Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Transliteration of Hebrew
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- PART I HISTORICAL EVALUATION
- PART II ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLES: INTRODUCTION, TEXT AND COMMENTARY
- PART III APPENDICES
- A The infantry Royal Guard in the Seleucid army
- B ma'arāḵā (= formation) and fālanḵs in the Hebrew original of I Maccabees
- C Was a Seleucid military settlement established in Jerusalem?
- D The location and history of the Seleucid citadel (the Akra) in Jerusalem
- E The chronology of Antiochus Epiphanes' expedition to the eastern satrapies
- F Defensive war on the Sabbath according to the Books of the Maccabees
- G The ceremony at Mizpah and the chapter on ‘(the Priest) Anointed for Battle’ in the mishnaic tractate Sotah
- H The Babylonian Jews and the Galatians
- I The geographical background and chronological sequence of the clashes with Timotheus in the Second Book of the Maccabees
- J The negotiations between the Jews and the Seleucid authorities in the reigns of Antiochus Epiphanes and Antiochus Eupator
- K The chronology of Lysias' second expedition
- L The route of Bacchides' second expedition to Judaea
- EXCURSUS
- Plates
- Abbreviations
- References
- Indexe locorum
- General index
- Index of Greek terms
- Index of Hebrew words and phrases
C - Was a Seleucid military settlement established in Jerusalem?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Transliteration of Hebrew
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- PART I HISTORICAL EVALUATION
- PART II ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLES: INTRODUCTION, TEXT AND COMMENTARY
- PART III APPENDICES
- A The infantry Royal Guard in the Seleucid army
- B ma'arāḵā (= formation) and fālanḵs in the Hebrew original of I Maccabees
- C Was a Seleucid military settlement established in Jerusalem?
- D The location and history of the Seleucid citadel (the Akra) in Jerusalem
- E The chronology of Antiochus Epiphanes' expedition to the eastern satrapies
- F Defensive war on the Sabbath according to the Books of the Maccabees
- G The ceremony at Mizpah and the chapter on ‘(the Priest) Anointed for Battle’ in the mishnaic tractate Sotah
- H The Babylonian Jews and the Galatians
- I The geographical background and chronological sequence of the clashes with Timotheus in the Second Book of the Maccabees
- J The negotiations between the Jews and the Seleucid authorities in the reigns of Antiochus Epiphanes and Antiochus Eupator
- K The chronology of Lysias' second expedition
- L The route of Bacchides' second expedition to Judaea
- EXCURSUS
- Plates
- Abbreviations
- References
- Indexe locorum
- General index
- Index of Greek terms
- Index of Hebrew words and phrases
Summary
Numerous scholars anxious to explain the background and contributory factors that led to the religious persecution and the Hasmonaean Revolt are of the opinion that Antiochus Epiphanes established a military settlement in Jerusalem composed of soldiers of the Seleucid garrison stationed in the Akra, the local citadel. The military settlers were given allotments (klēroi) confiscated from residents of the city. Tcherikover even made this view the keystone of his well-known theory stipulating that the coercive laws were in fact a response to a general revolt of the Jewish population. In his opinion the uprising came in the wake of the confiscations of land which usually preceded the establishment of a military settlement. Some scholars even attempted to explain that the citadel people later on held their own logistically, despite the protracted rule of the Hasmonaean brothers in the city, because their supplies were based on the agricultural produce of the settlement.
This opinion about the change in the agrarian and municipal position of Jerusalem is based not only on considerations of historical probability, but also on two sources which seem to imply that a military settlement of Seleucid soldiers was founded in the city (I Macc. 1.38) and that land was confiscated and allocated to the troops (Daniel 11.39). Before examining the theory as such, it would be advisable to have a close look at these sources.
In the course of the lament on the bitter fate of Jerusalem after its capture by Apollonius, the Mysian commander, and the assignment of soldiers in the citadel, the city is said to have become an ἀλλοτρίων κατοικία (‘katoikiaof foreigners’, 1.38).
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- Judas MaccabaeusThe Jewish Struggle Against the Seleucids, pp. 438 - 444Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989