with a writing known as the Book of Watchers. Aramaic fragments of this work found among the Dead Sea Scrolls allow us to date it almost certainly to the third century BCE. It focuses on the ultimate judgment of wicked human beings, who have been led into sin by heavenly beings called “Watchers” (see also Dan. 4:13, 17, 23; 8:13). These powerful supernatural creatures have rebelled against God, leading humanity astray into violence and unspeakable crimes. Some students of this text perceive in the lurid and highly charged language of the Book of Watchers symbolic references to historical events, such as the struggles of the Diadochoi (Nickelsburg 2001) or vicious internal disputes within the Jewish priesthood (Suter 1979). Whether or not such explanations of the text hold water, the fact remains that violent conflict is a dominant theme in this writing, and accurate understanding of its outworking in the human realm is perceived as inseparable from the influence of supernatural powers, either good or evil. Not unrelated to this is the third section of I Enoch (chs 72–82), often called The Astronomical Book. Once more, Aramaic fragments of the text discovered at Qumran indicate its origins in the third or early second century BCE. It argues, in minute mathematical detail, for a calendar based on a solar year of exactly 364 days. The complexity of this text is overwhelming, and underscores the importance ascribed by its author or compiler to the movements of the heavenly bodies, by means of which the calendar is calculated. Fundamental is the text’s claim that its knowledge of the calendar derives from the heavenly realms, not from human calculation (Albani 1994; Leicht 2006). Although both texts evince acute awareness of the non-Jewish world, their primary concern is the right conduct of Jews against wickedness and error, which seem to predominate in the non-Jewish environment, and in Jewish activities affected by it.
These two texts in certain respects adumbrate the historical and cultural situation addressed by three major sources which focus on events of the period 175–150 BCE. The Book of Jubilees, and I and II Maccabees, illuminate different aspects of that violent struggle between the majority of “traditional” Jews in their homeland and other persons, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who apparently wished to redefine the cultural, economic, and political status quo in Jerusalem and Judaea. Once presented as a clash between “Judaism” and “Hellenism,” recent scholarship has successfully challenged such a uni-dimensional description of a series of events which began in earnest with the removal of the Zadokite Onias III as high priest and head of state in 174 BCE (for interpretation of I Maccabees, see especially Tcherikover 1959; Goldstein 1976; Rappaport 2004). Ben Sira is witness to ways in which Greek culture and Jewish ancestral tradition could fruitfully co-exist; but the brother of Onias III (whose Hebrew name was Jesus, but was better known by the Greek moniker Jason) and some other like-minded Jews evidently saw advantages for themselves in bringing about constitutional change in Jerusalem. In this, they were helped both by Onias III’s rather murky association with one of the Tobiads, whom we met earlier as allies of the Ptolemaic dynasty and former overlords of Jerusalem (II Macc. 3:9–12), and by the support of Antiochus IV, the Seleucid ruler who had designs on conquering Egypt and eagerly anticipated Jewish money which Jason promised to supply. So Antiochus deposed Onias as high priest, installed Jason in his place, and lent support to Jason’s setting up a Greek gymnasion in Jerusalem (II Macc. 4:7–17; I Macc. 1:10–15). Before too long, however, for reasons not entirely explicit in the sources, Antiochus transferred his support to one Menelaus, whom he nominated as high priest in Jason’s place (II Macc. 4:23–26); but the latter was unwilling to relinquish the office, and Jerusalem was engulfed in civil strife, vast numbers of the population leaving the city rather than join one of the two opposing parties (II Macc. 5:1–10). In the midst of all this Antiochus, whose designs on Egypt were not coming to fruition, invaded Jerusalem, desecrated and looted the Temple, handed it over to pagan worship, and effectively outlawed the practice of the Jewish religion (II Macc. 5:11–6:17; I Macc. 1:16–64). All observance of the commandments of the Torah was forbidden, and the Temple became a place of foreign cult.
I and II Maccabees are historiographical sources which, along with the writings of the historian Josephus, give an account of these things. II Maccabees tells of the early stages of this series of episodes, conventionally, though somewhat misleadingly, called the “Hellenistic Crisis.” This text is in reality an epitome of a work in five books no longer extant by one Jason of Cyrene, who wrote before 124 BCE his account in Greek (possibly in Egypt); miraculous elements are to the fore, and the willingness of faithful Jews to die martyrs’ deaths is central to the narrative (Doran 1981; D.R. Schwartz 2008). Less dramatic is the account of I Maccabees, a main-line narrative which takes up the story from the point where Antiochus has attempted to suppress the Jewish religion. Recording some opposition to Antiochus on the part of Asideans (Hebrew Hasidim), the book tells how Judah Maccabee, son of the priest Mattathias who had also opposed Antiochus’s decrees, gathers a Jewish army and successfully and against all odds spearheads Jewish victories over the Seleucid forces until the Temple is restored to Jewish hands (I Macc. 2:1–4:61). This book gives explicit support to Judah and the Maccabee family, envisaging them as divinely chosen to save the Jews (I Macc. 5:55–62; 9:19–22). Judah’s younger brother Jonathan, who succeeded him as leader of the Jewish army, in 153 BCE accepted the high priesthood from the hands of the Seleucid Alexander Balas (I Macc. 10:62), thus establishing a dynasty of high priests (who came to be known as the Hasmoneans, a designation deriving from one of their ancestors) which held office until the time of Herod the Great. I Maccabees celebrates these triumphs, and the efforts of Jonathan’s brother and successor in office Simon, whose accession saw the establishment of an independent Jewish state in 144 BCE (I Macc. 13:41–42; Bickermann 1979).
“Re-written Bible”
The Book of Jubilees sets out a programme of resistance to the changes in Jewish life and polity advanced by Antiochus, Jason, Menelaus, and their supporters by offering a re-reading and re-presentation of the biblical books Genesis and Exodus 1–20 (Segal 2007). Thanks to the discovery of fragments of the text of this book among the Dead Sea Scrolls, we now know that it was almost certainly composed in Hebrew around the middle of the second century BCE, or slightly earlier (VanderKam 1989). Although it survives as a whole only in an Ethiopic version (made from a Greek translation of the original Hebrew), we may, thanks to the Qumran evidence, be reasonably certain that it faithfully represents the original Hebrew text. Jubilees urges Israel to be intransigently loyal to the book’s interpretation of Jewish ancestral law and custom as exemplified in its portrayal of the great fathers of the nation – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and especially Levi as the ancestor of the priests, to whom Jubilees pointedly ascribes precedence over Judah, the ancestor of the royal house of David. The priestly character of Israel is thus strongly marked in this book; and this necessitates its emphasis on ritual and moral purity, and the separation of the Jewish people from all sources of defilement (Himmelfarb 2006). Its reassertion of the primacy of the Torah of Moses in the life of the Jewish nation and the individual (Najman 2003) is reinforced by its claims to know the contents of “the heavenly tablets,” whose instructions steer Jews firmly away from Greek customs such as nudity in sport, avoidance of circumcision, consumption of foodstuffs containing blood, all of which were tolerated, even encouraged, in the days of Jason and Menelaus, along with an incorrect calendar. In this last concern, Jubilees joins hands with an earlier source already noted, the Astronomical Book of 1 Enoch: although details of the calendars in the two texts differ, both are unambiguous in their assertion that there is a correct calendar which is “in tune with heaven,” and which Jews are consequently obliged to follow (VanderKam 2000).
Jubilees is a major representative of a type of Jewish literary source often described as “Re-written Bible” (Vermes 1970). Although the exact definition and suitability of this designation have been debated (Machiela 2010), “Re-written Bible” remains a useful way of speaking about a number of Jewish writings known from the Dead Sea Scrolls and elsewhere (on the Dead Sea Scrolls in general, see particularly Flint and VanderKam 1998–99). Among the Qumran manuscripts, for example, the Aramaic text often called the Genesis Apocryphon retells the biblical stories of Noah and Abraham, following the main outlines of the narrative known from Genesis, but considerably embellishing it with non-biblical information. Enough of this fragmentary text remains for us to discern clearly its glorification of Noah’s character, its intense interest