The Priesthood as You Didn't Know It - Part IV: The Priesthood in Marumiya

In this review we come to the Slovak period - the period of Antiochus and how things were conducted in the Temple during the transition to the new government after the conquest of Judah by the House of Ptolemaic and how the intrigues within the Temple caused the intervention of the Greeks in the internal conduct of Judea for all the historical consequences of this intervention

In 198/200 BC, the period of Ptolemaic (Ptolemaic) rule in Judea ends and the era of Syrian-Hellenistic rule in the name of the House of Seleucus begins. It was following the Battle of Panias (Banias) in the north of the Jordan, when the forces of Antiochus III defeated the Ptolemaic army and retreated it from the territory of Koila-Syria ("Syrian army" in the external sources) to the depths of the southern desert in the valley of the Nile.

Josephus ben Mattathieu brings in his book the Antiquities of the Jews the contents of an official letter that was sent from the camp of Antiochus to Ptolemy the official-commissioner on behalf of the king in the Jerusalem area. The king emphasizes the enthusiasm of the Jews towards him and his army, especially in preparation for the king's arrival in Jerusalem. The letter reveals the essence of the Jewish aid to Ptolemy in his war and its dimensions, and in return the Jewish leadership receives a privilege whose main concern is a kind of autonomy and in the language of the original: the right to live according to the laws of the ancestors. Most of the details of the bill of rights concern the temple, its uses, those who come to it and especially the priesthood. Although the priesthood is not mentioned as having participated in the reception of King Antiochus, and probably because of its pro-Ptolemaic tendency. However, she gains a significant upgrade and at least the approval of her leadership position, and indirectly her economic empowerment due to the management of the temple.

In the margins of the bill of rights it is stated as follows: "All foreigners are prohibited from entering the temple area, which is prohibited even for Jews themselves... No one may bring horse meat, mule meat, or wild donkey meat into the city... Anyone who violates these prohibitions shall pay the priests three thousand drachmas" ( The Antiquities of the Jews 146, 145-3000). The amount of the fine, equivalent to XNUMX days of work, reflects the status of the priesthood in the eyes of the king and its economic empowerment, not to mention the proof of its control over the public. The aforementioned prohibition regarding entering the temple is backed up by a Hellenistic inscription from this very period.

Power corrupts and wealth corrupts, and indeed during this period sharp conflicts arise between the High Priest and the strict breadwinners, such as the ambition of Shimon, the governor of the temple, to assume the office of agronomus (supervision of the management of the market) in the face of the opposition of the High Priest Honio III. Failing in the struggle, he turned to the Seleucid strategos and asked for his intervention in writing to him about the great wealth that had accumulated in the temple that might fall into the hands of the Syrian if he intervened in his favor. Shimon is not satisfied with this and accuses his guards the high priest of a rebellious anti-Seleucus tendency. A dangerous precedent was created here of Seleucid involvement in the internal affairs of Judah at the initiative and incitement of conflicting forces within Jerusalem, within the temple itself.

This precarious situation, the gnawing status of his vassals and the ascension to power in Syria of King Antiochus IV, who was in desperate need of money, is exploited by his vassal's brother - Jesus, or by his Greek, mythological name, Jason, to upgrade his status. Yeson sought to inherit his brother's senior position, still in his lifetime, and lead a dominant process of turning Jerusalem into the Hellenistic polis, with all that implies.
Laxative Yason puts a lot of money in the pocket of Antiochus - 590 coins (ingots) of silver - a huge fortune Three gifts alternative: to accept the appointment of a high priest, to establish educational-sports institutions in Jerusalem and to create an alliance between twin cities - between Jerusalem and the capital of Syria - Antioch. The clerical appointment placed Yason with the blessing of the Seleucid king and his support as the senior Jewish leader, as having great prestige and controlling the "public treasury". The right to establish a Gymnasium and Ephebion (educational-sports institutions) in Jerusalem was supposed to promote the city to receive the status of a polis, and the above-mentioned registration between Antioch and Jerusalem had a ceremonial but also an essential meaning.

This move was unprecedented in every respect and matter - a (almost forced) summoning of the ruling kingdom, the Seleucids, in the internal affairs of Judah, which will be a future precedent of great weight in the history of Jerusalem and Judah. The high priest's status is upgraded and becomes almost an omnipotent leader in all respects - political, economic, social, legal and personal prestige. He is indeed the bringer-and-bringer in Judah. Yeshua/Yason started from a basic and well-known premise: Jerusalem will not be awarded the honorable status of a city of polis if sports-educational facilities such as a gymnasium for the youth and an afebion for adults are not built there and where the citizens of the city of polis will be trained for the future and from whom will grow the cadre that will represent Jerusalem in famous sports games.

The archaeological find in Jerusalem does not allow us to claim with certainty that the aforementioned sports facilities were indeed built, although this should not be ruled out as a presumption. What is clear is that the Maccabean literature contains very interesting evidence of the Hellenistic-style athletic movement that Yason brought to Jerusalem, and such evidence that only someone well versed in this topic of Hellenistic physical activity could have compiled it in his composition.

The Maccabean literature is not satisfied with the mention of the above-mentioned facts, but slides into a vivid and pictorial description regarding the sports buildings and what goes on inside them. It is said that Jason built the gymnasium under the citadel (probably the Hekra) and "the most magnificent of the boys", i.e. the handsome, the tall, the athletic (according to the Greek and Hellenistic idealization) "brought under Patasos" is the hat of Hermes, the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, who was one of the patrons the central ones for the sporting activity, to symbolize the immanent essence of the gymnasium and the epbion and to place Yeson at the center of the affairs of action, and not only in a direct context to the great priesthood. The Maccabean text immediately emphasizes later that Jason is the one who "went before them" (before the gymnasts) in the role of gymnasium.
And who were the gymnasts, alongside the members of the Jerusalem aristocracy, no less and no more - the members of the priesthood. These found the free time between shifts to exercise and compete mainly in wrestling, who was the queen of Greek sports, and in the discus throw, which is also considered an interesting combination of strength, technique, skill and wisdom.

The Maccabean text ends with a string of slanders and pointed protests from the mouth of the writer, who saw before his eyes Jason's Hellenistic reform being forged and realized, to teach about its explosion at the time in the Jerusalem street. The Maccabean writer was very disturbed by the fact that the priests were honoring ancestors in contrast to the "Hellenic honors". This passage exposes us to the significant difference between the conservative concept of ancestral attribution and genealogy and the Hellenistic approach of personal fallibility and perfectionism.

The text in 15 Maccabees is much shorter, almost microscopic, along the lines of "And they will build a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the laws of the Gentiles (meaning both architecturally and organizationally and substantively) and they will make a foreskin for them" (14 Maccabees XNUMX:XNUMX-XNUMX). The gymnastics in the gymnasium and the competitions were performed naked, and since Shison demanded that his movement be visually characterized, he also instructed the gymnasts to show directions, that is, as uncircumcised. This operation required a kind of cosmetic surgery that is quite painful and even contains dangers to human health, but what-can't-be-done-to-resemble-the-Greeks?! By the way, in Sage literature, those people are referred to as "foreskins" (after the act of stretching the skin around the crown of the penis) and sages argued among themselves whether they should be circumcised again or not.

It should be noted that Yason's move in question was intended to create the civil and political infrastructure of the designated polis city - Jerusalem, since according to tradition and procedures a city could not be considered a polis without the sports facilities and physical activity in the Hellenistic style, and only graduates of the Gymnasium and the Epibion ​​can be considered citizens of the city .

Yason is therefore not satisfied with the senior, almost royal status of a high priest, but also of the senior leader of the city.

The date of Jason's reform was set in 175 BC, when three years later, the famous Olympic-style sports games were supposed to take place in the great Hellenistic city of Tyre. Leeson therefore accelerated the way in order to prepare his apprentices for the aforementioned great event so that Jerusalem would appear in a proper place on the map of Hellenic culture. The athletes, probably among them were also priests, were prepared for the competitions and made their way to Tzur. But there is a twist in it: it was customary in the Hellenistic period for each delegation of athletes to bring with them a sum of money to buy a sacrifice to the mythological patron of the games, to Melkereth-Hercules in the case of Tyre, but this move was unusual from the Jewish point of view and therefore it was agreed that the money would be handed over to the port administration of Tyre, as a tribute alternative.

The combination of the two pieces of evidence - the gymnasium in Jerusalem and the games of Tire - clearly shows that the Hellenistic reform initiated by Jason, the Greek high priest, was serious and unrealized. This is another step, the continuation, in the direction of the exposure of the high priesthood to the process of Greekization. We may have predicted a rebellion, a mass popular disobedience, but no. The process took place very quietly to teach us about the public's willingness to be exposed to the dimensions of Hellenization.

Yeshua-Jason's successor in the High Priesthood was Menelaus - a classical mythological name - who deeply deepened the foundations of Hellenization and, like him, his successor Simmachus, with both of them looting the treasures of the Temple with a rough hand for their own tastes and needs. Lysimachus even establishes an organized and orderly military unit in the Hellenistic style that ensures the realization of his intentions.

During the civil/fraternal war that broke out between Jason and Menelaus, Jason fled to Lacedaemonia, which is Sparta, and there he was granted a "political" refuge, also because, according to the Maccabean text - "Ostriches which they (the Lacedaemonians) are close to his people" (Maccabees 9:XNUMX XNUMX). The connection between the Spartans and the Jews appears several times in the Maccabean texts. It is difficult to trace the genealogical thread between the two civilizations, but the myth can be explained against the background of economic and diplomatic relations between the two sides and from a strong desire of the leadership of Jerusalem, as we find throughout the Hellenistic Empire, to find some sort of mythological patron. This, by the way, is connected to Jason's request to "register the people of Jerusalem as the people of Antioch".

Yeson, therefore, contributes to the spread of Hellenistic culture in Jerusalem in particular and in Judea in general. The deepening of this was unprecedented and served as a lever for everything that would take place socially and culturally later in the period.

The series of articles "The Priesthood You Didn't Know" by Dr. Yehiam Sorek

• Part I - the end of the days of the First Temple and the exile in Babylon
• Part II - Return to Zion
• Part III - The Hellenistic period