Who is maccabees in the bible

The Sadducees, a priestly class in charge of the Temple, openly rejected the oral interpretations that the Pharisees, the proto-rabbinic class, openly promoted.

The Maccabees were a priestly family, while the rabbis who may have determined the final form of the biblical canon at Jamnia were descended from the Pharisees.

Is it possible that the exclusion of the Books of Maccabees was one of the last salvos in the battle between the Pharisees and Sadducees? Would the rabbis at Jamnia have been inclined to canonize a document that so clearly praised the priestly Hasmonean family?

PikiWiki Israel. Perhaps the answer lies more within the realm of pragmatism and politics. A couple of centuries later, Jewish scholars found themselves in Jamnia with the Temple destroyed and Jerusalem lost. Their circumstances were the result of their own failed revolt against the Romans.

Perhaps they felt it unwise to promote a text that heralded the successful outcome of a Jewish revolt. It may have posed a threat both internally and externally. The Romans would certainly not look kindly upon the popularization of such a text, since it might very well reintroduce the concept of revolt to a population desperately trying to survive the devastating outcome of its own failed attempts. Although the Books of Maccabees were not included within the Hebrew Bible, they are still of value.

Yet even this is difficult within a traditional Jewish context, due to another historical layer. As criticism of the Hasmoneans mounted, sectarian differences hardened, polarizing groups like the Pharisees and Sadducees—as well, very likely, as the community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Chris Seeman, "Maccabees", n.

Herod the Great was the king of Judea who was responsible for large-scale building projects, including remodeling the Jerusalem temple. The second temple in Jerusalem was the central place of worship for the Jewish people from ca.

Jews have lived and flourished under empire for most of their history, and persecutions of Jewish communities seem to have been local rather than imperial actions.

This dynamic video map shows the movement and expansion of the great empires of antiquity, starting with the Egyptian New Kingdom in B.

View more. The religion and culture of Jews. A system of rule with a monarch as its head; or the hereditary system passed from one monarch to another. A dynasty that ruled Israel from B. Relating to the priests, the people responsible for overseeing the system of religious observance, especially temple sacrifice, depicted in the Hebrew Bible.

Hebrew is regarded as the spoken language of ancient Israel but is largely replaced by Aramaic in the Persian period. A collection of Jewish texts biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian from around the time of Christ that were preserved near the Dead Sea and rediscovered in the 20th century.

New York: Doubleday, More elaborate survey than usual for a dictionary article, with good introductions to all four books and bibliographies including references up to c. Karrer, Martin, and Wolfgang Kraus, eds.

Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, This German commentary on the books of the Septuagint includes introductions to all four Maccabean books, brief per verse explanations of the content and notes about the social, cultural, and historical context. Lehnhardt, Andreas.

Bibliography with entries on 1—4 Maccabees, listing publications on editions, translations, and commentaries, as well as articles and monographs on specific topics in these books. Mittmann-Richert, Ulrike. Elaborate introductions to 1, 2, and 3 Maccabees, focusing on introductory issues, composition, and content of these books. Siegert, Folker. Berlin: De Gruyter, DOI: Introduction to Hellenistic-Jewish writings includes useful introductory information about all four Maccabean books.

Journal for the Study of Judaism Supplements Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, Collection of essays devoted to various aspects of the Maccabean books, mainly 1 and 2 Maccabees.

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. The rebellion's leader was Judas Maccabee, and from his family and its success sprang a dynasty that ruled Judah for the century before the arrival of Herod the Great. The author of 1 Maccabees was a keen supporter of that dynasty, and saw their early rulers as made in the mould of the early kings of Israel.

The present book introduces the student to modern scholarly research on 1 Maccabees and its author. Written in Hellenistic Greek and told from a Jewish-Hellenistic perspective, 2 Maccabees narrates and interprets the ups and downs of events that took place in Jerusalem prior to and during the Maccabean revolt: institutionalized Hellenization and the foundation of Jerusalem as a polis; the persecution of Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, accompanied by famous martyrdoms; and the rebellion against Seleucid rule by Judas Maccabaeus.

The history of influence of the old testamentary Maccabees is the focus of the essays collected in this book, which extend thematically and chronologically from the cult of martyrs in late antiquity to the time of the modern wars of liberation.

First and Second Maccabees by Daniel J.