Things Go Bad...and to Michael

Okay, recently I’ve been writing about the return of the people (or at least the elites) of Israel to the Holy Land after the Babylonian Captivity. And I’ve been suggesting that it wasn’t all sweetness and light, as arrogant newcomers clashed with local folks who had been running their affairs just fine, thank you very much, all this time.

Well, now things are going to get even worse. (Sorry.)

At first, it seemed like things were finally going to settle down. The returning elites were largely successful in imposing their authority, and their newfangled monotheism, on the areas that used to be Judah. (The North, what had been the Kingdom of Israel, was another story.) And Persians were happy to let their Jewish province go its own way, so long as no one caused any trouble and everyone paid their taxes promptly.

About the image: This is “Maccabees” by the artist Wojciech Stattler (1800–1875). The painting resides at National Museum in Kraków. The image resides at Wikimedia here:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stattler-Machabeusze.jpg It is believed to be in the public domain. For more on Wojciech Stattler see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech_Stattler

But then...around 334 BCE...everything went very bad, very quickly. And the Bad in question had a name. It was Alexander the Great.

Alexander came roaring out of Macedonia and in ten amazing years, he destroyed the ancient empires of Persia and Egypt, gathered up the lesser states between them, and marched East...all the way to today’s India...leaving stunned populations, and cities named “Alexandria” in his wake.

I’m not going to write about him much.(1) He is really outside my story. He didn’t have anything to do with Michael or angels. What he did do, however, was end the relative peace and tranquility that had, until then, been the rule in Israel-Judah under the Persians for the last hundred years or so.

Instead, Israel found itself a border province and a pawn. Alexander had been no Cyrus. He’d been focused on conquering territories, but he hadn’t thought much about ruling them afterwards. Thus, soon after his death (323 BC), his empire was divided between his generals, known to history as the Diadochi, which means “The Successors.”

Ultimately, Israel found itself between two of the most powerful of these -- the Ptolemies, in Egypt, and the Seleucids, in what is today Iran and Mesopotamia. And, for long generations, Israel would be traded backwards and forwards between these two, in war after war. Once again, Israel was the frontline battlefield for other people’s wars.

Then, things got *really* nasty. Both the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms entered what turned out to be periods of terminal decline. A new power, Rome, was marching from the West. Another newcomer, the Parthian Empire, was acquiring Seleucid territories in Iran and elsewhere. A much reduced Seleucid Kingdom, under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (who had recently been humiliated by the Romans), was casting about for new sources of revenue and some sort of conquest to restore its honor.(2)

Now, if you were raised on the Catholic or Orthodox versions of the Bible, or even if you’ve just heard the story of Hanukkah, then you can guess what’s coming.(3) Antiochus is a BAD Man. He invades Judah, desecrates the Temple, and tries to force the Jewish people to worship idols. But not to worry. The Judeans, under the leadership of the brave and noble Maccabees, revolt and drive out the Greeks and, in the process, establish an early model of the successful war of National Liberation which would be copied by oppressed people the world over for thousands of years yet to come.

Which is all true. Sort of. In a way.

Except...

There’s a whole lot more to the story.

And, eventually, it is a tale that will lead to Angels.

More to come.

Footnotes:

1. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what to make of Alexander. He was, undoubtedly, a remarkable figure, and a military genius. On the other hand, he failed to create a lasting government for the territories he conquered so easily. I once heard an historian say that a single Augustus is worth a thousand Alexanders, and sometimes I wonder if he wasn’t right.

2. Antiochus IV had been attempting a little modest territorial expansion at the expense of Egypt. The story goes that in 168 BC he was on his way to overwhelm the Egyptians with a quite superior army. On his way to Alexandria, however, his path was blocked by a single, gray-haired Roman ambassador, one Gaius Popillius Laenas. The ambassador informed Antiochus that it was the opinion of the Roman Senate that the world would be a better place if he just went home and left in Egypt in peace. Antiochus said something like “Can I think about it?” Popillius took his staff and drew a circle in the dirt around the king. He then said, “Answer before you leave that circle.”

And, perhaps with a sigh, Antiochus turned around and went away.

3. But, interestingly enough, you will *not* find the story in the Hebrew Bible. Even though the Maccabees were the heroes who are celebrated at Hanukkah, the book about them isn’t included in the Jewish Bible ( the Tanakh). That’s because it was written in Greek, not Hebrew, and because it was written after the “Period of Prophecy” (the Nevuah), which ended sometime around the middle of the 5th Century BCE. This means that the books are therefore non-canonical.

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If you like what I write or the videos I produce, and feel you could make a small contribution to support my efforts, please go here:

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~mjt

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