At this juncture Jonuthan boldly laid siege te the Acra, and as boldly appeared to answer for himself before the king at Ptolemais. The result was a triumph of ἘΠῚ πεν He carried costly gifts to the king; and the latter, instead of treat- ing him as a rebel, ‘gave him pre-eminence among his Chief Friends’ (1 Mac 11”), besides confirming him in the high-priesthood, and conceding to the Jews several of the benefits vainly offered by his father as the price of their adherence. Shortly afterwards Jonathan rendered useful service by sending 3000 men to Antioch to aid in putting down an insurrection which had broken out there against Demetrius. The latter promised on his part to withdraw the Syrian garrisons from Jewish strongholds, but as he failed to keep this promise Jonathan went over to the side of Tryphon, 8 former officer of Alexander Balas, who took ad- vantage of the unpopularity of Demetrius to bring forward Antiochus, the son of Balas, as a claimant for the throne, and who was careful to contirm Jonathan in all his dignities. Jonathan lost no time in bringing the entire territory between Gaza and Damascus into subjection. 5 ea to Galilee he met the generals of Demetrius, whom, after a fiveataned reverse, he routed on the plain of Hazor (c. 144). At Hamath the Syrians rallied once more with a view to invade Palestine, but Jonathan marched beyond Lebanon and dispersed them.* He afterwards subdued the Arab tribe of the Zabadzans on the Antilibanus, returned home by way of Damascus, and set him self, in concert with fie elders, to strengthen the defences of the country. The walls of Jerus. were heightened, and an effort made to isolate the Acra. Meanwhile Simon had not been idle in his new capacity of commander (στρατηγός) of the Palestinian seaboard (1 Mac 11%). Besides capturing Bethzur, he reduced and garrisoned J opp, and fortified Adida.
ryphon now began to distrust the Maccabees, who had certainly not been unmindful of their own interests while ‘they fought for one king against the other, and in the name of the Syrians drove the Syrians out of Juda and the adjacent regions.’ Surmising that the Jewish high priest would probably oppose his plans for usurping the throne, he suddenly marched into Palestine and encamped at Bethshan [βου ΠΟ 0115), where Jona- than prepare to give him battle. But by dint of artful flattery Tryphon induced even this wary Jewish prince to alle into a ΒΡ: Having entered Ptolemais, accompanied by only 1000 men, Jonathan found himself a prisoner and had his escort slain. Thus ended his period of active service. Although a high priest of Israel, he was in no sense a religious man; it was aerely as a ladder to ower that the priest’s office had attractions 1or fim He was essentially a worldly ecclesiastic. And if he was less disinterested in is aims {han his brother Judas, he was also less scrupulous in his methods of realizing them. But few mea in his circumstances could Lave achieved more, either for themselves or for their party. By the acroit-
* According to 1 Mac 121-33 Jonathan at this juncture sent ambassadors to Rome, Sparta, ete., to conclude or renew friendly treaties, and they were favourably received by the Romans. Nothing is said regarding their reception at Sparta, but the writer gives what purports to be a ‘copy’ of Jonathan's letter, and also—apparently as a precedent—one of a letter formerly written by the Spartan king Arius 1. to the Jewish high priest Onias 1. (8.0. 323-300). Wellhausen (1708 p. 266,
n. 3) rejects the whole passage as unhistorical. Unquestion- ably, it interrupts the main narrative in a very awkward manner ; but if Jonathan, who was at the time a Syrian officer, did send such an embassy, it must have been because he hi no faith in the stability of the Syrian kingdom.
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ness with which he turned to account the mistakes of his enemies, he more than made up for the lack of strength in his adherents.
(iii.) The administration of Simon, ethnarch and high priest (143-135).—Simon (Gr. Συμεών, Σίμων), surnamed Thassi (i.e., probably, ‘the zeal- ous’), the sole surviving son of Mattathias, now
allantly stepped into the breach and was chosen eader (ἡγούμενος) at a public assembly in Jeru- salem. He had already justified the epithet, ‘man of counsel’ (ἀνὴρ βουλῆς, 1 Mac 2%), and had also distinguished himself as commander of the Medi- terranean coast from Tyre to Egypt. Tryphon soon marched against Judea, but found himself intercepted by Simon at Adida. He thereupon offered to release Jonathan for 100 talents of Sees and the custody of two of his sons as hostages ; but although Simon judged it best to accede to these terms, Tryphon neither set Jonathan at liberty nor relaxed his hostile attitude. All his efforts to reach Jerus., however, were rendered futile by the sleepless vigilance of Simon. Even a projected night expedition with supplies for the famished garrison in the Acra was wrecked by a heavy fall of snow. Soured and baffled, he marched into Gilead and gave vent to his spleen by putting Jonathan to death at Bascama (143).
e body of Jonathan was afterwards interred at Modin, where Simon erected a magnificent family monument, which appears to have been a landmark for sailors on the Levant (1 Mac 13”). See MopIn.