JOHN HYRCANUS. - Son of Simon Maccabeus, founder of the Hasmonean dynasty (v.), although the title of king was officially assumed only by his successors. In I Mach. (13:54; 16:1, 2, 21-23), his military skill and his prompt intervention against his father's assassins are recalled, along with his victory over Cendebeus (ibid. 16:9). In 135-34 B.C. he succeeded Simon, who had been killed together with his other two sons. From the outset J. was involved in warlike actions, first against Ptolemy, the murderer of his family, then against the Seleucid king Antiochus VII.
Both undertakings proved difficult. Nevertheless, with the threat of an intervention by Rome in his favor, as it seems may be inferred from uncertain reports of Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Iud., XIII, 259-66; cf. XIV, 143 ff., 247 ff.), J. succeeded in obtaining conditions not too harsh from Antiochus VII, who intended to secure himself in the south before moving against the Parthians in the northeast of his kingdom. The recognition of Seleucid suzerainty lasted a short time, because after the death of Antiochus VII, during the decline of the Greek kingdom, it was easy for J. H. to declare himself practically independent (op. cit., XIII, 273). Indeed he was able to begin his expansionist campaigns against Idumea, Transjordan and especially against the Samaritans, whose temple on Mount Gerizim he destroyed. Besides a nationalist motive, J. H. also had in view the spread of pure Yahwism, which he often sought to propagate by force, as when he compelled the Idumeans to undergo circumcision and the Jewish rites (loc. cit., 257-58).
Internally, the kingdom of J. H. - which must have been very prosperous - was characterized by the sharpening of divergences between the two antagonistic ideological currents, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. According to Flavius Josephus (loc. cit., 288-98), J. H., who professed the ideas of the Pharisees, would suddenly have passed over to the opposite sect and persecuted his former friends. Probably this change was due to a silent opposition of the Pharisees, who did not approve, in an impulsive and lay character such as J. H., either the union of the high priesthood with civil power or his policy toward foreigners, who were even admitted into the ranks of the Yahwistic army (loc. cit., 248-52).