Page "History of ancient Israel and Judah" Paragraph 31

On the death of Alexander the Great ( 322 ) his generals divided the empire between them.

Ptolemy I, the ruler of Egypt, seized Palestine, but his successors lost it to the Seleucids of Syria in 198.

At first relations between the Seleucids and the Jews were cordial, but the attempt of Antiochus IV Epiphanes ( 174 – 163 ) to impose Hellenic culture sparked a national rebellion, which ended in the expulsion of the Syrians and the establishment of an independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty.

Some modern commentators see this period as a civil war between hellenized and orthodox Jews.

The Hasmonean kingdom was a conscious attempt to revive the Judah described in the Bible: a Jewish monarchy ruled from Jerusalem and stretching over all the territories once ruled by David and Solomon.

In order to carry out this project the Hasmoneans forcibly converted to Judaism the one-time Moabites, Edomites and Ammonites, as well as the lost kingdom of Israel.

Some scholars argue that a " Jewish biblical canon " was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty.