![“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
(Proverbs 14:12)
CHAPTER TWO
Subtraction Through Addition Brings Destruction
Our study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their impact on the children of Jacob begins with two warnings from G-d himself. The first warning is stated in Deuteronomy 12:32,“So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them.” The law G-d gave the people through Moses was perfect, and adding to it was forbidden. Any attempt to change the law is an attempt to correct G-d or replace Him. This is the sin of pride, which always brings about destruction. After the Jewish people returned to the Promised Land from the Babylonian exile, the high priests who were given the sacred duty of instructing the children in the law broke this commandment and destruction followed.
The second warning was specifically directed to the priests serving at the tabernacle. G-d told Aaron and his sons not to mix unholy things with holy things regarding their duties in G-d’s house. In Leviticus 10:1-2, we see that Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, ignored this warning and carelessly used unauthorized fire with holy incense and were destroyed. Their sin was ignoring G-d’s specific instructions regarding mixing sacred things with unsacred things. Their penalty for disobedience was a shocking and frightening warning to future generations. Sadly, the high priests we are about to examine ignored this warning and destruction followed.
The Three Sons of Simon II
During the time period that spanned from 198 BC to 161 BC, three brothers who were the sons of Simon II all served as high priests of Israel. Our story begins by examining the historical record that shows a web of betrayal, treason, rebellion, and heresy between these brothers and their followers. Let’s begin our study with a quick look at the high priest Simon II, the father of the priests Onias III, Jason, and Menelaus.
Simon II is best remembered in history for his famous prayer against Ptolemy IV (Philopator), the Egyptian king who entered into the Temple during a visit to Jerusalem. According to the third book of Maccabees, this occurred around the time of the short reign of the Seleucid King Seleucus III (Soter) somewhere between 223 BC and 221 BC. At this time, Judea was under the control of the Egyptian Ptolemaic Empire. The Jewish people were heavily taxed and mistreated by their Egyptian rulers. The foreign kings allowed the Jews little autonomy with the exception of their religious ceremonies. The Egyptians allowed priest-led Temple ceremonies for the price of using the Temple treasuries as a centralized tax collection hub for the Judean territories. When Ptolemy IV arrived in Jerusalem, he naturally wanted to examine his tax revenues stored in the Temple; however, it was against Jewish law for any Gentile to enter the sacred Temple. The Egyptian king ignored the high priest’s warning and arrogantly demanded to enter anyway. At this time, the high priest Simon II asked G-d to intervene and prevent the Gentile from defiling the holy place. The high priest’s prayer worked, and Ptolemy was almost stricken dead by divine intervention before he could defile the Temple by entering the Holy of Holies. This has been the primary story of Simon II’s life that survived in history.
Onias III
The first son of Simon II to serve as high priest was Onias III, who took over for his father somewhere between 198 BC and 190 BC. Like his father, Onias III is credited with having G-d answer his prayer to prevent Gentiles from defiling the Holy Temple. According to a story described in the fourth book of Maccabees, Onias III had a confrontation with the Jewish priest named Simon who had been serving as the custodian at the Temple. The book does not describe what the argument between Onias and Simon involved, but is does state that the disagreement resulted in Simon being fired by Onias III. The disgruntled Simon took out his anger for the firing by going to the Greek governor, Apollonius, and telling him that the Jews were keeping huge hordes of private deposits of gold and silver in the Temple treasuries that the Greek king should rightly have.
Apollonius told King Seleucus IV Simon’s tale, and the king sent the Greek official Heliodorus with a large garrison of troops back to Jerusalem to confiscate the money. When Heliodorus and the troops arrived, they told Onias they were there to take the private deposits for the king -- by force if necessary. Onias told the Greeks that some of the funds in question were part of the widows and orphans offering; and, the majority of the money belonged to Hyrcanus (son of Tobias) who had placed them there for safekeeping. The Greeks demanded the money anyway. The high priest reacted by fervently praying for G-d to intervene and keep the Greeks from desecrating the Temple.
According to the fourth book of Maccabees and the second book of Maccabees, two angelic beings and a rider on a white horse showed up on the scene and inflicted divine judgment on Heliodorus, beating him to the point of near death. Onias then prayed for Heliodorus to be healed so he could go back to the Greek king and explain how G-d himself prevented the team from raiding the Temple treasuries. G-d honored Onias’ request, and the Greeks went back to Seleucus IV empty handed. It is interesting to note here that Heliodorus returned to King Seleucus and murdered him shortly after this occurred. King Seleucus’ brother, Antiochus IV, then deposed Heliodorus and took control of the kingdom.
Shortly after these events, Onias died and was succeeded by his brother Jason, the middle son of Simon II.
Jason & Menelaus
Jason replaced his older brother, Onias III, early in the reign of Antiochus IV. Josephus states that Jason became high priest after his brother’s death. The second book of Maccabees states that he replaced Onias by bribing Antiochus IV with the promise of higher tax tributes. Either way, Jason became high priest somewhere between 176 BC-175 BC.
Three years into his high priesthood, Jason sent his younger brother, Menelaus, to Syria with King Antiochus’ annual tribute payment. While on this mission, Menelaus told the king that if he were high priest he would have provided much larger tax payments than that of his brother. King Antiochus took the bribe and appointed Menelaus as the new high priest. Menelaus was sent back to Jerusalem to defrock his brother and take over the lucrative tax collecting duties, but his brother refused to step down. Jason put up a fight, and Menelaus was forced out of the Holy City.
According to Josephus’ account, the sons of Tobias, who were the first cousins of the high priests and no doubt were still large depositors of private funds stored in the Temple, sided with Menelaus. The cousins and Menelaus returned to Syria to seek reinforcements from the king. While seeking the king’s aid, Menelaus and his entourage promised to build a gymnasium in Jerusalem and to make the city’s population follow the Grecian lifestyle. Antiochus agreed to their request and sent enough soldiers back with the group to Jerusalem to oust Jason. Jason and a large contingent of the Temple priests fled to the desert and started a war against the Greeks, Menelaus, and his Tobias backers.
Tobias Cousins
At this point, we need to consider why the sons of Tobias would side with Menelaus and the Greeks. After all, it was the Greek king who was trying to steal the family money in the first place. Why would they side with the people who were going to take their money? The answer is hinted at in a short passage in the second book of Maccabees 2:14, which explains how some nine years later in 164 BC, Judas Maccabee brought back into the Temple the holy writings that had been removed during the war. This passage plainly states holy writings were removed and most assuredly the treasure was as well.
In the interim time period when Jason ran Menelaus out of Jerusalem and Menelaus returned with more Greek troops, Jason and the Temple priests removed the holy writings and the other treasures stored there. It appears Jason’s men took the private funds belonging to the Tobias family as they were removing the Temple property. This at least partially explains why the Tobias family sided with the Greeks. Jason’s supporters stole their money before the Greeks could; and, apparently, would not give it back. It is important for us to realize here that the Tobias side of the priestly family had earned their money collecting taxes for the Egyptians when they ruled over Judea sixty years prior to these events. Josephus documents the fascinating tale of how Jason’s grandfather, the high priest Onias II, had refused to pay Ptolemy III (Euergetes I) taxes of twenty talents around 240 BC. At this time, Onias II’s nephew, Joseph Tobias (the son of the high priest’s sister), stepped in and became the tax collector for the Ptolemys for the following twenty-two years. Later, Joseph Tobias’ young son, Hyrcanus, followed in his father’s footsteps and became the chief tax collector for the Egyptians over Judea, Celesyria, Samaria, and Phoenicia. The Tobias family became very rich collecting taxes for the Egyptians when the high priest refused the duties. Sixty-four years later when Jason and his men rebelled against Menelaus, their Tobias cousins realized that an alliance with the Greek King Antiochus IV could restore the family’s lucrative tax collecting duties. Thus, the priestly Tobias family sided with Menelaus and the Greeks over their cousin, the high priest Jason.
Copper Treasure Map
The hiding place locations of the Temple treasure taken by Jason are apparently documented in a unique scroll made of copper found in one of the Qumran caves. This fascinating document, dubbed the “Copper Scroll,” describes the hiding places of tithe vessels, sacred offerings, atonement vessels, and priests garments; and, it also uses the term “high priest.” This scroll describes the locations of at least sixty-five tons of silver and twenty-six tons of gold that were taken and hidden from the Temple by the priests. Although there is considerable scholarly disagreement about all aspects of the Copper Scroll, it is clear the document describes items taken and hidden from the Jewish Temple (all the various theories dealing with the Copper Scroll are examined in Chapter 6 “The Copper Scroll” and Chapter 15 “Dead Sea Scrolls Study Overview”).
Rebellious Cult
At the same time Jason and his followers were defying Antiochus’ edict, the group of rebel priests established a new set of rules that helped them stay united in their defiance of the Greeks. With so much wealth and power at stake, not to mention their very lives for defying the king, the group swore their members to vows of silence and eternal hatred for the turncoat priests led by Menelaus. The leaders of the separatists created a chain of command for the rebels that rewarded those members who were involved in the hiding of the Temple treasures. These priests became commissioned officers in Jason’s army of G-d. All new recruits who wanted to join the group were subservient to these officers who were the keepers of sacred knowledge. The history of these events and the rules the exiled high priest established are recorded in detail in several documents found in caves by the Dead Sea in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The two most enlightening of these documents are the “Community Rule Scroll” and the “Damascus Document” (see Chapter 3 “The Damascus Document” and Chapter 4 “The Community Rule Scroll”).
At the heart of the rebel priests’ rules was a mandate that all members must recognize the divine authority of their leader, whom they called their “Teacher of Righteousness.” The “Teacher of Righteousness” established strict, cult-like rules for his followers that included vows of poverty, complete subservience to the ruling hierarchy within the group, and the demand that members must keep separate from all who were not members. Jason and his chief priests convinced their followers that they were at the beginning of a war to end all wars that would result in the total destruction of all Israel’s enemies. To add validity and authority to their demands on group members, Jason used an obscure scroll dating back to the time of the prophet Jeremiah that foretold of a coming forty-year long war between the “Children of Light and the Children of Darkness.” The scroll described how the Children of Light would be led by a high priest in a victorious series of bloody battles spanning forty years. The scroll predicted the priest-led war would result in a total massacre of the forces of darkness and the establishment of the kingdom of G-d on Earth. Jason and his chief priests were able to use the “War Scroll” predictions to keep their fellow priests committed to the cause.
The additional rules Jason established for the group included several prophecies that the Messiah himself would lead the priests to victory over the wicked “Sons of Darkness.” Unlike previous Jewish prophecies, the Teacher of Righteousness’ writings called for the Messiah to be from the priestly tribe of Levi, specifically from the family of the Zadok. All other sacred Jewish texts call for the Messiah to be from the tribe of Judah, the family of David. In an amazing coincidence, the Teacher of Righteousness’ Messiah predictions seem to point to a Messiah that had all the personal characteristics Jason possessed. After all, the high priest Jason was a Levite priest from the Zadok family who had declared war on the wicked Children of Darkness. He had in his possession the holy writings, the sacred Temple vessels, and several billion dollars worth of treasure to fuel the rebellion. He had a very devout group of warrior-scribe priests who swore to vows of loyalty, poverty, separation from the outside world, and eternal hatred to all turncoat members of the priesthood who sided with Menelaus. By taking the items from the Temple and refusing Antiochus’ order to give up the high priesthood, they had declared war against the wicked Sons of Darkness. Clearly Jason’s (the Teacher of Righteousness) followers believed he was the Messiah. The stage was set for a deadly showdown between the brothers.
Two Messiahs
Before moving forward with our study, it is important to note here that the Community Rule Scroll hints at the possibility that there would be two Messiahs, both from the House of Aaron and Israel. This becomes very important to our understanding of how Jason’s followers responded to the events that follow the conflict between the two brothers. According to Josephus, the battle between the brothers for control of Jerusalem and the high priesthood lasted three years. Menelaus and the Greek armies first ran Jason out of Jerusalem towards the end of 172 BC. Vanquished from the Temple, Jason and his followers retreated into the Judean desert and managed to avoid the Greek armies by hiding in the land of the Ammonites, which is just east of the Jordan River across from Jericho and Qumran. Here, Jason and his followers established the rules for their community and waited for the opportunity to strike back at the wicked Sons of Darkness.
Death of the Teacher of Righteousness
Somewhere around 170 BC, Antiochus IV decided to enlarge his kingdom by declaring war on King Philometer of Egypt. He successfully attacked and defeated the Egyptian’s troops at Pelusium and Memphis; and, he was besieging Philometer at Alexandria when he received notice from the Romans to leave the Egyptians alone or face their wrath. The Greek king bitterly withdrew his troops back to Judea. At the same time, Jason heard the false rumor that Antiochus had been killed in a battle. He took a thousand men and attacked Jerusalem. Jason and his priests slaughtered thousands of Jews who he felt wrongly sided with Menelaus and the wicked “Sons of Darkness.” The second book of Maccabees 5:5-7 describes these events as Jason’s greatest failure, because he brought shame on himself for killing his fellow countrymen. During the battle for the Holy City, Menelaus took refuge in the citadel until Antiochus arrived on the scene and ran Jason and his warrior priests from the city. The Greek king was so outraged at the rebellion that he ordered his troops to massacre the rebels and anyone suspected of helping them. Jason was run out of the city with only a handful of his men surviving the encounter. Apparently, Menelaus aided the Greeks in identifying the rebels. After all, he had grown up with these men and knew them well. Menelaus was able to easily identify for Antiochus’ men who was a rebel and who was not. It is believed that Jason’s followers were separated from each other and their leader during the fight for the city. The rebel priests who survived the battle retreated to the Judean desert and hid while their leader was hunted down and eventually killed in Sparta towards the end of 169 BC. The remnant of Jason’s followers that survived became known as the “Hasidim,” which in Hebrew means “the pious ones.”
One can only imagine how devastated Jason’s followers were when they found out that he was dead. Consider their circumstances. There they were hiding in the Judean desert, fearing for their lives, while having to face the cruel fact that their Teacher of Righteousness -- the person whom they had given up everything for -- was not the Messiah they expected. Only true believers could have kept from losing their faith and resisted the urge to just take their share of the Copper Scroll treasure and escape to another land. It is not unreasonable to conclude that some of these men did just that. However, we know that some of the group kept their beliefs in tact and continued to look for another Messiah. They did not have to wait very long.
As soon as Jason was killed, Antiochus returned to Jerusalem under the pretense of making peace. Instead, he murdered eighty thousand Jews and deported another eighty thousand as slaves; and, the Greek king outlawed Judaism and defiled the Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar in the holy courtyard. During this horrible display of demonic madness, Antiochus perpetrated the ultimate insult on the Jews when he setup an idol of the Greek god Zeus in the Holy of Holies. This action fulfilled the ancient sage Daniel’s prophecy about the abomination of desolation of the Temple. Apparently, the high priest Menelaus aided the evil king in these actions. Antiochus ordered Menelaus to use any and all means necessary to force the remaining Jewish population into participating in Greek pagan worship ceremonies. Those people who refused were brutally murdered without mercy. For example, women who had allowed their male babies to be circumcised watched their children be butchered; then, they were forced to wear the dead child around their neck for days. Antiochus’ evil treatment of the Jews was indescribably horrible and perhaps unmatched in its brutally in all of history.
In 167 BC, Antiochus sent a contingent of troops into the Judean city of Modin and attempted to force the residents into a pagan sacrifice. During this ceremony, the Levite priest Mattathias refused to participate. He became so enraged at those Jews who did, he killed the king's men and those Jews who took part in the pagan ritual. This was the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt. Fearing Greek reprisals, Mattathias and his five sons escaped into the Judean desert and started a guerilla war against the pagan king and the wicked high priest Menelaus. This family of Levite priests gathered an army of ragtag warriors that succeeded time after time in defeating the Greek forces. Shortly after starting the rebellion, Mattathias died and his son Judas took over leadership of the family and the rebel warriors.
The second chapter of the first book of Maccabees records the history of how the Hasidim priests joined forces with Judas Maccabee in his war against the evil Sons of Darkness. This remnant of the Jason’s devoted followers obviously identified the Maccabees’ bold actions and success against the wicked Greeks as the beginnings of the War Scroll prophecies. According to the Damascus Document, the Teacher’s followers believed that the death of the Teacher started the forty-year war of the “Sons of Light” against the Sons of Darkness. When Jason died, his followers expected the foretold warrior-priest king to immediately show up on the scene and lead the armies of G-d into a total victory over the wicked priest and all Israel’s enemies. At this time, Judas Maccabee fit the prophecy perfectly, and he welcomed the Hasidim priests into his inner circle.
For two and a half years, Judas Maccabee and his Hasidim warrior-priests won miraculous victory after victory over the superior Greek forces.
In 164 BC, Judas’ troops amazingly captured Jerusalem and the Temple. The priests immediately began cleaning out the Temple area and reestablished daily sacrifices. At this time, Judas declared a celebration for the miracle of the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, that had occurred. He also gave the order to bring the sacred writings back into the Temple that had been taken out by Jason and his men. Obeying Judas Maccabee, the followers of the Teacher of Righteousness brought the holy writings back into the Temple along with their Teacher’s writings. The Community Rule Scroll, the Damascus Document, and the War Scroll were all given special reverence by the group because they inspired the troops and helped validate the leadership roles of the Maccabee family and their Hasidim followers.
Shortly after Judas' successful battle to win control of Jerusalem, Antiochus IV died in Persia, and his son Antiochus Eupator took his place. Like his father, the new king Antiochus Eupator struggled to gain control of Judea and continued to battle Judas' troops. Control over Jerusalem went back and forth. Judas and his Hasidim followers kept beating back the Greeks time and time again, in large part due to growing popular support from the Jewish population. During this time, Menelaus went to the evil extreme of chasing down his dead brother Onias’ son in Egypt and killed him in cold blood. Menelaus’ intent was to make sure no one else had a legitimate birthright claim to the high priesthood. This turned out to be his fatal mistake. The younger Onias had endeared himself with the Egyptian royal family, and they were very disturbed at his murder. This was a problem the new Greek king, Antiochus Eupator, did not need. Menelaus survived the initial inquiry over the incident, but he was politically damaged. In an attempt to regain favor with his Greek benefactors, Menelaus taught the Jewish people Greek pagan rituals and totally defiled himself and the Temple worship ceremonies. His time had finally run out.
Death of the Wicked Priest
In an effort to increase support among the local populace, King Eupator took the advice of one of his generals and killed Menelaus around 161 BC, replacing him with a man named Alcimus whom Josephus states was not from the Levite priestly family. The king was hoping his actions would calm down the rebellion, but it had the opposite effect. This move strengthened Judas’ position as leader of the Jews.
Ultimately, Judas regained control of Jerusalem, but before doing so, the new high priest Alcimus decided to tear down the walls of the Temple. It was during this attempt that Alcimus suffered a stroke and died. This was a reward befitting a wicked priest. From this moment on, the Maccabees became more and more secure in their control over the Judea and the high priesthood.
Maccabean Betrayal of the Hasidim
It was at this point in time the followers of the Teacher of Righteousness and the Maccabee family had a falling out with each other. Judas Maccabee used the Hasidim priests until he did not need them anymore. The followers of the Teacher of Righteousness had expected Judas to appoint one of their own select group to serve as the high priest. Their Teacher’s writings stated only a member of the Zadok family could hold the office. The Maccabees were Levite priests, but not from the Zadok family. If Judas or one of his brothers had appointed a Zadok family member to the high priest office, they would have been surrendering their authority, which obviously they were unwilling to do. This was a serious dilemma and a test of faith for the followers of the Teacher and the Maccabees.
Judas’ other option was to declare himself king, but that was even more problematic and dangerous. It is important to point out here that as successful leaders of the rebellion, the Maccabees were in all actuality the kings of the country, but could not declare themselves so without alienating the foreign kings who claimed authority over Judea. This created a real problem for Judas and the Maccabee brothers who succeeded him. After many successful battles for independence from the Greeks, the Maccabees aligned themselves with their enemies’ enemies. These alliances changed several times over the years with the advent of one side gaining a temporary upper hand over the other. To keep their shaky independence, the Maccabees formed political alliances with the Romans, Egyptians, and even the Greeks. They could not declare themselves kings without damaging their fragile relations with these foreign rulers, who themselves claimed to be kings over Judea. Ultimately, the Maccabees decided it was safer to alienate the Teacher of Righteousness’ followers than the foreign kings. Judas Maccabee’s solution to the dilemma was to refuse to appoint a member of the Zadok family bloodline for the position, which caused the Hasidim to abandon him and become dissidents. According to Josephus, the people declared Judas the high priest because of his great deeds and military victories over the enemies of Israel. Later, around 150 BC, the Greek king Alexander, sent an official letter to Judas’ successor, brother Jonathan Maccabee, declaring him high priest (a position he had already been holding since the death of his brother in 160 BC).
Fate of the Hasidim
When it became evident that the Maccabees were not going to appoint a member of the Zadok family as high priest or continue to destroy all the enemies of Israel, the Teacher of Righteousness’ followers were no doubt outraged. Not only had the Maccabee brothers refused to appoint one of them to the high priesthood, they also abandoned the prophecies of the War Scroll and formed political alliances with Israel’s enemies. This was a huge knife in the back to the memory of the Teacher and all the Hasidim. These men had given up everything for the cause, and now they were betrayed by the Maccabees who were befriending the “Sons of Darkness.” Worse still, the common people were fully in support of Judas and his brothers because of their success against the Greeks. The Maccabee success left the Hasidim out of power and without a political leg to stand on against them. After all, they had helped put Judas and his family in power. They had risked their lives against the Greeks and the Wicked Priest with Judas. They had been the ones who convinced the faithful that Maccabean success was all part of the prophecies of the War Scroll and the Teacher’s writings. Whether intentional or not, the Maccabee family used the Hasidim as pawns in their quest to free Israel from the Greeks and their lackey priests. In the end, the Teacher’s followers were left out of the seat of power that they had fought so hard for. This must have been devastating to the inner circle of the leadership of the faithful. In the end, without any clear path to follow, the devotees of the Teacher of Righteousness fragmented into different sects within the new Hasmonean kingdom. Most likely, some became strict legalistic Pharisees, some politically astute Sadducees, some warrior Zealots, and others separatist Essenes. As we shall see, each of these groups continued to reverence and follow many of the beliefs of the long dead Teacher of Righteousness.
Legacy of the Sons of Simon
The historical record of the sons of Simon II is saturated with rebellion against G-d’s warnings to the priests to not add additional laws to the Torah, and to not mix holy things with unholy things. When you consider the horrible price Aaron’s sons paid for carelessly using unholy fire to burn incense before the L-rd, how much more serious a sin was it to use the Temple as a central bank for Gentile tax collecting? Even more sinful and destructive were the false prophesies of the Teacher of Righteousness, and the adding of an additional set of laws to those G-d gave through Moses. In the upcoming chapters, we will see how these sins brought chaos and destruction to the nation. To fill in the missing puzzle pieces of this lost history, we will begin to examine the unique sectarian scrolls found in the caves of the Dead Sea, starting with the Damascus Document.](Teacher_of_Righteousness_files/shapeimage_1.png)
Chapter Navigation
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
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ANTIOCHUS IV