Hasidaeans
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [1]
HASIDÆANS (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Assideans ; Heb. chasîdîm , ‘the Pious’). A group of religionists in Judæa ( 1Ma 2:42 ) to be distinguished from the priestly party who had come under the influence of Hellenism. The Hasidæans were devoted to the Law, and refused to compromise in any way with the Hellenizing policy enforced by Antiochus iv. They furnished the martyrs of the persecution under that monarch. Strictly speaking, they were not a political party, and probably lived in the smaller Jewish towns, as well as in Jerusalem. They joined with Mattathias in his revolt against the Syrians, but were not interested in the political outcome of the struggle, except as it gave them the right to worship Jehovah according to the Torah. After Judas had cleansed the Temple, they separated themselves from the Hasmonæan or Maccabæan party, and united with them only temporarily, when they found that under Alcimus the Temple worship was again threatened. Their defection from Judas was largely the cause of his downfall.
Although their precise relation to the Scribal movement cannot be stated, because of lack of data, it is clear that the Hasidæans must have included all the orthodox scribes and were devotees to the growing Oral Law. They were thus the forerunners of the Pharisees and probably of the Essenes, which latter party, although differing from them in rejecting animal sacrifice, probably preserved their name. Both the Pharisees and the Essenes represented a further development of views and practices which the Hasidæans embodied in germ.
Shailer Mathews.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]
has - i - dē´anz ( Ἁσιδαῖοι , Hasidaı́oi , a transliteration of ḥăṣı̄dhı̄m , "the pious," "Puritans"): A name assumed by the orthodox Jews ( 1 Maccabees 2:42; 7:13 ) to distinguish them from the Hellenizing faction described in the Maccabean books as the "impious," the "lawless," the "transgressors." They held perhaps narrow but strict and seriously honest views in religion, and recognized Judas Maccabeus as their leader ( 2 Maccabees 14:6 ). They existed as a party before the days of the Maccabees, standing on the ancient ways, caring little for politics, and having small sympathy with merely national aspirations, except when affecting religion ( 1 Maccabees 1:63; 2 Maccabees 6:18 ff; Judith 12:2; Ant , Xiv , iv, 3). Their coöperation with Judas went only to the length of securing the right to follow their own religious practices. When Bacchides came against Jerusalem, they were quite willing to make peace because Alcimus, "a priest of the seed of Aaron," was in his company. Him they accepted as high priest, though sixty of them soon fell by his treachery ( 1 Maccabees 7:13 ). Their desertion of Judas was largely the cause of his downfall.
