Antiquities of the Jews, fit the fifteenth

[lethargic_man]

In a famous story, when Alexander the Great came to Jerusalem (which the non-Jewish histories do not mention him as doing), the Jews, led by Shim`on the Righteous, opened the city's gates to him as a liberator; and they got on famously until Alexander demanded the Jews put up a statue of him in the Temple. For a while things looked bad, until someone came up with a compromise whereby the Jews would name male children born that year Alexander; and, because Jews name their children after deceased relatives, the name and glory of Alexander would thus be transmitted down through the ages—and, indeed, Alexander is my father middle Hebrew name.

In Josephus, however (XI.8.325), it's not Shim`on the Righteous who meets Alexander, but aforementioned Jaddua, the High Priest in the time of Nehemiah. Shim`on the Righteous will be his grandson (XII.2.43), but only gets a brief mention in Josephus, which is disappointing, because he's an important person in rabbinic history:

Avot 1:1	אבות א א
Moses received the Torah from Sinai, and passed it on to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets; the prophets passed it on to the Men of the Great Assembly. [...] Shim`on the Righteous was one of the last of the Great Assembly; he said the world depends on three things: on Torah, on work and on doing good deeds.	משה קבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע ויהושע לזקנים וזקנים לנביאים ונביאים מסרוה לאנשי כנסת הגדולה׃ [...] שמעון הצדיק היה משירי כנסת הגדולה׃ הוא היה אומר על שלשה דברים העולם עומד על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים׃
[And so on through all the other leaders of each generation down to rabbinic times.]

Josephus's account has rather more narrative tension:

When [Alexander] had obtained Sidon, he besieged Tyre, when he sent an epistle to the Jewish high priest, to send him some auxiliaries, and to supply his army with provisions; and that what presents he formerly sent to Darius, he would now send to him, and choose the friendship of the Macedonians, and that he should never repent of so doing. But the high priest answered the messengers, that he had given his oath to Darius not to bear arms against him; and he said that he would not transgress this while Darius was in the land of the living. Upon hearing this answer, Alexander was very angry; and though he determined not to leave Tyre, which was just ready to be taken, yet as soon as he had taken it, he threatened that he would make an expedition against the Jewish high priest, and through him teach all men to whom they must keep their oaths. So when he had, with a good deal of pains during the siege, taken Tyre, and had settled its affairs, he came to the city of Gaza, and besieged both the city and him that was governor of the garrison, whose name was Babemeses.

But Sanballat thought he had now gotten a proper opportunity to make his attempt, so he renounced Darius, and taking with him seven thousand of his own subjects, he came to Alexander; and finding him beginning the siege of Tyre, he said to him, that he delivered up to him these men, who came out of places under his dominion, and did gladly accept of him for his lord instead of Darius. So when Alexander had received him kindly, Sanballat thereupon took courage, and spake to him about his present affair. He told him that he had a son-in-law, Manasseh, who was brother to the high priest Jaddua; and that there were many others of his own nation, now with him, that were desirous to have a temple in the places subject to him; that it would be for the king's advantage to have the strength of the Jews divided into two parts, lest when the nation is of one mind, and united, upon any attempt for innovation, it prove troublesome to kings, as it had formerly proved to the kings of Assyria. Whereupon Alexander gave Sanballat leave so to do, who used the utmost diligence, and built the temple, and made Manasseh the priest, and deemed it a great reward that his daughter's children should have that dignity; but when the seven months of the siege of Tyre were over, and the two months of the siege of Gaza, Sanballat died.

Now Alexander, when he had taken Gaza, made haste to go up to Jerusalem; and Jaddua the high priest, when he heard that, was in an agony, and under terror, as not knowing how he should meet the Macedonians, since the king was displeased at his foregoing disobedience. He therefore ordained that the people should make supplications, and should join with him in offering sacrifice to God, whom he besought to protect that nation, and to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon them; whereupon God warned him in a dream, which came upon him after he had offered sacrifice, that he should take courage, and adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear in white garments, but that he and the priests should meet the king in the habits proper to their order, without the dread of any ill consequences, which the providence of God would prevent. Upon which, when he rose from his sleep, he greatly rejoiced, and declared to all the warning he had received from God. According to which dream he acted entirely, and so waited for the coming of the king.

Despite Jaddua's "agony and terror", everything turns out well in the end, as G-d had also shown Alexander Jaddua in a dream, who "exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would give me the dominion over the Persians."

[Please comment at my collected Book XI notes post, on Dreamwidth for preference, or on LiveJournal.]

Josephus notes