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The descendants of Mattathias. The Maccabees (/ ˈ m æ k ə b iː z /), also spelled Machabees (Hebrew: מַכַּבִּים, Makkabbīm or מַקַבִּים, Maqabbīm; Latin: Machabaei or Maccabaei; Ancient Greek: Μακκαβαῖοι, Makkabaioi), were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire.
The Maccabees under Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) attacked south of Judea to Idumea, occupied by the Edomites and referred to archaically as the "descendants of Esau" in an attempt to make the text more befitting of the deeds of the heroes of Hebrew Bible scripture. Judas's forces would later return toward the end of 163 BC.
Lysias skirted Judea as he had done in his first campaign, entering it from the south and besieging Beth-Zur. Judah raised the siege of the Acra and went to meet Lysias. In the Battle of Beth-zechariah, south of Bethlehem, the Seleucids achieved their first major victory over the Maccabees, and Judah was forced to withdraw to Jerusalem. Beth ...
[75] 2 Maccabees also represents an attempt to take the cause of the Maccabees outside Judea, as it encourages Egyptian Jews and other diaspora Jews to celebrate the cleansing of the temple (Hanukkah) and revere Judas Maccabeus. [75] [69] In general, 2 Maccabees portrays the prospects of peace and cooperation more positively than 1 Maccabees ...
In autumn 164 BC, Regent Lysias launched an expedition to Judea to defeat the Maccabean rebellion. The Maccabees under Judas Maccabeus fought the Greeks at the Battle of Beth Zur. Whether from losses in the battle or from news of the death of King Antiochus IV reaching Judea, Lysias left Judea and negotiated a compromise.
The Battle of Emmaus is recorded in the books of 1 Maccabees (1 Maccabees 3:38–4:25), 2 Maccabees (2 Maccabees 8:8–8:36), and Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews Book 12. In general, the account in 1 Maccabees gives a more detailed description of the battle and the rebel army, and the author was possibly even a personal eyewitness to the battle.
The Fifth Book of the Maccabees, also called "Arabic 2 Maccabees", or "Arabic Maccabees", [1] is an ancient Jewish work relating the history in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The book chronicles the events from Heliodorus ' attempt to rob the Temple treasury in 186 BC to the death of Herod the Great 's two sons about 6 BC.
The book 2 Maccabees appears to use the term differently than how 1 Maccabees does. In it, Alcimus, in explaining the situation in Judea to King Demetrius, calls Judas Maccabeus the leader of the Asidaioi. This contrasts with 1 Maccabees 7, where they are clearly not followers of Judas, but rather are naively welcoming to Alcimus.