Tobiads

The Tobiads were a Jewish faction in Ammon at the beginning of the Maccabean period. They were phil-Hellene, in other words supporters of the Hellenistic tendencies in Judaism in the early years of the 2nd century BCE.

Accounts

What is known is as a combination of statements of Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews xii. 160-236) and of 2 Maccabees iii. 11. There are two accounts, both legendary, the hero of the one being Joseph, and of the other, Hyrcanus.

Critical views

Büchler's researches probably established the historicity of the account of the Tobiads. 1 Maccabees makes no mention of these events. The quarrels were factional ones, the issue being whether the old and popular government of the Ptolemies should continue, or whether the Jews should deliver themselves over to the Syrian kings and their Hellenization.

When Jason and Menelaus struggled for the dominant power in Jerusalem, which was, according to Büchler, political office (the προστασία [prostasia] mentioned in the account of the Tobiads), and no longer the high priesthood, the sons of Tobias (Τωβίου παῖδες) [Tobiou paides] took sides with Menelaus