Aristobulus I

The name Aristobulus is of Greek origin and is an epithet meaning "best-advising".[6] Aristobulus I was the first Hasmonean to have adopted the name,[4] but his Hebrew name was Judah.[7] He was also referred to as Philhellene, meaning he was an admirer of Greek culture.[8] Josephus though does not elaborate as to why he was called this.[9]

John Hyrcanus conquered many lands during his efforts to expand Jewish territory, but throughout his campaign, Samaria resisted while surrounding land was captured. John so highly valued Samaria that he sent his two sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus, to capture it. They besieged the city and the residents requested aid from Antiochus IX Cyzicenus, who joined the battle but was defeated.[10] Antiochus fled, and the brothers pursued him towards Scythopolis. After Antiochus escaped, the brothers returned to Samaria, demolished the city, and enslaved its populace.[11] Forces led by the brothers then overran Scythopolis and the entire region south of Mount Carmel.[11] The capture and destruction of Samaria occurred near the end of John Hyrcanus's long tenure.[10]

According to the directions of John Hyrcanus, the country after his death was to be placed in the hands of his wife, and Aristobulus was originally to receive the high priesthood only. Instead, Aristobulus became both king and high priest as he disapproved of his father's wishes; to secure his kingship, he had his mother placed in prison, where she starved to death;[12] To protect himself from possible retaliation from his family, he placed his three brothers in prison except for Antigonus whom he had friendly relations when they had fought together.[1]

Josephus does not name Hyrcanus's wife.[13] He states that Aristobulus and Antigonus were the eldest of the five brothers, but Aristobulus is the firstborn. The others were Alexander Jannaeus and Absalom. Josephus mentions a fifth brother but doesn't name him.[4]

Aristobulus had gone to war against the Ituraeans and taken territory from them. The conquered Ituraeans and the inhabitants had to accept Jewish law and be circumcised if they wanted to remain in their land.[5] The Ituraeans were an Arab tribe that expanded their settlement from the Lebanese Beq'a to the Golan and Mount Hermon in the second century BCE after the collapse of the Seleucid Empire.[14] They are first mentioned in Josephus's Antiquities 13.319 during Aristobulus I's conquest where Josephus writes, "he brought over to them a portion of the Ituraean nation".[5]

Josephus's Antiquities 13.319 is a quote from Strabo's Historica Hypomnemata which was originally written by Timagenes stating "This man was a kindly person and very serviceable to the Jews, for he acquired additional territory for them, and brought over to them a portion of the Ituraean nation, whom he joined to them by the bond of circumcision." This passage has been generally accepted as evidence for Josephus's reliance on Strabo and Timagenes's writings.[15] It is unknown where the confrontation's exact location and the territory that the Ituraeans occupied. Most scholars assume the Ituraean territory to be northern Galilee.[16] There is also no evidence of forced Judaization on Galilee during Aristobulus's reign.[17]

The first mint of Hasmonean coins didn't begin until the leadership of John Hyrcanus. Like his father, Judah Aristobulus only minted his coins with the title of the high priesthood and used Hebrew inscriptions.[22] It wasn't until Alexander Jannaeus that both the roles of kingship and the high priesthood were minted onto coins.[23]

The majority of Judah's coins were found in the regions of Galilee and the Golan, primarily, the largest amount of coins were from Gamla.[24] By 2016, archeologists had found thirty coins at Gamla which was the largest amount to date.[25] The majority of them come from his actual reign, while a small amount of these coins were minted after.[24]

The numismatic evidence does not indicate Aristobulus assumed the title of king.[7] There was also the possibility the coins could be attributed to Aristobulus II (67 – 63 BCE) who was also king and high priest,[7] however, the longstanding debate began to favor more towards Aristobulus I when new numismatic evidence indicated that Aristobulus I had his coins minted with the name "Judah".[13]

Because of his short reign of one year, only a small amount of coins are available that have the name "Judah". Ya'akov Meshorer categorized them into two groups. Twenty coins are inscribed with "Jehudah high priest and the assembly of the Jews" (יהודה כהן גדול וחבר היהודים‎), and another seven with the inscriptions of "Jehudah the high priest and the assembly of the Jews" (יהודה הכהן הגדל וחבר היהדים‎). Every coin has a value of one prutah and has the inscriptions in a wreath. On the opposite side, a cornucopia with pomegranates between them.[26] The inscriptions on his coins are almost identical to those the coins of his father and his brother Alexander Jannaeus.[13]

Doubts concerning Josephus's statement that Aristobulus was the first Hasmonean monarch are indicated by his coins, which do not contain the title of "king".[13] Josephus's statement also conflicts with Strabo, who stated that Alexander Jannaeus was the first king, rather than a high priest. However, no Hasmonean relinquished the high priesthood in favor of the kingship.[27]

According to Kenneth Atkinson, Alexander Jannaeus received opposition for having the kingship title minted onto his coins. Alexander had many of those coins over-struck to replace the kingship title for the high priesthood. Atkinson considers the over-struck coins as evidence that the title of "king" was still problematic during Alexander's reign, Atkinson concluded that “the absence of any royal designation of Aristobulus's coins does not indicate that he was never an actual monarch.”[13]

• Atkinson, Kenneth (2016). A History of the Hasmonean State: Josephus and Beyond. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780567669032.
• Buth, Randall; Notley, R. Steven (2013). The Language Environment of First Century Judaea: Jerusalem Studies in the Synoptic Gospels. BRILL. ISBN 9789004264410.
• Coogan, Michael D. (2001). The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195139372.
• Elwell, Walter A.; Comfort, Philip Wesley (2001). Tyndale Bible Dictionary. Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 9780842370899.
• Gelb, Norman (2010). Kings of the Jews: The Origins of the Jewish Nation. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 9780827609136.
• Gruen, Erich S. (2002). Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradition. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520235069.
• Leeming, Henry; Leeming, Kate (2002). Josephus' Jewish War and its Slavonic Version: A Synoptic Comparison. BRILL. ISBN 9789004331143.
• Myers, E. A. (2010). The Ituraeans and the Roman Near East: Reassessing the Sources. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139484817.
• Regev, Eyal (2013). The Hasmoneans: Ideology, Archaeology, Identity. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783525550434.
• VanderKam, James C. (2004). From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451410662.
• Wine, Sherwin T. (2012). A Provocative People: A Secular History of the Jews. IISHJ-NA. ISBN 9780985151607.