Yonatan the Maccabee יונתן המכבי
youngest brother, first Hasmonean to hold the high priesthood
After Yehuda's death the cause looked lost: supporters scattered, famine gripped the land. Yonatan withdrew into the wilderness of Tekoa and waited. His weapon became the one thing the Seleucids never ran short of—rival claimants to the throne. Everyone who wanted an ally in Judea had to pay Yonatan in concessions.
In AM 3609 Alexander Balas sent him purple and a golden crown and appointed him High Priest. So an office that had belonged for centuries to the house of Zadok passed to a family from Modi'in. From that appointment begins the argument that runs through the whole Hasmonean story: a priestly family had taken power into its hands.
Yonatan rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, made treaties with Rome and Sparta, and brought Judea close to independence. Trust undid him: the general Tryphon proposed a meeting, guaranteed his safety and asked him to send his army home. Yonatan dismissed his men and was seized; soon after, Tryphon killed him at Baskama beyond the Jordan. Shimon ransomed his brother's bones and buried them in Modi'in.
On the timeline
Places
Sources
Documents of the period
- 1 Maccabees 9:23–73 — his taking command and the years in the wilderness
- 1 Maccabees 10:18–21 — his appointment as High Priest in AM 3609
- 1 Maccabees 12:1–23 — the treaties with Rome and Sparta
- 1 Maccabees 12:39–13:30 — Tryphon's deceit, his capture and death
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13:191–212 — the same account and the tomb at Modi'in
Basis: documents and evidence.