Wow! That is a very good point and I admit, it validates your argument about the DSS sect's expectation of punishment for Hellenizers. However, I wouldn't describe the Herodians as Hellenizers (or fully Hellenized) because they respected many Jewish customs (more or less). And even the DSS sect had Greek manuscripts (about 3% of all DSS we have). But alright, it's a possibility.It's how it works when God wants to punish "bad" Jews, and kings that engaged in things like niece marriage, polygamy and divorce were "bad" Jews to the DSS sect, like the Hellnizers in 2 Mac. 4:15-16:15 What their ancestors had regarded as honors they despised; what the Greeks esteemed as glory they prized highly. 16 For this reason they found themselves in serious trouble: the very people whose manner of life they emulated, and whom they desired to imitate in everything, became their enemies and oppressors.
But do we have the same quantity and quality of information for the first century BCE as for the first century CE? Josephus, the main source of information, lived in the first century CE. I think it's expected that he described more details about the lives of Herodians than about the lives of people living in the first century BCE. And, as I said before, if niece marriages, polygamy, and divorce were done by people associated with Hasmonean kings (and not by the kings themselves), Josephus wouldn't even care to write about these not-so-important people. And for Josephus, polygamy wasn't a sin, it was a Jewish custom (done by patriarchs). And maybe he didn't have a problem with niece marriages either. So again, I assume he wasn't especially motivated to write about these things, unlike the DSS sect.Nice! But it's the combination of all the factors for me. Is there any evidence that Pompey sacrificed to standards? Is there any evidence that Hasmonean kings (or people associated with them) engaged in niece marriage, polygamy and divorce? I'm not saying it's impossible that such things happened among the Romans and Jewish kings before the imperial Roman era, but it so happens that these things are said of imperial Romans and Herodians.
Statistics: Posted by AdamKvanta — Thu Nov 14, 2024 1:00 am