The years prior to the infamous Abomination of Desolation in 165 BCE when the Temple of the Jews in Jerusalem was desecrated and defiled, were years of turmoil. It all began between the Syrian Greek Seleucid Empire and the new imperial power of Rome, when the Syrians began to move into the geo-political sphere of the future expanding Roman Empire.

Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid State –

Bust in the Louve Museum in Paris France

Onias III, the grandson of the famous High Priest Simon the Great, became the Jewish high priest in the days of Seleucus IV Pilopator. Seleucus IV succeeded his father, Antiochus III the Great in 187 BCE only four years after his expansion into Greece. This was all instigated by Hannibal, the brilliant Carthagenian military commander who almost defeated Rome in the Second Punic War. He was now living in exile in Syria as the military advisor in the royal court of Antiochus III.

Hannibal, the Feared Enemy of Rome as the

Military Commander and Strategist of

Carthage in Northern Africa

With 10,500 troops and some allied forces, the Seleucid military forces met the 22,000 Roman military phalanxes escorted by a few elephants. There Antiochus III’s troops met a disastrous defeat by the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio. It halted his expansion into Greece and routed his forces at Thermopylae in 191 BCE. It was at this same region where the Spartans in 480 BCE destroyed the huge forces of the Persian Shah Xerses the Great. With 10,000 warriors now dead and a reported 200 Romans killed or wounded, the Romans continued to push Antiochus III, first by attacking him at Anatolia, and later at Magnesia and Sipylum (190 BCE), until all Asia Minor was given to the Romans in 188 BCE at the Treaty of Apamea.

One year later, Antiochus III was dead when he invaded Luristan. He was killed while attempting to rob and plunder a temple at Elymaïs, Persia.

When his oldest son, Seleucus IV Pilopator ascended to the throne of the Seleucids, he not only had a much reduced empire, but a heavy Roman tribute and his brother, Antiochus IV, who was a hostage of Rome. This brother, the third son of Antiochus III, was not a royal contender. This disastrous set of circumstances upon the Seleucid Empire set off a chain of events that directly affected the Jewish people in what was later called the Abomination of Desolation. It set up an archetypical image of a future abomination that the future Davidian Prince, Yehoshua HaNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene) prophesied would still be for an age in the future. This time it would be associated with signs in the heavens when the very powers of the heavens will be altered.

The Battle of Thermophlae between the Spartans and the Forces of Persia under Xerses

Matthew 24:15, 29-31 (parts) – “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the power of the heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,…and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

The Heavenly Expulsion of Heliodorus from Confiscating the Temple Treasuries

During these years, Seleucus IV Pilopator was friendly to the Jews and helped to defray the expenses of the temple with gifts and donations from Syria. Yet, soon, Seleucus IV was unable to pay the heavy tribute to Rome, so he sent his own prime minister, Heliodorus to Jerusalem with the goal to confiscate the vast treasures in the Temple of Zerubabbel. It was during the years of the Jewish High Priest Onias III, the son of Simon II the High Priest, a temple official called Simon the Benjamite, turned traitor to his own people and offered to assist the Syrian Prime Minister Heliodorus in plundering the temple treasury.

2 Maccabees 3:4-6 (parts) – “But a certain Simon, of the clan Bilgah, who had been appointed administrator of the temple, quarreled with the high priest about the regulation of the city market. Unable to get the better of Onias, he went…and alleged that the treasury at Jerusalem was full of untold riches – indeed the total of the accumulated balances was incalculable and did not correspond with the account for the sacrifices; he suggested that these balances might be brought under the control of the king.”

It was also during these years that Seleucus IV Pilopator was able to negotiate with Rome and secure the release of his own brother, Antiochus IV, who would later be known as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The terms of the release were that he had to ransom his own son, Demetrius, and heir to the throne of Syria, and send him to Rome as hostage.

The Prime Minister Heliodorus left Syria on a government mission to review the cities in Phoenicia (Lebanon) and Coele-Syria. It was a diplomatic pretense to make a side visit to the city of Jerusalem. When he arrived the high priests and elders greeted him with great courtesy, but in private consultation, Heliodorus reported to them about the allegations of untold wealth in the Jerusalem’s Temple treasuries. Heliodorus requested a complete report to send to the king. In turn he was given a report by the high priest that stated that the deposits in the treasury were held in trust to be used for the widows and orphans except for one large deposit that belonged to Hyrcanus, the son of Tobias, a very rich man in Jerusalem. In all, the deposits within the treasuries were “four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold.” (2 Maccabees 3:11) As the high priests stated:

2 Maccabees 3:12 – “It was unthinkable, he said, that wrong should be done to those who had relied on the sanctity of the place, or the dignity and inviolability of the world-famous temple. But, Heliodorus, in virtue of the king’s orders, replied that these deposits must without question be handed over to the royal treasury.”

When the ominous report spread throughout the city, the high priest and citizens of Jerusalem reacted with shock, dismay, and utter disbelief.

2 Maccabees 3:14-21 (parts) – “The priests, prostrating themselves in their vestments before the altar, prayed to Heaven, to the Lawgiver who had made deposits sacred, to keep them intact for their rightful owners. The high priest’s looks pierced every beholder to the heart, for his face and its changing colour betrayed the anguish of his soul…The people rushed pell-mell from their houses to join together in supplication because of the dishonor which threatened the holy place. Women in sackcloth, their breasts bare, filled the streets; unmarried girls who were kept in seclusion ran to the gates or walls of their houses, while others leaned out from the windows. All with outstretched hands made solemn entreaty to Heaven. It was pitiful to see the crowd all lying prostrate in utter confusion, and the high priest in an agony of apprehension.

When the day appointed arrived, Heliodorus, along with his bodyguards, went into the treasury of the temple, and they were confronted with an other-dimensional apparition.

2 Maccabees 3:24-28 – “But at the very moment when he (Prime Minister Heliodorus) arrived with his bodyguard at the treasury, the Ruler of spirits, and of all the powers produced a mighty apparition, so that all who had the audacity to accompany Heliodorus were faint with terror, stricken with panic at the power of God. They saw a horse, splendidly caparisoned, with a rider of terrible aspect; it rushed fiercely at Heliodorus and, rearing up, attacked him with its hooves. The rider was wearing golden armour. There also appeared to Heliodorus two young men of surpassing strength and glorious beauty, splendidly dressed. They stood on either side of him and scourged him, raining ceaseless blows upon him. He fell suddenly to the ground overwhelmed by a great darkness, and his men snatched him up and put him a litter. This man, who so recently had entered the treasury with a great throng and his whole bodyguard, was now borne of them then quite helpless, publicly compelled to acknowledge the sovereignty of God.”

The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple – Painting by Gérard de Lairesse (1674)

Fearing for the life of the Syrian minister and at the begging of the companions of the diplomat, Onias the high priest brought a sacrifice to be made for his recovery. Suddenly another vision occurred.

2 Maccabees 3:33-35 – “As the high priest was making the expiation, the same young men dressed as before, again appeared to Heliodorus, they stood over him and said: ‘Be very grateful to Onias the high priest; for his sake the Lord has spared your life. You have been scourged by God; now tell all men of his mighty power.’ When they had said this, they vanished. Heliodorus offered a sacrifice and made lavish vows to the Lord who had spared his life; then, after taking friendly leave of Onias, he led his troops back to the king. He bore witness to everyone of the miracles of the Supreme God which he had seen with his own eyes.”

The Syrian Prime Minister Heliodorus returned to Syria, failing in his bid to confiscate the Jewish temple treasuries. With Antiochus IV back in Syria, a palace coup occurred in 175 BCE. The Syrian Emperor Seleucus IV Philopator was killed by Prime Minister Heliodorus. Antiochus IV quickly made a strategic political move. He took possession of the Syrian throne, even though the Crown Prince Demetrius was still hostage in Rome. Then, in a bid to avenge his brother’s death, Antiochus killed the prime minister. Antiochus IV’s power upon the throne was now complete.

The Heliodorus Stele and the Abomination of Desolation

It was on May 9, 2007, that a marvelous relic of the era of the “abomination of desolation” that was unveiled at the Israeli Museum. The 2,200 year old “Heliodorus Stele” was put on display in the museum. It revealed the formal correspondence between the Syrian King Seleucus IV (187-175 BCE) and the same Heliodorus, his Prime Minister, that was later ordered to seize the treasures in the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.

The 2007 unveiling of the “Heliodorus Stele” in the Israeli Museum

On the stele were three missives, the first, concerning the appointment of an administrator to oversee the religious sanctuaries in “Koile-Syria and Phoinike”, and the other two, dated to 178 BCE giving directives of the King from Heliodorus to mid-level Syrian administrators?

The appointment of an “overseer of the sanctuaries” that was to include the Temple in Jerusalem was the Seleucid attempt to harmonize the entire province under the Hellenistic ideals of global harmony. Then as today, the Grecian concepts of global harmony were not directed from the courts of heaven by the God of Israel, but administrated from the halls of governance of imperial minded rulers. This global infringement on the Jewish religious autonomy included Syrian authority over the revenue to the temple and the calculation of the taxes that were due to the Syrian royal throne.

Within ten years (167 BCE), the armies of the new Seleucid ruler, Antichus IV Epiphanes entered the gates of Jerusalem, robbed the Temple treasury, massacred the Jewish population and desecrated the Most Holy Place. By 165 BCE the land of Judea was in full revolt by the Maccabean priests.

Preceding the “abomination of desolation”, the vacuum of power became apparent after the death of the Syrian King Seleucus IV in the year of 175 BCE. The Egyptians under the Pharaoh Ptolemy VI moved north to occupy Judea in 170 BCE. Antiochus IV countered and defeated the Egyptians (169 BCE) taking control of most of Egypt and Cyprus. Victory was short lived, for Roman stepped in with intervention and deprived him of his enlarged empire. This set the stage for the Jewish revolt under the Jewish priest, Judah Maccabee in 165 BCE.

The facts are that Antiochus IV never did achieve any permanent military achievements. To bolster this deficiency, he returned to the source of his power, Grecian Hellenization and the lavish adoration to the Grecian gods of his forefathers. Across the Eastern Mediterranean seaboard, he became a lavish patron of the shrines to the Grecian god, Zeus and especially at the Temple of Zeus in Athens, the cult of his father. This adoration grew when he began to truly believe that he was the manifestation of the supreme god, Zeus. He began to use the epithet to his name, “Epiphanes” meaning “Select of God”. Here rose the incarnation of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Where he could not succeed militarily, he sought to do by political and cultural power, until he sought to assume absolute power as he became personally responsible for all the cults within the Seleucid Empire.

In 175, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the royal throne of the Seleucids, he replaced Onias III the High Priest with his brother, Jason. Antiochus IV’s father, the Syrian Emperor Seleucus IV Philopator, more than a quarter of a century prior, became the first foreign power to take control of the highest non-political office of the Jews, the High Priest of Israel. Though Jason was also the son of Simon II, the brother of Onias III, he was not the eldest living son and thereby not the legitimate high priest. Jason thereby accrued the title, “Jason the Apostate”, for he bought the office of the high priest.

The 2007 unveiling of the “Heliodorus Stele” in the Israeli Museum

2 Maccabees 4:7-10 (parts) – “But when Seleucus was dead and had been succeeded by Antiochus, known as Epiphanes, Jason, Onias’s brother, obtained the high-priesthood by corrupt means. He petitioned the king and promised him three hundred and sixty talents in silver coin immediately and eighty talents from future revenue. In addition he undertook to pay another hundred and fifty talents for the authority to institute a sport-stadium…and, as soon as he had seized the high-priesthood, Jason made the Jews conform to the Greek way of life.”

Yet, a new power seeker was now bidding for the highest office in the land of Judea. Here we are introduced to a certain Menelaus, who was a son of Manasseh, who was the brother of Simon II. This Menelaus has been the source of much controversy with historical scholars. Some have called him Jason’s (Jesus’s) brother, others a cousin, but what is known, he took the high priest name of Onias. According to David Hughes in the genealogies of the “Davidic Dynasty”, Menelaus has been identified as Onias IV, and the High Priest who was deprived of the office of the high priest and fled or immigrated to Egypt as Onias V.

Menelaus (aka Onias IV) hid and then stole some of the temple vessels and was bartering them as gifts to Syrian nobles in the Seleucid Empire. The temple vessels were sacred and still are. The Babylonian King Belshazzar did not understand this fact. When he desecrated the temple vessels at the great feast in Babylon, the fate of Babylon was sealed with the “finger of the God of Israel. The Persian Shah Cyrus the Great did not understand this fact also. According to the traditions and chronology of the Jews, when Cyrus the Great, known to the Greeks and Spartans as the Persian Shah Xerses the Great, hosted a great feast in anticipation of his invasion to the isles of the Greeks, he used and desecrated the golden vessels of Solomon’s Temple. This “desecration” sealed the fate of this redeemer of the Jews, and the armies of Cyrus (aka Xerses) were destroyed at Thermopylae in the year 480 BCE.

When Onias III, the ex-officio high priest heard of this desecration of temple vessels, he accused Menelaus (Onias IV) in public. Then Onias III was forced to flee to the protection of the town of Daphne, near the city of Antioch. Hearing of his secret house of refuge, Menelaus, along with the assistance of Andronicus, the royal governor, ordered a secret assassination squad to murder, Onias III, the revered high priest. Here died the last of the protectors of the holy temple.

This act was in absolute violation of the oaths of the Torah and all the civil standards of justice. Across the land of Judea, this revered man of God, who stood up to the Syrian Prime Minister Heliodorus, in his bid to desecrate the treasury of the house of God, was mourned by both Syrian and Jew. The king of Judah sentenced the royal governor, Andronicus to death.

The Lineage of the House of Zadok

Onias II (42^nd HP, d. 226 BCE)

(10^th in descent from Seraiah, the last HP of Solomon’s Temple)

____________________________|____________________

| | |

Simon II (43^rd High Priest, d.198 BCE) Manasseh (41^st High Priest) Judah In descent from Eniachin, the

| | son of Seriah, the last HP of

| | Solomon’s Temple

___|____________ ______|_______ |

| | | |

Onias III Jason the Apostate Menelaus Lysimachus Alcimus

(44^th High Priest) (45^th High Priest) (Onias IV – 46A HP) (46B HP-killed by Jewish populous 171 BCE)

Onias V |

(Deprived as the 47th HP by Lysias, Viceroy of Syrian King Antiochus V Eupator, the 1^st ruler to depose a High

Priest – Onias V emigrated to Egypt-159 BCE and started a new Jewish Temple at Leontopolis, Egypt |

| _|

Ananias (Exiled in Egypt) |

| |

Hananeel the Egyptian (Ananelus) – (reputed as One of the HPs who sacrificed the Red Heifer)

| |

Boethus (56^th HP-37 BCE) Theophilus

______________________|___________________________________ |

| | | | | | | |

Ananelus Phabet (Fabi) Simon IV Joazar Eleazar Sethus Kantheras Matthias I

(57^th HP) | (60^th HP-23-19 BC) (Twice 62^nd HP) (III, 63^rd HP) (Sie) (Simon VI, 72^nd HP) (61^st HP)

___________ |________ | |

| | | | |

Yehoshua III Eliam Ishmael Joseph II |

(59^th HP-36-23 BCE) | (66^th HP) (“Cabi”-78^th HP) _____|_______

| Joseph Yehoshua IV Ananus, the High Priest

3 Daughters (HP 1 day) (64^th HP – 4 BCE) Patriarch of the Famed House of Ananus

Jane High Priest Who Instigated Yehoshua’s Death

Elizabeth With his son-in-law, the High Priest, Caiphas

(H)anna (65^th HP-6-15CE)

By 172 BCE, Jason the Apostate was deposed, his brother, Onias III now murdered and the son of Manasseh, the brother of Simon II, called Menelaus (Onias IV), was placed in power when he placed a higher bid (tribute) for the privilege of reigning. Soon, the rival competitive bidding for the office of the high priest also came with stipulations; promote Greek culture in Judea, to build a gymnasium to be used for Grecian competitive Olympic sports, and to Hellenize the sacred city of Jerusalem.

2 Maccabees 4:24 – “But Menalaus established his position with the king by acting as if he were a person of great authority, outbid Jason by three hundred talents in silver, and so diverted the high-priesthood to himself. He arrived back with the royal mandate, but with nothing else to make him worthy of the high-priesthood; he still had the temper of a cruel tyrant and the fury of a savage beast.”

The surge of events was escalating towards the infamous day in Jewish history called the “abomination of desolation”. These events were impelled in part not by foreign leaders but by the former Jewish religious priests seeking power because they were driven by greed and the desire to control. As Antiochus IV was involved in conquering Egypt in 169 BCE, Jason returned to Jerusalem with a military force and assassinated his brother, or cousin, Menelaus (Onias IV) along with many of his followers.

By 167 BCE, as Antiochus IV Epiphanes left Egypt, he arrived in Jerusalem, plundered the city and desecrated the temple. He erected an altar to his patron god, Zeus in the temple plus an altar of sacrifice to the gods of the Greeks. Any Jewish resisters were promptly executed. The worship of the Seventh-day Shabbat (Sabbath) was forbidden, the Jewish ritual of circumcision was forbidden upon the pain of death, and all services in the temple ceased. All of these “shadow pictures” may be repeated before the last “abomination of desolation” upon this planet earth.

Yet, as Antiochus IV returned in triumph, these honors would only be elusive for the provinces to the east were restless in Armenia and the land of the Parthians. During these years of absence, the family of a Jewish priest called Mattathias set out to expel their Syrian oppressors and desecrators. They would eventually purge and cleanse the temple, and unknown to them, their fate would lead them to the formation of the semi-independent Hasmonean Commonwealth in Judea.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 BCE) Silver Tetradrachma - Left, Diademed Head Right with Monogram behind – Right, Zeus enthroned holding Nike Sceptre

BASILEWS ANTIOCOU THEOU OU EPIFANOUS NIKHFOROU (King Antiochus God Manifest (Epiphanes) Victory (Nike) Bearing

They never again would see the infamous Antiochus Epiphanes IV, for when he was in Persia, he was killed, like his father, trying to plunder and desecrate a temple, the Temple of Nanaea.

2 Maccabees 1:13-17 - “For when the king went into Persia with an army that seemed invincible, they were cut to pieces in the temple of Naneae through a stratagem employed by Nanaea’s priests. Antiochus, along with his Companions, arrived at the temple to marry the goddess, in order to secure the considerable treasure by way of dowry. After this had been laid out by the priests, they went into the temple precinct with a small retinue.

When Antiochus entered, the priests shut the sanctuary, opened a secret door in the paneling, and hurled stones at them. The king fell, as if struck by a thunderbolt. They hacked off limbs and head and threw them to those outside. Blessed in all things be our God, who handed over the evil-doers to death!”

Onias III, the son of Simon II, was the Jewish High Priest during the years just prior to the invasion and desecration of the temple. According to the historical testimony, Onias III was a pious and Hasidic Jew who fought to preserve the purity of the Torah. He fought against the infringement of the Hellenistic culture that drew the attention of the Jewish people to themselves and away from the God of Israel.

2 Maccabees 3:1-3 – “During the rule of the high priest Onias (III), the holy city enjoyed complete peace and prosperity, and the laws were still observed most scrupulously, because he was a pious man and hated wickedness. The kings themselves held the sanctuary in honour and used to embellish the temple with the most splendid gifts; even Seleucus, king of Asia, bore all the expenses of the sacrificial worship from his own revenues.”

It was in those days of turmoil, Onias V, the son of the deposed (175 BCE) and later murdered (171 BCE), Onias III (44^th High Priest of Israel), who lived in the days of the Syrian King, Seleucus IV Philopater, was deprived of the high priest office by Lysias. He took his family to Egypt in 159 BCE, and there built a temple for the Jews in Heliopolis in Egypt during the reign of the Syrian King Ptolemy VI Philometer.

Here began the Great Interregnum and Exile between the years of 159-152 BCE when after, the priestly family of (H)Asmoneaus, reputed to be a descendant of Jachin, the brother of Jozadak, the last exiled high priest in Babylon, assumed the responsibilities of the high priest.

The Jewish Priest-Kings of the Hasmoneans

During the millennium of the 2^nd century BCE, the House of David found a new rival for the allegiance and support of the Jewish people. In the aftermath of the “abomination of desolation” of the temple in Jerusalem in 167 BCE by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the family of priests of the House of Mattathias gave rise to a new dynastic family that almost eclipsed the descendants of the House of David. The Syrians were routed, and the province of Judea was finally free of the political Hellenistic power of the Seleucid Empire.

Establishing their name after Judas, who was nicknamed “Maccabeus” or “The Hammer”, the Maccabees became the defacto rulers of the Jews, outclassing and routing the influence of both the House of David as the Nasi, Patriarchs, and rulers of the Jews and the House of Zadok, the high priest of King David, as the ruling High Priests of Israel. For 135 years they ruled as Kings over the Jewish people, and for 113 years they served as the High Priests of Israel. Here we see the growth and descent of the dynastic family of Judas Maccabeus.

The Lineage of the Hasmonean (Maccabee) Rulers

The Hasmonean Kings of Judah

Mattathias, the Maccabee Priest

Died in the Battle with Antiochus IV Epiphanes during the “Abomination of Desolation”

Simon III (Thassi)

3^rd Ethnarch , 49^th High Priest 142-135 BCE

Yohanan (John) I Hyrcanus

1^st Hasmonean to Assume Title of Jewish King

King, 135-106 BCE

Aristobulus I ---1^st = 1^st --- Alexandra I --=- 2^nd Alexander I Jannaeus

1^st Priest-King 105/4 BCE_| Queen of Maccabees | King 104/3-76 BCE

| ______________________|_________

| | |

Salome Hyrcanus II, Aristobulus II, King, 67-63 BCE

Married 1^st Mattias “Nasi” King, the 2^nd time from 63-49 King, 67-63 BCE, Deposed, and Murdered in 49 BCE

Executed 30 BC by Herod by Brutus and Cassius while Prisoner in Rome

Married 3^rd Matthan “Nasi” | ________|________

Married 2^nd– 3^rd wife of Mattathiah -1^ST wife = 1^ST - Alexandra II- = - Alexander II Antigonas __

Biblical Matthat ben Levi, “Nasi”| Queen of Judah | Executed 49 BCE Last Maccabee King |

2^nd wife – Rachel of Arimathea | Sole ruler in 49 BCE | by Pompey Beheaded 36 BC by Antony |

________________ | __________________| |

| | | 1^st = 1^st Doris of Jerusalem __ |

Aristobulus III Alexander III “Helios” Mariamme I --- 1^st = 2^nd Herod the Great | |

Last High Priest, 1 Year Biblical Heli Executed 29 BCE | King of Judea 37-4 BCE | |

Drowned 36 BCE Hus. of Hannah, dau, High Priest Yahshua III (Jesus III) ___|_______________ | |

| | | |

Princess Miriam, mother of Alexander IV Aristobulus IV | | |

| Executed 7/6 BCE Executed 7/6 BCE | |

Yahshua HaMaschiach(Jesus the Messiah) _______________| |

| |

Antipater III ----- = ----- Antigone

Executed 7/6 BCE

(H)Asmoneaus (ancestor of the Hasmoneans and the Maccabees) à

Johanan (John) à

Simon à

Mattathias, who married the daughter of Judas, the brother of the High Priest Simon II (died 198 BCE) à Three Sons:

Judas “Maccabeus” (165-162 BCE) became the 1^st Ethnarch or Governor of Judea when he “Founded” the Jewish Commonwealth. He was deposed and killed in 161 BCE.

Jonathan I (Apphus), the brother of Judas Maccabeus became the 2^nd Ethnarch of Judea and the first to be proclaimed the High Priest of Israel (48^th High Priest, 153-142 BCE), à

Simon III (Thassi), also the brother of Judas Maccabeus who became the 3^rd Ethnarch of Judea and the 49^th High Priest, (142-135 BCE) à

John Hyrcanus I (John), the (50^th High Priest, 135-104 BCE), usurped the throne of David in 129 BCE. He proclaimed himself “king of the Jews” and inaugurated himself as the 1^st Jewish Maccabee Priest-King à

Aristobulus I, the 2^nd Jewish Maccabee Priest-King (51^s^t High Priest, 104-103 BCE) à

Antigonus I, became the 3^rd Jewish Maccabee King in the year of 104-103 BCE à

Alexander Jannaeus, became the 4^rd Jewish Maccabee King (103-76 BCE) and the 3^th Maccabee Priest-King (52^nd High Priest, 103-73 BCE). He was a supporter of the Sadducees, whose wife was Alexandra I Salome à

Alexandra I Salome became the Queen Regent of Judea (76-67 BCE). She was a supporter of the Pharisees, who installed her son, Hyracanus II, as the High Priest in 76 BCE.

Hyracanus II became the 5^th Jewish Maccabee King (67 BCE) and the 4^th Maccabee Priest-King (53^rd High Priest, 1^st time in 76-67 BCE)

Aristobulus II became the 6^th Jewish Maccabee King (67-63 BCE) and the 5^thMaccabee Priest-King (54^th High Priest, 67-63 BCE). He was deposed and later murdered in Rome by Cassius and Brutus in 48 BCE à

Hyracanus II reestablished himself as the 7^th Jewish Maccabee King (63-49 BCE) and the 6^thMaccabee Priest-King (55^th High Priest, 2^st time in 63-40 BCE) He was deposed and executed in 30 BCE. He had one daughter, Princess Alexandra II, who married the (1) Mattathias (Mattat ben Levi), the Prince of Israel, (2) King Alexander I, and (3) King Antigonas. à

Alexander II became the 6^th Jewish Maccabee King who proclaiming himself as the Rival-Jewish King. He mounted an offensive against Rome and was executed by Pompey in 49 BCE. His Children: Aristobulus III (58^th High Priest in 36 BCE) was deposed and executed, and Princess Mariamne I, was married (1^st) King Herod the Great as his 2^nd wife, and later executed in 29 BCE. à

Princess Alexandra II became the Queen of Judea (49-40/37 BCE). She was the daughter of Priest-King Hyracanus II and reigned in her own right. She was married to her

(1^st) husband, Mattathias (Mattat ben Levi), the Nasi and Prince of Israel, as his (1^st) marriage, and they became the parents of;

Prince Alexander III “Helios” became married to Princess Cleopatra of Jerusalem, the posthumous daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Julius Caesar, the Dictator of Rome. They had one son, Prince of David Joseph (Yosef), who was known as the “Carpenter”, and became the guardian and foster father of;

Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus the son of Joseph)

Princess Alexandra III, who eventually became the wife of Ptolemy bar Mennius, a Jewish Exilarch whose descendants today are traced to Europe;

(2^nd) husband, King Alexander II, her cousin, and they became the parents of,

Prince Aristobulus III the 58^th High Priest, and

Princess Mariamme I; and then Alexandra’s

(3^rd) husband, King Antigonus, became the last of the Hasmonean Priest - Kings. They became the parents of;

Antigone, who became wife of Antipater III, the son of Herod the Great by his (1^st) wife, Doris of Jerusalem, a Davidide heiress.

The Rise of the Hasmonean Jewish State

The original Hasmonean Dynasty began with Mattathias and his sons, Judas “Maccabeus”, Jonathan I, and Simon III. They were all part of the founding fathers of the Jewish Commonwealth of the State of Judea when they revolted against Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire. According to the “Founding Resolution” that was adopted on 141 BCE, it was Simon Maccabeus, who ruled from 142-135 BC, who drew the real inspiration of the Jewish people. At the very earliest, the foundation for the collapse of the Hasmonean Dynasty was laid when according to Josephus

I Maccabees 14:1 – “After this, Simon sent Numenius to Rome with a large gold shield, worth a thousand minas, to confirm the alliance with the Romans.”

Yet, in gratitude for the bravery of Simon and his family, Simon, the son of Mattathias, a priest of the Joarib family, a large assembly of Jewish citizens, priests and elders met and nominated Simon as their perpetual leader. By the year 139 BCE, the Roman Senate recognized the dynasty of the new Jewish stat

The Victor, Judas Maccabeus - 2 Macc. 10:1. – Painting by Gustave Dore

I Maccabees 14:41 – “The Jews and their priests confirmed Simon as their leader and high priest in perpetuity until a true prophet should appear.

Only four years later, tragedy struck the Jewish ruling political leadership. On February, 135 BCE, Simon Maccabee was assassinated by the orders of his son-in-law, Ptolemy, along with his sons, Mattathias and Judas. The Hasmonean rule passed to the son of Simon, John who was not at the banquet when his father and two brothers were murdered. At his ascension, John took on the Greek regnal name of Hyrcanus, in the first pragmatic adoption of the Hellenistic culture that his forefathers so resoundly rejected and led to the abomination of desolation thirty-seven years prior

coin image

The First native Jewish Silver Shekel of Simon Maccabaeus (143-135 BCE) – Left, Yerushalayim ha-Kedoshah (Jerusalem the Holy Branch with Three Buds, and Right, Cup or Chalice with official numbers of years of Simon’s reign (139-136 BCE)

It was during this era that the Jewish state was revived. With the victory over their Syrian overlords given to them by the God of Israel, Judas the Hammer in the year of 165 BCE gave his people their freedom and redemption. He restored the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. It was this struggle for independence and the restoration of the temple that is celebrated today as the Festival of Hanukkah. This festival was based on a “miraculous event” within temple when the almond shaped oil containers for the giant candle opera, called the Menorah were filled with the only day of oil in the entire surrounding region. Yet the miracle occurred, when the menorah’s flame kept burning for the next eight days until new oil could be brought to Jerusalem from the region of Mount Carmel where the purest of virgin olive oil was processed and made.

Judas “Maccabeus” later took upon himself both titles as “Ethnarch” or “ruler of the people” and also the “High Priest”. The law of the rulers, according to their God, was that the king and the priest were to remain as independent and autonomous rulers. Was not Uzziah the King of Judah, when he was adamant to stand before the face of God within the Holy of Holiest? Did he not prepare an offering of incense on the golden altar of Incense? Was it not at that moment that Uzziah became leprous, and had to retire as the King of Judah? So the Maccabees did what no other rulers had, they combined the ruling offices of “church and state” together into the ruling office of the Priest-Ethnarch.

The First Hasmonean Civil War

With the combination of the office of the king to the priest in the year of 129 BCE, a civil war was sparked in the land of Israel. During this era, the chronicles were written of the Maccabees and preserved in two separate historical volumes called the 1^st and 2^nd Maccabees. The purpose of these two chronicles was to set the case to legitimize the new dynastic rule of the Hasmoneans. Yet the historical precedent was that the throne of Israel and Judah was to be only ruled by the descendants of the House of David, and the ruling office of the high priest was to be presided over only by the oldest son of the High Priest from the House of Zadok, the high priest of King David.

It was the argument that the Princes of the House of David had lost their legitimate right to the throne of the Jews because their genetic lineage was “tainted” by the gentile or foreign wives of David’s descendants. Had not the Maccabees accomplished great things for the Jewish people “by God’s accomplishment through them”? First there was the halakhic decree by the Prince Ezra the Scribe for all the Jewish had to divorce all their “pagan” wives, for “to be a Jew, your Mother must be a Jew.” A clerical rule of exclusiveness began within the Jewish social culture.

With this, a civil war brewed within the ruling years of Prince John Hyrcanus who sided with the Pharisees and Scribes, and his brother, Prince Aristobulus I, who sided with the Sadducees. This civil war affected the ruling family of the Hasmonean that put the Queen Mother in prison by her own son who also murdered his own brothers. According to Davidian genealogist David Hughes:

David Hughes – “The civil war ended in stalemate and compromise, whereby the Maccabees were allowed to remain on the throne however the whole conduct of internal affairs was handed over to the Pharisees who then completely ruled the public life of the nation. The party of the Pharisees arose in the Sanhedrin during the reign of the Maccabee Dynasty to promote the hope for the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty and carry-on the “Davidic Dynasty Tradition”. The Pharisees were a party of priests and scribes who were the self-appointed guardians of Jewish heritage and culture. The Pharisees were opposed to anyone on the throne who was not a descendant of the ancient Jewish Davidic royal house. The Pharisees cultivated the development of the “Davidic Dynasty Tradition” in Judaism, which was itself still developing as a religion. There is indication that during this period the Jews began to envision a final Davidic ruler, who would actually rule for all time to come, thus obviating the need for the continuation of the dynastic line. It was the hope for the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty and the expectation of one great king, called “Messiah”, who would be God-incarnate, for the prophet Micah wrote:

The Bronze Coin of Hasmonean King John Hyrcanus I (135-104 BCE) “Yehohanan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews” in Hebrew within Wreath/Double Cornucopia adorned with Ribbons; Pomegranate between Horns

Micah 5:2 - ”But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”

In Isaiah 55:3b the promise/covenant to David was transferred to his “greater son”, that is, descendant, called “Messiah”!

Isaiah 55:3 – “And I will make an everlasting covenant with you – The sure mercies of David. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people.”

A charismatic, energetic and brilliant military leader, John Hyrcanus quickly forced the conversion of Judaism upon the Idumeans, destroyed the temple of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, and identified closely with the early Sadducee Party, who were most closely attached to the temple ritual services and the priestly class. Within his rule, the Hasmonean State moved its national boundaries to their maximum territorial extent. As the 50^th High Priest, and the 4^th Ethnarch of Judea, John Hyrcanus became the first Hasmonean to take the mantle of “king” and usurp the sanctity of the Davidian dynasty that had been perpetuated almost a nine hundred years. Here was the apex of the new restored Jewish “kingdom”. Even though his policies were accommodating to the surrounding Hellenistic world, the personal Hasidic life of John Hyrcanus kept his allegiance with the Pharisees and the Scribes.

John Hyrcanus I (John) (50^th High Priest, 135-104 BCE), usurped the throne of David in 129 BCE, proclaimed himself “king of the Jews”. He inaugurated himself as the 1^st Jewish Maccabee Priest-King à

Aristobulus I became the 2^nd Jewish Maccabee Priest-King (51^st High Priest within the 104-103 BCE) à

Antigonus I, became the 3^rd Jewish Maccabee King in the year of 104-103 BCE à

Alexander Jannaeus became the 4^rd Jewish Maccabee King (103-76 BCE) and the 3^th Maccabee Priest-King (52^nd High Priest, 103-73 BCE), a supporter of the Sadducees, whose (2^nd wife) wife was Alexandra Salome à

Upon the death of Hyrcanus, he had five sons in which to perpetuate the Hasmonean rule, yet he chose an unusual precedent, the rule of the Judean state was to be placed under the authority of his wife, and his oldest son, Aristobulus I was only to take the mantle of the high priest. Even though, according to the Hebrew Scripture that only the descendants of Judah, of the House of David, were to be qualified to be kings of Israel, all of the early Hasmoneans took the title of Nasi or President.

Aristobulus I (104-103 BCE) wanted more power and authority which brought him into direct conflict with the Pharisees. To gain the throne, he cast his mother into prison and starved her to death and also murdered two of his brothers. Less than a year, he died with what was reported to be a “painful death” to be succeeded by his brother, Antigonas I, who reigned only within the same year. After his death, his widow, Queen Shlamtzion or “Shelomit”, known as Salome-Alexandra, released Alexander Jannaeus and his other two brothers. Then Queen Shlamtzion married Alexander Jannaeus, in what may have been according to the Torah law of Yibum, called the “levirate marriage”.

King Aristobulus I had only one child, a daughter, called Princess Salome, who as Davidian genealogist David Hughes proclaims in the genealogies of the “Davidic Dynasty”, “was a political pawn in her grandfather’s hands (John Hyrcanus I). She was given to be the wife of three different Davidic princes to be married and birthed three half-brothers, Mattias “Nasi”, Mattathiah, a “Nasi”, and Mattan, also a “Nasi” that represented three different lineages of the Davidian family dynasty

The Davidian Challenge to the Rule of the Maccabees

Judah ben Simon II and Jesus bar Panther

With the ascension of Aristobulus I’s brother, Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE) he quickly found that his rule was to be challenged with a true Davidic prince called Jude (Judah), a “Nasi” and Prince of Israel who was the son of Simon II, a descendant of Meshullam, the oldest son of Zerubabbel and the ancestor of the Senior Davidic Lineage and heir to the throne. A civil war occurred in which the forces of Jude (Judah) were crushed and the Davidic prince was imprisoned.

Under the rule of Alexander Jannaeus, the borders of Judea were once again enlarged and Judaized; first Gilead, then Jordan that included Edom, Ammon and Moab, and then to the “south country” in the Negev all the way to the border of Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula

The reign of Alexander Jannaeus also brought a new dynamics in the rising conflict between the messianic claims to the continuous rule of the Princes of David and the rise of the powerful Hasmonean priestly family. They had now had usurped the office of the high priest that according to Jewish halakhic law must be kept in the direct family lineage of Zadok, a Levitical descendant of the High Priest Aaron, who was the high priest of King David. There may have been a reason.

The first challenge to the Hasmonean rule of King Alexander Jannaeus was by Judah III (Jude III), the son of Simon II, the Davidian Governor of the Jews between the years of 125 to 100 BCE. He was supported largely by the Pharisees which came in part to the inter-marriage between the Davidian family of Shetah, the Govenor of Judah (150-125 BCE), whose sister, Salome, was the 1^st wife of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE) before he became king of Judah. Alexander Jannaeus’ Hebrew name was probably Jonathan, as reflected by the mention of the “High Priest Jonathan”, within the Talmud, where he is called King Yanni or the “wicked tyrant” reflecting his violent opposition to the party of the Pharisees.

Coin of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE). Left – Seleucid Anchor with Greek Legend “Basileos Alexandrou (King Alexander), Right – Eight-spoke Wheel or Star within Diadem, Hebrew legend, “Yehonatan the King”.

After Alexander Jannaeus ascended to the throne of the Hasmoneans, he divorced his first wife, Salome, the sister of Shetah, Simon II the Governor’s father. He then married Shelzion (Salome Alexandra), his brother, King Aristobulus I’s wife under the levirate Mosaic laws of the Torah. Shelzion (Salome Alexandra) was the sister of the current reigning Prince of Israel, Simon II who had been the Governor of Judea for twenty two years before Alexander Jannaeus became the king of Judah.

Now, it was Simon II’s son, Jude, the nephew of the king, who now became his challenger to the throne. According to the Pharisees, Prince Judah (Jude) as a descendant of the House of David, was the true heir to the throne. This royal aspirant’s uprising may have been sparked by the dynastic marriage of King Alexander Jannaeus with the Davidian Princess Salome Alexander. By his second wife, also a Davidian, Princess Alexandra, King Alexander Jannaeus had two sons; Hyracanus II and Aristobulus II. They were both princes of the House of David and the House of the Maccabees. Yet, they would soon put the entire Jewish state in a civil war and collapse all the efforts of the Maccabees to bring freedom to the Jewish people.

Lineages of Davidian Rivals, Jesus Bar-Panthera and Judah III ben Simon II

Jose I (Yossei I or Joseph I) ^32A who was a co-ruler with his brother as the 39^th Tobaidite Jewish Governor of Judea (175 to 150 BCE) and was the father of;

Prince Shetah ^33A was a revered sage of Judah who became the 40^th Tobaidite Jewish Governor of Judea (150/125 BCE). His sister, Princess Salome, ^33B became the 1st wife of the Maccabee King Alexander Jannaeus (104/3 to 76 BCE).

Simon II / IV ^34A was the 41^st Tobaidite Jewish Governor of Judea (125/100 BCE). He was later dispossessed by the Hasmoneans of all his property during a Maccabee pogrom against the Davidians. He lived a humble life supporting his family with a small linen goods store. Simon IV had a sister; Princess Shelzion ^34B, who became the 2^nd wife of the Maccabee King Alexander Jannaeus (104/3 to 76 BCE). Simon IV became the father of 3 sons, Jose II who was killed as a Davidian claimant in 88 BCE, Panthera (Pamphir, Panther), the father of Jesus Bar-Panthera (Bar Panther) and grandfather of Princess Sara, who became King Herod’s 1^st wife, known as “Doris of Jerusalem”, and Jude III, the grandfather of Shammai the Great and great grandfather of Simon V of Perea, the last Davidian Prince of the official Tobaite and Onaidite Lineages that traced back to the 3^rd Jewish wife of Governor Zerubabbel. He was the father of;

Jose II ^35Awho was killed 88 BCE.

Pantherah (Pamphir; Panther)^35B, who was an army officer, who raped a young maiden, Stada, and they had an illegitimate son:

Jesus Bar-Panthera (Bar-Panther) ³⁶was the illegitimate son of Prince Pantherah and Stada. As a Davidian prince, he was legitimized by the Sadducees in the Sanhedrin, but was opposed by the Pharisees that prevented him from the throne as the Patriarch of Jerusalem. This action propelled him to become a rival claimant to the throne of the Hasmonean King Alexander Janneeus, who had married his great aunt, Princess Shelzion, and his great-great aunt, Princess Salome. After loosing, he fled to Egypt in the year of 88 BCE and later returned (76 BCE). He later gathered Zealots to oppose the Roman occupation in Jerusalem. He was captured by the Romans and crucified in 63 BCE. Here was the “Jesus” that was written about in the Talmud and was confused by Jewish and Christian scholars with Yahshua Ha-Notzri (Jesus the Nazarene) who lived a eighty to ninety years later. Yeshua Bar-Panthera was married to Bianca and had one daughter:

Sarah ³⁷ (aka Doris of Jerusalem became the 1^st wife of Herod the Great, the king of Judea. As a dynastic princess, she married a non-Jew and this lineage became Extinct. Tobit ^26A(400 BCE) and twin brother, Onaid ^26B were the ancestors of the Two Senior Royal Lineages; the Tobaite Line and the Onaidite Line.

Judah III (Jude III) ben Simon II ^35C became a rival-Davidian claimant, who rose up to challenge the Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus. Judah had three sons:

Matthias (Mattai) ^36Aserved as the Vice President or Beit Av Din of the Great Sanhedrin between the years of 75-70 BCE. He was the father of;

Jose III (Joseph III) ³⁷who was executed in 35 BCE, and was the father of; the father of:

Simon V of Perea ³⁸ was executed in 4 BCE by the general for the recently deceased Herod the Great, General Gatus. He was the last Senior heir and had no children so the Tobaite Lineage became Extinct.

Princess Salome ³⁷, a daughter, who married Joseph IV/II, who was the brother of King Herod the Great. As a dynastic heiress, when she married a non-Jew, an Idumean, so her lineage became Extinct.

Shemaiah (Shemaya) ^36B, who was the father of;

Shammai ³⁷, the Nasi of the Great Sanhedrin, who succeeded Hillel the Great and the Founder of the School of Shammai, he had no children and this lineage became Extinct.

Abtalyon (Ptollion), ^36Chad no known heirs and this lineage Extinct.

Princess Shelzion ^34B (dau), 2^nd wife of Maccabee King Alexander Jannaeus (104/3 to 76 BCE).

Princess Salome ^33B, was the daughter of Jose I and became the 1^st wife of Alexander Jannaeus, the Maccabee priest-king lineage that later became Extinct.

John (Yohanan, Yohanna)^32B, co-ruler with his brother, Jose I, and became the father of;

Jude I ^33Awho became the father of;

Perachiah (Perachyah) ^33B, who became the father of;

Yeshua (Jesus bar Perachyah) ^34C was a Davidian rival-claimant in the year of 88 BCE who oppose the Maccabees. He later became the Nasi or Prince of Israel, heading the Great Sanhedrin sometime between the years of 80 to 70 BCE, in which Prince Matthias served as his Beit Av Din, or Vice President. Yeshua (Jesus) launched an oppositional army against Rome and was executed by the Romans in the year 69 BCE. He was survived by three sons;

Eudamus ^35A, who married Tacallippis, an Egyptian princess and this lineage went Extinct.

Mennius (Menodorus) ³⁶, and Exilarch, who died 35 BCE, married Arsinoe IV, the Queen of Egypt, so this lineage became Extinct by marriage to a foreign wife.

Ptolemy Bar Mennius ³⁷, Exilarch, who was deposed 13 BCE and fled to Parthia, and married Alexandra, the daughter of Mattathias (Mattat ben Levi), and Alexandra II (1^st husband) and this lineage became Extinct

Zamvdas ^35B, the father of:

Zamaris (Zimri) ³⁶by 1^st wife, became the father of the “twins” Eixai and Eizar;

Eixai (Helcias) ^37A, the father of:

Haggai ³⁸, the father of:

Escha ³⁹, a daughter, and possibly married Prince Ptolas, the younger brother of Joseph, the father of Jesus, with the dynastic transfer to the Abiudite Line of the Family of Jesus

Eizar (Hezir or Yohai) ^37B, the father of:

Simon ³⁸, the father of ;

Jose ³⁹

Jude ³⁹

Zamaris (Zimri) ³⁶by 2^nd wife, became the father of;

Jacimus, the father of:

Philip

Oblias

Enaneus ^35C, the father of:

Babbutan ³⁶, the father of:

Liunan ³⁷, the 39^th Exilarch.

Jose II ^33C, co-ruler, father of

Mattai (Nittai Ha-Arbeli) ^34A and

Tabbai ^34B, who was the father of:

Jude II³⁵

During this era, when there was a great uprising of the Davidians that were challenging the throne of the Hasmoneans, the Patriarch of Israel, or the Nasi of the Great Sanhedrin was Jeshua bar Perachyah in the years of 75-70 BCE. This was the same Davidian claimant, Jeshua bar Perachyah who in 88 BCE opposed the Maccabees. He then became involved with the politics of the Jewish society as the Nasi or Prince of Israel of the Great Sanhedrin. Later he raised up an oppositional army against Rome and was executed by Romans in 69 BCE.

The Vice President, or the Beit Av Din of the Great Sanhedrin was Matthias I (Mattai, or Nittai Ha-Arbeli) during the years of 75-50 BCE. It is most interesting that this Prince Matthias I was the son of Prince Judah III ben Simon II, who rose up to challenge the throne of the Maccabee King Alexander Jannaeus between the years of 125-100 BCE. Prince Judah was married to Prince Matthias’ great aunt, Princess Salome, the sister of his grandfather, Prince Shetah. This was a very close family of relationships that were living in the land of Judea, many times supporting each other, and many times in great opposition when they fielded great armies and coalitions of imperial globalist supporters, like Parthia, Greece, and Rome.

The Second Jewish Civil War and the Rise of Rome (Edom) and the Herodians (Iduemeans)

Upon the death of Queen Alexandra I, Hyracanus II was established on the throne and continued his mother’s religious affiliation with the Pharisees. Within three months he was challenged to the throne by his younger brother, Aristobulus II, who was in alliance with the Sadducees arose in rebellion. The Battle of Jericho decided the fate, when many of Hyrcanus’ soldiers defected to Aristobulus II and Hyracanus retreated to the Citadel of Jerusalem. When the Temple was taken over by Aristobulus II, Hyrcanus surrendered, and renounced the kingship and the office of the high priest in 67 BCE. The beginning of the end for the Maccabees began with this civil war.

Fearing for his life, and under the instigation of his governmental advisor, Antipater the Idumean, the former King Hyrcanus II escaped to the refuge of King Aretas III, the King of Nabataeans, who had been bribed by Antipater to ally himself with Hyrcanus in the hope to restore the weaker of the two brothers to the throne and elevate the power and prestige of Antipater the Idumean. This was the same Antipater the Idumean, who was the father of the future King Herod the Great the Idumean. Of course, this was to give his son, the future King Herod the Great, the foundation to eventually become the most powerful ruler of Judea, the ability to enlarge the Temple Mount into the largest sacred place in the Roman Empire, and rebuild the Temple of Zerubabbel as the Temple of Herod. It can be stated that Antipater the Idumean and his son, Herod the Great, heralded the final messianic era of the Province of Judea until the final overthrow of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. Antipater the Idumean built the Hasmonean state of Judea to be overthrown by a future messianic era, as it is stated that the Rothschild family built the Zionist State of Israel to be overthrown, by also a future coming messianic era.

King Aretas III of Nabataea kneeling in Victorious to Pompey the Great represented by Roman General M. Aemilius Scaurus and Plautius Hypsaeas (Moneyer) – Nabateans were Subjugated after Allied in War with Maccabean King Hyrcanus II in opposition to Aristobulus II, Roman Denarius (58 BCE)

Soon, the Nabataeans surrounded the city of Jerusalem and besieged the city for about three months. During the spring festival of the Passover, the followers of Hyrcanus, desiring to sacrifice the paschal lamb paid an enormous price of one thousand drachmae for a lamb to be delivered to them outside the city gates of Jerusalem. With the money delivered, instead of a lamb, the Jewish followers of Aristobulus sent back a pig to the warriors of Hyrcanus.

The Arrival of the Roman Pompey the Great (63 BCE)

As the civil war siege progressed, both brothers appealed to the Romans to whom the Hasmoneans were known allies. It was during this time that the Roman general Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) had defeated Pontus, the Seleucid ruler of Syria. His deputy, Marcus Aemulius Scaurus was sent to the province of Seleucid Syria to take possession for the Romans of this imperial bastion of Grecian Hellenism. Both brothers sent gifts to the Romans. Initially it was the Deputy Scaurus that was inclined to favor Aristobulus II.

Roman Denarius with Pompey the Great – Left, Head of Pompey with Trident of Neptune, and Dolphin below – Right, Galley Ship Sailing with Star Above.

The armies of Aretas III from the Nabataeans were ordered by the Romans to retreat. In the withdrawal, Aristobulus attacked and crushed the Nabateans. This fact may have swung the political opinion of the newly arrived Roman general Pompey, for he withdrew the Roman support from Aristobulus and instead, in the year of 63 BCE, Pompey gave Rome’s approval to the weaker brother, Hyrcanus II, who he was felt would be a more reliable an ally with Rome.

It was Pompey the Great, the great warrior of Rome, who had just destroyed the Syrian Seleucid Empire, who now restored Hyrcanus II for the second time as the High Priest of Israel in 63 BCE but did not restore him as the king or ruler of the Jewish people. In his Roman military wisdom, Pompey also divided the rule of the government and appointed Antipater the Idumean a Roman citizen and gave him the office of the Procurator of Judea. This was the Antipater, the former governor of the province of Idumaea, who along with Hyrcanus II of Judea and Aretas II of Nabataea at Petra, that sent material aid to the Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, after the death of Pompey the Great in 48 BCE, thereby assisting Julius Caesar in capturing Alexandria Egypt.

Marble Bust of Pompey the Great (September 29, 109 BCE to September 28, 48 BCE)

During these years was when Julius Caesar made his first alliance with Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt. He later became the father of her son, Caesarion “Little Caesar”, and the rumored daughter of Cleopatra and Julius, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, was conceived in Rome, just prior to Julius’ assassination in 44 BCE.

When the announcement was made, that the Romans were siding with the ruling claims of Hyrcanus II, Aristobulus II, his brother, entrenched his military fighters in the Citadel of Alexandrium. He later surrendered the citadel when the Roman forces surrounded the fortress. The city of Jerusalem was prepared to be delivered to Pompey the Great when suddenly the military supporters of Aristobulus closed the gates in the face of Pompey. With this affront, the legions of Rome were provoked to capture the city of Jerusalem by force. This included significant damage to the city and to the temple.

Pompey profanes the Temple in Jerusalem –

Painting by Jean Fouquet (1420-1481 BCE)

When Pompey entered the city of Jerusalem in 63 BCE, he went to the Temple of Zerubabbel and there entered the Holy of Holies. Though he did not touch any sacred furnishings, he in fact desecrated the holiness of that sacred room. This act occurred at the apex of his military career. Within thirteen years, Pompey the Great would be dead at the age of 56 years.

Born in the aristocratic life of a Roman senatorial family, Pompey (106-48 BCE) the statesman became a noted Roman general in alliance with Julius Caesar. His impressive military record included suppressing the Servile War of the Roman slave Spartacus, opening the Mediterranean Sea for safe transport of ships and passengers by suppressing the pirates, plus conquering for the Roman Republic the provinces of Pontus, Armenia, Syria and Judea. It was in triumph that Pompey returned to Rome, but there encountered opposition from the Roman Senate. This was when the First Triumvirate was formed between Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, and Marcus Licinius Crassus.

It was in 55 BCE that Crassus was killed in Syria that the triumvirate was now becoming two opposing powers in Roman military politics. Pompey in alliance with the aristocratic party sought to suppress the ambitions of Julius Caesar. The Dictator of Rome was requested that he give up his office and return to the capital city. This he did, but he came with his entire army.

Against Roman law, Julius Caesar crossed over the Rubicon River, the northern border of Italy where with an apparition he remarked, “the die is cast”. This revolutionary act of “passing over the point of no return” into Italy occurred in the year of 49 BCE. Julius Caesar declared war on Rome and the Roman Republic. Pompey in turn withdrew his army back to Greece. Soon, the powerful army of the Spanish legates, in alliance with General Pompey, was defeated. Julius Caesar then returned to the Adriatic region, attacked and defeated the military forces of Pompey at Pharsalus in 48 BCE. It was to Egypt Pompey would escape, and there in 48 BCE he was murdered by a disgruntled officer under the instigation and watchful eye of Cleopatra’s brother, King Ptolemy.

Back in Jerusalem, the first Roman invasion of Jerusalem was over. What was even more valuable, it gave a blueprint of the military strengths and weakness of the city to the Romans. Aristobulus II was taken prisoner to Rome along with his two sons, the Princes Alexander and Antigonus. The throne was vacated by the order of the Romans, and the rule of Judea was placed in the hands of Antipater, as its first Procurator.

The Rubicon River, the “point of not return” in which no Roman Army was to pass over into Italy and Rome.

It was in Rome where the exiled king, Aristobulus II was murdered by Cassius and Brutus in the year of 49/48 BCE. His oldest son, Alexander II, earlier had made a daring escape from Rome and soon found himself back in Jerusalem, this time as the “king of the Jews” in 49 CE. He incited an uprising against the Roman “oppression”. The Roman general, Metellus Scipio defeated the forces of Alexander II and he was later executed by Pompey the Great in 49 BCE. Pompey then restored Hyrcanus II to the office of the high priest.

The Ascendency of the Idumeans (47 BCE) – Antipater the Governor and Herod the Great

In the meantime, the former king and now high priest Hyrcanus II was not given back the title of King of Judah. Instead Antipater, the Governor of Idumaea, who along with the Nabataean king, Aretas II, and Hyrcanus II of Judea, had sent to Julius Caesar a lot of material aid, was now appointed to be the Governor of Jerusalem. Here began the entry of the Herodian dynastic power in the land of Judea, for Antipater the Idumean was the father of the future King Herod the Great.

With the restoration of his position as the High Priest of the Jews, Hyrcanus II became in effect the Jewish Maccabee king. The political authority was instead given to the Governor of Jerusalem, Antipater the Idumean, who in turn served the Romans with special interests only for his own rule and the future House of the Herodians. In 47 BCE, though the kingship was denied, the title of Ethnarch of Jerusalem was given to Hyrcanus II by Julius Caesar as a token of political authority, yet the rule of the kingdom remained in the hands of Antipater the Idumean, the father of Herod the Great.

Julius Caesar (60-44 BCE) – Left, Laureated Head between Laurel Branch and Caduceus – Right, Charging Bull.

During these years, the former King Hyrcanus II’ daughter, Princess Alexandra II, was betrothed and married as his and hers first marriage to Mattathias, the Nasi and Prince of Israel. Into their home was born, to their delight a son, who was now both an heir as a Davidian prince as well as a Hasmonean prince. They called their son, Prince Alexander III “Helios”. The fact that he was called “Helios” or “The Sun” gives us a clue as to the delight of the importance to them of this dynastic prodigy. Little would they realize the importance of this son, a prince of two royal households whom they nicknamed “Heli”. When Heli was grown, he was betrothed to the one of the three daughters of the High Priest of Israel, Yahshua III (Jesus III), who’s name was Hannah.

It is here, where the biblical history of the Brit Hadassah (ReNewed Testament) opens the spotlight of genealogical investigation. Prince “Helios” and his Levite wife, Hannah, like Yahshua III the High Priest’s family of Hannah, were not able to have a son. The Zadokian lineage of the high priest, from the days of the High Priest Zadok who was responsible for the setting up the entire priestly ministry in the new Temple of Solomon, that had come down uninterrupted to the present High Priest Jesus III, was now threatened with extinction.

Though they could not have a son, the Davidian Prince Heli, and his wife, the Levite daughter, Hannah (Anna), would have a daughter that would become the most famous woman in all history, the young maiden called Miriam. This young “temple virgin”, the Princess Mary, would one day became the mother of the future Jewish rabbi and messiah, Jesus the Nazarene. He was conceived by a special intersection by the World of the Divine, through the power of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

The great grandmother of Yahshua (Jesus), Elizabeth of Jerusalem, would go on to marry the Hasmonean king, Alexander II. She would become the Queen of the Jews, Alexandra II. Alexandra’s father, King Hyrcanus II, was deposed by her husband, King Alexander II, yet Hyrcanus II would later return as the high priest of Israel. The now High Priest Hyrcanus II would in fact be given the royal authority but not the title as the “King of the Jews”. The real power behind the throne would now be in the hands of Governor of Jerusalem, Antipater the Idumean. He, in turn, would become the father of the future Herod, the king of the Jews. King Herod would someday in the future execute Prince Alexander III “Helios”, the son of the former Hasmonean princess, and now Hasmonean Queen Alexandra II and her former husband, the Prince of Israel Mattathias. Heli’s execution would be on what is believed to be trumped up charges of sedition to the throne of the Herod.

Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony – Left, Roman Denarius with Draped Bust of Cleopatra and Right, Bare Head of Mark Antony with Armenian tiara.

All this came during the era in which the Herodian household was reeling in a palace plot that accused Queen Alexandra II with her best friend, and Herod’s nemesis, Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt seeking to influence the famed and powerful Roman Triumvir Mark Anthony, Queen Cleopatra’s lover, to remove King Herod from the throne of Judea. This same Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, it is believed now left as her posterity, a posthumous daughter with her earlier lover, the Dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar. This relationship left Cleopatra VII in the first trimester of pregnancy while she was living in Caesar’s villa in Rome at the time of his assassination at the Roman Senate in 44 BCE. This daughter, known as Cleopatra of Jerusalem was given to an “eastern prince” in 31 BCE, which the young Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Mattat did wed after he had been sent as an emissary of King Herod the Great with a detachment of Jewish military troops to support Octavian, the future Augustus Caesar in his campaign in Egypt. This Roman invasion left both Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra VII dead by suicide. It also sealed the fate of the last dynasty of the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt.

It was 40 BCE when suddenly at the gates of Jerusalem a new enemy arrived, this time Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus had allied himself with the Parthians and re-took the city of Jerusalem. Antigonus proclaimed himself the Jewish Maccabee King and also High Priest. His uncle, Hyrcanus II was arrested, and according to Josephus, King Antigonus bit and mutilated Hyrcanus II’s ear, making him unfit to serve as the high priest. Strange as it may be, Queen Alexandra II had now, with the execution of her husband, King Alexander II, by the Roman general Pompey in the year of 49 BCE, had now become the wife of King Antigonas.
This same Queen Alexandra II appears now to be the great grandmother of Jesus the Nazarene.

Prince of David Mattathias and Hasmonean Princess Alexandra II à

Prince Alexander “Helios”, the Biblical Heli and Levite Hannahà

Prince of David Joseph the “Carpenter” and Princess Miriam à

Yahshua HaMaschiach “Jesus the Messiah”

By the year of 37 BCE, the fate of the Hasmoneans was becoming even more perilous. The fortune of King Herod was in ascent. At the end of that year, the third year of his reign (37 BCE), King Antigonas was captured as he battled against the Roman General Sossius. This event came on the heels of the battle between King Antigonas with King Herod’s brother, Joseph, where Joseph was killed in battle and King Antigonas came out from Jerusalem and decapitated Herod’s brother’s head at Jericho. In turn, General Sossius sent King Antigonas to Mark Antony, who promptly executed him early in the year of 36 BCE. Five months later, with King Herod returning to Jerusalem from Rome, with the seal of approval for his kingship from the Roman Senate, he completed the assault of Jerusalem. He captured and imprisoned Queen Alexandra II, in her former Hasmonean palace, at Jericho.

Bronze Prutah of Mattathias Antigonas (40-37 BCE) -Left, Seven Branched Menorah with “King Antiogonus” in Greek – Right, Table of Showbread with “Mattatayah the High Priest” in Hebrew

In the meantime, the former king and high priest, Hyrcanus II had immigrated to Babylon where he lived with great respect amongst the Babylonian Jews. When Herod the Great, with the assistance of the Romans, drove out the Parthians, and King Antigonus was executed in 36 BCE, the former Hasmonean King Hyrcanus II was invited back to Jerusalem to reside as a member of the Herodian household. He was assigned the first place at the royal table of Herod and given the presidency of the state council. There Hyrcanus II was kept under the watchful eye of King Herod, so that he would never rise again as a rival to the throne of Judea

Also in that same year (36 BCE), a noted priestly family, the House of Boethus, living in Alexandria, Egypt of the House of Zadok, the high priest of King David, was invited to return after a one hundred and twenty year exile. This time, Boethus, with his seven sons returned to Jerusalem to serve as the high priests in the land of Judea. The great-great grandfather of Jesus the Nazarene, Jesus III (Yahshua III) the high priest, was a grandson of this priestly patriarch.

Five years later (31 BCE), the fate of Rome was hanging on the impending battle between Octavian and Mark Antony. On September 2, 31 BCE the Final War of the Roman Republic began in the Ionian Sea near the Roman colony of Actium in Greece. As Queen Cleopatra VII arrived with her Egyptian fleet, the “Battle of Actium” was fully engaged. With the flight of Mark Antony chasing after Queen Cleopatra VII, who was making her quick exit back to Egypt, the “ground zero” for the fate of Rome was next located at Alexandria, Egypt.

The first battle of engagement on July 31, 30 BCE was a victory for Mark Antony. Within two weeks, on July 12, 30 BCE, Mark Antony was dead by suicide when he heard falsely that Cleopatra had been captured. Queen Cleopatra VII, when she heard the news of the death of Mark Antony entered her mausoleum and reaching into a fig basket where two asps were hidden, the last Pharaoh of Egypt was now dead. Two years later, Queen Cleopatra VII’s grandson, Prince Joseph, the son of Cleopatra of Jerusalem and Patriarch Jacob ben Mattat would be born.

In the year, 30 BCE, the former King and High Priest Hyrcanus II would be charged with plotting with the Nabataeans to put Herod to death. Hyrcanus II was executed by King Herod the Great. Within one year, 29 BCE, Prince Joseph would be born to Queen Cleopatra’s daughter, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, by the famed Roman dictator, Julius Caesar. Within three years, in the year of 27 BCE, Queen Alexandra II would be charged for sedition, and the mother of Heli (Prince Alexander III “Helios”), the grandmother of Mary, the mother of Jesus would be executed by King Herod.

By the year 20 BCE, the young baby girl to the Prince of David, Heli (Prince Alexander III “Helios”) would be born by his Levite wife, Hannah, the daughter of the High Priest of Israel, Jesus III (Yeshua III). Thirteen years later, after His birth on the first day of Succot, 7 BCE, sometime before His second birthday, the arrival of royal dignitaries, the Three Magi from Parthia, Yehoshua (Jesus) would be targeted by King Herod in what became known in the sacred canon of the Christians as the “Massacre of Bethlehem”.

King Herod the Great

Who then was this King called Herod the Great that would be known in history as the greatest builder in the Roman Empire. The Temple of Herod was rebuilt from its foundation over the site of the old second Temple of Zerubabbel. The platform of the Herodian temple would become the largest platformed temple in the entire world. The international focus on Jerusalem within the Roman Empire can only be rivaled by the international attention upon modern 21^st century Jerusalem. As Jerusalem is returned as the planetary solar axis of this earth, we also stand amazed that the entire State of Israel has been built, nurtured and financed, just as Herodian Inc. of old, yet today by the modern international dynastic family of the global Jewish bankers, the Rothschild Inc.

King Herod the Great was born about 73 BCE and died in the fall of 4 BCE at the age of 69 years of age. As the second son of Antipater the Idumean, Herod became the most prominent name in Jewish history outside of Kings David and Solomon. King Herod did not come to his power and prominence in his own way, but was virtually given to him by his father, Antipater the Idumean, the true founder of the Herodian Dynasty in Judea. Herod no doubt was one of the most astute geo-political globalists in Jewish history. A native in the land of Idumea to the southeast of Judea between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, Antipater rose in the ranks of Jewish bureaucracy within the Hasmonean government. With the civil war raging between the Maccabee brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus, their quest for ultimate power in Jewish politics led to the rise of Antipater as the ultimate victor in Judean governance. When the forces of Aristobulus shut the gates of Jerusalem in the face of the Roman triumvir, Pompey the Great, the walls were breeched and the heavy hand of the rising power of the Roman Republic continued from that day in the year of 63 BCE through the careful machinations of their now loyal client, Antipater the Idumean.

As the new Governor of Judea, Antipater shared power with the High Priest, later turned Jewish Ethnarch Hyrcanus II, whose power was first limited to reigning as the high priest of Israel. Under his artful manipulation of his shifting Roman political power base, Antipater kept the interests of the Jews, with his interests in their forefront, with the fall of Pompey, and the rise of the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar. It would take his son, Herod to continue his father’s global policies. These included balancing the rise of Mark Antony and with his eclipse with his lover, Cleopatra VII of Egypt, quickly shifting sides with the rise of Octavian, the future Caesar Augustus as the first real emperor of Rome.

During these days of shifting winds of globalism, Antipater the Idumean placed his two young sons into Jewish political offices, Herod at the age of 25 as the Governor of Galilee, and his older brother, Phasael, as the Governor of Jerusalem. In the political unrest of Antipater’s decision to finance in part the international hunt for the murderers of Julius Caesar, Antipater was poisoned (43 BCE) for his pro-Roman and Hellenistic politics by the devout Jews. Quickly, with Roman assistance, Herod executed his father’s murderers. In 42 BCE, it took all the skillful art of diplomacy to convince Mark Antony and Octavian that Herod’s father, Antipater had been forced to assist Cassius and Brutus, the murderers of Julius Caesar. With their satisfaction and approval, Herod first became Tetrarch of Galilee by the Romans in 42 BCE and then “King of the Jews” by the vote of the Roman Senate in 37 BCE before his siege at the Battle for Jerusalem against King Antigonas and Queen Alexandra II.

In his bid to gain control of the Jewish government, King Antigonus, the nephew of King Hyrcanus II defeated Herod, who fled, only to return with greater Roman forces. Herod sacked the city of Jerusalem in a three month bloody military siege that eventually contaminated the temple with the blood of many Jewish defenders. The last ruler of the Hasmoneans, the wife of two Hasmonean kings and daughter of one, Queen Alexandra II, was soon captured in her own fortified palace in Jericho.

Bronze Coin by Mattathias Antigonus (40-37 BCE) – Left, “King Antigonus” in Greek with Ivy Wreath and Ribbons – Right, Double Cornucopia with Hebrew inscription, “Mattataya the high priest and Council of the Jews”.

With the marriage to Doris of Jerusalem a princess of the royal lineage of King David, in 37 BCE, Herod, in his mind was able to secure for his throne and descendants with the bloodlines of the royal descendants of King David. With the marriage of Hasmonean Princess Miriamne I in 37 BCE, the daughter of Queen Alexandra II, Herod secured for his descendants the throne of the Hasmoneans. With the marriage of the daughter of the High Priest Simon V Boethus, called Mariamme II in 23 BCE from the officially approved lineage of the high priest dynasty of Zadok the High Priest of King David, King Herod secured, in his own mind, the power over the high priestly families and temple hierarchy in Judea. With the marriage of Cleopatra VIII “of Jerusalem”, the posthumous daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar, King Herod won, in his own mind, the power struggle between he and his nemesis, Cleopatra the last Pharaoh of Egypt over control of the regions of Judea and Jericho, and potentially secured the right for the throne of Rome by his own sons.

Always in defense of their Jewishness, the Herodians were Edomites, and hated no less then than by the religious Jews today. Antipater the Idumean and later his son, Herod the Great had to appeal to the softer sides of the Jewish people; the desire for wealth, the safety of their homeland, and the fervor to worship the God of Israel in their own way according to their interpretations of the Torah, that was given to them on the mount called Sinai.

This antipathy of the religious Jews for a family that had been “forced” to convert to Judaism one hundred years earlier during the reign of the Maccabee King John Hyrcanus I (135-104 BCE) the Jews then, as now, have never been strong enough religiously and spiritually to become a “magnet” to draw all nations of the world into the faith of the God of Israel. As such, instead of becoming inclusive in their understanding of assimilating the gentile world into the true faith of the God of Creation, instead they became exclusive and forced many barriers between them and the gentile world around them.

This major shift of religious outlook occurred between the eras of Hillel the Great and Shammai the Great, the leaders of the Sanhedrin between the first century BCE and CE. Many of the Babylonian Jews claimed King Herod as one of their own and there were alleged “spurious” genealogies of the Jewish roots of King Herod. Then as today, it was hard for the Jews to morally reject a ruler who was morally corrupt, spiritually bankrupt, and with amoral political decisions killed Jews and destroyed their spiritual lives, when he built a new temple for them and brought great riches to their land. This also showed the weakness of the culture of post-Persian Judaism, for a gentile converted to Judaism is usually a second class “Jew” in Jewish theocratic models, for the Ezra the Scribe’s ruling, still looms large in modern Jewish life that “to be a Jew, your mother must be a Jew”. The anti-assimilation policies of Judaism still hold great barrier to redeem “lost Jews” that were assimilated into other cultures, much less “lost tribes of Israelites” that the prophets of Israel proclaim will be redeemed at the time of the end.

Large Bronze Coin of Herod the Great (37 BCE) minted upon his conquest of Judaea and Jerusalem, three years after he was appointed King of Judea in 40 BCE, as such is minted on “Year 3”.

This craving for recognition and acceptance of the Jewish people may have been the reason Herod the Great is known today as the greatest builder in the era of “Pax Romani”. With his marriage to Miriamne II, the daughter of the High Priest Simon V Boethus, Herod began his construction on the Herodium, the circular breast-like palace- fortress at Jabal Fureidis in central Judea. Soon after, he began building the coastal maritime city of Caesarea while he began the most ambitious construction project in his own career, the tearing down and rebuilding of the Temple of Herod upon an enlarged Temple Mount platform beginning about 20 BCE.

With the fall of Jerusalem to the forces of King Herod in 37 BCE, his power was virtually complete. As the sole ruler of Judea, he took the title, “Basileus” as his own. The Hasmonean Dynasty was over. The Herodian Dynasty was prepared to usher in a new age. There was one problem, for the next thirty four years, the Princes of David kept arising, one by one to challenge his rule in the capital city of King David. One by one, the Princes of David and any loyal aspirant to the Davidian right to sit the throne of David fell to the “Sword” of Herod.

The Marriages and Heirs of King Herod the Great

Rolling stone tomb behind King David Hotel A “Rolling Stone Tomb” located behind the King David Hotel near the Old City.

This Tomb is reputed to be a Monument to the Family of Herod the Great – Property of the Greek Orthodox Church

1. Married Doris, Davidide heiress in 40 BCE à Heirs by Herod the Great

Antipater III, who was executed in 4 BCE.

2. Married (37 BCE) the Hasmonean Princess Mariamne I, who was executed in 29/28 CE. She was the daughter of the King Alexander II, who was earlier executed in 49 BCE à Heirs and Heiresses by Herod the Great

Alexandros, who was executed 7 BCE.

Aristobulus IV, who was executed 7 BCE.

Salampsio, a daughter;

Cypros, a daughter;

3. Married a Niece in 37 BCE, whose name is not known;

No known heirs.

4. Married a Cousin about the years of 34/33 BCE, whose name is not known;

No known heirs.

5. Married Mariamne II, the daughter of the High Priest Simon Boethus in the year of 23 BCE à Heirs by Herod the Great

Herod II Boethus, who was assassinated on 6 CE;

Herod Philip I

6. Married Malthace à Heirs and Heiress by Herod the Great

Herod Archelaus who became an Ethnarch

Herod Antipas, who became a Tetrarch

Olympias a daughter.

7. Married Cleopatra of Jerusalem in 19 BCE, the posthumous daughter of Cleopatra VII of Egypt with Julius Caesar of Rome. She was given to wife, a Jacob ben Mattan, a “Nasi” and a Prince of Israel that King Herod nominated as the Patriarch of Jerusalem between the years of 32-28 BCE. Jacob was later executed in 23 BCE by King Herod who trumped up the charge of sedition. Jacob and Cleopatra’s heirs were three; Joseph ben Jacob, the foster father of Jesus the Nazarene and two “twins” Ptolas and Cleopas à Heirs by Herod the Great

Herod Philip II, who became a Tetrarch;

Herod a private citizen.

8. Married Pallas à Heir by Herod the Great

Phasael, a son;

9. Married Phaidra à Heiress by Herod the Great

Roxane, a daughter;

10. Married Elpis à Heiress by Herod the Great

Salome bat Herod I

The High Priest Boethus and the Return of the Zadokian High Priests

It would not be until the fourth generation and 126 years later, when Boethus, a descendant of the last legitimate high priest of Israel, Onias III, was appointed as the high priest of Israel. From Josephus we know the father of Boethus to be an outstanding citizen who lived in Alexandria during the last years of the reign of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. The High Priestly Family arrived in Jerusalem in the year of 36 BCE.

Ananias (Exiled in Egypt) |

| |

Hananeel the Egyptian (Ananelus) – (reputed as One of the HPs who sacrificed the Red Heifer)

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Boethus (56^th HP-37 BCE) Theophilus

______________________|___________________________________ |

| | | | | | | |

Ananelus Phabet (Fabi) Simon IV Joazar Eleazar Sethus Kantheras Matthias I

(57^th HP) | (60^th HP-23-19 BC) (Twice 62^nd HP) (III, 63^rd HP) (Sie) (Simon VI, 72^nd HP) (61^st HP)

___________ |________ | |

| | | | |

Yehoshua III Eliam Ishmael Joseph II |

(59^th HP-36-23 BCE) | (66^th HP) (“Cabi”-78^th HP) _____|_______

| Joseph Yehoshua IV Ananus, the High Priest

3 Daughters (HP 1 day) (64^th HP – 4 BCE) Patriarch of the Famed House of Ananus

Jane High Priest Who Instigated Yehoshua’s Death

Elizabeth With his son-in-law, the High Priest, Caiphas

(H)anna (65^th HP-6-15CE)

The Exiled Zadokian Ancestors of High Priest Boethus

Onias III (44^th High Priest) who was deposed 175 BCE and murdered 171 BCE à

Onias V (deprived of the High Priest Office by Lysias and immigrated to Egypt in 159 BCE and established a rival Temple of the Jews near Heliopolis à

Ananias à

Hananeel (Ananelus) the Egyptian à

Boethus (56^th High Priest) who moved back from Alexandria Egypt to Jerusalem à

Ananelus ben Boethus (57^th High Priest)

Phabet (Fagi) ben Boethus

Yehoshua III (Jesus III) ben Boethus (59^th High Priest)

Eliam ben Phabet ben Boethus

Joseph ben Eliam (High Priest 1 Day)

Ishmael ben Phabet (66^th High Priest)

Simon V Boethus (78^th High Priest)

Joseph II Cabi ben Boethus (56^th High Priest)

Joazar ben Boethus (62^st High Priest)

Eleazar ben Boethus (63^nd High Priest)

Sethus ben Boethus

Yehoshua IV (Jesus IV) ben Boethus (64^th High Priest)

Ananus the Elder ben Boethus (65^th High Priest)

Simon VI Kantheras ben Boethus (72^th High Priest)

During the next nine years after the family of Boethus took over the throne of the high priest, the Patriarch of Israel was Jacob ben Matthan, now married to the daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. Suddenly in the year of 23 BCE, King Herod fell into love. This time it was to a woman the Jerusalem social elite called the “most beautiful woman of that time.” This young lady was the daughter of one of the sons of Boethus that the king himself had recalled from Alexandria in the year of 36 BCE. Let us read about this love affair that the king of the Jews was described as “smitten by her beauty.”

The Herodian Citadel built by Herod the Great after the Marriage to Miriamne II, the daughter of Simon ben Boethus, the high priest

Flavius Josephus – “When, therefore, his (Herod the Great’s) affairs were thus improved, and were again in a flourishing condition, he built himself a palace in the upper city, raising the rooms to a very great height, and adorning them with the most costly furniture of gold, and marble seats, and beds; and these were so large that they could contain very many companies of men. These apartments were also of distinct magnitudes, and had particular names given them; for one apartment was called Caesar’s, another Agrippa’s.

He also fell in love again, and married another wife, not suffering his reason to hinder him from living as he pleased. The occasion of this his marriage was as follows: - There was one Simon, a citizen of Jerusalem, the son of one Boethus, a citizen of Alexandria, and a priest of great note there: this man had a daughter ,who was esteemed the most beautiful woman of that time; and when the people of Jerusalem began to speak much in her commendation, it happened that Herod was much affected with what was said of her: and when he saw the damsel, he was smitten with her beauty, yet did he entirely reject the thoughts of using his authority to abuse her; as believing, what was the truth, that by so doing he should be stigmatized for violence and tyranny: so he thought it best to take the damsel to wife.

And while Simon was of a dignity too inferior to be allied to him, but still too considerable to be despised, he governed his inclinations after the most prudent manner, by augmenting the dignity of the family, and making them more honourable; so he immediately deprived Jesus the son of Phabet of the high priesthood, and conferred that dignity on Simon, and so joined an affinity with him (by marrying his daughter.)

The Palace of Herod the Great in the center of the Herodium Citadel – Photo by BiblePlaces

We are fascinated to observe that the palace of Herod where his sarcophagus was recently discovered was initially built in the wake of this great wedding with Mariamne II, the daughter now the High Priest Simon ben Boethus. Let us read about this in Josephus.

Flavius Josephus – “When this wedding was over, he built another citadel in that place where he had conquered the Jews, when he was driven out of his government, and Antigonus enjoyed it. This citadel is distant from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. It was strong by nature, and fit for such a building. It is a sort of moderate hill, raised to a further height by the hand of the man, till it was of the shape of a woman’s breast. It is encompassed with circular towers, and hath a straight ascent up to it, which ascent is composed of steps of polished stones, in number two hundred. Within it are royal and very rich apartments, of a structure that provided both for security and for beauty. About the bottom there are habitations of such a structure as are well worth seeing, both on other accounts, and also on account of the water which is brought thither from a great way off, and at vast expense; for the place itself is destitute of water. The plain that is about the citadel is full of edifices not inferior to any city in largeness, and having the hill above it in the nature of a castle.”

The Patriarch of Jerusalem was now dead. The rumors abounded. Was he executed for treason, or was it for the convenience of the king? During that same year, we also find that the current high priest, the nephew of Simon V Boethus, the High Priest Yeshua III (Jesus III) was “deprived” or removed from the holy office that he had presided for twelve years. The children of Jacob were quickly taken outside the close hand of the king up to the family home of Hezekiah, the brother of Patriarch Jacob the foster father of Jesus. We have to ask, was this in the western regions of the Sea of Galilee near Sepphoris, just three miles north of Nazareth. We also have to ask, was this in the eastern regions of the Sea of Galilee near the Davidian stronghold of Gamala in the foothills of the Golan Heights?

There in the safe houses of Joseph’s uncle, Hezekiah the Zealot, Joseph, the foster foster father of Yehoshua (Jesus) plus his older sister, Miriam, his younger “twin brothers”, Ptolas and Clopas, plus the political ally of Jacob the Patriarch, Jesus III (Jeshua III) three daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Joanna, were raised, not in the atmosphere of the Jerusalem aristocracy, but within the “hot bed” of Jewish right wing nationalists. Out of this family there would soon arise the founder of the Fourth Philosophy called the “Zealots of Israel.”

Aerial Photo of the Herodium from the Southwest

In the meantime, the widow of Jacob the Patriarch, the high profiled daughter of Queen Cleopatra, called Cleopatra of Jerusalem, was given to the new High Priest to be his new wife. This was a most unusual affair as the common reasoning about the high priestly family were that they would be following the halakhic decree of Ezra the Scribe, “to be a Jew, your mother must be a Jew.” Why was the High Priest Simon V Boethus marrying a Princess of the royal house of the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt.? Even more, she was reputed to be the daughter of relationship between Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra just months before he was assassinated in the year of 44 BCE. Now Cleopatra of Jerusalem, now a Roman “Edomite”, was to be the wife of the high priest of Israel.

Husbands of Princess Cleopatra VIII of Jerusalem

Posthumous Daughter of:

Dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar and Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII

1^st Married 2^nd 3^rd

| ________________________|_____________________ _____|

| | |

Prince Jacob ben Matthan High Priest Simeon V Boethus King Herod the Great

31 - 23 BCE 23 - 19 BCE 19 - ? BCE

Executed by King Herod Executed by King Herod

| | |

Prince Joseph “the Carpenter” Joseph II “Cabi” the 78^th High Priest Herod, a Common Citizen of Rome

b. 29 BCE b. 18 BCE

Prince Ptolas Cleopatra II of Jerusalem m. Herod II

Prince Clopas

As Cleopatra of Jerusalem was the wife of Jacob the Patriarch for about nine years, so she would become the wife of the High Priest Simon V Boethus, by the royal demand of King Herod. There she remained almost four years (23 to 19 BCE). During these years, Cleopatra of Jerusalem gave the High Priest Simon V Boethus two children; Joseph II “Cabi” who would someday become the 78^th high priest of Israel and a younger daughter, Cleopatra II of Jerusalem. Cleopatra II of Jerusalem would later marry, according to David Hughes, Herod II Boethus, the son of King Herod in his marriage with Miriamne II, the most beautiful woman in Jerusalem in her era, who was the daughter of the High Priest Simon V Boethus. Here we have the daughter of the High Priest Simon V Boethus by Cleopatra of Jerusalem marrying the grandson of the High Priest Simon V Boethus by his daughter, Miriamne II, who was married to King Herod the Great. Herod II Boethus would later be assassinated in the year of 6 CE.

The Fading Years of the All-Jewish Lineages of the Hasmoneans and the Princes of King David

Caesarea, palace of King Herod Though the Maccabean family came from priestly lineage, they were not descendants of the approved hereditarial lineage of the first born of the high priest, of the House of Zadok, the high priest of King David. When the Sadducees allied themselves with the Maccabeans, they posed themselves as defenders of conservative Torah law interpreters. These Sadducees appeared more opportunistic than conservative Torah defenders. The conflicts with the messianic aspirations of the family of Jesus (Yehoshua) came in part that Jesus lineages were “tainted” with Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Egypt, and Roman bloodlines.

The Promontory Palace of King Herod at Caesarea constructed about 30 BCE.

With modern orthodox Jews defending the “strict” Torah interpretations by Ezra the Scribe of the law that stated to be of Jewish blood, your mother had to be Jewish, they in essence have become defenders of the School of Shammai, who took the ruling of Ezra the Scribe to its strictest halakhic (how to live the life of Torah) literal interpretation. Yet, Shammai’s Torah rulings were also voided after the destruction of Jerusalem, because the “voice of the Lord” proclaimed to the Great Sanhedrin that the official voice of the God of Israel would be given by descendants and disciples of the famed Jewish nasi, or president of the Great Sanhedrin, Hillel the Great. Today we see this same struggle between the Torah rulings of the Pharisees of Hillel and the Pharisees of Shammai between the Jewish rabbanim, especially in the question of “Who is a Jew?”

This marriage in Jerusalem of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Jacob ben Matthan with the daughter of the Ptolemaic Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, resulted in the birth of a young son. This son would be a Davidian Prince of Israel and heir to the throne of David, and an Egyptian Prince and heir to the throne of the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt. This son would go down in history as the Jewish Prince of Jerusalem, Yosef ben Yacov (Joseph son of Jacob) who would later be known as the “Carpenter” who accepted the betrothal of the “temple virgin”, the orphaned daughter of Prince Alexander III “Helios”, known as Prince Heli, who was married to the daughter, Hannah, of the High Priest of Israel Yeshua III (Jesus III) ben Phabet ben Boethus. Heli was later executed on charges of treason to usurp the throne of King Herod the Great.

Prince Joseph the Carpenter would adopt this young boy on the eighth day of his birth, when he was circumcised, and gave Yehoshua his name. As his foster father of the royal Abuidite Davidian Lineage, Prince Joseph would transfer the hereditarial royal rights as the heir to the Jewish throne of David and Solomon and the Ptolemaic throne of Egypt to his adopted son, Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus son of Joseph). Jesus’ mother, Princess Miriam, was a dynastic heiress of the non-royal lineage of the House of Nathan. She was of the Tribe of Judah. Princess Miriam was also the dynastic royal heiress to the Jewish Hasmonean throne because her father, Prince Alexander III “Helios”, known as Prince Heli, had no sons.

Prince Joseph and Princess Miriam were both descendants of the royal house of Solomon through the dynastic heiress transfer of the royal rights of King Solomon’s lineage through their ancestral mother, Queen Tamar. Yet the Solomonic Princess Tamar’s children were born by a Davidian prince of non-royal lineage of Prince Nathan (Solomon’s brother), and by their adoption by King Jeconiah, they would carry the royal rights to the throne of David and Solomon to all their descendants.

The Stark Landscape of the Wilderness of Judea near the Herodian Palace of King Herod.

It was equally amazing that, in spite of the Torah ruling by Ezra the Scribe, that appeared to take all the Jewishness away from the descendants of Zerubabbel by his 1^st Babylonian wife, the Babylonian Princess Amytis, and the 2^nd Persian wife, the Persian Princess Rhodah, over the next four hundred years, all the official lineages of the all-Jewish descendants from the 3^rd Jewish bride, the Jewish royal Princess Esthra would become Extinct. The last remaining royal descendant, Prince Joaquin, from the all-Jewish Onaidite Lineage of King David, would also have only daughters, yet, as dynastic heiresses, their lineages would be transferred to the Davidian royal princes of the “bastard” lineages from the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian royal bloodlines within the Abuidite and Rhesaite lineages.

The decision of will of the Almighty One of Israel was now revealed. His “messiah” would come, truly as a Jew from the House of Judah and the House of Kings David and Solomon, but from descendant lineages that would truly make Yehoshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah) the royal heir to all the thrones of the nations that oppressed Abraham and the Patriarchs, the Israelites and later the Jewish people; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, and Rome. When He returns, He will truly come as the “King of kings and Lord of lords”.

The Messiah as a Part of God’s Divine Will

What an amazing such relationships appeared to be. Some may be threatened that the great-grandmother of Jesus the Messiah (Yehoshua HaMaschiach) may have been the last Pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra VII who was of Greek Seleucid descent. But we have to consider that the great grandmother of King David, Ruth, was of the cursed lineage of the Moabites by the incestuous relationship between Lot, the nephew of Abraham and his daughter. Her life became one of the revered stories in the bible of love, faith, and devotion. Was not the great-great grandmother of King David, Rahab, a double cursed Canaanite prostitute from Jericho, yet she became one of the revered women to be honored as the ancestress grandmother of the messiah?

Earlier we analyzed the illegitimate or “bastard” lineages of the ancestors of Jesus, as least as determined by Ezra the Scribe to the Jewish people returning to the land of Israel. The early days of the returning Jews to Jerusalem were perilous times. There was no guarantee that a viable Jewish culture could once again be planted on the mountains surrounding Jerusalem and the soil of Israel

The people that did return had to be fully attached and committed to the “Land” and with a passion that this time they would obey the commandments of the Torah. From this day forward a sizable remnant obeyed the Torah “to the letter of the law”. Any dilution of the obedience to the Torah, from wives and family that may be still devoted to the gods of their forefathers in Babylon and Persia could have had a disastrous affect upon this fledgling society.

The Podium or Base of King Herod’s Tomb at the Herodium

The new governor from Persia, the 3^rd Jewish Exilarch (Ruler in exile), Zerubabbel, was also caught up in this dilemma. If he brought with him his first two wives, then the 1^st wife the Babylonian princess, Amytis, the daughter of King Evil-Merodach and the 2^nd Persian princess bride, Rhodah, the sister of the Persian Shah Cyrus the Great were both caught along with their husband, the Prince of David, the 3^rd Exilarch of the Jews, Governor Zerubabbel in the quagmire of a Jewish halakhic dispute. It would leave all of their descendants for four hundred years as accursed “bastard” lineages and not accepted, with a few exceptions, into main Jewish society. Both of these wives were sent back to the land of their forefathers as “accursed” in Jewish society with implications by some Jewish historians that the incensed Persian royal relatives may have caused the life of Governor Zerubabbel.

Yet, Prince and Governor Zerubabbel married a Jewish Davidian princess, Esthra. It was from this lineage that became the elite or senior Davidian lineages that were accepted by the leading clerics. Yet, over forty years before the final destruction of Jerusalem, all the “chosen” lineages of the all-Jewish royal male descendants of Kings David and Solomon became extinct. The last pure descendant was the Prince Shammai the Great, the brilliant Torah scholar, whose ties to the Zealots and his brooding hatred for Rome and all Gentiles became the “fire” that burned the fuse of the future Jewish rebellion against Rome in 66 CE. The messiah had been chosen and did come, but not from any of the chosen lineages by Ezra the Scribe. We have to ask why did the Sovereign God of Israel choose otherwise?

If the “Maschiach Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel) was to be a Universal Messiah for all people, and not just a Jewish messiah, maybe the God of Israel had a bigger picture. Was He was not just the God of the Jews, but the Creator God of all mankind? It would be through the loins of the Jewish bloodlines, the House of David, the Hasmoneans, and the House of the High Priest Zadok, the Maschiach Yisra’el (Messiah of Israel) would be sent to this planet earth. It would not be exclusively be for the Jews that the Messiah would eventually come. Did not the Priest Zacharias who was a halakhic approved priest in the Temple of Herod that stood before the Veil of the Most Holy Place at the golden altar of incense prophesy?

The Priest Zacharias inscription on the left and the

Simeon the Just inscription on the right

Luke 1:68-79 – “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel; for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets. Who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham; to grant us that we, Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear in holiness, and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us. To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the ways of peace.”

Did not the Jewish Tzaddik (Righteous One) Simon the Just, also prophesy in the Temple of Herod almost eighteen months later at the dedication of the young babe, Yehoshua (Jesus) when he said:

Luke 2:29-32 – “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”

The legacy of these two historically and archeologically verified holy men within the Jewish economy of the 1^st century BCE Temple of Herod era, can now be witnessed in stone at the Yad Avshalom, the reputed Tomb of Absalom, that may rather have been the Nazarene tombs of both the Priest Zacharias the father of John the Baptist and Simon the Just (Righteous) that now stands along the rocky prominence at base of the Mount of Olives. This is below the Jewish cemetery overlooking the Kidron Valley from the eastern ridge of the Temple Mount. There engraved on this monument are these two inscriptions:

"This is the tomb of Zacharia, martyr, a very pious priest, father of John,"

"Simeon who was a very just man and a very devoted old (person) and waiting for the consolation of the people."

But the Jewish people appear to only accept that a messiah is a pure human being. Yet, the God of Israel was consistently interacting with his chosen ones in the biblical narrative by v God’s human emissaries upon this earth had face to face communication with extra-dimensional emissaries. Is it possible that the Almighty, Unseen, and Unknowable God could have sent an emissary direct from the Throne of God? In this inter-galactic battle over sin that reached to the very throne of God, the first prophecy within the Torah was proclaimed that it would involve the future inter-planetary struggle for the control of this planet between the “serpent” and the “messiah”.

The Yad AvShalom (Tomb of Absalom) on the Rocky Ledge near the bottom of the Kidron Valley ravine, believed to be the Tombs of Zecharias the father of John the Baptist and Simeon the Just –

Photo by Robert Mock

Genesis 3:15 – “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Within the messianic branch of Judaism called Kabbalah, the Tiferet of the Sefirot of the World of the Divine is the dwelling place of the messiah. Here, within the heart of the Dwelling of the Divine was the vortex or funnel that all the creative energies flowed from the throne of the Almighty One of Israel. If “The Messiah” were to come as a representative of the Eternal One, could it not be one of His missions to open the gates of Judaism so that all the seventy nations of the world could learn of the Creator God of the Universe? Would it not be a mission of the messiah to re-gather the “sparks” of the Divine that were scattered when sin entered this planet and destroyed that wonderful face to face communication between God and his created guardians for this planet?

It did appear that the God of Israel did have another plan, than that proposed by Ezra the Scribe. If the God of Israel keeps within His divine powers the right to give kingship to whomever He chooses, than the same God of Israel can choose with His divine choice the very individuals that will be the progenitor ancestors of His chosen messiah. The same God of Israel could also send His own “begotten” Son to also be “The Messiah”. How this could occur is a mystery and woe be to those who try to divide the saving power of God by trying to penetrate the knowledge or understanding (Hokhmah) of the Mystery of the Divine in order to control the outcome of God’s will.

Yes, the God of Israel did have another plan, for from the loins of King David, the elite Jewish senior lineages all became extinct. The Great Sanhedrin did have to reconsider the halakhic decision of Ezra the Scribe that refused to legitimize the other lineages from the descendants of King David. The David-Zerubabbel-Babylonian lineages and the David-Zerubabbel-Persian lineages were accepted plus a lineage from King David’s fifth wife and fourth son, Prince Adonijah.

*****

Note – The genealogies and historical overlays of the family of Jesus are a project of continuing research. For any researchers with additional historical insight and genealogical information are welcome to contact any of the following researchers.

David Hughes – RdavidH218@AOL.com – Davidian Genealogy

Robert Mock – robertmock@biblesearchers.com – Biblical History

Robert Killian - rkillian@libello.com – Biblical Chronology

Go to Book Two –

Chapter One

“The Fulfillment of the Covenant of King David and Solomon by King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah”

Topics

The Covenant of God with Kings David and Solomon

The Ten Wives and Twenty Three Children of King David

The Failure of King Solomon and the Kings of Judah to Keep the Commandments and Judgments of God

The Solomonic Lineage from King David to Zerubabbel, as Documented in the Matthew Genealogy of Jesus (Yehoshua)

The Reformation of Good King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah

The Prophetic Mandate of King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah to Hide the Treasures of Solomon in Order to Save them for the End of Days

The National Revival to the Torah under King Josiah

The Royal Family of King Josiah – the Last Kings of Judah

Who was Jeremias of Libnah?

King Jeconiah, the First of the Jewish Exilarchs in Babylon

The Fall of Jerusalem – 586 BCE

King Jeconiah in Exile

The Ancestral Lineage of the Babylonian Princess Amytis

Lineages

The Ten Wives and Twenty Three Children of King David

The Solomonic Lineage from King David to Zerubabbel, as Documented in the Matthew Genealogy of Jesus (Yehoshua)

The Royal Family of King Josiah – the Last Kings of Judah

The Ancestral Lineage of the Babylonian Princess Amytis

Return to Beginning

Book One

The Ancestors of Jesus in First and Second Century Judea BCE

Go to Chapter One –

“The Royal Davidian, Maccabee, and Levitical Ancestors of Jesus (Yehoshua)”

Go to Chapter Two –

“The Political and Royal Heritage of Miriam, the Chosen Princess, as the Mother of the Jewish Messiah”

Go to Chapter Three –

“The Religious Heritage of Miriam, the Chosen Princess, as the Granddaughter of a High Priest”

Go to Chapter Four –

“The Jewish Temples in Egypt and the Zadokian High Priest Influence of the Ancestors of Jesus”

Go to Chapter Five –

“‘Out of Egypt, I will Bring My Son’ - The Mystery of Cleopatra of Jerusalem”

Go to Chapter Six –

“The Davidian Princes in the Days of Herod the Great”

Go to Chapter Seven –

“The Legacy of the Jewish Freedom Fighters in the Ancestors of Jesus”

Book Two

The History of the Jews surrounding the Princes of David

Go to Chapter One –

“The Maccabees and the Abomination of Desolation”

Go to Chapter Two –

“The Fulfillment of the Covenant of King David and Solomon by King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah”

Go to Chapter Three –

“Princess Tamar - the Dynastic Merging of the Lineages of Solomon and Nathan”

Book Three

“The Princes of David from Zerubabbel to the Messiah”

Go to Chapter One –

“A New Beginning – The Princes of Israel and Ezra the Scribe”

Go to Chapter Two –

“Zerubabbel, the Prince of Israel and the Patriarch of the Jews”

Go to Chapter Three –

“The Governors of Judea from the Persian to the Herodian Eras”

Go to Chapter Four –

“The Messiah, the son of David”

BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY

for

Exegenesis Biblical Event Chronology

http://www.exegenesis.com/data_files/bible_event_chronicle.htm

by Robert Killian of Monaco

BIBLIOGRAPHY

for

Israel's Davidic Dynasty

http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/davidicdynasty.html

by David Hughes

The British Chronicles

Book

The British Chronicles

by David Hughes

LIST OF ARTICLES

by David Hughes

This Page,

http://hometown.aol.com/rdavidh218/myhomepage/index.html,

Is updated whenever a New Article is Posted to the Net
----------------------------------------
Note: Some of the hyperlinks for some reason don't work, thus,

it may be necessary to copy & paste some of the web addresses
-----------------------------------------------

1. Five descent-lines from Roman Emperors to British Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/empire2britain.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/empire2britain.wps.htm

2. Ancestors & descendants of Britain's King Arthur, & the Anwyl Family
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/arthurian_genealogies.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/arthurian_genealogies.wps.htm

3. Israel: From Moses, its first judge, to [H]Oshea, its last king
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/israel.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/israel.wps.htm

4. Israel's Davidic Dynasty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/davidicdynasty.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/davidicdynasty.wps.htm

5. Descent from Christianity's Holy Family to Britain's Royal Family: the Jesus Dynasty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/holyfamily2royalfamily.htmlor

mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/holyfamily2royalfamily.wps.htm

6. The Grail-Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/grail_kings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/grail_kings.wps.htm

7. Five Descent-Lines from Israeli Royalty to British Royalty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/israel2britain.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/israel2britain.wps.htm

8. Old British Royal House
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/oldbritishroyalhouse.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/oldbritishroyalhouse.wps.htm

9. Genealogy of the Lougher Family: male-line descendants of Britain's Iron Age Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/LougherPedigree.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/LougherPedigree.wps.htm

10. The Jacobites: The Stuart King James II & His Heirs
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/jacobites.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/jacobites.wps.htm

11. Kings & Princes of Wales
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/welshkings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/welshkings.wps.htm

12. Kings of Scotland
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/scottishkings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/scottishkings.wps.htm

13. Kings of Ulster: independent Irish kingdom
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/ulsterkings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/ulsterkings.wps.htm

14. Kings of Ireland
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/irishkings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/irishkings.wps.htm

15. The Picts
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/picts.html

16. Early Frankish kings & the Merovingians
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/earlyfrankishkings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/earlyfrankishkings.wps.htm

17. Some descent-lines from Africa to Europe
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/africa2europe.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/africa2europe.wps.htm

18. Some descent-lines from Arabic Royalty to European Royalty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/arabia2europe.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/arabia2europe.wps.htm

19. Some descent-lines from Asia to Europe
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/asia2europe.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/asia2europe.wps.htm

20. Ancestors & descendants of Central America's Aztec Emperors
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/azteckings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/azteckings.wps.htm

21. Ancestors & descendants of South America's Inca Emperors
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/incas.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/incas.wps.htm

22. Egyptian Pharaohs
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/egyptianpharaohs.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/egyptianpharaohs.wps.htm

23. Descent-line from Ancient Egypt to Modern Britain
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/egypt2britain.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/egypt2britain.wps.htm

24. Descent-line from Ancient Greece to Modern Greece
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/ancient2moderngreece.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/ancient2moderngreece.wps.htm

25. Ancient Sumeria
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/ancient_sumeria.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/ancient_sumeria.wps.htm

26. The Babylonian Emperors
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/babylonianemperors.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/babylonianemperors.wps.htm

27. The Assyrian Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/assyriankings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/assyriankings.wps.htm

28. The Balthae Dynasty: Gothic Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/balthae_dynasty.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/balthae_dynasty.wps.htm

29. Lombard Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/lombards.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/lombards.wps.htm

30. Male-line ancestry of the Plantagenets of England & the Capetians of France
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/plantagenets.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/plantagenets.wps.htm

31. Early Danish kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/earlydanishkings.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/earlydanishkings.wps.htm

32. Cerdic of Wessex
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/cerdic_of_wessex.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/cerdic_of_wessex.wps.htm

33. The "Beli Mawr Pedigree"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/beli_mawr_pedigree.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/beli_mawr_pedigree.wps.htm

34. The "Aedd Mawr Pedigree"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/aedd_mawr_pedigree.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/aedd_mawr_pedigree.wps.htm

35. The "Beli & Anne Pedigree"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/beli_anne_pedigree.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/beli_anne_pedigree.wps.htm

36. Heirs-Male of the Old British Royal House
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/caratacus_descent-lines.html

37. Story of the First Christmas
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/first_christmas.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/first_christmas.wps.htm

38. Jesus & His Passion
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/JESUS.html
or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/JESUS.wps.htm

39. Christianity
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/christianity.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/christianity.wps.htm

40. Atlantis: the "Lost Continent"
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/atlantis.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/atlantis.wps.htm

41. Who was Geoffrey of Monmouth's Brutus?
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/brutus.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/brutus.wps.htm

42. The Mamikonids [genealogy]
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/mamikonids.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/mamikonids.wps.htm

43. Complete list of British Monarchs
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/british_monarchs.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/british_monarchs.wps.htm

44. The Habsburg Dynasty's origin
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/hapsburgs.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/hapsburgs.wps.htm

45. Carolingian Dynasty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/carolingians.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/carolingians.wps.htm

46. Early Kings & later Dukes of Brittany, now the French province of Bretagne
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/brittany.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/brittany.wps.htm

47. Tamar-Tephi [&, a Jewish kingdom in Ancient Ireland]
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/Tamar-Tephi.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/Tamar-Tephi.wps.htm

48. House of Dracula
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/dracula.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/dracula.wps.htm

49. Various Royal Families which have Inherited England's throne
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/royal_houses.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/royal_houses.wps.htm

50. Descent of Emperors of India to Kings of Britain
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/india2britain.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/india2britain.wps.htm

51. Descent-line from Turkish Khans to British Kings
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/turkey2europe.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/turkey2europe.wps.htm

52. Descent of Chinese Empress Wu to Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, etc
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/china2britain.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/china2britain.wps.htm

53. Regnal-list & Genealogy of the Indo-Greek Kings of Bactria
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/bactria.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/bactria.wps.htm

54. Descent from Russian Royalty to British Royalty
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/russia2britain.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/russia2britain.wps.htm

55. The Maccabee Dynasty, House of Judas Maccabeus
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/maccabee.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/maccabee.wps.htm

56. The Herodians, House of Herod The Great
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/herodians.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/herodians.wps.htm

57. The Aaronic High-Priests of Israel & Judah/Judea
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/highpriests.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/highpriests.wps.htm

58. Kings of Pontus, list & genealogy
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/pontus.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/pontus.wps.htm

59. Kings of Thrace, genealogy
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/thrace.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/thrace.wps.htm

60. Kings of Bosphore, now Ukraine
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/bosphore.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/bosphore.wps.htm

61. Tamerlane & the Tartars
http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/tamerlane.html

or mirror site
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/tamerlane.wps.htm

David Hughes,

RdavidH218@AOL.com,

Genealogical charts available upon request; Comments Welcome
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note: FORTHCOMING BOOK!, "BRITISH CHRONICLES"
See Table of Contents at

http://www.members.aol.com/rdavidh218/britishroyalty.htm
or mirror site

http://www.angelfire.com/ego/et_deo/britishroyalty.wps.htm

------------------------------------------------

Message from BibleSearchers

BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest. Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel. In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

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