Maccabees
MaccabeesThe name Maccabee, probably meaning ‘the hammer’, was the appellation of Judas son of Mattathias, leader of the Judaean Revolt of 168/7 BC against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. See Jews; Seleucids. The name was given also to Judas' fellow rebels, his father and his four brothers. They were the leaders of the traditionalists, reacting against a process of Hellenization in Jerusalem masterminded by a section of the Jewish aristocracy (see Hellenism and Hellenization). The high priesthood was usurped by Jason, a member of the Oniad clan, from his brother Menelaus. But the ultimate provocation to the Maccabees was the king's installation of a garrison in the city and a pagan cult in the Temple, and his consequent attempt to suppress Judaism on a wide front. After Mattathias' public killing of an apostate Jew in the act of sacrifice, the Maccabees took to the hills to...
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