees as a reward rather than as a genuine go intoation because of creed.. Robert Doran ( 2006, The revolt of the Maccabees) looked for diachronic similarities and likened it to the modern day insurgency in Iraq.He tells how for the first years of Seleucid rule there were no major(ip) problems amongst the two groups. He describes the main problem as being about Jewish indistinguishability and who controls that definition. He makes the point that some would non fill considered Jason to be a Jew at all, whereas he, as Jewish high priest, presumably did. He cites twentieth century Jewish scholars Elias Bickermann and Victor Tchenikover who put the blame not on the Seleucids, but upon the Jewish leaders of the time.While I Maccabees blames the Seleucid leader, it has been pointed out by scholars such as Otto Morkholm (Antiochus IV of Syria, 1966) that in general he back up local cultures. The writer of 2nd Maccabees blames the institution of Greek education, even though there were a number of years between the initiative of the Greek school and the revolt. The truth seems to be that when a villager from Modein, the Hasmonean home town, went to make sacrifices, Mattathias, the arrest of Judas, struck him with his sword.The family then fled, but also began a campaign of throwing overmaster the pagan alters that they found and killing those who opposed what they felt was right. By the opening of 2nd Maccabees the father had died and it is Judas who is leading the conversionaries. There are other major differences between the accounts, namely with regard to fighting on the Sabbath. This happens in the first book, but not in the second. According to Doran, in what seems to be a quite objective account ( page 107), upon the death of Antiochus his successor seems, to obtain let the matter stand, with the Hasmoneans in charge in capital of Israel.However the revolution was spreading to other areas. Jerusalem became the center for a general revolt against Seleucid rule. In 162 B. C. E. Judas finally lost control of the Temple area and was killed. Josephus describes in the opening words of his second book about the period, (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 13) how, after the death of Judus Maccabeus all the wicked, and those that transgressed the laws of their forefathers, sprang up again in Judea. And so the battles continued under advanced leadership.However soon after this the Seleucid Empire began to rumple because of its own internal divisiveness and Simon, brother of Judas, was able to expel the Seleucids. He was accepted as high priest of Judea in 140 B. C. E. So what had begun as a religious protest ended up as the land for an independent kingdom at last for a while. Martin Cohen took a new look at the events portrayed in the scriptures. He sees it as more than as an internal fight among Jews as a revolt against distant rule.He states (page 26) that Antiochus believed that no Jewish gro up was capable of holding the peace. He had trouble elsewhere and this is why he came graduate hard, turning Jerusalem into a fortress and he also removed the power of the Jewish constitution. This turned many into revolutionaries. If they had no Jewish law how could they be Jewish? Cohen describes how the revolt has often been viewed as a class struggle between the Hellenistic rulers and the ordinary people, despite the fact that there seems to have been locoweed roots support of Hellenisation.The Maccabees were not just non Hellenistic however, they were totally anti Hellenistic, not just for themselves, but for Judaism as such. Cohen points out that the two accounts are both conflicting and inadequate and that the facts cited by Jewish historian Josephus dont add a great deal to historic knowledge. He also describes how the Jewish Hellenistic aristocracy were very small in number. If they had not had popular support then the Selucid would have had to come down hard. Right from the beginning.The priests concerned are condemned in passages such as 2nd Maccabees 4 v 11 and 14. In the former passage they are accused of adding to the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch was scripture, but it was also the basis for all Jewish life. At the time of the revolution religion and politics, as far as the Jewish people were concerned were one and the same thing. But the Hellenistic Jews did not deny Judaism and the priests amongst them continued with their sacrificial roles, which they do not seem to have considered as being in opposition to their Hellenistic practices.Conclusion some(prenominal) the truth of the matter regarding the origins of the revolt and wherever the true blame should lie, essentially this was about preserving Judaism as it had been for hundred of years and was about defining what is a Jew an argument that can still be seen to be going on, even if sometimes in silence, in the differences to be observed daily in the 21st century between those who call th emselves Orthodox Jews and others of the same faith and race, believers and otherwise. Works CitedBible, King James, 2nd Maccabees, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia twelfth may 2010, Libraryhttp//etext. virginia. edu/toc/modeng/public/Kjv2Mac. html Bible, Revised Standard Version, Ist Maccabees, National Council of Churches of Christ in America 12th May 2010, http//quod. lib. umich. edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx? type=DIV1&byte=4219672 Cohen Martin, The Hasmonean Revolution Politically Considered Outline of a New Interpretation, The Journal of the Central gathering of American Rabbis , (Fall 1975 ) 13-34Doran , Robert, The Revolt of the Maccabees The National Interest ( September October 2006)99, 100 Josephus , Antiquities of the Jews , Book XII ,12th May 2010, http//www. ccel. org/j/josephus/works/ant-12. htm Josephus , Antiquities of the Jews , Book XIII 12th May 2010 http//www. ccel. org/j/josephus/works/ant-13. htm Morkholm, Otto, Antiochus IV of Syria, Classica et M ediaevalia Dissertationes VIII, Copenhagen. 1966