167 BCE: MATISYAHU DIES

Son Judah succeeds him as preeminent leader of the revolutionary forces. While Matisyahu was more priest than commander, Judah is more commander than priest; his actual taken name is “Judah the Hammer,” i.e. Judah the Maccabee.

Judah the Maccabee, revolutionary commander, recaptures Jerusalem and rededicates the Temple on December 14, 164 BCE (25 Kislev). The Jews are offered compromise by the Greek–Syrians: religious freedom but under continued Greek rule.

The Maccabees decline the offer. They have heard that line before.

The Maccabean insurgency will continue another 23 years in the endeavor to shake off Greek–Syrian rule totally, and to achieve political independence. One after the other, the sons of Matisyahu—the Maccabean commanders—are killed in battle. Judah is killed in 160 BCE, and his successor Jonathan is killed in 142 BCE. Another son is crushed by a charging Greek–Syrian military elephant in battle. Finally, in the same year, under the command of Judah’s surviving brother Simon—priest, warrior and master statesman—the Greek–Syrians, now under Demetrius II, grant the Jews complete political independence (and religious freedom).

After 25 years of almost unrelenting battle against the regional successors of Alexander the Great, the Macabees have prevailed and secured total Jewish