on. For this
purpose pagan altars were set up among the Jews and pagan sacrifices
enjoined upon the worshippers of Jehovah. Many Jews fled from their own
towns and villages into the uninhabited wilderness, in order that they
might have liberty to worship the God of their fathers; but a few
conformed to the ordinances of Antiochus. Soon, however, open resistance
to the decrees of the pagan ruler began to manifest itself among the
faithful.

The first protest in the shape of active opposition was made by
Mattathias, a priest living at Modin. When the servants of Antiochus
came to that retired village and commanded Mattathias to do sacrifice to
the heathen gods, he refused; he went so far as to strike down at the
altar a Jew who was preparing to offer such a sacrifice. Then he escaped
to the mountains with his five sons and a band of followers. These
followers grew in numbers and activity, overthrowing pagan altars,
circumcising heathen children, and putting to the sword both apostates
and unbelievers. When Mattathias died, in B.C. 166, he was succeeded as
leader by his son Judas, called Maccabaeus, "the Hammer"; as Charles,
who defeated the Saracens at Tours, is called Martel or hammer.

The successes of Judas were uninterrupted, and culminated B.C. 165 in
the repulse of Lysias, the general of Antiochus, at Bethzur, where a
large Syrian force gathered in the expectation of crushing the patriotic
army of Judas. After this victory Judas led his followers into Jerusalem
and proceeded to restore the Temple and the worship of the national
religion, and to cleanse the Temple from all traces of pagan worship.
The great altar was rebuilt; new sacred vessels provided; and an
eight-days' dedication festival begun on the very day when, three years
before, the altar of Jehovah had been desecrated by a heathen sacrifice.
This Feast of the Dedication was ever afterward observed in the Temple
at Jerusalem and is mentioned in the gospels [John x. 22]. Judas
established a dynasty of priest-kings, which lasted until supplanted by
Herod, with the aid of the Romans, in B.C. 40; and gave by his genuinely
heroic bearing his name to this whole glorious epoch of Jewish history.)

Now at this time there was one whose name was Mattathias, who dwelt at
Modin, the son of John, the son of Simeon, the son of Asamoneus, a
priest of the order of Joarib, and a citizen of Jerusalem. He had five
sons: John, who was called Gaddis, and Simon, who was cal