Sadducees, and Simeon ben Shetach had to seek safety in flight (Jer. Ber. vii. 2 p. 11 b).
But others of his party met a worse fate. A terrible tragedy was enacted in the Temple
itself. At the Feast of Tabernacles Jannai, officiating as High-Priest, set the Pharisaic
custom at open defiance by pouring the water out of the sacred vessel on the ground
instead of upon the altar. Such a high- handed breach of what was regarded as most
sacred, excited the feelings of the worshippers to the highest pitch of frenzy. They pelted
him with the festive Ethrogs (citrons), which they carried in their hands, and loudly
reproached him with his descent from 'a captive.' The king called in his foreign
mercenaries, and no fewer than 6,000 of the people fell under their swords. This was an
injury which could neither be forgiven nor atoned for by conquests. One insurrection
followed after the other, and 5,000 of the people are said to have fallen in these contests.
Weary of the strife, Jannai asked the Pharisaic party to name their conditions of peace, to
which they caustically replied, 'Thy death' (Jos. Ant. xiii. 13. 5). Indeed, such was the
embitterment that they actually called in, and joined the Syrians against him. But the
success of the foreigner produced a popular revulsion in his favour, of which Jannai
profited to take terrible vengeance of his opponents. No fewer than 800 of them were
nailed to the cross, their sufferings being intensified by seeing their wives and children
butchered before their eyes, while the degenerate Pontiff lay feasting with abandoned
women. A general flight of the Pharisees ensued. This closes the second period of his
reign, marked on the coin by the significant absence of the words 'Chebher of the Jews.'
the words being on one side in Hebrew, 'Jonathan the king,' and on the other in Greek,
'Alexander the King.'
29. For the coins of that reign comp. Madden, u. s. pp. 83-93. I have however arranged
them somewhat differently.
30. According, on the second series of coins, which date from his return to Jerusalem,
and breach with the Pharisees, we have on the reverse the device of an anchor with two
cross -bars.
The third period is marked by coins which bear the inscription 'Jehonathan the High-
Priest and the Jews.' It was a period of outward military success, and of reconciliation
with the Pharisees, or at least of their recall - notable of Simeon ben Shetach, and then of
his friends - probably at the instigation of the queen (Ber. 48 a; Jer. vii. 2). Jannai died in
his fiftieth year, after a reign of twenty-seven years, bequeathing the government to his
wife Salome. On his death-bed he is said to have advised her to promote the Pharisees, or
rather such of them as made not their religiousness a mere pretext intrigue: 'Be not afraid
of the Pharisees, nor of those of Zimri, and seek the reward of Phinehas' (Sot. 22 b). But
of chief interest to us is, that this period of the recall of the Pharisees marks a great
internal change, indicated even in the coins. For the first time we now meet the
designation 'Sanhedrin.' The Chebher, or eldership, had ceased as a ruling power, and
become transformed into a Sanhedrin, or ecclesiastical authority although the latter
endeavoured, with more or less success, to arrogate to itself civil jurisdiction, at least in
ecclesiastical matters.31
31. Jewish tradition, of course, vindicates a much earlier origin for the Sanhedrin, and
assumes its existence not only in the time of Moses, David, and Solomon, but even in that
of Mordecai! (Comp. Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. Talmud col. 1514.)