Editing Hasmonean dynasty (section)

==Maccabean Revolt==
{{main|Maccabean Revolt}}
[[File:141.Mattathias and the Apostate.jpg|thumb|[[Mattathias]] of Modi'in killing a Jewish apostate, engraving by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
The author of the [[First Book of Maccabees]] regarded the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against the Jews who supported him. The author of the [[Second Book of Maccabees]] presented the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism", words that he was the first to use.<ref name="deLange"/> Modern scholarship tends to the second view.

Most modern scholars argue that the king was intervening in a [[civil war]] between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenised Jews in Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite book|title= Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History|last= Telushkin|first= Joseph|year= 1991|publisher= W. Morrow|isbn= 978-0-688-08506-3|page= [https://archive.org/details/jewishliteracy00telu/page/114 114]|url= https://archive.org/details/jewishliteracy00telu/page/114}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide|last=Johnston |first=Sarah Iles |year=2004 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-01517-3 |page= 186}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title= The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays|last= Greenberg|first= Irving|year= 1993|publisher= Simon & Schuster|isbn= 978-0-671-87303-5|page= [https://archive.org/details/jewishwaylivingh00gree/page/29 29]|url= https://archive.org/details/jewishwaylivingh00gree/page/29}}</ref> According to Joseph P. Schultz, modern scholarship, "considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp."<ref>{{cite book |title=Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion |last=Schultz |first=Joseph P.|year= 1981|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn= 978-0-8386-1707-6|page= 155|quote=Modern scholarship on the other hand considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp}}</ref> In the conflict over the office of High Priest, traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contested against Hellenisers with Greek names like Jason or Menelaus.<ref>{{cite book |title= A Survey of the New Testament|last=Gundry |first=Robert H. |year=2003 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn= 978-0-310-23825-6|page= 9}}</ref> Other authors point to social and economic factors in the conflict.<ref>{{cite book |title=Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |last=Freedman |first=David Noel |author2=Allen C. Myers |author3=Astrid B. Beck |year=2000 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-2400-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/837 837] |url=https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/837 }}</ref><ref name=tcherikover>Tcherikover, Victor ''Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews'', New York: Atheneum, 1975</ref> What began as a civil war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenising Jews]] against the traditionalists.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Survey of Israel's History |last=Wood |first=Leon James |year= 1986|publisher= Zondervan|isbn= 978-0-310-34770-5|page=357 }}</ref> As the conflict escalated, Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists, thereby, in a departure from usual Seleucid practice, banning the religion of an entire people.<ref name=tcherikover/> Other scholars argue that while the rising began as a religious rebellion, it was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation.<ref>''Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings'' by Louis H. Feldman, Meyer Reinhold, Fortress Press, 1996, p. 147</ref>

<blockquote>
The two greatest twentieth-century scholars of the Maccabean revolt, Elias Bickermann and Victor Tcherikover, each placed the blame on the policies of the Jewish leaders and not on the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but for different reasons.<br>Bickermann saw the origin of the problem in the attempt of "Hellenised" Jews to reform the "antiquated" and "outdated" religion practised in Jerusalem, and to rid it of superstitious elements. They were the ones who egged on Antiochus IV and instituted the religious reform in Jerusalem. One suspects that [Bickermann] may have been influenced in his view by an antipathy to Reform Judaism in 19th- and 20th-century Germany. Tcherikover, perhaps influenced by socialist concerns, saw the uprising as one of the rural peasants against the rich elite.<ref>Doran, Robert. {{cite web|title=Revolt of the Maccabees.|date=September 2006 |access-date=2007-03-07|url=https://nationalinterest.org/article/revolt-of-the-maccabees-1053}} ''The National Interest'', 2006, via The Free Library by Farlex.</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Palestine under the Maccabees Smith 1915.jpg|thumb|right|[[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] at the time of the Maccabees according to [[George Adam Smith]]]]

According to I and II Maccabees, the priestly family of [[Mattathias]] (Mattitiyahu in Hebrew), which came to be known as the [[''Maccabees'']],<ref>The name may be related to the [[Aramaic]] word for "hammer", or may be derived from an acronym of the Jewish battle cry "''Mi Kamocha B'elim, [[YHWH]]''" ("Who is like you among the heavenly powers, ''GOD''!" ([[Book of Exodus|Exodus]] ''15:11''), "MKBY" (Mem, Kaf, Bet and Yud).</ref> called the people forth to holy war against the Seleucids. Mattathias' sons [[Judas Maccabeus|Judas]] (Yehuda), [[Jonathan Apphus|Jonathan]] (Yonoson/Yonatan), and Simon (Shimon) began a military campaign, initially with disastrous results: one thousand Jewish men, women, and children were killed by Seleucid troops during [[Shabbat|Sabbath]] as they refused to fight on the holy day. After that, other Jews accepted that when attacked on the Sabbath they should fight back.

===Judas leads the revolt (166–160 BC)===
Eventually the use of [[guerrilla warfare]] practices by Judah over several years gave control of the country to the Maccabees:
<blockquote>It was now, in the fall of 165, that Judah's successes began to disturb the central government. He appears to have controlled the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and thus to have cut off the royal party in Acra from direct communication with the sea and thus with the government. It is significant that this time the Syrian troops, under the leadership of the governor-general Lysias, took the southerly route, by way of Idumea.<ref>Bickerman, Elias J. ''Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees''. Schocken, 1962. Via [http://www.houseofdavid.ca/maccabee.htm#Bickerman]</ref></blockquote>

Towards the end of 164, after reaching a compromise with [[Lysias (Syrian chancellor)|Lysias]] (who retreated to [[Antioch]] perhaps for political reasons following the death of Antiochus IV who died while campaigning against the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]]),{{sfn|Morkholm|2008|pp=287-90}} Judas entered Jerusalem and re-established the formal religious worship of Yahweh. The feast of [[Hanukkah]] was instituted to commemorate the recovery of the temple.{{sfn|Morkholm|2008|p=290}}

[[File:Death of Eleazer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Battle of Beth Zechariah]] in 162 BC, where the Maccabean rebels suffered a temporary setback. Illustration by [[Gustave Doré]] in 1866.]]

Around April 162 Judas laid siege to [[Acra (fortress)|Acra]], which had remained under Seleucids control, as a response Lysias returned to fight the jews in the [[Battle of Beth Zechariah]], but despite the positive outcome of the battle, the resistance of the Maccabees in the mountains of Aphairema (near the original center of the revolt)<ref name="barkochva334" /> and troubles in his own home country, prompted by the political situation surrounding the young [[Antiochus V Eupator]] successor of Antiochus IV, forced Lysias to once again negotiate peace with the Maccabees, renouncing to his siege of Jerusalem in exchange for the Maccabean siege to [[Acra (fortress)|Acra]].{{refn| group=note |Some scholars believe that Lysias only made a single expedition to Judea, as 2 Maccabees suggests the Battle of Beth Zur happened after the cleansing of the temple, and that Lysias's expedition happened in 149 SE by the Macedonian version of the year count (rather than 150 SE by the Babylonian version).  In this scenario, the events of the first expedition happen immediately before the Battle of Beth Zechariah.  Still, most scholars favor the 1 Maccabees version of two expeditions separated by two years.<ref name="barkochva275">Bar-Kochva 1989, p.275&ndash;282</ref>}}

In 161, while on his way to assume governorship [[Nicanor (Seleucid general)|Nicanor]], the newly appointed [[strategos]] of the region, won a skirmish against Simon, and while in Jerusalem, despite 2 Maccabees describing good initial relations between him and Judas(including the appointment to an official position), he eventually tried of have the latter arrested. Judas was however able to flee to the countryside and, after defeating Nicanor and the small contingent under him that was giving chase, he later managed to win a decisive battle at [[Battle of Adasa|Adasa]] where Nicanor was killed (ib. 7:26&ndash;50), granting Judas once again control over Jerusalem. At this point, strong of his multiple wins over the Seleucids, he sent Eupolemus the son of Johanan and Jason the son of [[Eleazar Maccabeus|Eleazar]] as a diplomatic party "to make a league of amity and confederacy with the Romans."<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Maccabees|7:7|NRSV}}, via Bentwich, Norman. ''Josephus'', The Jewish Publication Society of America. Philadelphia, 1914.</ref>

However on the same year, Antiochus V was soon succeeded by his cousin [[Demetrius I Soter]], whose throne his father had usurped. Demetrius, after getting rid of Antiochus and Lysas, sent the general [[Bacchides (general)|Bacchides]] to Israel with a large army, in order to install [[Alcimus]] to the office of high priest.
After Bacchides carried out a massacre in Galilee and Alcimus thus claimed to be in a better position than Judas to protect the Hebrew population, the Hasmonean leader prepared to meet the Seleucid general in battle; the unorthodox route Bacchides took however (through Mount [[Bethel|Beth El]]) may have surprised Judas's forces, two thirds of which, finding themselves greatly outnumbered in an open field battle, didn't actually fight. In what is known as the [[Battle of Elasa]] (Laisa), Judas choose to fight against all odds and aimed to win by charging the right flank where Bacchides would be located and decapitate the Seleucid army as he did with Nicanor's. After what the sources describe as a battle that lasted 'from morning to evening', the Seleucid cavalry was able to cut off Judas, and it ultimately was the Jewish army who was dispersed after the loss of their leader.