322 BC - 282 BC
Ptolemy gets Egypt, Palestine, southern Syria
Seleucus get most of Asia Minor, northern Syria, Mesopotamia and remainder of eastern empire
Antigonids get mainland Greece, Thrace, and other territory
322 BC - 301 BC
200 BCE - 100 BCE
139 BC
Jews expelled from Rome for “attempting to transmit their sacred rites to Romans”
40 - 70
The Jewish community in Ostia is mentioned in an inscription found in Castel Porziano, to the south-east of Ostia. We hear of the [universitas] Iudaeorum [in col(onia) Ost(iensi) commo]rantium, and of the gerusiarches ("president of the elders") Caius Iulius Iustus. In the necropolis to the south of Ostia, on the Pianabella, the funerary inscription has been found of an archisynagogus, Plotius Fortunatus. Note that these Jews have adopted Roman names.
334 BC
333 BC
333 BC
190 BC
Antiochus defeated by Rome
538 BC - 332 BC
516 BC
458 BC - 445 BC
333 BC
Antiquities 11.8.1-6
332 BC
Ag. Apion 1.22 §§ 192.201-4
332 BC
301 BC - 198 BC
301 BC
Allows High Priest Hezekiah to migrate to Egypt with a great many Jews
260 BC
Joseph, a Tobiad and nephew of High Priest Onias II, pays tribute when Onias refused
260 BC
Zenon papyri
259 BC - 258 BC
Zenon was the secretary to a finance minister of Ptolemy II
250 BC - 175 BC
http://www.backtoclassics.com/images/pics/bernardostrozzi/bernardostrozzi_thehealingoftobit.jpg
The Healing of Tobit by Bernardo Strozzi, 1635
250 BC - 200 BC
Hyrcanus, Joseph’s youngest son, wins tax farming privileges from him when his father and brothers shift their loyalty to the Seleucids
200 BC
Antiochus III takes control of Palestine and southern Syria
200 BC
Antiochus III grants tax reprieve to pro-Ptolemaic forces (Ant. 12.3.3-4 §§ 138-46) for repairs
200 BC
198 BC - 142 BC
187 BC - 177 BC
Seleucus IV tries and fails to raid temple treasury, although otherwise peaceful time
180 BC
Hyrcanus ben Joseph of Tobiad family builds palatial estate at ‘Araq el-Emir in Transjordan
175 BC
Onias III serves as high priest when his brother Jason paid bribe to Antiochus for high priesthood and to Hellenize Jerusalem. Onias III is deposed by Antiochus IV and replaced by Jason, who established Greek gymnasium education in Jerusalem.
172 BC
Menaleus bribed Antiochus for high priesthood (outbidding Jason) and sold off temple vessels. A riot ensues.
170 BC
169 BC
168 BC
168 BC
Antiochus sends army to put down riot and orders the suppression of Jewish religion.
167 BC
Rebellion eventually led by the Maccabees
167 BC
Practitioners of Judaism persecuted
165 BC
December: Maccabees retake the Temple and restore the cult. Antiochus withdraws his decree.
164 BC
162 BC
Menaleus executed, Alcimus appointed High Priest
161 BC
Judas makes treaty with Rome
160 BC
Jonathan takes over
159 BC
159 BC - 152 BC
157 BC
Syrians withdraw from Palestine
152 BC - 142 BC
Appointed by Alexander Balas
142 BC - 134 BC
Simon confirmed as High Priest, commander, and ethnarch in 140, supports rival Seleucid faction
139 BC
Jews claim freedom from foreign rule, in theory but not reality
135 BC - 104 BC
Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Cristofano Allori, 1613
134 BC
134 BC
John Hyrcanus I, Simon’s son, becomes high priest and makes peace with Seleucids
134 BC - 104 BC
John Hyrcanus I serves as high priest ruling like king, but without title; makes independence real in 129/128
134 BC
126 BC - 104 BC
Hasmonean expansion into Samaria, Idumea, and Galilee
10 BC - 70 AD
Dr. Lee Levine came forward in writing and in SBL sessions and elsewhere and made emphatically clear that there were indeed purpose built synagogues even in Jesus' day and thereafter, and that in fact the practice may well pre-date the Herodian era. One of the sites Levine most based his argument on was in the lower Golan Heights, at the village of Gamla, sometimes also called Gamala (from the Hebrew word for camel, because the hill on which the village rests looks like the hump, or perhaps the nose of a camel from a certain angle). As it turns out, Levine was absolutely and positively right. A little of the history of Gamla is in order, since it is not a city mentioned in the Bible.
The village seems to have begun as a Selucid outpost in the 2nd century B.C. where a fort was established as a sort of early warning signal for those living in the Holy Land. It seems to have begun to become a civilian settlement of Jews sometime later in that century. Bible readers may know this site if they have read Josephus' Antiquities, in particular 13.394 which recounts how Josephus himself, as a Jewish commander early in the Jewish war in the A.D. 60s fortified this outpost as one of his main lines of defense of Galilee from Roman attack.
331 BC
330 BC - 323 BC
323 BC
222 BC - 187 BC
177 BC - 164 BC
164 BC
129 BC
Antiochus VII dies; Judea is de facto independent; Hyrcanus campaigns in Transjordan
525 BC
323 BC
300 BC - 200 BC
250 BC
c. 250 BC
170 BC
170 BC
Onias IV fled to Egypt and built alternative temple at Heliopolis in c. 160 (Ant. 13.62-73)
169 BC
168 BC
Antiochus IV invades Egypt again and Romans forced him to withdraw;
160 BC
Onias IV builds a temple at Leontopolis in Egypt after being expelled by the Hasmoneans (destroyed in 73 CE)