King Yannai and the Pharisees

The rabbis depict the Hasmonean dynasty, and particularly King Yannai (Alexander Janneus, r. 103–76 BCE), as extremely hostile to the Pharisees, whom they often refer to as “the sages.” (Josephus also writes about conflict between Janneus and the Pharisees; see “Alexander Janneus.”) This narrative recounts the origins of this hostility and the events that lead to a massacre of the Pharisees. While celebrating a military victory, Janneus receives advice on dealing with the Pharisees, who question his authority. He wears on his forehead the front plate of the high priest, which bears the divine name, and forces the Pharisees to swear their allegiance to him as both king and high priest. However, the Pharisees question his eligibility for the priesthood, suggesting that his mother was taken captive before his birth (in rabbinic law, if a woman married to a priest was held captive and then returned to her husband, none of her subsequent children would be considered fit for the priesthood; see m. Ketubbot 2:9; 4:8). The Pharisees’ challenge fails, and Yannai acts on advice to kill them.

This passage refers obliquely to differing beliefs about the Oral and Written Torah in the Second Temple period (see Beliefs of Pharisees and Sadducees). The Pharisees, like the rabbis after them, believed in an Oral Torah, which would be lost if the sages who transmitted it were killed. When Eleazar ben Por‘irah advises Yannai to kill the Pharisees, Yannai expresses concern that the Torah (i.e., the Oral Torah) will be lost. Eleazar’s response is that the Torah (i.e., the Written Torah) is “lying in a corner” and can be read and interpreted by anyone. The passage goes on to say that after this massacre, the world was desolate until Simeon ben Shetaḥ, a sage and brother of Yannai’s wife Shelamzion (Salome Alexandra), returned the Torah to its former glory.