Maccabees

The Maccabees were a Jewish rebel movement in Judea during the second century BCE, led by Matthias and especially by his son Judas Maccabeus. They formed in response to the Seleucid Empire’s attempts to impose Greek customs and suppress Jewish religious practices under Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The name Maccabee, derived from Hebrew roots meaning “hammer,” has been applied to Judas and his brothers as well as to the movement.

The revolt began around 167 BCE, as Matthias and his sons organized resistance after persecutions and the desecration of the Temple. The rebels achieved a series of victories, reclaimed Jerusalem, and, in 164 BCE, rededicated the Temple, an event commemorated in the festival of Hanukkah. After Judas’s death in 160 BCE, leadership passed to his brother Jonathan Apphus, who expanded Jewish autonomy under Seleucid suzerainty and strengthened the priesthood and administration. Jonathan’s successors, especially Simon Thassi, consolidated political and religious authority and around 141 BCE established the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled in varying degrees of independence for about a century.

The Maccabean uprising left a lasting legacy in Jewish history as a milestone of resistance to foreign domination and the preservation of Jewish worship. In biblical scholarship, 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees recount events of the uprising; the former is generally viewed as a historical narrative, the latter as a devotional and polemical account. The name Maccabee remains a symbol of Jewish resilience and is widely used in modern cultural and national contexts.