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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ANTIGONUS*

Name of three Greek kings and two Hasmonean (Jewish) kings in the intertestamental period.

1. Antigonus I, also called Cyclops, the “one-eyed” (in Greek, Monophthalmus). Born in 382 BC, he served under Alexander the Great and became provincial governor of Phrygia in 333 BC. After Alexander’s death in 323 BC, Antigonus spent most of his life battling various coalitions of the four generals who inherited Alexander’s empire (cf. Dn 8:8; 11:3-4). Antigonus dreamed of uniting what had been the Alexandrian Empire, but Cassander (who ruled Macedonia), Lysimachus (who ruled Thrace and Asia Minor), Seleucus (who ruled Syria), and Ptolemy (who ruled Egypt) had the same aspirations. Antigonus was a brilliant military strategist and amassed considerable territory including much of Cassander’s inheritance and the island of Cyprus. He lived to be 80 years old and was the founder of the Antigonid dynasty, to which the next two Antigonuses belonged.

2. Antigonus II (Gonatas). Born in 319 BC, he was a son of Demetrius I Poliorcetes and grandson of Antigonus I. His major achievement was to rout the Seleucid ruler Antiochus I from Syria and so eliminate any threat to his own rule over Macedonia (northern Greece). This Antigonus also lived to be 80.

3. Antigonus III, born to Demetrius the Fair in 263 BC and thus a half nephew of Antigonus II. He maintained the Antigonid dynasty and held Greece together through the Hellenic League (224 BC) against various efforts to dissolve its united parts.

4. Antigonus (135–104 BC), son of John Hyrcanus. His grandfather was Simeon and his great-grandfather Mattathias; therefore he was a grandnephew of the famous Jewish military leader Judas Maccabeus. The glory of the Hasmonean dynasty had faded before this Antigonus came on the scene. The dynasty deteriorated rapidly, virtually destroying itself with internal strife and mutual suspicion.

5. Antigonus II (Mattathias), last of the Hasmoneans, and a nephew of the above. Son of Aristobulus II, this Antigonus spent a good part of his life in Rome trying to convince Julius Caesar that he (Antigonus) rather than Antipater II should rule Judea. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, Antigonus made his way eastward and in the year 40 BC established a precarious and short-lived rule in Jerusalem. The routed King Herod eventually gathered enough Roman support to retake what Antigonus had conquered, and three years later Antigonus was beheaded by Mark Antony, the new Roman emperor.