Maccabees

Maccabees is the name applied to the Jewish priestly family, also called the Hasmonaeans, who led the successful revolt against the Seleucid Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes beginning in 167 BC. The name does not appear in Scripture but is important for understanding the intertestamental period between the Old and New Testaments. The rebellion was sparked by Antiochus's desecration of the Jerusalem temple — sacrificing a pig on the altar and setting up an image of Zeus — which provoked the priest Mattathias and his five sons to take up arms. His son Judas Maccabaeus ("the Hammer") led the military campaigns that resulted in the recapture and rededication of the temple in 164 BC, commemorated in the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

The Maccabean period (167–63 BC) established the Hasmonaean dynasty, which ruled Judea with both priestly and eventually kingly authority until the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BC. This era shaped the political and religious landscape of the New Testament world: the division between Pharisees and Sadducees, the nature of Herodian rule, and Jewish messianic expectation all have roots in the Maccabean and post-Maccabean period.