JASON (JESHUA or JESUS):

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Isaac Broydé, Richard Gottheil, Samuel Krauss

• 1. High priest from 174 to 171 B.C.; brother of the high priest Onias III. During the absence of Onias, who had been summoned to Antioch to meet charges brought against him by the Hellenists, Jason joined hands with his brother’s enemies. Through the payment of large sums he obtained from Antiochus the transfer of the high-priesthood, permission to erect at Jerusalem a gymnasium and an ephebeum, and the grant to the inhabitants of Jerusalem of the privileges and title of citizens of Antioch; for the latter favor alone he paid 150 talents.During the three years of Jason’s administration the influences of Hellenism in Judea reached their climax. In his desire to pass for a Hellene Jason went so far as to send representatives to a duplication of the Olympian games celebrated in the presence of Antiochus at Tyre, and presented 300 drachmasfor a sacrifice to Hercules, to whom the games were dedicated. But notwithstanding his zeal Jason was deposed at the end of the third year, having been outbid by Menelaus, supported by the Tobiads. Jason, however, did not consider himself defeated; profiting by the absence of Antiochus Epiphanes, then engaged in a war with Egypt, and backed by the majority of the inhabitants, he rendered himself master of the city, and compelled his adversary to seek refuge in the fortress. Jason’s triumph was short-lived. Antiochus, forced by the Romans to abandon his campaign against Egypt, seized the opportunity afforded by Jason’s uprising to march against Jerusalem. When the city was taken Jason fled to the Ammonites, among whom he remained until his death.

Within twenty years, after the Seleucid dynasty was dislodged, the Hasmonean family emerged as priest-kings or king-priests despite having no connection to the Zadok family nor the royal line of David. That was irksome to the pharisees who likely still had keen interest in the high priesthood. It was the Romans who reeled in the Hasmonean influence in Judea.

It’s plain to see it was a steady slide down and deeper, too,  for the chosen people after the covenant was broken and withdrawn. The crucifixion and death of their Last Offer opened their door to an   influencer they could finally embrace…

From    https://revelationbyjesuschrist.com/stoning-of-stephen/

…Conclusions

God’s Appeal

Never before or after in the history of mankind has God appealed for the corporate heart of any nation like He did, firstly, during the 3½ years of Christ’s personal ministry on earth and, secondly, during the 2 to 4 years after He died when He sent the Holy Spirit with power, but only to the Jews.

The end of the covenant

Since the gospel went TO JEWS ONLY during the first few years after the Cross, God’s covenant with Israel did not come to an end when Jesus died. After He died, Israel, as a nation, still had one final opportunity to repent.

Since God, after Stephen’s death and after the persecution of the Christians (Acts 7; 8:1), suddenly redirected the gospel away from the Jews to all people, two to four years after the Cross, that must have been the end of the covenant. At that time, “the kingdom of God” was taken away from the Jews (Matt 21:43). For a further discussion, see, Who is Israel in Revelation?

By killing God’s Spirit-filled disciples, Judaism rejected the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 6:8-13). It seems appropriate that Israel would terminate the covenant with the rejection of the Holy Spirit, just as they killed Jesus a few years earlier…

…with Stephen’s stoning, that influencer was invited in.

The last Hasmonean priest was murdered by a Herod the Great assassin after Judea was gifted to Herod as a client kingdom by Caesar Augustus.

From the start of Herod’s reign until the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. the office of high priest was a political appointment thus tainting for the viewing public any public display of piety with varying degrees of hypocrisy.

From  https://www.jewishhistory.org/the-beginnings-of-the-talmud/

Rabbi Judah the Prince marks the end of a period known as the era of the Tannaim, which lasted approximately until 200 CE. A Tanna (pl. Tannaim) is one who mastered, taught and engaged in the study of the Mishnah and its attendant works. The ensuing period — from 200 CE until about 550 CE — is called in Jewish history the Era of the Amoraim. The Amoraim were the ones who elaborated upon the Mishnah and whose discussions fill the pages of the Talmud. One could say that the Talmud is a transcription of lectures, conversations, discussions and stories that occurred in the academies during those 350 years.