Mattathias
Priest from Jerusalem living at Modein who refused the pagan sacrifice ordered by Antiochus IV and began the armed revolt. He was the father of Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan and Simon.
Mattathias was a priest of the family of Joarib and had five sons: John, Simon, Judas, Eleazar and Jonathan (1 Maccabees 2:1–5). Josephus traces his line to an ancestor named Asamoneus (Josephus, Antiquities 12.265), from whom the dynasty of his descendants is called Hasmonean.
When the king’s officers came to Modein he refused to sacrifice, killed a Jew who did and the officer in charge, and fled to the hills (1 Maccabees 2:15–28). He decided that his followers would fight if attacked on the sabbath (1 Maccabees 2:39–41). He died in the 146th year of the Seleucid era, about 166 BC, leaving the command to his son Judas Maccabeus, and was buried at Modein (1 Maccabees 2:65–70). See the Maccabean Revolt and the Rededication of the Temple.
In the timeline
- 167 BC to 164 BC, estimated dateThe Maccabean Revolt and the Rededication of the Temple
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.