Our knowledge about Judean society under the Hasmoneans is very limited. Little is known about its structure, relations between respective social groups, or their political and religious attitudes. Authors of sources did not devote too much attention to social issues, unless they felt it necessary to provide a brief outline as a backdrop of events they were describing. This being so, a generalized description of Judean society in the Hasmonean period must be based on the few mentions in sources and on conclusions drawn from interpreting archaeological evidence. Any attempts to use for this purpose information dating from a later period must be considered doomed to fail since such information applies to different political and social realities.

Social realities in Judea and Jerusalem after 63, especially during Herod's reign, had changed since Hasmonean times, largely due to the political and social structure of the Hasmonean state having been upset by Pompey and Gabinius, to constant Roman presence in Judea, and to political changes introduced by Herod. Those transformations went side by side with entirely new occurrences in religious life. With all those elements of the new reality, our knowledge about Judean society at the time is of little help in answering questions about the preceding period.

It should be stressed that Judeans' social attitudes in the Hasmonean period were formed by an awareness of having their own nation state which was governed by a native dynasty. Even if satisfaction with the Hasmonean governance was not always widespread, the memory of their ancestors' struggle for Judea's political and religious freedom was not without effect on attitudes in at least some groups of society. Another factor affecting popular attitudes was the outcomes of the policies the dynasty implemented.