Josippon

During his reign, he waged war against the nation of Makedon and smote them in a major defeat and subdued the nation of Makedon with rigor until Alexandros (Alexander), son of Philip, was made king: he exalted the name of the nation of Makedon, conquering all the lands of the East until the end of the earth. When the nation of Makedon was stirred up against the kingdom of Persia, Alexander went forth from Makedonia with a strong army and met Darius in battle and smote all of the nations who had a treaty with Darius; he conquered the land of Egypt and the land of Aram, advanced along the seacoast and conquered Acco (Acre), Ashkelon, and Gaza; then he decided to go up to Jerusalem to conquer it, for it had a treaty with Darius. He advanced with his army from Gaza until he came to an encampment and camped there with his entire army.

That night, while he was lying in bed inside the tent, he raised his eyes and saw a man standing before him dressed in linen, his sword unsheathed in his hand—the sword's appearance was like lightning that flashes on a rainy day—and he raised his sword over the head of the king. The king was very frightened and said: "Why should my lord smite his servant?" The man said: "Because God sent me to conquer great kings and many peoples for you: I am the one who goes before you to assist you. But know that you shall surely die because you dared to go up to Jerusalem to do harm to God's priests and His people." The king said: "Pray, please forgive the sin of your servant, my lord. If it displeases you, I will return." Then the man said to him: "Fear not, I will show favor to you! Continue your way to Jerusalem, and when you arrive before the gate of Jerusalem and you see a man dressed in linen like me, and the man has my form and likeness, hasten to fall upon your face and prostrate yourself before the man. Everything he says unto you, do it and do not disobey his command, for on the day that you disobey him, you shall surely die." The king rose and continued his way to Jerusalem.

When the priest heard that King Alexander was approaching Jerusalem in anger, the priest was very afraid, along with all the people of Jerusalem; they cried out unto God and decreed a fast. After the fast, the Jews went out to greet him, to beseech him not to smite the city. The priest went out from the gate, he and all the people and all the priests, and the high priest stood before them dressed in linen. When King Alexander saw the priest, he hastened to get off his chariot and fell upon his face and prostrated himself before the priest and begged his peace. Now the kings, servants of Alexander, were angry and said to him: "Why do you bow down to a man who has no power for war?" And the king said to his servants, the kings: "Because the likeness and form of the man who walks before me, subduing all the nations to me, are like those of this man to whom I have bowed down."

Following this, the priest and King Alexander came to the Temple of our God; the priest showed him the Sanctuary and the House of God, its courtyard, its archives, its halls, and the place of the Holy of Holies, the place of the slaughtering, and the place of the sacrifice. The king said: "Blessed be the God of this House, for since I have learned that He is the Lord of all and His rule is over everything and the life of every living thing is in His hand to put to death or to make live: happy are you His servants who serve him in this place. Now I will make a memorial for myself here and give craftsmen much gold to build my image and place it between the Holy of Holies and the House and may my statue be a remembrance in the House of this great God." The priest said to the king: "The gold that your lips offered, give it to sustain the priests of God and the poor of His people who come to worship Him in this House. I will make for you a better memorial than you spoke: all the children born to priests in this year throughout the land of Judah and throughout the territory of Jerusalem will be called by your name, 'Alexander.' That will be a remembrance for you when they come to perform their service in this House, for we do not accept in this house any statue or picture." The king heeded his words and gave much gold to the House of God, and unto the priest he gave great presents.

The king asked the priest to inquire of God on his behalf whether he should go to war against Darius or cease from war. The priest said to him: "Go, for surely he has been given into your hand." He brought before him the Book of Daniel and showed him the writing within it concerning the ram that butts against every wind and concerning the he-goat that ran to the ram and trampled it to the ground. He said: "You are the he-goat, and Darius is the ram; you will trample him and take his kingdom from his hand." The priest thus strengthened him to go against Darius. Alexander wrote letters according to the vision that he saw and what the priest said to him, and he sent them to Makedonia and to Rome.

Alexander left Jerusalem to go to war against Darius, and he passed by the Ammonites. Sanballat the Horonite went out to greet him and prostrated himself before the king; he received him in his house and made a banquet for him and all his chiefs and gave him much silver and gold. Then he asked his permission to build a sanctuary on Mount Gerizim for Menasseh the priest, his son-in-law who had married the daughter of Sanballat—he was the brother of Iddo, the high priest in Jerusalem—for Menasseh was unwilling to banish his wife from his house, as had his brothers, who banished their foreign wives. Thereupon the community of Hasidim removed him from serving as priest in Jerusalem; so he went with his wife to Sanballat, his father-in-law, and lived with him. For this reason, Sanballat asked the king to build a sanctuary on Mount Gerizim so that his son-in-law might be priest there. Whereupon the king said to him: "Build the sanctuary that you requested, only beware lest it become a snare for the priest who is in Jerusalem." Then the king went on his way to wage war on Darius, and Sanballat built the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim. He said to Menasseh, his son-in-law: "Here is a temple for you as it is written in your Torah: 'And you shall give the blessing on Mount Gerizim.'" So Menasseh, brother of Iddo, became priest on Mount Gerizim. This sanctuary became a stumbling block and an obstacle, a snare, and a trap for the Sanctuary of God in Jerusalem and for its priests, for many of the evil men of our people went to Mount Gerizim annually to celebrate their festival according to their tithes and contributions and sacrifices and abandoned the Temple of God in Jerusalem. So, this sanctuary became exceedingly wealthy for many years, until the reign of Horkanus, son of Shimon the Hasmonean, who destroyed this temple and returned the entire rite to the Sanctuary of our God in Jerusalem. This was the Hyrcanus who circumcised Edom and brought them into the covenant and shackled them in the chains of circumcision.

Meanwhile, Alexander had gone to war against Darius, and Darius went out to confront him with a strong army. A great battle broke out between Persia and Makedon, and the entire army of Persia with Darius, their king, fell in one day, and Alexander captured the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. Wherever he turned, he acted harshly: he conquered all the East and opened all the mysteries of India and came unto the Mountains of Darkness and went unto the end of the entire earth and ruled over the whole East unto the Pillars of Eracleos (Hercules) and unto the Sea of Asphalt, ruling over all the nations just as a shepherd rules over his flock. He was in the East, and knowing the day of his death, he divided the entire earth among four leaders of his tribe: these are the Troiani (Trojans), four shoots of Yavan (Greece); he made them sovereigns throughout his realm, and they became four kings. These were the four heads of a leopard that devoured the people of Judah. Were it not for the mercy of our God who stood in the breach and stirred up his priests, then the memory of Judah would have been lost from upon the earth. Alexander divided the land among them, and he enclosed all the northern tribes with iron bolts and a very strong construction from sea to sea so that they could not get out and cause destruction in the lands of his realm. Alexander died in the East, and these four leaders ruled the whole world.