The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

HENGEL The Scriptures in Second Temple Judaism 167
rejects the commandments of the Torah, must not the laity step into
the breach and take over the exegetical task? The crisis which soon
follows shows that trust in the presence of salvation in the cult and in
the traditional action-consequence rule, broke down with the desecration
of the Temple and the bloody persecution. New answers had to be
found whereby prophetic preaching of the coming of God's kingdom
would be of central importance.
5. The Chasidim in Maccabean Times and the Book of Daniel
The royal decrees for the abolition of the law, brought in by the high
priest Menachem and his friends, were also against the possession and
the use of the holy scriptures:
The books of the law... they tore to pieces and burned with fire. Where
the book of the covenant was found in the possession of any one... the
decree of the king condemned him to death. 12
Mattathias demanded the reverse with the call:
Let everyone who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come
out with me! 13
The 'congregation of the Chasidim' who follow Mattathias are 'all
devoted to the law' (1 Mace. 2.42).
We find their scribes as the nucleus of religious opposition in
1 Mace. 7.12ff: They gather and meet with the new high priest
Alkimos in Jerusalem in order to seek what is lawful. An explanation
is given:
The Chasidim were the first who sought... peace. A priest of the line of
Aaron... has come, and he will not harm us.
In their total devotion to the Torah they were satisfied that the new
high priest was a legitimate descendent of Aaron.
We find these Chasidic scribes in Daniel 11 and 12 14 where the
maskilim are mentioned who, as teachers and exegetes, 'inform' many
among the people and 'lead them to justice' and who suffer persecution
because of their actions.
12. 1 Mace. 1.56-57; cf. Josephus Ant. 12.256.
13. 1 Mace. 2.27; cf. M. Hengel, The Zealots (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1989), pp. 151-52.
14. Dan. 12.33, 35; 12.3, 10.