Instead of granting a general armistice and thus conciliating his distracted people, he treacherously used his new-won power to crucify publicly eight hundred of the Pharisees.  Horror and fear seized the survivors, so that, according to Josephus, eight thousand of them fled into exile.  After six years of civil war and the loss of fifty thousand lives, Alexander Janneus finally realized his first ambition and became absolute master of his kingdom.  In achieving his ambitions, however, he well earned the title by which his contemporaries described him, “the Son of a Thracian,” that is, Barbarian.

II.  The Effects of His Rule.  The disastrous effects of the reign of Alexander Janneus may be briefly recapitulated.  They were:  (1) the destruction of the loyalty of the majority of the Jews to the Maccabean house; (2) the intensifying of the opposition between Pharisees and Sadducees to the point of murderous hate; (3) the extension of the sphere of Jewish influence from the Mediterranean on the west to the desert on the east, and from the Lebanons to the southern desert; but (4) the draining of the life-blood and energies of the Jewish kingdom, so that it was far weaker and more disorganized than when Janneus came to the throne.

III.  Alexandra’s Reign (78-69 B.C.).  Alexandra was the second queen who reigned in Israel’s history.  Her policy, unlike that of Athaliah of old, was on the whole constructive.  Although she was the wife of Janneus, she reversed his policy, and placed the Pharisees in control.  The return of the exiles and the restoration of the prophetic party promised peace and prosperity.  The ancient law was expanded and rigorously enforced.  According to the Talmud it was during this period that elementary schools were introduced in connection with each synagogue.  Their exact nature is not known, but it is probable that the law was the subject studied and that the scribes were the teachers.  This change of policy was undoubtedly very acceptable to the people, but the Pharisees made the grave mistake of using their new power to be revenged upon the Sadducean nobles who had supported the bloody policy of Alexander Janneus.  They soon suffered the evil consequences of attempting to right wrong by wrong.  The Sadducees found in Aristobulus, the ambitious and energetic younger son of Janneus, an effective champion.  Alexandra, in permitting them to take possession of the many strongholds throughout the land, also committed a fatal error, for it gave them control of the military resources of the kingdom.  Aristobulus was not slow in asserting his power, with the result that even before Alexandra died he had seized seventy-two of the fortresses and had aroused a large part of the people to revolt.  While her reign was on the whole peaceful, it was but the lull before the great storm that swept over the nation.