The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BCE to 37 BCE, being a fully independent kingdom from 104 to 63 BCE. They reasserted the Jewish religion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest, and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.
The Hasmonean dynasty was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period, from c. 140 BCE to 37 BCE. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously in the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BCE, with the empire disintegrating, Judea gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea. The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king") as the kingdom became a regional power for several decades. Forces of the Roman Republic intervened in the Hasmonean Civil War in 63 BCE and made it into a client state, marking the decline of Hasmonean dynasty; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BCE.
Judas Maccabaeus or Maccabeus, also known as Judah Maccabee, was a Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.
John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean (Maccabean) leader and Jewish High Priest of Israel of the 2nd century BCE. In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as Yoḥanan Cohen Gadol, "John the High Priest".
The Battle of Beth Zechariah took place around May 162 BC during the Maccabean revolt fought between Jewish rebels under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus against an army of the Seleucid Empire, the Greek successor state (diadochi) to the Macedonian conquests that controlled Syria and Babylonia. The battle was fought at Beth Zechariah and was a Seleucid victory, with the rebels driven from the field in retreat. Judas's brother Eleazar Avaran died in combat with a war elephant. The defeat allowed the Seleucids to continue their campaign and besiege the Jewish holy city of Jerusalem.
The Battle of Elasa was fought in April 160 BCE during the Maccabean Revolt between Judean rebels led by Judas Maccabeus and an army of the Seleucid Empire under the command of Bacchides. The battle resulted in the triumph of the Greek Syrian forces, the defeat of the Maccabees, and the death of Judas Maccabeus.
Jonathan Apphus was one of the sons of Mattathias and the leader of the Hasmonean dynasty of Judea from 161 to 143 BCE.
The Battle of Adasa was fought during the Maccabean revolt on the 13th of the month Adar, 161 BC at Adasa, near Beth-horon. It was a battle between the rebel Maccabees of Judas Maccabeus and the Seleucid Empire, whose army was led by Nicanor. The Maccabees won the battle after killing Nicanor early in the fighting. The battle came after a period of political maneuvering over several months where the peace deal established a year earlier by Lysias was tested by the new High Priest Alcimus, the new military governor Nicanor, and the Maccabee leader Judas Maccabeus.
The Battle of Beth Zur was fought between the Maccabees led by Judas Maccabeus and a Seleucid Greek army led by Regent Lysias in October 164 BC at Beth Zur. According to the books of Maccabees, the rebels won the battle, although how significant this victory really was is disputed; it is possible the battle's result was inconclusive. Through a stroke of good fortune for the rebels, the days after the battle likely coincided with news of Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes's death reaching Judea; rather than continue the campaign, the Seleucid army and Lysias returned to the capital to handle the leadership transition. The Maccabees were able to capture Jerusalem soon after.
Bacchides was a Syrian-Greek general and governor (strategos) and friend and advisor (philoi) of King Demetrius I Soter of the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucid Empire was one of the Greek successor states (diadochi) founded after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and was centered in Syria and Babylonia in the Hellenistic era.
Adasa is a place referred to in the book 1 Maccabees, Chapter 7. The Aramaic language name used by the locals is not known, but was probably something like Ḥadaša. According to the passage, it was the site of the Battle of Adasa in year 151 of the Seleucid era, equivalent to 161 BCE. The battle was a victory for Judas Maccabeus's rebels in the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, and the Greek commander Nicanor died in battle.
Nicanor was a Syrian-Greek general (strategos) that served the Seleucid Empire during the reigns of kings Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Demetrius I Soter. He served during the Maccabean Revolt in Judea, then part of the Seleucid Empire, and served for a time as governor in Jerusalem. Relations between the government and the Jewish rebels eventually turned sufficiently hostile that he threatened the priests at the Second Temple and led an army to find and defeat Judas Maccabeus's followers, but he and his army were defeated at the Battle of Adasa. Nicanor was killed, his corpse was desecrated, his head and right hand hung for public display back in Jerusalem, and a new festival was declared to celebrate his defeat.
Lysias was a 2nd-century BC general and governor of Syria under the Seleucid Empire.
Maresha was an Iron Age city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, whose remains have been excavated at Tell Sandahanna, an archaeological mound or 'tell' renamed after its identification to Tel Maresha. The ancient Judahite city became Idumaean after the fall of Judah in 586 BCE, and after Alexander's conquest of the region in 332 BCE became Hellenised under the name Marisa or Marissa. The tell is situated in Israel's Shephelah region, i.e. in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains, about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) south of Beit Gubrin.
The Acra, with the meaning of "stronghold", was a place in Jerusalem thought to have had a fortified compound built by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, following his sack of the city in 168 BCE. The name Acra was also used at a later time for a city quarter probably associated with the by-then destroyed fortress, known in his time to Josephus as both Acra and "the lower city". The fortress played a significant role in the events surrounding the Maccabean Revolt, which resulted in the formation of the Hasmonean Kingdom. The "upper city" was captured by Judas Maccabeus, with the Seleucid garrison taking refuge in the "Acra" below, and the task of destroying this last enemy stronghold inside Jerusalem fell to Simon Maccabeus surnamed Thassi. Knowledge about the Acra is based almost exclusively on the writings of Josephus, which are of a later date, and on the First and Second Books of Maccabees, which were written not long after the described events.
The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of Judea, but conflict between the Maccabees, Hellenized Jews, and the Seleucids continued until 134 BCE, with the Maccabees eventually attaining independence.
The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Edom was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. Edom and the Edomites appear in several written sources relating to the late Bronze Age and to the Iron Age in the Levant, including the list of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I from c. 1215 BC as well as in the chronicle of a campaign by Ramesses III, and the Tanakh.
During the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, there were a series of campaigns in 163 BC in regions outlying Judea - Ammon, Gilead, Galilee, Idumea, and Judea's coastal plain, a wider region usually referred to as either Palestine or Eretz Israel. The Maccabee rebels fought multiple enemies: Seleucid garrisons and hired mercenaries under a commander named Timothy of Ammon, non-Jewish inhabitants hostile to the Maccabees and their Jewish neighbors, and possibly the Tobiad Jews, a clan that generally favored the ruling Seleucid government. During 163 BC, the main Seleucid armies composed of Greeks were elsewhere, so the Maccabees were free to expand their influence against their neighbors.
The Second Temple period in Jewish history began with the end of the Babylonian captivity and the Persian conquest of the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. A new temple to replace the destroyed Solomon's Temple was built in Jerusalem by the returnees, and the Second Temple was finished around 516 BCE. Second Temple Judaism was centered around the religious leadership of the Second Temple, and lasted for six centuries. The Persians were largely tolerant of Judaism. Persian rule lasted for two centuries, but came to an end with the conquests of Macedonia under Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Judea and the Eastern Mediterranean region came under Greek influence during the resulting Hellenistic period; Hellenistic Judaism blended both Greek and Jewish traditions. Judea was ruled in this period first by the Ptolemaic Kingdom and then by the Seleucid Empire, Greek states formed after the breakup of Alexander's Macedonian empire. The Maccabean Revolt of 167–142 BCE was initially a fight for Judean autonomy against a suppression of traditional Judaism by Seleucid King Antiochus IV, and later sought outright independence from Greek rule. The revolt's success brought about the formation of an independent Hasmonean kingdom of Judea, named for the family which had led the Jewish resistance.
