Hasideans
Encyclopedia
The Hasideans were a Jewish religious party which commenced to play an important role in political life only during the time of the Maccabean wars, although it had existed for quite some time previous. They are mentioned only three times in the books of the Maccabees
.
without offering any resistance, Mattathias
and his followers decided to fight on the Sabbath in case of necessity. Thereupon a company of Hasidæans joined them, "mighty men of Israel,... such as were voluntarily devoted unto the law." In the second passage (I Macc. vii.) it is stated that Alcimus
succeeded in persuading Demetrius
, the newly elected king of Syria
, to appoint him high priest instead of Judas Maccabeus
. Whereupon it is said (verses 12-14):
They were mistaken, however, since Alcimus later caused sixty of them to be put to death. In the parallel passage, on the other hand (II Macc. xiv.), Alcimus describes the political situation of the Jews to Demetrius as follows: "Those of the Jews that be called Assideans, whose captain is Judas Maccabeus, nourish war, and are seditious, and will not let the realm be in peace" (II Macc. xiv. 6).
The name "Hasidæans" occurs frequently in the Psalms
, in the sense of "the pious," "saints" (xxx. 5 [A. V. 4], xxxi. 24 [23], xxxvii. 28). In Talmudic sources the Hasidæans appear as martyrs to their faith (Sanh. 10b), as unselfish and long-suffering (Abot v. 4, 13), as the "saints of former times" ("Ḥasidim ha-Rishonim"), as those who compose themselves inwardly for an hour before prayer (Ber.
v. 1) and enjoy special honor at the Feast of Tabernacles, on the day of the drawing of water (Suk. v. 4). To their party, which died out with Joshua Kaṭnuta, Jose ben Joezer probably belonged (Soṭah
ix. 15; Ḥag. ii. 7) In the Eighteen Benedictions God's blessing is called down upon them immediately after the Ẓaddiḳim ("'al ha-Ẓaddiḳim we'al ha-Ḥasidim"), and in later times they appear in general as the ideal representatives of Judaism
, so that "Ḥasid" has come to be a title of respect (Num. R. §§ 14, 227a, "Yacob he-Ḥasid"; comp. Tem. 15b; Ta'an. 8a).
, who began the war against the Syrians
and carried it to a triumphant conclusion. The Hasidæans thus became the chief impelling force in the Jewish struggle for independence (II Macc. xiv. 6).
and thus left the Maccabeans in the lurch. The contradictory passage in II Maccabees, according to which the Hasidæans were the chief force throughout the war, Wellhausen regards as a violently interjected protest against the true representation of them as found in I Maccabees.
Several modern scholars (Schürer
, Kautzsch, and others) have agreed to this view, which had already been adopted in part by Georg Heinrich August von Ewald (Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iv. 401). But even if the justice of this view were admitted, the origin and tenets of the Hasidæans would be no less obscure than before. Grätz (Geschichte ii. 273) supposes them to have developed out of the Nazarenes
. After the Maccabean victories, according to Grätz, they retired into obscurity, being plainly dissatisfied with Judas Maccabeus
, and appeared later as the order of the Essenes
—a theory which is supported by the similarity in meaning between Ἐσσηνοά or Ἐσσαῖοι (= Syriac stat. absolute חסין, stat. emphat. חסיא, "pious") and "Ḥasidim" ("pious"), and which has as many advocates (Hitzig
, Gesch. des Volkes Israel; Lucius
, Die Therapeuten) as opponents (Levi Herzfeld
, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, and others). Others think that the Pharisees
were developed from the Ḥasidim (Schürer
, Gesch. ii. 404; Moritz Friedländer, Gesch. der Jüdischen Apologetik, pp. 316 et seq., 464 et seq.).
Since scholars have until recently started with the erroneous hypothesis that Hellenism
"took root only in the upper classes of society, the main body of the [Jewish] nation being wholly untouched by it" (Wellhausen, Israelitische und Jüdische Gesch. p. 240), and that consequently the majority of the people at that time were "pious, and observers of the Law," it would be necessary, in order to account for the Hasidæans, to remove them from their "pious" surroundings and make of them a sect or society of "extra-pious," although the sources mentioned do not justify such a view. The συναγωγ σιδαίων of the books of the Maccabees
, upon which so much emphasis is laid, corresponds, as has already long been known, to the קהל חסידים of the Psalms, which means neither "sect" nor "society," but only "congregation," with no idea of party. The piety attributed to Ḥasidim in the Talmudic sources is not in any way abnormal or suggestive of sect (Lehmann
, in R. E. J. xxx. 182 et seq.). The supposition that they were a sect closely associated with the scribes, and related to them, rests only on the fact that the two classes are mentioned together in I Macc. vii. 12, 13; the genuineness of verse 13, however, has been questioned by Hitzig
(Gesch. des Volkes Israel, p. 417).
fell away from orthodox Judaism
, even in the 3rd century B.C., the Hasidæans appear simply to have been those "pious" ones who remained true to the customs of their fathers. They lost ground, however, from day to day, as their prayer shows: "Help, Lord; for the Ḥasid ceaseth" (כי גמר חסיד: Ps.
xii. 2 [A. V. 1]). They were animated by a profound hatred for the foreign, Hellenic
spirit, and for those of their Jewish brethren who were filled with it. In the Maccabean wars they came to an accounting with both. They seem by no means to have been peace-loving hermits or ascetics. Their sentiments and attitude are probably to be seen in Ps. cxlix.:
This agrees with II Maccabees, according to which the Hasidæans under Judas Maccabeus
"continually stirred up war and rebellion, and would not let the country be at peace."
Books of the Maccabees
The Books of the Maccabees are books concerned with the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid dynasty, or related subjects.The term mostly refers to two deuterocanonical books contained in some canons of the Bible:...
.
Account in Maccabees
In I Macc. ii. 41 it is related that at the commencement of the war, after a number of Maccabeans in the recesses of the desert had allowed themselves to be slain on the SabbathShabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
without offering any resistance, Mattathias
Mattathias
Mattathias ben Johanan was a Jewish priest whose role in the Jewish revolt against the Syrian Greeks is related in the Books of the Maccabees...
and his followers decided to fight on the Sabbath in case of necessity. Thereupon a company of Hasidæans joined them, "mighty men of Israel,... such as were voluntarily devoted unto the law." In the second passage (I Macc. vii.) it is stated that Alcimus
Alcimus
Alcimus , also called Jacimus, or Joachim , was a High Priest of Israel for three years, 162 BCE-159 BCE, who espoused the Syrian cause....
succeeded in persuading Demetrius
Demetrius I Soter
Demetrius I , surnamed Soter , was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire....
, the newly elected king of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, to appoint him high priest instead of Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus
Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
. Whereupon it is said (verses 12-14):
They were mistaken, however, since Alcimus later caused sixty of them to be put to death. In the parallel passage, on the other hand (II Macc. xiv.), Alcimus describes the political situation of the Jews to Demetrius as follows: "Those of the Jews that be called Assideans, whose captain is Judas Maccabeus, nourish war, and are seditious, and will not let the realm be in peace" (II Macc. xiv. 6).
The name "Hasidæans" occurs frequently in the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
, in the sense of "the pious," "saints" (xxx. 5 [A. V. 4], xxxi. 24 [23], xxxvii. 28). In Talmudic sources the Hasidæans appear as martyrs to their faith (Sanh. 10b), as unselfish and long-suffering (Abot v. 4, 13), as the "saints of former times" ("Ḥasidim ha-Rishonim"), as those who compose themselves inwardly for an hour before prayer (Ber.
Berakhot (Talmud)
Berachot is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim, a collection of the Mishnah that primarily deals with laws relating to plants and farming...
v. 1) and enjoy special honor at the Feast of Tabernacles, on the day of the drawing of water (Suk. v. 4). To their party, which died out with Joshua Kaṭnuta, Jose ben Joezer probably belonged (Soṭah
Sotah
Sotah deals with the ritual of the Sotah - the woman suspected of adultery as described and prescribed in the Book of Numbers in...
ix. 15; Ḥag. ii. 7) In the Eighteen Benedictions God's blessing is called down upon them immediately after the Ẓaddiḳim ("'al ha-Ẓaddiḳim we'al ha-Ḥasidim"), and in later times they appear in general as the ideal representatives of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, so that "Ḥasid" has come to be a title of respect (Num. R. §§ 14, 227a, "Yacob he-Ḥasid"; comp. Tem. 15b; Ta'an. 8a).
Party of the rebellion
From these sources have been developed the opinions, generally prevalent among scholars, that the Hasidæans were strongly religious ascetics who held strictly to the Law and loved quiet, and who founded a society or sect that exercised considerable power and authority among the people, and that they were finally drawn into rebellion by AntiochusAntiochus
-The Seleucid Empire:* Antiochus , father of Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Hellenstic Seleucid Empire* Antiochus I Soter , king of the Seleucid Empire...
, who began the war against the Syrians
Demographics of Syria
Syrians today are an overall indigenous Levantine people. While modern-day Syrians are commonly described as Arabs by virtue of their modern-day language and bonds to Arab culture and history...
and carried it to a triumphant conclusion. The Hasidæans thus became the chief impelling force in the Jewish struggle for independence (II Macc. xiv. 6).
Different views
Concerning the political role of the Hasidæans in this war, Wellhausen has endeavored to prove that it was almost insignificant (Die Pharisäer und die Sadducäer, Greifswald, 1874). According to him they formed an independent association existing apart from the doctors of the Law (comp. I Macc. vii. 12), which attached itself to the Maccabeans after the latter had won their first success (I Macc. ii. 42), but which seized the first opportunity to make peace with AlcimusAlcimus
Alcimus , also called Jacimus, or Joachim , was a High Priest of Israel for three years, 162 BCE-159 BCE, who espoused the Syrian cause....
and thus left the Maccabeans in the lurch. The contradictory passage in II Maccabees, according to which the Hasidæans were the chief force throughout the war, Wellhausen regards as a violently interjected protest against the true representation of them as found in I Maccabees.
Several modern scholars (Schürer
Schürer
Schürer is surname of:* Emil Schürer , a German Protestant theologian* Franz de Paula Schürer , Austrian liberal politician , German politician Schürer is surname of:* Emil Schürer (1844, Augsburg - 1910), a German Protestant theologian* Franz de Paula Schürer (1822–1886), Austrian liberal...
, Kautzsch, and others) have agreed to this view, which had already been adopted in part by Georg Heinrich August von Ewald (Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iv. 401). But even if the justice of this view were admitted, the origin and tenets of the Hasidæans would be no less obscure than before. Grätz (Geschichte ii. 273) supposes them to have developed out of the Nazarenes
Nazarene (sect)
The Nazarene sect is used in two contexts:* Firstly of the New Testament early church where in Acts 24:5 Paul is accused before Felix at Caesarea by Tertullus of being "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes."...
. After the Maccabean victories, according to Grätz, they retired into obscurity, being plainly dissatisfied with Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus
Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
, and appeared later as the order of the Essenes
Essenes
The Essenes were a Jewish sect that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE which some scholars claim seceded from the Zadokite priests...
—a theory which is supported by the similarity in meaning between Ἐσσηνοά or Ἐσσαῖοι (= Syriac stat. absolute חסין, stat. emphat. חסיא, "pious") and "Ḥasidim" ("pious"), and which has as many advocates (Hitzig
Ferdinand Hitzig
----Ferdinand Hitzig , was a German biblical critic.He was born at Hauingen , Baden, where his father was a pastor....
, Gesch. des Volkes Israel; Lucius
Lucius
Lucius is a male given name derived from Lucius , one of the small group of common Latin forenames found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from latin word Lux Lucius (Greek: Λούκιος/Loukios, Etruscan: Luvcie) is a male given name derived from Lucius (abbreviated L.), one of the small...
, Die Therapeuten) as opponents (Levi Herzfeld
Levi Herzfeld
Levi Herzfeld was a German rabbi and historian.- Life :Having chosen the rabbinical career, he studied under Chief Rabbi Abraham Bing at Würzburg, and under District Rabbi Samuel Egers at Brunswick...
, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, and others). Others think that the Pharisees
Pharisees
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
were developed from the Ḥasidim (Schürer
Schürer
Schürer is surname of:* Emil Schürer , a German Protestant theologian* Franz de Paula Schürer , Austrian liberal politician , German politician Schürer is surname of:* Emil Schürer (1844, Augsburg - 1910), a German Protestant theologian* Franz de Paula Schürer (1822–1886), Austrian liberal...
, Gesch. ii. 404; Moritz Friedländer, Gesch. der Jüdischen Apologetik, pp. 316 et seq., 464 et seq.).
Since scholars have until recently started with the erroneous hypothesis that Hellenism
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
"took root only in the upper classes of society, the main body of the [Jewish] nation being wholly untouched by it" (Wellhausen, Israelitische und Jüdische Gesch. p. 240), and that consequently the majority of the people at that time were "pious, and observers of the Law," it would be necessary, in order to account for the Hasidæans, to remove them from their "pious" surroundings and make of them a sect or society of "extra-pious," although the sources mentioned do not justify such a view. The συναγωγ σιδαίων of the books of the Maccabees
Books of the Maccabees
The Books of the Maccabees are books concerned with the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid dynasty, or related subjects.The term mostly refers to two deuterocanonical books contained in some canons of the Bible:...
, upon which so much emphasis is laid, corresponds, as has already long been known, to the קהל חסידים of the Psalms, which means neither "sect" nor "society," but only "congregation," with no idea of party. The piety attributed to Ḥasidim in the Talmudic sources is not in any way abnormal or suggestive of sect (Lehmann
Lehmann
Lehmann is a common Germanic surname derived from the German word Lehen, meaning fiefdom. Some Jewish Lehmann families state that the origin of their name is from the German words for "Lion Man"...
, in R. E. J. xxx. 182 et seq.). The supposition that they were a sect closely associated with the scribes, and related to them, rests only on the fact that the two classes are mentioned together in I Macc. vii. 12, 13; the genuineness of verse 13, however, has been questioned by Hitzig
Ferdinand Hitzig
----Ferdinand Hitzig , was a German biblical critic.He was born at Hauingen , Baden, where his father was a pastor....
(Gesch. des Volkes Israel, p. 417).
Their position
Since Moritz Friedländer's investigations (especially in Der Antichrist, Göttingen, 1901) have shown the great extent to which the Jews in Palestine and in the countries of the DiasporaJewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
fell away from orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, even in the 3rd century B.C., the Hasidæans appear simply to have been those "pious" ones who remained true to the customs of their fathers. They lost ground, however, from day to day, as their prayer shows: "Help, Lord; for the Ḥasid ceaseth" (כי גמר חסיד: Ps.
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
xii. 2 [A. V. 1]). They were animated by a profound hatred for the foreign, Hellenic
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
spirit, and for those of their Jewish brethren who were filled with it. In the Maccabean wars they came to an accounting with both. They seem by no means to have been peace-loving hermits or ascetics. Their sentiments and attitude are probably to be seen in Ps. cxlix.:
This agrees with II Maccabees, according to which the Hasidæans under Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus
Judah Maccabee was a Kohen and a son of the Jewish priest Mattathias...
"continually stirred up war and rebellion, and would not let the country be at peace."
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums und Seiner Sekten, i. 199;
- HerzfeldHerzfeldHerzfeld is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany.-External links:*...
, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, ii. 357, 384, 395; - HamburgerHamburgerA hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
, R. B. T. ii. 132; - Ersch and Gruber, Encyc. section iii., part 32, p. 18;
- Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. ii. 240-374; iii. 2, 7, 83, 99;
- Emil SchürerEmil SchürerEmil Schürer was a German Protestant theologian.-Biography:Schürer was born at Augsburg.After studying at Erlangen, Berlin and Heidelberg from 1862 to 1866, he became in 1873 professor extraordinarius at Leipzig and eventually professor ordinarius at Göttingen...
, Gesch. i. 190, 203, 217; ii. 404; - Wellhausen, Israelitische und Jüdische Gesch. pp. 240, 277;
- Moritz Friedländer, Die Gesch. der Jüdischen Apologetik, pp. 437 et seq.