A picture of the Hasmoneans would not be complete if we ignored those sources which speak about the prevailing feeling among Judea's society toward its rulers. Such sources offer an opportunity to confront the scathing denunciation of the Hasmoneans in texts written by their religious opponents with attitudes of those social groups on which rested the Hasmoneans power. The weakness of such records is that the events in which we are interested are shown in them from a distant, more than a century-long perspective, and that they all came from a single author, Josephus, who proudly emphasized his blood relation to his protagonists (cf. Jos. Vita 2–6). Thus his objectivity is called to question. Yet with no alternative source extant, we are confined to his account.

Before we proceed with an analysis of information supplied by Josephus, a reservation must be made that facts about the Hasmonean rule over Judea, known and confirmed by various sources, question the truth of such a picture of realities as sometimes emanates from texts by different authors subscribing to specific religious sympathies. Such writings are most often filled with highly emotional judgments about events described, the picture of events they convey being deformed to suit the authors' convictions. When they surfaced, researchers of the history of Hasmonean Judea found themselves in a peculiar position.