Scribes Slain by Seleucids

Mid-to Late 2nd Century BCE

About This Entry

The book of 1 Maccabees recounts an incident in which sixty scribes were betrayed and slaughtered in one day under the order of Alcimus, the newly installed high priest (ca. 161 BCE). The Hasideans, apparently a subgroup within the larger group of scribes, mistakenly trusted Alcimus’ Aaronide lineage and believed his promise of peace. The scribal group here is portrayed as a learned social class that likely included various smaller sects and political factions.

⁵Then there came to him [Demetrius son of Seleucus] all the renegade and godless men of Israel; they were led by Alcimus, who wanted to be high priest. ⁶They brought to the king this accusation against the people: “Judah [Maccabee] and his brothers have destroyed all your Friends, and have driven us out of our land. ⁷Now then send a man whom you trust; let him go and see all the ruin that Judah has brought on us and on the land of the king, and let him punish them and all who help them.”

⁸So the king chose Bacchides, one of the king’s Friends, governor of the province Beyond the River; he was a great man in the kingdom and was faithful to the king. ⁹He sent him, and with him he sent the ungodly Alcimus, whom he made high priest; and he commanded him to take vengeance on the Israelites. ¹⁰So they marched away and came with a large force into the land of Judah; and he sent messengers to Judah and his brothers with peaceable but treacherous words. ¹¹But they paid no attention to their words, for they saw that they had come with a large force.

¹²Then a group of scribes appeared in a body before Alcimus and Bacchides to ask for just terms. ¹³The Hasideans were first among the Israelites to seek peace from them, ¹⁴for they said, “A priest of the line of Aaron has come with the army, and he will not harm us.” ¹⁵Alcimus spoke peaceable words to them and swore this oath to them, “We will not seek to injure you or your friends.” ¹⁶So they trusted him; but he seized sixty of them and killed them in one day, in accordance with the word that was written,

¹⁷“The flesh of your faithful ones and their blood

they poured out all around Jerusalem,

and there was no one to bury them.”

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

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Credits

New Revised Standard Version Bible copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.