After the death of Alexander, Palestine passed first under Egyptian domination. Although
the Ptolemies were generally favourable to the Jews (at least of their own country), those
of Palestine at times felt the heavy hand of the conqueror (Jos. Ant. xii. 1. 1). Then
followed the contests between Syria and Egypt for its possession, in which the county
must have severely suffered. As Josephus aptly remarks (Ant. xii. 3. 3), whichever partly
gained, Palestine was 'like a ship in a storm which is tossed by the waves on both sides.'
Otherwise it was a happy time, because one of the comparative independence. The
secular and spiritual power was vested in the hereditary High-Priests, who paid for their
appointment (probably annually) the sum of twenty (presumably Syrian) talents,
amounting to five ordinary talents, or rather less than 1,200 l.2 Besides this personal, the
country paid a general tribute, its revenues being let to the highest bidder. The sum levied
on Judæa itself has computed at 81,900 l. (350 ordinary talents). Although this tribute
appears by no means excessive, bearing in mind that in later times the dues from the
balsam-district around Jericho were reckoned at upwards of 46,800l. (200 talents), the
hardship lay in the mode of levying it by strangers, often unjustly, and always harshly,
and in the charges connected with its collection. This cause of complaint was indeed,
removed in the course of time, but only b y that which led to far more serious evils.
2. Comp. Herzfeld, Gesch. d. Volkes Isr, vol. ii. passim, but specially pp. 181 and 211.
The succession of the High-Priests, as given in Nehem. xii. 10, 11, 22, furnishes the
following names: Jeshua, Joiakin, Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, 3 Jonathan, and Jaddua, who
was the contemporary of Alexander the Great. After the death of Jaddua, we have the
following list:4 Onias I. (Jos. Ant. xi, 8. 7), Simon I. the Just5 (Ant. xii. 2. 5), Eleazar,
Manasseh (Ant. xii. 4. 1), Onias II., Simon II. (Ant. xii. 4. 10), Onias III., Jason (Ant. xii.
5. 1), Menelaus, and Alcimus (Ant. xii. 9. 7), with whom the series of the Pontiffs is
brought down to the Maccabees. Internal peace and happiness ceased after the death of
Simon the Just (in the beginning of the third century b.c.), one of the last links in that
somewhat mysterious chain of personages, to which tradition has given the name of 'the
Great Assemblage,' or 'Great Synagogue.'6
3. I have placed Johanan (Neh. xii. 22) before Jonathan, in accordance with the ingenious
reasoning of Herzfeld, ii. p. 372. The chronology of their Pontificates is almost
inextricably involved. In other respects also there are not a few difficulties. See Zunz,
Gottesd. Vortr. p. 27, and the elaborate discussions of Herzfeld, whose work, however, is
very faulty in arrangement.
4. Happily no divergence exists as to their succession.
5. Some Christian and all Jewish writers assign the designation of 'The Just' to Simon II.
This is directly contrary to the express statement of Josephus. Herzfeld (i. 377) appeals to
Abhoth i. 2, 3, Men. 109 b, and Jer. Yoma vi. 3, but immediately relinquishes the two
latter references as otherwise historically untenable. But surely no historical inference -
for such it is - from Ab. i. 2, 3 is worth setting against the express statement of Josephus.
Besides, Zunz has rightly shown that the expression Qibbel must not be to closely
pressed, as indeed its use throughout the Perek seems to indicate (Gottesd. Vortr. p. 37,
Note).