The Maccabees founded the Hasmonean royal family plus established Jewish self-government in the Ground of Israel for about single hundred years, from 164 BCE to 63 BCE. He and his five sons fled to the wilds of Judea. After Mattathias' bereavement concerning one year later, his young man Judah Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory in excess of the Seleucid dynasty. The term Maccabees as second-hand to describe the Judean's army is taken as of its actual employ as Judah's surname. The revolt itself concerned a lot of person battles, in which the Maccabean forces gained infamy in the middle of the Syrian military for their use of rebel tactics.

After the victory, the Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph and ritually cleansed the Temple, reestablishing customary Jewish worship there and installing Jonathan Maccabee as far above the ground priest. A large Syrian army was sent to nullify the revolt, but returned to Syria on the death of Antiochus IV. Its commander Lysias, preoccupied with interior Syrian affairs, agreed to a political compromise that provided religious freedom. At what time the revolt began under the leadership of Mattathias, it was seen as a conflict for spiritual freedom to finish the oppression of the Seleucids. This conflict led to the exacerbation of the divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees beneath afterward Hasmonean monarchs such as Alexander Jannaeus.

Persons who sought the continuation of the war of national identity were led by Judah Maccabee. On his death in fight in 160 BCE, Judah was succeeded as army leader by his younger brother, Jonathan, who was already High Priest. Jonathan made treaties with various foreign states, causing additional disagree among those who preferred religious liberty over following power. On Jonathan's bereavement in 142 BCE, Simon Maccabee, the previous residual young man of Mattathias, took authority.

That same day, Demetrius II, king of Syria, granted the Jews complete political independence and Simon, great high priest plus leader of the Jews, went on to found the Hasmonean dynasty. Jewish autonomy lasted awaiting 63 BCE, when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem plus subjected judea to Roman rule, as the Hasmonean dynasty itself ended in 37 BCE when the Idumean Herod the Huge became de facto ruler of Jerusalem. Every year Jews celebrate Hanukkah in commemoration of Judah Maccabee's victory over the Seleucids plus subsequent miracles.

Books of 3 Maccabees plus 4 Maccabees are not in a straight line connected to the Maccabees. The person's name Maccabee was a personal nickname of Judah, and the later generations were not his descendants. Though there is no definitive clarification of what the term means, one suggestion is that the person's name derives as of the Aramaic maqqaba, "the hammer", in recognition of his ferocity in battle. The Eastern Orthodox Minster continues to celebrate the Holy Maccabean Martyrs on Imposing 1, the primary daylight hours of the Dormition Quick.

Cohen, Shaye J. D. Westminster John Knox Push, 2006. Donohue.

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