The Hasideans (“Pious Ones”)

The term “Hasideans” is an English transliteration of the Greek term Ασιδαῖοι (Asidaioi), itself a transliteration of the Hebrew term חסידים (chsydym, “pious ones”). In the Maccabees’ struggle against Antiochus IV, members of the “Hasidaean party, stout fighting men of Israel, each one a volunteer on the side of the Law” (1 Macc 2:42, NJB), joined Judas and his warriors. Later, in 1 Macc 7:12–13, members of this same group “presented themselves before Alcimus and Bacchides, to sue for just terms. The first among the Israelites to ask them for peace terms were the Hasideans” (NJB).

Scholars disagree as to their identity. Some consider the Hasideans a distinct party and a major impetus behind apocalypticism (see below), whose offspring include the Pharisees and Essenes (Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism, 169, 174). Others affirm that the group were nothing more than a generally indistinct group of pious individuals (Grabbe, Greeks, 466–67). However, the fact that the authors of 1–2 Maccabees treat the term Hasidean as a proper name and not just an adjective (“pious ones”) suggests that they were in fact a distinct group (Kampen, “Hasideans,” 704). Although direct connections between them and groups such as the Pharisees and the Essenes cannot be established with certainty, the origins of the latter two groups can likely be traced to this time period (Deines, “Pharisees,” 1061–62).