Antigonus of Sokho
250 BCE–200 BCE · Zugot · Jerusalem
Antigonus of Sokho was a Jewish sage who lived in Jerusalem during the pre-Tannaitic period, likely in the 3rd century BCE. He is remembered as a link in the chain of Jewish tradition (Pirkei Avot 1:3–4), receiving teachings from Simeon the Righteous and transmitting them to Yose ben Yoezer of Tzereida and Yose ben Yochanan of Jerusalem. According to rabbinic tradition, his name became associated with the Sadducees (Tzedokim), though the historical connection remains debated by scholars. Antigonus is primarily known through brief mentions in early rabbinic literature rather than through detailed biographical accounts.
אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשים את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס“Do not be like servants who serve their master in order to receive a reward”
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JerusalemירושליםJudea
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
Jerusalem in this era
Jerusalem in the Zugot era was a city perpetually caught between empires, its Jewish identity sharpened by the very pressures that threatened it. After Alexander's conquest, Hellenistic culture flooded the Mediterranean world, and Jerusalem's elite adopted Greek dress and ideas, while the majority of Jews held fiercely to Torah and tradition—a tension that would ignite the Maccabean revolt in 167 BCE and establish the independent Hasmonean kingdom. By the time Rome's Pompey marched in (63 BCE), Jerusalem was fractured between Hellenizers and pietists, and later, Herod the Great—a client king of Rome—rebuilt the Temple into a wonder of the ancient world even as he terrorized the populace. It was in this fervent, dangerous atmosphere that two towering sages, Hillel and Shammai, debated the law in the Temple courtyards and in the emerging beit midrash, each founding a school of interpretation that would define Jewish learning for centuries. The city's marketplaces throbbed with merchants and pilgrims; its Temple remained the spiritual heart of the diaspora, drawing Jews from across the empire for the great festivals.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Antigonus of Sokho’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Antigonus of Sokho’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.