The Independent Hasmonean Kingdom

The war continued for twenty years after the Temple's rededication. Yehudah the Maccabee fell in battle, Elazar was crushed by a war elephant, Yonatan was lured into a trap and killed. The last brother, Shimon, threw off the Seleucid yoke completely in 3618: tribute ceased, a Jewish coinage began, and a popular assembly proclaimed him ruler, High Priest and commander 'forever, until a faithful prophet shall arise.' In 3626 Shimon was murdered at a banquet by his own son-in-law Ptolemy.

With no brothers left, power passed to his son Yochanan Hyrcanus. The Hasmoneans expanded the borders almost to the extent of David's kingdom—Idumea, Samaria, Transjordan, the coast. Judea was again a power to reckon with.

The success had a price. The Hasmoneans were priests of the house of Jehoiarib, not descendants of David, and by taking the royal title—first Aristobulus I, then Alexander Yannai—they combined crown and high priesthood in one pair of hands, something the Torah never envisioned. Nachmanides links the fall of the dynasty directly to this. The court grew more Hellenistic, the conflict with the sages sharper, and a century later independence ended as it had begun: in civil war and a foreign army.

After Alexander the divergence of the chronologies nearly disappears: both rest on the same Greek and Roman documents. The remainder of a year or two is the difference between the traditional count and the date refined from external sources.