In Search of the Promised Land?

Katell Berthelot challenges the widespread historiographical consensus that the Hasmoneans embarked on wars of conquest in order to reconquer the Promised Land, the Biblical Land of Israel. She shows that the sources used in support of this consensus – such as 1 Maccabees 15:33–35 – have been over-interpreted. She suggests a different approach to this question. In particular, she argues that in 1 ...