Rotem Avneri Meir, “The Emergence of the Hasmonean Dynasty on the Margins of the Seleukid Empire” (PhD diss., University of Helsinki, 2023).... Was imperial rule indeed so antithetical to local agency, or was it in fact a facilitating factor in the formation and consolidation of local elite identities? Did the Hasmoneans and their supporters really espouse such an anti-imperial political theology as is often associated with them? What would change in our understanding of emerging Judaism and the Jewish political imagination if we were to reimagine the Hasmonean period without such a heavy emphasis on Jewish national and religious identity in opposition to empire? These are the questions that guided me in my dissertation, in which I revisit the emergence of the Hasmonean dynasty on the margins of the Seleukid empire. ...
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.