Hasmonean

Definition: A patriotic Jewish priest named Mattathias was the great-grandson of Asamonaeos, who was a priest and native of Jerusalem, according to Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews 12.265-6 [Schofield and Vanderkam], and the eponymous ancestor of the Hasmoneans. Mattathias, however, lived not in Jerusalem, but in a town called Modein whose location is uncertain but which may have been in far northwestern Judaea near the sea. The Hasmoneans are believed to have been an influential, well-to-do land-owning family.

The Hasmoneans flourished during the Hellenistic era, which followed the death of Alexander the Great. The familial band of Hasmoneans launched guerilla raids against the ruling Seleucids. When Mattathias died, his son Judah or Judas took over. He is the one who was named Maccabeus, which Coogan says means 'hammer'. Judas Maccabee is integral to the story of the revolt featuring the Hanukkah oil for the candelabrum. This revolt was at the start of the period of Jewish-Syrian fighting in which the Jews were fighting against forced Hellenization. The story of the Maccabees is told in Maccabees I (written in Hebrew) and II (written in Koine), which are part of the Septuagint and some Christian Bibles, but not part of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh).

The family name of the Hasomeans, Hasmonean, is the term used to cover the period of Jewish history from 167 - 30 B.C. Hasmonean power ended in 63 B.C. when Pompey besieged and took Jerusalem. The Hasmonean territory of Judaea, Galilee, Idumea, and Perea then became vassals of Rome, required to pay tribute [Coogan].

References

• _{Library of Congress}
• _{The Oxford History of the Biblical World, by Michael Coogan}
• _{"Were the Hasmoneans Zadokites?" by Alison Schofield and James C. Vanderkam; Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 124, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp. 73-87.}
• _{"A Note on the Social Type and Political Ideology of the Hasmonean Family," by Seth Schwartz; Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 112, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 305-309.}

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