TOBIADS. - A powerful family of Ammonitis (v. AMMONITES). Numerous documents concerning it survive from the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C., but in all likelihood its existence already goes back to the 5th century, when a powerful Tobiah, an Ammonite, hindered in every way Nehemiah's work of reconstruction in Jerusalem (Neh. 3:19; 4:3-7 ff.; 6:1 ff.; 13:4-9).
From the famous Zenon papyri (cf. C. C. Edgar, Zenon papyri, Cairo 1925, nos. 59003, 59005, 59075, 59076; V, ibid.
1940, no. 59802) it emerges that in the 3rd century B.C. a person of the same name, who by every indication was the successor of the first, occupied a position of the first rank in Palestine. He dealt confidentially with Ptolemy II Philadelphus, in whose name, though with a certain freedom for individual initiative, he commanded the frontier cavalry and exercised effective control over Palestine, also devoting himself to a lucrative commercial activity. His center was the famous Birtà ("Fortress" in Aramaic), identified by the excavations at 'Aràq el-Emir in Transjordan east of Jericho, where the foundations of the castle have been found and also a double inscription in Aramaic letters of the simple name Tobiah (Tōbīyāh = "Good is Yahweh"). The Birtà was already described by Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Jud., XII, 230 ff.), who attributes it to the T. Hyrcanus. In all likelihood it was only a restoration, since the fortress already existed in the time of Tobiah, the grandfather of this man.
Of Hyrcanus, son of Joseph, about whom the Jewish historian narrates many things, not always reliable (Antiq. Jud., XII, 160 ff.), there is also mention in the books of Maccabees. In intimate relation with the priestly class of Jerusalem (II Macc. 3:11; 4:26; 5:7), after the passage of Palestine from dependence on the Lagids to that on the Seleucids, he remained faithful to the Egyptians, while his half-brothers adhered to the new masters. These attempted to maintain supremacy in Jerusalem, arrogating to themselves the role of intermediaries between the court of Antioch and the new subjects. In the political uncertainty after the battle of Magnesia, their position became critical. Through the initiative of Hyrcanus, they were driven out by the high priest Onias (Flavius Josephus, Bell. Jud., I, 31), but the triumph of their enemy was ephemeral. In all likelihood Antiochus IV, who in his unifying policy tolerated neither independent petty lords nor useless intermediaries between himself and his subjects, defeated Hyrcanus at that time (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Jud., XII, 236), who figured as the last of the T.