The Maccabean Revolt and the Rededication of the Temple

167 BC to 164 BC, estimated dateEstimated date

The priest Mattathias and his sons take up arms against the decrees of Antiochus IV. Judas Maccabeus defeats the king’s generals, cleanses the temple and rededicates the altar, an event kept each year as the feast of Dedication, Hanukkah.

When the king’s officers came to the village of Modein to enforce the pagan sacrifice, they called first on Mattathias, a priest of the family of Joarib, from Jerusalem, who lived there with his five sons, John, Simon, Judas, Eleazar and Jonathan. He refused. When another Jew stepped forward to sacrifice, Mattathias killed him on the altar, killed the king’s officer and pulled the altar down. He cried out, “Whosoever is zealous for the law, and maintains the covenant, let him come forth after me”, and fled to the hills with his sons (1 Maccabees 2:1–5, 15–28). Josephus traces his descent from an ancestor named Asamoneus (Josephus, Antiquities 12.265), the origin of the family’s later name, the Hasmoneans.

About a thousand people who had hidden in the wilderness were attacked on a sabbath, would not fight on that day, and were killed. Mattathias and his companions resolved that they would defend themselves if attacked on the sabbath (1 Maccabees 2:29–41). Joined by a group called the Hasideans, they pulled down altars and circumcised boys by force (1 Maccabees 2:42–48). Mattathias died in the following year, naming Simon as the brothers’ counsellor and Judas as their commander (1 Maccabees 2:65–70).

Judas Maccabeus fought by surprise and at night (2 Maccabees 8:1–7). He defeated the forces of Apollonius and of Seron (1 Maccabees 3:10–24). Antiochus, short of money, marched east and left the regent Lysias to deal with Judea. Judas routed the army Lysias sent to Emmaus, and the next year fought Lysias himself at Beth-zur, after which Lysias withdrew to Antioch (1 Maccabees 3:27–40) (1 Maccabees 4:1–35).

Judas and his men then went up to Mount Zion. They found the sanctuary deserted, the altar profaned, the gates burned and bushes growing in the courts. Priests cleansed the holy place. The defiled altar was taken apart and its stones were stored “until there should come a prophet” to say what to do with them, and a new altar was built of uncut stones. On the twenty-fifth of Chislev, the anniversary of the first pagan sacrifice, the lamps were lit and sacrifice was offered. The people kept the dedication for eight days, and it was decreed that the days should be kept every year (1 Maccabees 4:36–59). 2 Maccabees adds that they celebrated in the manner of the feast of Booths, carrying branches and palms (2 Maccabees 10:1–8). Josephus says that in his day the festival was called “Lights” (Josephus, Antiquities 12.319–325).

The feast is Hanukkah, the Hebrew word for dedication. The Gospel of John places Jesus in the temple at “the Feast of the Dedication”, in winter (John 10:22–23). The war itself went on. The Seleucid garrison still held the citadel in Jerusalem (1 Maccabees 6:18–20), and Judas was killed in battle a few years later (1 Maccabees 9:3, 18). His brothers Jonathan and Simon carried the struggle on to independence; see Judea Gains Independence under the Hasmoneans.

How this is dated

Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.

1 Maccabees dates by the Seleucid era, counted from 312/311 BC. The altar was profaned in Chislev of year 145, Mattathias died in year 146, and the new altar was dedicated on the twenty-fifth of Chislev in year 148 (1 Maccabees 1:54) (1 Maccabees 2:70) (1 Maccabees 4:52). On the usual reckoning, which counts the years of Jewish events from the spring of 311 BC, that is December 167 to December 164 BC: so Jonathan A. Goldstein, I Maccabees (Anchor Bible, 1976). Counting the Jewish dates from the spring of 312 BC puts everything a year earlier, December 168 to December 165 BC: so Lester L. Grabbe, “Maccabean Chronology: 167–164 or 168–165 BCE”, Journal of Biblical Literature 110 (1991), pp. 59–74.

The sources differ on how long the temple lay desecrated. 1 Maccabees and Josephus’s Antiquities make it three years to the day (1 Maccabees 4:52–54) (Josephus, Antiquities 12.319–325), 2 Maccabees two years (2 Maccabees 10:3), and Josephus’s earlier Jewish War three years and six months (Josephus, Jewish War 1.32). They also differ on whether Antiochus died before the rededication (2 Maccabees 9:28–10:5) or after it (1 Maccabees 6:5–16).

The two books of Maccabees are the main sources. 1 Maccabees is usually dated about two generations after the revolt (Goldstein puts it in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, 103–76 BC), and 2 Maccabees says that it abridges an earlier history by Jason of Cyrene (2 Maccabees 2:23). They are counted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic Church, as defined at Trent (Council of Trent Session 4, decree on the canonical Scriptures), and by the Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 (Confession of Dositheus question 3 (p. 155)). Protestant churches do not count them as canonical Scripture; the Church of England lists them among the books that are read “for example of life and instruction of manners” but not used to establish doctrine (Thirty-Nine Articles article 6). Josephus, who retells 1 Maccabees, wrote some 260 years after the revolt.