Simon Maccabeus Wins Independence; the Hasmonean Dynasty Begins (142 BC)

The event

After Jonathan's death, leadership passed to Simon, the last of the five Maccabee brothers. In 142 BC the Seleucid king released Judea from tribute, and Simon secured recognition as high priest, military commander, and civil ruler — the birth of genuine Jewish self-rule for the first time since the Babylonian exile nearly four and a half centuries earlier.

In 140 BC, a great assembly of the Jewish people went further, confirming Simon and his descendants as hereditary high priests and rulers "until a trustworthy prophet should arise" (1 Maccabees 14:41) — a striking phrase showing that the nation still regarded this arrangement as provisional, awaiting God's final prophetic word. That long-awaited word would ultimately be fulfilled in Christ, "the Prophet" foretold through Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22).

This is the founding of the Hasmonean dynasty, named for an ancestor of the Maccabee family, which would rule Judea for roughly eighty years, expanding its borders and reasserting Jewish sovereignty in the land. As later entries in this timeline show, however, subsequent Hasmoneans would drift from the piety of Mattathias and Judas, sowing the seeds of the very internal strife that would eventually invite Roman intervention.

Dating

Judea's release from Seleucid tribute is dated to 142 BC (1 Maccabees 13:41-42), with the Great Assembly's formal, hereditary confirmation of Simon following in 140 BC (1 Maccabees 14:27-49). Both dates rest on the detailed and generally reliable chronology of 1 Maccabees.

Scripture references

• Deuteronomy 18:15
• Acts 3:22

Other witnesses

• 1 Maccabees 13:41-42
• 1 Maccabees 14:25-49