THE NATURE OF HIS SPIRIT

1. Seleucus------------------------------------------------Ruled over Syria and Babylon 2. Ptolemy-------------------------------------------------Ruled over Egypt 3. Lysimachus --------------------------------------------Ruled over Asia-Minor 4. Cassander-----------------------------------------------Ruled over Greece and Macedonia These Kings ruled the four corners of the then known world. Since this period deals mostly with the Hebrew people, the study of Ptolemy and Seleucus who were Kings in the related area to Palistine are of special interest.

THE PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE - 167-63 B.C.

36. THE MACCABEES - 167-135 B.C. The Maccabees, also called Hasmoneans or Asmonean Kings, derived their name form Cashmon, great, great-grandfather of Mattathias. The Maccabees were a family of Jews who resisted the authority of Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, and his successors, who had conquered Jerusalem, and tried to introduce idolatrous worship, in an attempt to destroy the Jews, and their religion. The intolerable pollution of the temple in 168 B.C., caused by Antiochus, with many other abuses that were heaped upon the Jews, reached its height when a Syrian official tried to force Mattathias, an old High Priest, to offer swine flesh upon the altar as a sacrifice in the village of Modin.Mattathias refused and an apostate Jew volunteered to do so. Mattathias killed the apostate Jew, and the government envoy, and destroyed the altar, and fled into the wilderness with three of his sons. Soon the family was joined by other loyal Jews, called “Zealots” and a guerilla army was formed, 167 B.C. Mattathias was well advanced in years when he organized the guerilla army, and died shortly afterwards, 165 B.C. Traditions state that Mattathias died of wounds he received in battle. Before his death he called his five sons to his bedside and instructed them to fight to the death. His five sons were Judas, Jonath, Simon, John and Eleazar. The leadership of the guerilla army fell to his son, Judas, a man of military genius. The Jews under Judas, defeated the Syrians, and liberated Jerusalem, purified the temple and rededicated it, 165 B.C., exactly three years after its profanation in 168 B.C. This victory was the beginning of the feast of Hanukkah, or the feast of Lights. Judas died in battle, 160 BC , and was replaced by his brother, who assumed the office of High Priest, and became a member of the Syrian nobility, and died in battle, 142 B.C. Simon, the last remaining brother of the Maccabaean family finished winning the independence of the kingdom by securing a treaty with Rome, 139 B.C. Simon was assassinated by his son-in-law, 135 B.C. Simon gained for himself and family recognition as a High Priestly Order. This formed a new dynasty, a hereditary high priesthood that became known as the Hasmoneans, named after Hasmon the Great, great grandfather of Mattathias Maccabee. Political power came to be invested in the priest.

37. THE HASMONEANS - 135-63 B.C.

The death of Simon ended the Maccabean era. The division between the Maccabees and Hasmoneans is combined into one period, 167-63.

John Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, 135-104 B.C. became the ruling priest, and during his reign two religious political parties emerged; (1) A conservative group who