I. The Xame. — The original term Maccuhee (Jt Maic- Ka^alor) has been varioush' derived. Some have main- tained that it was derived from the banner of the tribe of Dan, which contained the last letters of the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others imagine that it was formed from the combination of the initial let- ters of the Hebrew sentence, " Who among the gods is like unto thee, Jehovah?" (Exod. xv, 11; Hebrew *i, a, 5, 52), which is supposed to have been inscribed upon the banner of the patriots; or, again, of the ini- tials of the simply descriptive title, " Jlattalhias, a priest, the son of Johanan." But, even if the custom of form- ing such words was in use among the Jews at this early time, it is obvious that such a title woidd not be an in- dividual title in the first instance, as !Maccabee undoubt- edly was (1 jMacc. ii, -1), and still remains among the Jews (Raphall, Hist, of the Jens, i, 249). Moreover, the orthography of the word in Greek and Syriac (Ewald. Geschichte, iv, 352, note) points to the form ''3p'Q, and not iS^'O. Another derivation has been proposed, which, although direct evidence is wanting, seems sat- isfactory. According to this, the word is formed from
il2|i>'2, " a hammer" (like Malachi, Ewald, iv, 353, n.)
THE ASMON^AN FAMILY. Chasmon ("of the sons of Joarib," comp. 1 Chrou. xxiv, 7).
Johauan {'ludi/vfif).
Simeon {Zuixiwv, Simon. Comp. 2 Pet. i, 1).
Mattathias (Matthias, Joseph. War, i, 1, 3), tB.C.lG7.
giving a sense not altogether unlike that in which Charles Murtel derived a surname from his favorite weajxin, and still more like the Malleus Scoiorum and Malleus IIa>reticoniHi of the jVIiddle Ages.
Although the name Maccabees has gained the widest currency, that of Asmonwaris, or Hasmonceans, is the proper name of the family. The origin of this name also has been disputed ; but the obvious derivation from Chashmon ("'^dn, 'A(T«//(ojwoe ; comp. Gesenius, r/;e- sau?: p. 534 b), great-grandfather of Mattathias, seems certainly correct. How it came to pass that a man, otherwise obscure, gave his name to the family, cannot now be discovered ; but no stress can be laid upon this difficulty, nor upon the fact that in Jewish prayers (Herzfeid, Geschichte d. Jud. i, 264) Blattathias himself is called Ilashmonai. In Fsa. Ixviii, 32 we meet with a word Ci"5'i^n, to the supposed singular of which, ■tq w'n, the name in question is commonly referred. In this case it might have been given to the priest of the course of Joarib to signify that he was a wealthy or a powerfid person. In Josh, xv, 27 we find a town in the tribe of Judah called "ji^dn, from which this name might equally be derived. Herzfeld's proposed deriva- tion from con, " to temper steel," is fanciful and ground- less. The word in the first instance appears more like a family than a personal name. The later Hebrew form is "iXJlT^'ilTI. See Zipser, Benemmng der Makkahder (in the Ben-Chananjah, 1860). See Asmon^ax.
II. Pedif/ree. — The connection of the various members of the IVIaccabiean family will be seen from the table given below.
III. History of the War of Independence,involving that
Johanau (.Johannes) Simon Jndas Eleazar
(Gaddis) (Thassi), (Maccabieus), (Avaran),
("Joseph" in 2 Mace, viii, 22), t B.C. 135. t B.C. 161. t B.C. 163.
t B.C. 161. I
Jonathan (Apphns), t B.C. 143.
Judas t B.C. 135.
Johannes Hyrcanus I, t B.C. 106.
I
Mattathias, t B.C. 135.
Dauahter to Ptolemieus (1 Mace, xvi, 11, 12).
Salome (Alexandra) to Aristobulas I, Antigonns,
t B.C. 103. t B.C. 105.
Jann.'Eus Alexander to Alexandra, tB.C.TS. I
Son.
Son.
Hyrcanus II, t B.C. 30.
Alexandra to Alexander, t B.C. 28. I t B.C. 49.
Aristobulus II, t B.C. 49.
I
Antigonus, t B.C. 37.
Mariamne to Hemd the Great, t B.C. 29.
of the Individucds of the Family. — 1. The first of this family who attained distinction was the aged priest Mattathias, who dwelt at Modin, a city west of Jeru- salem and near the sea, of which the site has yet been but partly identified by modern research. He was the son of John, the son of Simon, the son of Asamonie- us, as Josephus tells us, and was himself the father of five sons — John, otherwise called Gaddis; Simon, called Thassi ; Judas, called Maccaba?us ; Eleazar, called Ava- ran ; and Jonathan, surnamcd Ajiphus. Ewald remarks that Simon and John were favorite names in this family. After the expulsion of Antiochus Epiphanes from Egyi)t by the Komans, that monarch proceeded to vent his rage
Aristobulus, t B.C. 35.
and indignation on the Jews. B.C. 168. See Antio- chus. He massacred vast numbers of them in Jerusa- lem on the Sabbath, took the women captives, and built a fortress on Mount Zion, which he used as a central po- sition for harassing the people around. He ordered one Athen.-eus to instruct the inhabitants of Judasa and Sa- maria in the rites of the Grecian religion, with a view to abolishing all vestiges of the Jewish worship. Hav- ing succeeded in bringing the Samaritans to renounce their religion, he further went to Jerusalem, whore he prohibited the observance of all Jewish ceremonies, obliged the people to eat swine's flesh and profane the Sabbath, and forbade circumcision. The Temple was