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KINGS OF THE JEWS 162 THE MACCABEE REVOLT The attempt by Syrian King Antiochus IV to forcibly Hellenize Judaea was the greatest threat Judaism had faced since the Babylonian exile four centuries earlier. All Jewish practices were to be outlawed and uprooted. All measures thought necessary to achieve that objective were to be rigorously implemented. The Temple in Jerusalem was to be rededicated to Zeus and rituals of sacrifice to pagan gods were to be made obligatory. Jewish festivals and observance of the Sabbath were abolished by law. Circumcision was outlawed on pain of death. The Temple was stripped of its treasures. These were sent off to replenish Antiochus ’s depleted treasury. Many Jews found not to be complying with the new order were crucified. Many Jerusalemites fled the city for the towns of the countryside where it might be more possible to live and worship as they wished. But troops were sent throughout the land to force submission to Antiochus’s decrees. In the village of Modein, not far from Jerusalem, a Syrian officer instructed Mattathiah, the elderly local priest, to show the way to the villagers by offering a sacrifice to a pagan god. Mattathiah refused, saying he would not abandon “the covenant of our fathers.”[74] What was more, he struck down a Hellenized Jew who stepped forward to make the required gesture in his place. He then also killed the Syrian officer and, with his five sons, attacked and killed the officer’s troop escort. Mattathiah knew the Syrians would react harshly to this challenge to their authority. He called upon all who wished to remain true to the laws of Judaism to flee with him and his sons—John, Simon, Judah, Eleazar, and Jonathan—to the nearby hills, not far from present-day Ramallah, where they would continue their defiance of Antiochus. It was a small group but Mattathiah and his followers had a thorough knowledge of the hiding places and escape routes of the countryside while those who would be sent to destroy them did not. They used their advantage to evade their Syrian pursuers and punish Jews who succumbed to Hellenizing pressures. They swept down on outlying towns and villages to destroy pagan altars, circumcise Jewish boys whose parents had neglected that religious requirement and “saved the law from the hands of the gentiles.”[75] The elderly Mattathiah did not live long after the incident at Modein. Before he died, he chose his third son, Judah, called Maccabeus (The Hammer), who had obvious leadership skills, to take command of his band of insurgents. With THE HASMONEANS 163 the aid of his brothers, Judah Maccabee would transform the spontaneous act of a handful of insubordinate villagers into a national liberation movement. The Maccabees, as they came to be known, formed the first organized Jewish military force in four centuries of foreign rule. They ambushed troops dispatched to crush them and terrorized Hellenized Jews. As word of their exploits spread, others came to join their ranks, raising concern in Antioch, the Syrian capital from which Judaea was being administered. Apollonius, the governor of the region, was led to believe he was dealing with no more than a bothersome band of fanatics. He was confirmed in that belief when the troops he sent to wipe them out scattered them in their first encounter. But the Maccabees regrouped and followed their setback with a well-executed ambush during which they massacred those sent to track them down—Apollonius among them. His defeat and death jolted the Syrians and a larger contingent was dispatched to annihilate the expanding band of Jewish insurgents. But the Maccabees, now numerous enough to engage in set-piece battle as well as ambush, again were victorious . Despite his limited combat experience, Judah Maccabee became skilled in surviving the worst his much-more-powerful adversaries were able to inflict. Having learned that rebellious ultra-pious Hasidim had been slaughtered for refusing to defend themselves against the Syrians on the Sabbath, he ruled that the Maccabees would not refrain from fighting on the religiously prescribed day of rest when circumstances required. At the time, King Antiochus was committed to leading a campaign of conquest in Iran, far to the east. He empowered Lysias, his most senior official, a member of his royal family, to act as his regent during his absence from Antioch, with instructions that he blot out all memory of the Jews in Judaea. To make certain Syria would never be troubled by...

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