Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Published Version

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Qumran Chronicle

Volume

22

Issue

1-4

First Page

1

Last Page

19

Abstract

The reigns of Judah Aristobulus and Alexander Jannaeus marked a major turning point in the history of the Hasmonean dynasty. Judah Aristobulus transformed his family’s state into a monarchy in which a single person held the offices of king and high priest. His brother, Alexander Jannaeus, succeeded him as king and high priest and expanded the boundaries of the Hasmonean state. He also preserved the territorial integrity of the Hasmonean state when he fought off invasions by Egyptian and Seleucid rulers. Although the reigns of Judah Aristobulus and Alexander Jannaeus are widely known from the writings of Josephus, the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls were also interested in these two monarchs. Their presence in these texts is not as widely known, even though these documents contain new historical information about them. This study explores the references and allusions to these two Hasmonean rulers in the Dead Sea Scrolls to show the importance of these texts for understanding the Hasmonean period. They not only contain new information about this time, but they also have much to tell us about how the community that produced the Qumran writings viewed Judah Aristobulus and Alexander Jannaeus.

Department

Department of History

Original Publication Date

12-2014

Object Description

1 PDF file (19 pages)

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright

©2014 Enigma Press. Permission to post the article to the institutional repository granted by the publisher.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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