Who were the Maccabees?

The Maccabees were a priestly Jewish family who spearheaded a successful revolt against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV and rededicated the desecrated Temple of Jerusalem . The resistance was sparked when Mattathias, a priest, killed a Jew preparing to sacrifice to foreign gods and a king's officer. After Mattathias's death, his son Judas Maccabeus took over, leading the Jews to victory against the Syrian Greeks. Three years after Antiochus IV's desecration, Judas captured, cleansed, and rededicated the Temple, initiating the annual eight-day Hanukkah festival. The family then established the Hasmonean dynasty .

Why were the Maccabees important in Jewish history?

The Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family, led a successful revolt against Seleucid rule in the 2nd century BCE. This was sparked by Antiochus IV Epiphanes 's efforts to Hellenize the Jews and desecrate the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Under Mattathias and his son Judas Maccabeus (died c. 161 BCE), the Maccabees fought to defend their religious beliefs, reconsecrating the defiled Temple. The annual celebration of Hanukkah commemorates these events, as well as the rededication of the Temple on Kislev 25, 164 BCE.

What did the Maccabees do to resist foreign rule?

The Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family, spearheaded a successful revolt against Seleucid rule in the 2nd century BCE. The revolt began after Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to impose Hellenism on Judaea, which included banning Jewish religious practices and desecrating the Temple of Jerusalem. Under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, the Maccabees used guerrilla warfare to fight the Seleucid forces. Their resistance included attacking those who cooperated with the Seleucids, and they fought battles with the faith that they were divinely appointed. After multiple victories, they reclaimed and purified the Temple of Jerusalem, an event now commemorated by Hanukkah. The Maccabees continued to fight for religious and political freedom, eventually establishing an independent Jewish state.

How did the Maccabees' revolt begin?

The Maccabean revolt originated from the actions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes , a Seleucid ruler who sought to Hellenize the Jews and exert greater control over the region. His policies included desecrating the Second Temple in Jerusalem by setting up an altar to Zeus in 168 BCE and forbidding Jewish religious practices, such as circumcision and Sabbath observance, under penalty of death. These actions sparked resistance from the Jewish population, particularly from the priestly family of Mattathias and his sons, known as the Maccabees. Mattathias, a Jewish priest, defied Antiochus's decree in 167 BCE by refusing to offer pagan sacrifices and instead, fled to the Judaean hills with his sons to wage a guerrilla war against the Syrians.

What traditions or holidays remember the Maccabees today?

Today, the traditions and holidays that remember the Maccabees primarily revolve around Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights. This joyous festival commemorates the Maccabean victories over the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE. Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days, beginning on the 25th of Kislev. The most central tradition involves lighting a special nine-branched candelabrum called a hanukkiyah , a type of menorah . One candle is lit on the first evening, with an additional candle added each subsequent evening until all eight candles are lit on the final evening. The ninth candle, the shammash , is used to light the others. The celebration includes festive meals, songs, games, and gifts, especially for children.

How did the Maccabees influence politics and religion in ancient Judea?

The Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family, significantly impacted the politics and religion of ancient Judea in the 2nd century BCE. The Maccabean revolt began in response to the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV's suppression of Jewish religious practices and desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem . Initially, the revolt was resisted by only a section of the population, as many upper-class Jews had adopted Hellenistic customs. Led by Judas Maccabeus, the Jews successfully resisted the Seleucid forces and rededicated the Temple in 165 BCE. The Maccabees then established the Hasmonean dynasty , which ruled Judea for over a century. The dynasty asserted Jewish independence and expanded its territory, but internal divisions and Roman intervention eventually led to its decline.

Maccabees

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Map of Palestine during the Maccabean period, showing territorial expansions of the Jewish state under different rulers. The map uses color shading to indicate the original state under Judas and subsequent additions under Jonathan, Simon, John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus I, and Alexander Jannaeus, with major ancient cities and geographic features such as the Mediterranean Sea, Lake Tiberias, and the Dead Sea labeled.

At a Glance

Maccabees summary

Maccabees

priestly Jewish family

Also known as: Machabees

Written by

George Angus Fulton Knight

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

Historical context of the Maccabees

The name Maccabee was a title of honour given to Judas, a son of Mattathias and the hero of the Jewish wars of independence, 168–164 bce. Later the name Maccabees was extended to include his whole family, specifically Mattathias (his father) and Judas’s four brothers—John, Simon, Eleazar, and Jonathan. Its use was also extended to John Hyrcanus, Simon’s son, who was next in succession.

There is no unanimity about the meaning of the title Maccabee. The Hebrew may be read as “Hammer,” “Hammerer,” or “Extinguisher.” Since Judas held the initiative in the long war against the Syrians, he was probably regarded in the same light as King Edward I of England, who was known as the “Hammer of the Scots.”

Throughout the 2nd century bce the city-state of Jerusalem-Judah lay between the two great powers of Egypt and Syria. The Ptolemies ruled in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria. These were residual states that had been left when Alexander the Great’s empire broke up about 20 years after his death. Antiochus IV ruled Syria from 175 to 164/163 bce. He carried the substitute name Epiphanes, a Greek word meaning “god manifest.” A conqueror of overweening pride, as he is described in the Book of Daniel in the Bible, he set out to seize Judaea (or Judah), which until then had been a province of Egypt. He aimed, moreover, to unify his vast and heterogeneous empire behind the worship of Zeus and, therefore, severely restricted the practice of Judaism, whose strict monotheism impeded the realization of that policy.

In Antiochus’s day the Syrians were devotees of the culture of Greece. Antiochus sought to continue what he regarded as the “civilizing” colonization process of Alexander. For him culture meant the pursuit of the “good.” The restless, inquiring, creative spirit of Greece—what might today be called the scientific spirit—was based on the assumption that “man is the measure of all things.” The Jewish view of life, on the other hand, was totally in opposition to that of the Hellenism that had spread throughout the Middle East. It too was a total way of life, one lived in accordance with what the Jewish people believed was revelation. They regarded Hellenism as a form of nature worship. They saw it as the spiritual continuation of the religion of the Canaanites, who had presented their views against Israel’s for all the centuries since the days of Joshua. They were aghast that Antiochus encouraged the Semitic-speaking peoples of the Mediterranean coast to regard him as the ancient god Baal of the Canaanites. The Canaanite gods, they asserted, were merely the mythologizing of the anger, hate, lust, envy, and greed of unregulated human hearts.

Israel, its prophets proclaimed, was the chosen instrument of the transcendent God, whose name was Yahweh. Yahweh was utterly “other” than human—that is to say, he was “holy.” It was God who had created humanity, not man the gods, and Israel was God’s chosen instrument to be “a light to lighten the nations” (Isaiah). To make the meaning of its special relationship to Yahweh evident to the world was therefore Israel’s reason for being. Its task was to put the revelation of God into purposeful use by producing an ordered human society that was ruled by God’s justice and love and not by human force and greed.

Prohibition of Jewish religious practices

This conception of revealed religion and of loyalty to the Word of God, rather than to a human king, Antiochus could not appreciate, particularly since he himself delighted in the name God Manifest. In order to extirpate the faith of Israel, therefore, he attacked Israel’s religious practices. He thus forbade the observance of the Sabbath and of the traditional feasts, for these had been ordained by a “jealous,” or intolerant, God. All sacrifices were to come to an end. He forbade the reading of the Law of Moses and gave orders to search out and burn any copies that could be found. He forbade the practice of circumcision, for it was this that set the Jews off from other peoples as the one “people of God.” In place of these practices, Antiochus encouraged the development of cultural clubs called gymnasia, in which people gathered to study, to learn, and to enjoy each other’s company. After competing in various forms of athletics, men and women used to soak themselves in hot baths. But because the pursuit of the “good” included a delight in the body beautiful, such activities were performed naked. A circumcised Jew taking part in the games in a gymnasium could not therefore hide where his loyalty lay. Finally, in 168 bce, Antiochus invaded Jerusalem and desacralized the Holy of Holies in the Temple. This was the one place on earth about which Yahweh said “My name” (the expression of his Person) “shall be there” (I Kings).

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A number of Jews, under their leader Jason, the high priest, took the easy way of conformity with the new universal trends. But with Antiochus’s impious act, a strong general reaction set in. Thus, when, later in the same year, Antiochus again entered Jerusalem, this time plundering and burning and setting up his citadel, the Acra, on the hill overlooking the Temple courts, he went too far, for his final act of spite, on December 25, 167 bce, was to rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem to the Olympian god Zeus.

Maccabees

Historical context of the Maccabees

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Prohibition of Jewish religious practices