Mattathias

Mattathias (Greek form of Hebrew Mattithiah, meaning the gift of the LORD) is the name of two individuals in the ancestry of Jesus as recorded in Luke 3: one is listed as the son of Amos (Luke 3:25), and another as the son of Semei (Luke 3:26). Outside Scripture, Mattathias is most famous as the priest of Modin whose refusal to offer pagan sacrifice in 167 B.C. ignited the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes — an event in the intertestamental period that preserved Jewish worship and Temple observance.