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167-164 BCEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Maccabean Revolt Against Forced Hellenization

A country priest's family starts a guerrilla war over a pig on the altar, and wins

On the timeline · around 167-164 BCE · Second Temple and ExileSecond Temple and ExileThe Maccabean Revolt Against Forced Hellenization350 BCE300 BCE250 BCE200 BCE150 BCE100 BCE50 BCE1 CE50 CE

Quick facts

Temple desecrated
December 167 BCE
Temple rededicated
25 Kislev (25 December) 165 BCE
Key leaders
Mattathias, Judah Maccabee
Outcome
Hasmonean dynasty, independent Jewish rule

What happened

After Alexander the Great's conquests brought Judea under Greek-speaking rule, first the Ptolemies and then the Seleucid Empire, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes pushed an aggressive program of Hellenization. In December 167 BCE he desecrated the Second Temple, erecting an idol on its altar and outlawing core Jewish practices including circumcision and Sabbath observance on penalty of death. A priest named Mattathias and his sons, later known as the Maccabees, led an armed revolt; his son Judah Maccabee proved a skilled military commander and retook Jerusalem. On 25 Kislev (25 December) 165 BCE the Temple was cleaned and rededicated, an event commemorated ever after as Hanukkah, and by October 164 BCE the Seleucids restored Jewish religious rights. The revolt led to the Hasmonean dynasty, a period of independent Jewish rule over Judea.

Why it matters

The Maccabean Revolt was the first time Jews organized a successful armed resistance to a foreign power's attempt to suppress their religion outright, and it produced roughly a century of Jewish political independence before Rome absorbed the region, along with a holiday, Hanukkah, that keeps the memory of forced assimilation and resistance to it alive in Jewish practice today.

How we know

The revolt is recorded in the Books of Maccabees, near-contemporary historical narratives, and corroborated by the Seleucid administrative and diplomatic record of the same period.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Judaism26 events · A small highland people, a book that outlasted every empire that tried to erase it, and a faith that survived exile twice and built a state a third timeView all →
The Maccabean Revolt Against Forced Hellenization · History of Judaism · SourcedStory