The Family of the Asmoneans, or Maccabees
The name “Maccabee,” probably derived from a Hebrew word signifying a “Hammer,” was originally given to Judas, and afterwards extended to his four brothers. They came of a priestly family, belonging to the first and noblest of the twenty-four “courses,” taking its name from a certain Asmon or Chasmon, great-grandfather of Mattathias, father of Judas. The five heroic brothers all met with a violent death.
That of Judas and Eleazar has been already described.
John, the eldest, was killed in a skirmish, shortly after the death of Judas.
Jonathan maintained himself in power by a clever policy of leaning on Rome, and taking part with various claimants to the Syrian crown. He became High-priest at some time after the year 153, and perished in 144 by the treachery of a certain Tryphon, who usurped for a time the throne of Syria.
Simon succeeded to the High-priesthood, and governed the Jewish people for a period of eight years with great success. In B.C. 143 he obtained from the Syrian king a formal recognition of the independence of the Jews, and in the following year he got possession of the fortress in Jerusalem occupied by the Syrian faction. In 135 he was treacherously murdered by his son-in-law, Ptolemaeus.
Simon, who had maintained the alliance with Rome, was succeeded by his son John Hyrcanus, who followed the same policy, and he again by his son Aristobulus, who assumed the title of King in 107.
Mariamne, the unhappy wife of Herod the Great, belonged to the Maccabean House. With the death of her two sons it became extinct.
Footnotes
1 Nearly £2,000.
2 “The exceeding profaneness of Jason, that ungodly wretch, and no high priest” (2 Macc. iv. 13).
3 Antiochus’s surname, self-assumed or given by the flattery of his courtiers, of “Epiphanes” (the Illustrious), was jestingly changed by his subjects through the alteration of a single letter into, “Epimanes” (Madman).
4 The Suburra was one of the least reputable quarters in Rome.
5 “He came with the King’s mandate, bringing nothing worthy the high priesthood, but having the fury of a cruel tyrant, and the rage of a savage beast” (2 Macc. iv. 25).
6 Son and successor of Seleucus Nicator, the first of the dynasty of the Greek Syrian kings.
7 The wine of Mount Tmolus, a mountain near Smyrna, before which, as Virgil says (Georgics ii. 184), all other wines rise as before their betters.
8 Azariah, holpen of Jehovah.
9 Charles Martel defeated the Saracens between Poictiers and Tours (A.D. 732).
10 Not to be confounded with the village near Jerusalem.
11 The talent must have been a talent of gold, which may be reckoned as equal to £3,300.
12 This is the meaning of the name Eleazar.
13 Psalm cxxxvi.
14 About £,24.
15 Hebrews xi. 37-38. Compare ii. Macc. x. vi. “When as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts.”
16 Nine o’clock, p.m.
17 There seems to have been a belief among the Jews of this time in the efficacy of prayers for the dead. So we read in 2 Maccabees xii. 45: “Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead that they might be delivered from sin.” This is probably the chief reason why the Council of Trent included the Books of Maccabees and other Apocryphal writings in the Canon of Scripture.
18 The month Chisleu about corresponds to our December.
19 See S. John x. 22, 23: “And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the Temple, in Solomon’s porch.”
20 Eupator means “Born of a great father.”
21 Psalms cxiii.-cxviii.
22 Ibid. cxx.-cxxxiv.
23 Alcimus seems to have been an adaptation, not a little remote, however, from the original, of the Hebrew name Eliakim.
24 “Bezeth,” it is called. Possibly it may be identified with Bezetha, which was afterwards part of the city.
25 Copious draughts of wine were an important part of the customary celebration of the Purim festival.
26 “Et pater Æneas et avunculus excitet Hector.”
27 Observe the Greek names of the two. In each case the father’s name is Hebrew, and the son’s Greek. This seems to show how far the Hellenization of the people had proceeded.
28 We commonly talk of the “three hundred” at Thermopylae. As a matter of fact there were a thousand, not reckoning the Thebans, who are said to have laid down their arms at once. But the seven hundred men from Thespiae, a little Bœotian town, fought bravely to the end; only their glory is swallowed up in that of the “three hundred” Spartans. Canon Westcott speaks of this battle as the Jewish Thermopylae (“Dictionary of the Bible”).