The Maccabean Revolt started small

Take this for what it is worth, since even the White Right wants nothing to do with "Eric Striker" anymore; but Joseph Jordan has things to say about the Maccabean saga. He is citing Sylvie Honigman so, best I can tell, his post has summarised Tales of High Priests and Taxes. Said book is still expensive so I'll let Bryn Mawr do it. Overall 1-2 Maccabees are works of political propaganda; to which end - Honigman and Jordan say - were lying about religious persecution.

This blog has cited "Striker" twice. Both times over three years ago, but both times favourably. On this third time, I could pipe in that the Jason of Cyrene stuff narrowly pertains to 2 Maccabees, so is irrelevant to 1 Maccabees (which is better-regarded). "Against Alpion"... oy. His name was Apion, fool.

As for the accusations of plagiary: I hadn't ever seen that. On this time Jordan did cite the scholar. He also contradicts that scholar's chapter on "Olympiodoros" (sic), as do her academic reviewers. He downplays whether the revolt started as a tax revolt, although he does note that Classical tax-systems fell harder on noncitizens, which made Hellenism more attractive (the last gasp of this two-tier tax-code is, of course, the jizya). I find odd, given that Honigman depicted the Temple as a bank, that such a "countersemite" as Jordan would miss what (say) Guyénot did not. So if Jordan plagiarises, I don't find where he has done it to Honigman. Frankly he'd have to read her book, first. (At least I've not claimed to have read it.)

All this said, Striker/Jordan may have a point that Antiochus IV was unaware what he was up against in Judaea. The larger point is that Antiochus hadn't taken this tiff - still a tiff internal to Jews - seriously, fretting about the Arsacids in Iran at Coelesyria's east. Which also seems to contradict Honigman inasumuch as she posits a 168 BC revolt (over taxes or no) over all southern Syria, beyond the Jews.

The local Jews produced a (vast) literature of internal polemic. We have the Maccabean books themselves, if only in-and-from Greek (ironically). Against them, we have counters, mostly apocalyptic. I am aware, so far, of Daniel, and Jubilees, maybe Dream Visions; besides such Dead Sea Scrolls as the War Scroll. Many Jews didn't think that the Hasmonaeans were rightful priests and they sure didn't like them as kings.

Probably why the Maccabee books didn't enter the rabbinic canon and, also, weren't brought to Qumran.

One reason for considering that this tiff really wasn't all that important (at the time, and besides literary "flamewars") is that the place still kept paying taxes to the Syrian Greeks. It was only under Alexander Balas that the Hasmoneans were recognised as kings.

I suppose this post marks that third time, of three, I'm more-or-less agreeing with Striker-Jordan.