Hyrcanus Breaks with the Pharisees

When Antiochus had taken the kingdom, he was afraid to make war against Judea, because he heard that his brother by the same mother, who was also called Antiochus, was raising an army against him from Cyzicus. So he stayed in his own land and resolved to prepare for the attack he expected from his brother. This brother was called Cyzicenus because he had been brought up in that city. He was the son of the Antiochus called Soter, who died in Parthia, and that Antiochus was the brother of Demetrius, the father of Grypus; for it had happened that one and the same Cleopatra was married to two men who were brothers, as we have related elsewhere. Antiochus Cyzicenus came into Syria and carried on a war with his brother for many years. All this while Hyrcanus lived in peace. After the death of Antiochus he had revolted from the Macedonians, and he no longer paid them the least regard, either as their subject or as their friend. His affairs were improving and flourishing in the times of Alexander Zebina, and especially under these brothers, for the war they waged with one another gave Hyrcanus the chance to enjoy himself quietly in Judea, so that he amassed an immense quantity of money. But when Antiochus Cyzicenus ravaged his land, he then showed openly what he meant to do. When he saw that Antiochus had no Egyptian auxiliaries, and that both he and his brother were in a bad state from their struggles with each other, he despised them both. [a]

So he marched against Samaria, a very strong city. Of its present name, Sebaste, and its rebuilding by Herod, we will speak at the proper time. He attacked it and besieged it with great effort, for he was very angry with the Samaritans for the injuries they had done to the people of Mareshah, who were colonists of the Jews and allied with them; and the Samaritans had done this to please the kings of Syria. So he dug a trench and built a double wall around the city, about ten miles long, and set his sons Antigonus and Aristobulus over the siege. They brought the Samaritans to such distress by famine that they were forced to eat what was never eaten before, and to call on Antiochus Cyzicenus for help. He came readily to their aid but was beaten by Aristobulus, and when the two brothers pursued him as far as Scythopolis, he got away. So the brothers returned to Samaria and shut the people within the wall again, until they were forced to send for the same Antiochus a second time. He obtained about six thousand men from Ptolemy Lathyrus, who sent them without his mother’s consent, for she had by then all but turned him out of his government. With these Egyptians Antiochus at first overran and ravaged the country of Hyrcanus like a robber. He did not dare meet him face to face in battle, since his army was not large enough for that; he only supposed that by harassing the land in this way he would force Hyrcanus to raise the siege of Samaria. But he fell into ambushes and lost many of his soldiers in them, so he went away to Tripoli and handed over the conduct of the war against the Jews to Callimander and Epicrates. [c]

As for Callimander, he attacked the enemy too rashly, was put to flight, and was killed at once. As for Epicrates, he was such a lover of money that he openly betrayed Scythopolis and other places near it to the Jews; but he could not make them raise the siege of Samaria. When Hyrcanus had taken that city, which was not done until after a year’s siege, he was not content with that alone. He wiped it out entirely and left it to be flooded by the mountain torrents: he dug through it until it collapsed into the gullies, and so took away the very signs that there had ever been a city there. Now a very surprising thing is told of this high priest Hyrcanus: how God spoke with him. They say that on the very day his sons fought with Antiochus Cyzicenus, he was alone in the temple, offering incense as high priest, and heard a voice saying that his sons had just then defeated Antiochus. He declared this openly before the whole multitude when he came out of the temple, and it proved true. Such was the state of Hyrcanus’s affairs. [g]

It happened at this time that not only the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea were prospering, but also those in Alexandria, in Egypt and in Cyprus. For Queen Cleopatra was at odds with her son Ptolemy, who was called Lathyrus, and she appointed as her generals Chelcias and Ananias, the sons of that Onias who built the temple in the district of Heliopolis like the one at Jerusalem, as we have related elsewhere. Cleopatra entrusted these men with her army and did nothing without their advice, as Strabo of Cappadocia testifies when he says this: “The greater part, both those who had come over together and those whom Cleopatra sent to Cyprus afterward, went over to Ptolemy at once. Only the Jews from the district of Onias remained faithful, because their countrymen Chelcias and Ananias were in chief favor with the queen.” These are Strabo’s words. [h]

This prosperity, however, moved the Jews to envy Hyrcanus. The worst disposed toward him were the Pharisees, who were one of the sects of the Jews, as we have told you already. They have so much power over the multitude that when they say anything against the king or against the high priest, they are believed at once. Now Hyrcanus had been their disciple and was greatly loved by them. Once he invited them to a feast and entertained them very kindly, and when he saw them in a good humor, he began to tell them that they knew he wanted to be a righteous man and to do everything by which he might please God and them, for that is the Pharisees’ way of life. He asked, however, that if they saw him offending in any point and going out of the right way, they would call him back and correct him. On this they testified that he was entirely virtuous, and he was well pleased with their praise. But there was one of his guests there named Eleazar, an ill-natured man who delighted in faction. This man said, “Since you want to know the truth: if you mean to be righteous in earnest, lay down the high priesthood and be content with governing the people.” When Hyrcanus asked him why he ought to lay down the high priesthood, he replied, “We have heard from our elders that your mother was a captive in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.” This story was false, and Hyrcanus was provoked against him, and all the Pharisees were very indignant with him. [k]

Now there was one Jonathan, a very great friend of Hyrcanus, but of the sect of the Sadducees, whose views are quite contrary to those of the Pharisees. He told Hyrcanus that Eleazar had cast this reproach on him with the common agreement of all the Pharisees, and that this would become plain if he would only put the question to them, what punishment they thought this man deserved. He could rely on it, Jonathan said, that the reproach had not been laid on him with their approval if they were for punishing the man as his crime deserved. Hyrcanus put the question, and the Pharisees answered that he deserved stripes and chains, but that it did not seem right to punish insults with death. And indeed the Pharisees are by nature considerate when it comes to punishments. At this mild sentence Hyrcanus was very angry, and he thought the man had reproached him with their approval. It was this Jonathan above all who provoked him, and he influenced him so far that he made him leave the party of the Pharisees for that of the Sadducees, abolish the regulations the Pharisees had imposed on the people, and punish those who kept them. From this source arose the hatred that he and his sons met with from the multitude; but of these matters we will speak hereafter. What I want to explain now is this. The Pharisees have handed down to the people a great many observances received by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses. For that reason the Sadducees reject them, and say that we ought to regard as binding the observances that are in the written word, but are not to keep those derived from the tradition of our forefathers. Great disputes and differences have arisen among them over these things. The Sadducees can persuade none but the rich, and the common people do not follow them, but the Pharisees have the multitude on their side. But I have treated these two sects, and that of the Essenes, accurately in the second book of my Jewish history. [m]

When Hyrcanus had put an end to this strife, he lived happily after that and governed in the best manner for thirty-one years, and then died, leaving five sons. God counted him worthy of three of the greatest privileges: the government of his nation, the dignity of the high priesthood, and prophecy. For God was with him and enabled him to know things to come, and in particular to foretell that his two eldest sons would not long remain at the head of public affairs. Their unhappy end will be worth describing, so that we may learn from it how far short they fell of their father’s good fortune. [o]