Herod the Great by Norman Gelb

Author:Norman Gelb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Alexander the Great had introduced Hellenic culture to the Middle East in the fourth century BCE. It had deep-reaching impact with comparative rapidity after his conquest of the region. Within a few generations, Greek cultural influences became predominant in many of its areas. The pagan inhabitants of cities on the fringes of Judaea—Ptolemais on the Mediterranean coast, Philoteria on the Sea of Galilee, and the Decapolis of ten cities on the east bank of the Jordan River and in Syria—were readily Hellenized. Many Jews interacted with them, learning their language and their ways.

In Judaea’s countryside and small towns, traditional Jewish culture continued to resist the tide of change. But in Jerusalem and other urban centers, Hellenism made deep inroads among the social, intellectual, and commercial elite—senior priests, officials, merchants, landowners, and scribes. While remaining observant Jews, they sought to marry Greek ways to Jewish life.

Many spoke Greek, the lingua franca of the wider region, as their language of choice rather than the Aramaic of the ordinary folk or the Hebrew of their scriptures. Many knew the Bible only, or mainly, through its Greek translation. They called their children by their Greek rather than Hebrew names—Jason or Jesus rather than Yehoshua, John rather than Yohanan, Onias rather than Honiyya, Salome rather than Shlomit. The young people of Judaea were drawn to Greek fashions in clothes and comportment. Greek athletic contests, including nude wrestling, which offended the sensibilities of traditionalists, became popular.

In 175 BCE, well before Herod’s time, a gymnasium was built in Jerusalem under the auspices of the Hellenized Jewish High Priest Jason, who had been appointed to his office by the Syrian ruler of Judaea at the time. It became a center for athletic and cultural activities foreign to traditional Jewish practices. According to the Book of Maccabees, “The craze for Hellenism and foreign customs reached such a pitch . . . that the priests . . . disdaining the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, hastened . . . to take part in the unlawful exercises on the athletic field . . . and despised what their ancestors regarded as honors.”

Nevertheless, most Jews resisted Hellenic influences at the time and continued to live largely according to their ancestral ways. The popular rising led by Judah Maccabee and his brothers against Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes when he attempted to Hellenize Judaea and obliterate Jewish religious observances was motivated by cultural as well as religious and nationalist sentiment. Striving to purge the Hellenic influences from traditional Jewish culture, the Maccabees “pursued the wicked, hunting them out.” They overthrew Syrian rule and demonized Hellenization. But it soon regained respectability among those who believed such ways did not defile or degrade their Jewish faith.

During the tenure of warrior–high priest John Hyrcanus I, the son of the last of the Maccabee brothers who had led the Jews, Hellenization among their elite classes increased markedly. Though Hyrcanus remained a Jew in belief and practice, his court came to be largely Hellenized in character. He also recruited large numbers of non-Jewish mercenaries for his army.

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