Abstract
When Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered Judea, which consists of part of present-day Palestine, Israel and Jordan, in 332 BC, the Jews of the region came under Hellenistic domination. After the death of Alexander the Great, his generals began to fight each other on the huge empire he left behind, and eventually various Hellenistic kingdoms were established. Although Judea remained under the domination of the Ptolemaic State, one of the aforementioned Hellenistic states, in 301 BC, it became subject to another Hellenistic State, the Seleucids, in 200 BC as part of the ongoing struggles. The Jewish population, which had a relatively comfortable environment in terms of religion and administration as of the beginning of the Seleucid domination, would be subject to some religious and administrative sanctions in the following period. Due to the sanctions in question, a rebellion movement known as the Maccabean Revolt in the literature started under the leadership of Mattathias of Modein and his five sons. The family that led the movement is known as the Hasmonean Family or the Maccabees. The name Hasmonean is used because of the family's great ancestor whose existence can be identified in the sources. The name Maccabee is essentially the epithet of Judas Maccabee, son of Mattathias. Due to his successes, it has become used to commemorate both the rebellion and the family. The family known as the Hasmoneans or Maccabees first appeared in 167 BC. During this period, the Jews were under Seleucid rule and a rebellion started under the leadership of Mattathias against the religious impositions of Antiochus IV, the king of the period. After Mattathias' death, the movement was continued by his five remaining sons and later by his grandchildren. The movement, which was initially a local rebellion, led to the transformation of the family into a dynasty. Continuing its struggle as a dynasty, the Hasmonean Family first had a vassal structure and finally an independent political structure, with the gains they achieved against the Seleucids. Primary information about the family is generally obtained from the apocryphal Books of Maccabees and the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. On the family's activity period, which covers the period between 167 BC and 63 BC, various studies have been made on the importance and effects of the political history of the family and the movement, and the history of religions in terms of Judaism, especially in foreign literature. But, there are not many studies on the motivation of action adopted by the family while carrying out its activities and the bases on which they gain legitimacy. Whereas, while the historical course of the family is being followed, it is noteworthy that the movement ideology, the reasons for the struggle and the legitimacy bases of the family have changed and updated continuously. In this study, rather than the political history of the Hasmonean Dynasty and its meaning to Judaism as a religion, the ideology of the family from its emergence on the stage of history until the collapse of the independent state they owned, its legitimacy bases and the reasons for the changes in the aforementioned elements are examined. As a result of the examinations, it is determined that the changes occurred especially according to the gains of the family and the current political conjuncture. The changes that took place on the family's movement ideology occurred as a result of certain events. In this respect, it is possible to examine the motivation of the family in three parts as the ideology of the rebellion period, the ideology of the dynasty and the ideology of the state. While the movement was still in the period of rebellion, the ideology of the family was far from nationalism and was based on religion. The family gained its legitimacy from religious grounds in this period, just like its ideology. In the dynastic stage, which is the next period in which the goals of the Maccabean Revolt were successful, the ideology and legitimacy of the family underwent a major change. Since there was no longer a religious goal, the family had started to pursue political independence goals by acting with a national ideology. In the period of the state when political independence was established, there was no longer a goal of political independence, so the family acted with the motive of protecting the dynasty and personal power.
Keywords: , Hasmoneans, Maccabees, Ideology, Legitimacy, Change, Judaism.