In a vivid scene from the Second Book of Maccabees, priests abandon their duties at the Temple to rush to the gymnasion, joining wrestling matches and discus throwing in full nudity.
In the second century BCE, under the Seleucid Empire, founded by King Seleucus I, a Hellenized high priest named Jason (originally Yehoshua or Yeshua) spearheaded reforms, culminating in the establishment of a gymnasion in Jerusalem, infuriating traditional Jews.
Kaufman explained that the gymnasion was a central institution in the Greek polis, or city-state, where training was a prerequisite for citizenship. The gymnasion’s presence in Jerusalem raised broader questions about why Jews have historically excelled less in sports compared to other fields and why some Orthodox rabbis remain wary of professional athletics.
During the Second Temple period, full Jewish sovereignty was absent despite the Temple’s existence. The First Book of Maccabees attributes the gymnasion’s construction to “people from the nation” who built it “according to the customs of the Gentiles.”
The Second and Fourth Books of Maccabees credit Jason, who advanced Hellenistic reforms without engaging in idolatry. The Second Book of Maccabees describes the gymnasion negatively, noting that priests neglected altar duties, disregarded the sacred and rushed to unlawful exercises like wrestling and discus, valuing Greek ways over ancestral traditions.
The First Book of Maccabees notes that some Jews at the gymnasion “stretched their foreskins” to conceal circumcision, embarrassed by it in a culture where damaging the body was sacrilege. “Circumcision looked odd in a setting of nudity,” Kaufman explained.
Dr. Hanan Birenboim, a history lecturer at Herzog Academic College, added that the gymnasion was seen as the pinnacle of Hellenization. “It was a temple to the human, worshipping man, while the Temple worshipped God,” he said.
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Passing of the Olympic flame at the Olypmic Games
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“This clash between Greek humanism and Jewish theocentrism was more threatening than mere idolatry.” Most Jews then lived outside Judea, which operated as an autonomous region under the high priest.
“Jason represented a progressive Judaism, open to foreign influences without adopting idolatry,” Kaufman noted. “It was about turning Jerusalem into a polis, not worshipping pagan gods.”
Jewish sages historically expressed reservations about Greek and Roman physical culture but not necessarily sports itself. “In the sages’ time, sports were inseparable from their cultural baggage,” Birenboim said.
“They rejected this culture, perhaps discarding the baby with the bathwater. Unlike today’s neutral gyms, sports then were tied to a broader cultural framework.” Roman sports, like gladiator fights and chariot races, were violent, clashing with Jewish values, yet bathhouses, a Roman institution, were embraced. “Jewish sages said a scholar shouldn’t live in a city without a bathhouse,” Birenboim noted.
Kaufman pointed out that later Jewish sources show familiarity with Greek physical culture, debating, for instance, whether applying oil before wrestling was permissible on Shabbat. The Rambam championed exercise and physical well-being as part of human perfection.
However, conservative Jewish circles retain a lingering unease with sports, tied to its historical association with Hellenization. “This trauma spans 2,000 years,” Kaufman said.
“Sports can evoke fears of returning to that Hellenistic Jerusalem with its gymnasion. Judaism and nudity never meshed, and an institution centered on nudity wasn’t a Jewish value. Yet, opposition to sports isn’t inherent to Judaism.”
By the Hasmonean period, the gymnasion vanished from Judea. Though the Hasmoneans fought Greeks and Hellenized Jews, they adopted Greek names but never rebuilt a gymnasion.
Under King Herod in the first century BCE, a hippodrome for chariot races was constructed, its remnants visible today in Caesarea. The gymnasion episode in Jerusalem, though distant, marked a pivotal moment shaping Jewish attitudes toward sports for generations.
