cxlix. 1) no more implies an organized body than קהל מרעים

of Psalm xxvi. 5 implies a formal association of evil-doers, a Camorra. We shall be compelled to rely wholly on the passages in Maccabees for any information about the ʽAssidaei, or Hasidim, in the sense of a definite organization bearing that title.

Who were these ʽAssidaei? That admirable writer and sturdy patriot, the author of I Maccabees, says they were a body of great power and influence in Israel, ἰσχυρὰ δυνάμει, the leaders of the Jews, and, as has been seen, organized before the revolt. Nothing is clearer than that they are not identical with the “scribes,” with whom they are grouped in I Macc. vii., among those who acknowledged Alcimus. It is equally clear that they are not at all the same as the Hasmonean partisans, for they join Mattathiah later, and abandon Judah, at least temporarily, early in the struggle. They are characterized by their zeal for the Law, a zeal which naturally manifested itself in strong opposition to Hellenism.

In Palestine, accordingly, for at least a generation before the revolt, the disintegrating tendencies of Hellenism, as evidenced in the apostasy of many wealthy Jews and in the neglect of many traditional customs on the part of others, provoked an organized opposition. Forming themselves into a fraternity or groups of corporate bodies, to which they applied the name of “saints,” the opponents of the Greeks directed their efforts to the exact fulfilment of the Torah, and no doubt carried on a violent polemic against Greek innovations, however harmless and valuable. At about the same time an exactly similar movement among Egyptians had brought the Ptolemies to terms. It was not of course to be expected that a single province of the Syrian-Babylonian monarchy would accomplish the same result. In the eyes of the Antiochene court their programme was no doubt treasonable fanaticism. But it was not, as in the case of Egypt, directly political in its scope, and it might never have led to armed conflict.

According to Jewish tradition a pupil of Antigonus of Socho, José ben Joëzer, was a member of this sect of “saints.”[125] And it is significant that, although he is represented as especially rigorous in all religious requirements that had a separatist tendency, he was strikingly liberal in all matters of what might be called internal religious practice. It is likely enough that the tradition is accurate and the “saints” were not at all precisians or fanatics, but that their cohering bond was simply opposition to Hellenism. As has been said, it was against the Hellenizing Jews more than the Greeks that their attack was directed. These latter had on their side the advantages of wealth and social position, but they lacked just that which made their opponents strong, a compact organization. There was no συναγωγὴ Ἑλλήνων, no congregation or fraternity of Philhellenes. They included all shades of Greek sympathizers, from out and out apostates to parvenus, to whom speaking Greek was a mark of fashion. No doubt the feeling between the two groups ran high, and neither side spared bitter abuse and invective.

The conflict was finally precipitated by an act that was one of the commonest occurrences of ancient political struggles. The party defeated, or in danger of defeat, does not scruple to invite foreign intervention. In this case the irreconcilable Hellenists, evidently losing ground in face of the rapid growth of Hasidic conventicles, appeal to the Greek king, whose policies their own efforts were furthering, and of whose sympathy they were assured. That king happened to be the bizarre Antiochus Epiphanes.