Communal Organization and Leadership: The Ethnarch

The title ethnarch, “head of the people,” was not confined to Jewish rulers. Although the title appears first in 1 Maccabees, which was written in the Hellenistic period, it occurs more frequently in historical sources for the Roman period (see EARLY ROMAN PERIOD). No source contemporaneous with 1 Maccabees attests to the use of the term, and the appearance of this Greek term in Maccabees is further suspect given that the text celebrates Judean independence from the Greeks. On these grounds, some historians have challenged 1 Maccabees’ identification of Simon as ethnarch.

Book 14 of Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities records that in the year 47 BCE, Julius Caesar granted John Hyrcanus II and his sons the title of ethnarch along with the office of the high priesthood. Some decades later, Caesar appointed Herod’s son Archelaus ethnarch. Josephus is careful to note that the ethnarch is not a king. Josephus also mentions that the Jewish community of Alexandria was led by an ethnarch until—as Philo also explains—the office was replaced by a council of elders, a gerousia (see “Gerousia” and “Josephus on the Jewish Settlement of Alexandria”). Scholarly efforts to understand the differences between the roles of the ethnarch and Gerousia are ongoing.