Rebellion fought under leadership of Judas Maccabeus from 167–160 BCE
Festival of Hanukkah established in honor of the capture of Jerusalem, cleansing of the Second Temple, and rededication of the altar
Seleucid authority in major cities reestablished from 160–152 BCE
Judean autonomy from 152–141 BCE
Simon Thassi appointed High Priest in 141 BCE, start of the independent Hasmonean kingdom
Belligerents
Maccabees
Seleucid Empire
Commanders and leaders
Mattathias † Judas Maccabeus (KIA) Jonathan Apphus Eleazar Avaran (KIA) Simon Thassi John Gaddi (KIA)
Antiochus IV Epiphanes † Antiochus V Eupator † Demetrius I Soter † Lysias † Gorgias Nicanor (KIA) Bacchides
Units involved
Judean rebels
Seleucid army
v
t
e
Maccabean Revolt
Lebonah
Beth Horon
Emmaus
Beth Zur
Campaigns of 163 BC
Beth Zechariah
Adasa
Elasa
The Maccabean Revolt (Hebrew: מרד החשמונאים) was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. The main phase of the revolt lasted from 167 to 160 BCE and ended with the Seleucids in control of Judea, but conflict between the Maccabees, Hellenized Jews, and the Seleucids continued until 134 BCE, with the Maccabees eventually attaining independence.
Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes launched a massive campaign of repression against the Jewish religion in 168 BCE. The reason he did so is not entirely clear, but it seems to have been related to the King mistaking an internal conflict among the Jewish priesthood as a full-scale rebellion. Jewish practices were banned, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult. This repression triggered exactly the revolt that Antiochus IV had feared, with a group of Jewish fighters led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and his family rebelling in 167 BCE and seeking independence. The rebels as a whole would come to be known as the Maccabees, and their actions would be chronicled later in the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
The rebellion started as a guerrilla movement in the Judean countryside, raiding towns and terrorizing Greek officials far from direct Seleucid control, but it eventually developed a proper army capable of attacking the fortified Seleucid cities. In 164 BCE, the Maccabees captured Jerusalem, a significant early victory. The subsequent cleansing of the temple and rededication of the altar on 25 Kislev is the source of the festival of Hanukkah. The Seleucids eventually relented and unbanned Judaism, but the more radical Maccabees, not content with merely reestablishing Jewish practices under Seleucid rule, continued to fight, pushing for a more direct break with the Seleucids. Judas Maccabeus died in 160 BCE at the Battle of Elasa against the Greek general Bacchides, and the Seleucids reestablished direct control for a time, but remnants of the Maccabees under Judas's brother Jonathan Apphus continued to resist from the countryside. Eventually, internal division among the Seleucids and problems elsewhere in their empire would give the Maccabees their chance for proper independence. In 141 BCE, Simon Thassi succeeded in expelling the Greeks from their citadel in Jerusalem. An alliance with the Roman Republic helped guarantee their independence. Simon would go on to establish an independent Hasmonean kingdom.
The revolt had a great impact on Jewish nationalism, as an example of a successful campaign to establish political independence and resist governmental anti-Jewish suppression.
The MaccabeanRevolt (Hebrew: מרד החשמונאים) was a Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and against Hellenistic influence...
immediate provocation for the revolt. According to Joseph P. Schultz, modern scholarship "considers the Maccabeanrevolt less as an uprising against foreign...
subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the MaccabeanRevolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed...
המכבי Yehudah HaMakabi) had defeated the Seleucid army during the MaccabeanRevolt of 167 to 141 BCE. According to 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and the first...
Kingdom (c. 301–200 BCE) and the Seleucid Empire (c. 200–167 BCE). The MaccabeanRevolt against Seleucid rule led to the establishment of a nominally independent...
Jewish priest (kohen) and a son of the priest Mattathias. He led the MaccabeanRevolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah...
Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the MaccabeanRevolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest history...
happened from 168–167 BC. Such steps triggered a revolt against his rule, known as the MaccabeanRevolt. Scholars of Second Temple Judaism therefore sometimes...
Antiochian persecution of Jews (c. 167/166 BCE) that preceded the MaccabeanRevolt. Although unnamed in 2 Maccabees, the mother is known variously as...
were strongly monotheistic and willing to fight battles (such as the MaccabeanRevolt) and face martyrdom before paying homage to any other god. According...
time of the MaccabeanRevolt, the Seleucid general Bacchides had fortified the summit of Quruntul. This garrison fell to the Jewish revolt in 167 BC, but...
settlement patterns and religious practices[clarification needed]. During the revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid kingdom (early 2nd century BC), II...
Hellenistic Judaism blended both Greek and Jewish traditions. The MaccabeanRevolt of 167–142 BCE was fight a first for Judean autonomy against a suppression...
successful rebels were led by the Hasmonean family in what became the MaccabeanRevolt, and eventually established the independent Hasmonean kingdom around...
down to what the majority have interpreted as the MaccabeanRevolt, is dated by most to Maccabean times (about 163–142 BC). 83–84. First Dream Vision...
forceful assimilation, conversion, and ethnocide, most famously in the MaccabeanRevolt by the Seleucid Empire. According to historian Michael Livingston,...
the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the MaccabeanRevolt against him. It concludes with the defeat of the Seleucid Empire general...
place of the foreign rulers of the time. This corresponded with the MaccabeanRevolt directed against the Seleucid Empire. Following the fall of the Hasmonean...
Because the Hebrew manuscripts from the Middle Ages refer to the MaccabeanRevolt, Hebrew versions of the tale in the Megillat Antiochus and the Chronicles...
Jewish religious and cultural practices was a major catalyst for the MaccabeanRevolt against the Seleucid Empire. Following the establishment of the Hasmonean...
refusing to eat pork or meat sacrificed to foreign gods. During the MaccabeanRevolt from 167 to 160 BCE, during at least seven wars between the Jews and...
The Battle of Beth Zechariah took place around May 162 BC during the Maccabeanrevolt fought between Jewish rebels under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus...
and the most approved among them were put to death." Following the MaccabeanRevolt against the Seleucid empire, the Second Temple was rededicated and...
Second Temple period. After several centuries of foreign rule, the MaccabeanRevolt against the Seleucid Empire led to an independent Hasmonean kingdom...
resistance as well as eventually an armed military resistance movement, the MaccabeanRevolt. The author of the Book of Daniel wanted to reassure readers that the...
into traditional and Hellenized components. After the religion-driven MaccabeanRevolt, the independent Hasmonean Kingdom was established in 165 BCE. In 64...
Persian governance. It was not until 400 years later, following the MaccabeanRevolt, that the Jews fully regained independence. The Kingdom of Judah was...
Galilee and in Samaria. Timeline of the name "Judea" Seleucid Empire vs. MaccabeanRevolt History of Palestine Ioudaios Kitos War Judaea (Roman province) State...
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