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Chapter VI
1.
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 Simeon, who was called Matthes, and Judas, who was called Maccabeus, [his banner read: "Mi Kamoka Be
Elim, Jehovah?" ("Who is like unto thee among the
gods, O Jehovah?" Exod. Xv. 11,)] and Eleazar, who
was called Auran, and Jonathan, who was called Apphus.
Now this Mattathias lamented to his children the sad
state of their affairs, and the ravage made in the city, and
the plundering of the temple, and the calamities the multitude
were under; and he told them that it was better for them to
die for the laws of their country, than live so ingloriously
as they then did."
This Mattathias and his sons were really something, one courageous
bunch of guys, as you'll read here.
Like father, like son, they were.
2.
"But when those that were appointed by the king were come
to Modin, that they might compel the Jews to do what they
were commanded, and to enjoin those that were there to offer
sacrifice, as the king had commanded, they desired that Mattathias,
a person of the greatest character among them, both on other
accounts, and particularly on account of such numerous and
so deserving a family of children, would begin the sacrifice,
because his fellow-citizens would follow his example, and
because such a procedure would make him honoured by the king.
But Mattathias said that he would not do it; and that
if all the other nations would obey the commands of Antiochus,
either out of fear, or to please him, yet would not he nor
his sons leave the religious worship of their country; but
as soon as he had ended his speech, there came one of the
Jews into the midst of them, and sacrificed as Antiochus commanded
[probably swine]. At which Mattathias had great indignation, and
ran upon him violently with his sons, who had swords with
them, and slew both the man himself that sacrificed, and Appelles
the king's general, who compelled them to sacrifice, with
a few of his soldiers. He
also overthrew the idol altar, and cried out, "If,"
said he, "any one be zealous for the laws of his country,
and for the worship of God, let him follow me;"
and when he had said this, he made haste into the desert
with his sons, and left all his substance in the village.
Many others did the same also, and fled with their
children and wives into the desert and dwelt in caves; but
when the king's generals heard this, they took all the forces
they then had in the citadel of Jerusalem, and pursued the
Jews into the desert; and when they had overtaken them, they
in the first place endeavoured to persuade them to repent,
and to chose what was most for their advantage, and not put
them to the necessity of using them according to the law of
war; but when they would not comply with their persuasions,
but continued to be of a different mind, they fought against
them on the Sabbath-day, and they burnt them as they were
in the caves, without resistance, and without so much as stopping
up the entrances of the caves.
And they avoided to defend themselves on that day,
because they were not willing to break in upon the honour
they owed the Sabbath, even in such distresses; for our law
requires that we rest upon that day. There were about a thousand, with their wives
and children, who were smothered and died in these caves:
but many of those that escaped joined themselves to Mattathias,
and appointed him to be their ruler, who
taught them to fight even on the Sabbath-day; and told them
that unless they would do so, they would become their own
enemies, by observing the law [so rigorously,] while their
adversaries would still assault them on this day, and they
would not then defend themselves; and that nothing could then
hinder but they must all perish without fighting.
This speech persuaded them; and this rule continues
among us to this day, that if there be a necessity, we may
fight on Sabbath-days.
[And Orthodox Israeli soldiers could be seen fighting
alongside their non-Orthodox brothers-in-arms during the Israeli
war of independence in 1948, observing this same rule laid
down by Mattathias.] So Mattathias got a great army about him, and
overthrew their idol altars, and slew those that broke the
laws, even all that he could get under his power; for many
of them were dispersed among the nations round about them
for fear of him. He
also commanded that those boys who were not yet circumcised
should be circumcised now; and he drove those away that were
appointed to hinder such their circumcision.
3.
But when he had ruled one year, and was fallen into a distemper,
he called for his sons, and set them round about him, and
said, "O my sons, I am going the way of all the earth;
and I recommend to you my resolution, and beseech you not
to be negligent in keeping it, but to be mindful of the desires
of him who begat you, and brought you up, and to preserve
the customs of your country, and to recover your ancient form
of government, which is in danger of being overturned, and
not to be carried away with those that, either by their own
inclination, or out of necessity, betray it, but to become
such sons as are worthy of me; to be above all force and necessity,
and so to dispose your souls, as to be ready, when it shall
be necessary, to die for your laws; as sensible of this, by
just reasoning, that if God see that your are so disposed
he will not overlook
you, but will have a great value for your virtue, and will
restore to you again what you have lost, and will return to
you that freedom in which you shall live quietly, and enjoy
your own customs. Your bodies are mortal, and subject to fate;
but they receive a sort of immortality, by the remembrance
of what actions they have done; and I would have you so in
love with this immortality, that you may pursue after glory,
and that, when you have undergone the greatest difficulties,
you may not scruple, for such things, to lose your lives. I exhort you especially to agree one with another;
and in what excellency any one of your exceeds another, to
yield to him so far, and by that means to reap the advantage
of every one's own virtues.
Do you then esteem Simon as your father, because he
is a man of extraordinary prudence, and be governed by him
in what counsels he gives you.
Take Maccabeus for the general of your army,
because of his courage and strength, for he will avenge your
nation, and will bring vengeance on your enemies.
Admit among you the righteous and religious, and augment
their power."
4.
When Mattathias had thus discoursed to his sons, and had prayed
to God to be their assistant,and to recover to the people
their former constitution, he died a little afterward, and
was buried at Modin; all the people making great lamentation
for him. Whereupon
his son Judas took upon him the administration of public affairs,
in the hundred and forty-sixth year; and thus, buy the
ready assistance of his brethren and of others, Judas cast
their enemies out of the country, and put those of their own
country to death who had transgressed its laws, and purified
the land of all the pollutions that were in it.
CHAPTER VII
HOW JUDAS
OVERTHREW THE FORCES OF APOLLONIUS AND SERON, AND KILLED THE
GENERALS OF THEIR ARMIES THEMSELVES; AND HOW WHEN, A LITTLE
WHILE AFTERWARD, LYSIAS AND GORGIAS WERE BEATEN, HE WENT UP
TO JERUSALEM, AND PURIFIED THE TEMPLE.
1.
When Apollonius, the general of the Samaritan forces, heard
this, he took his army, and made haste to go against Judas,
who met him, and joined battle with him, and beat him, and
slew many of his men, and among them Apollonius himself, their
general, whose sword, being that which he happened then to
wear, he seized upon and kept for himself; but he wounded
more than he slew, and took a great deal of prey from the
enemy's camp, and went his way; but when Seron, who was general
of the army of Caelesyria, heard that many had joined themselves
to Judas, and that he had about him an army sufficient for
fighting and for making war, he determined to make an expedition
against him, as thinking it became him to endeavor to punish
those that transgressed the king's [Antiochus's] injunctions.
He then got together an army, as large as he was able,
and joined to it the runagate and wicked Jews, and came against
Judas. He then came as far as Bethoron, a village of
Judea, and there pitched his camp; upon which Judas met him,
and when he intended to give him battle, he saw that his [own]
soldiers were backward to fight, because their number was
small, and because they wanted food, for they were fasting,
he encouraged them, and said to them, that victory and conquest
of enemies are not derived from the multitude in armies, but
in the exercise of piety towards God; and that they had the
plainest instances in their forefathers, who, by their righteousness,
and exerting themselves on behalf of their own laws, and their
own children, had frequently conquered many ten thousands,--for
innocence is the strongest army. By this speech he induced his men to contemn
the multitude of the enemy, and to fall upon Seron; and upon
joining the battle with him, he beat the Syrians; and when
their general fell among the rest, they all ran away with
speed, as thinking that to be their best way of escaping.
So he pursued them unto the plain, and slew about eight
hundred of the enemy; but the rest escaped to the region which
lay near to the sea.
2.
When king Antiochus heard of these things, he was very angry
at what had happened; so he got together all his own army,
with many mercenaries, whom he had hired from the islands,
and took them with him, and prepared to break into Judea about
the beginning of the spring; but when, upon his mustering
his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures were deficient,
and there was want of money in them, for all the taxes were
not paid, by reason of the seditions there had been among
the nations, he having been so magnanimous and so liberal
that what he had was not sufficient for him, he therefore
resolved first to go into Persia, and collect the taxes of
that country. Hereupon he left one whose name was Lysias,
who was in great repute with him, governor of the kingdom,
as far as the bounds of Egypt, and of the Lower Asia, and
reaching from the river Euphrates, and committed to him a
certain part of his forces, and of his elephants, and charged
him to bring up his son Antiochus with all possible care,
until he came back; and that he should conquer Judea, and
take its inhabitants for slaves, and utterly destroy Jerusalem,
and abolish the whole nation; and when king Antiochus had
given these things in charge of Lysias, he went into Persia;
and in the hundred and forty-seventh year, he passed over
Euphrates, and went to the superior provinces.
3.
Upon this Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son of Dorimenes, and Nicanor,
and Gorgas, very potent men among the king's friends, and
delivered to them forty thousand foots-soldiers and seven
thousand horsemen, and sent them against Judea, who came as
far as the city of Emmaus, and pitched their camp in the plain
country. There came
also to them auxilaries out of Syria, and the country round
about; as also many of the runagate Jews; and besides these
came some merchants to buy those that should be carried captives,
(having bonds with them to bind those that should be made
prisoners,) with that silver and gold which they were to pay
for their price; and when Judas saw their camp, and how numerous
their enemies were, he persuaded his
own soldiers to be of good courage; and exhorted them
to place their hopes of victory in God, and to make supplication
to him, according to the custom of their country, clothed
in sackcloth; and to shew what was their usual habit of supplication
in the greatest dangers, and thereby to prevail with God to
grant them the victory over their enemies.
So he set them in their ancient order of battle used
by their forefathers, under their captains of thousands, and
other officers, and dismissed such as were newly married,
as well as those that had newly gained possessions, that they
might not fight in cowardly manner, out of an inordinate love
of life, in order to enjoy those blessings.
When he had thus disposed his soldiers, he encouraged
them to fight by the following speech, which he made to them:--"O
my fellow-soldiers, no other time remains more opportune that the present for courage and contempt of dangers;
for if you now fight manfully you may recover your liberty,
which, as it is a thing of itself agreeable to all men, so
it proves to be to us much more desirable, by its affording
us the liberty of worshipping God. Since, therefore, you are in such circumstances
at present, you must either recover that liberty, and so regain
a happy and blessed way of living, which is that according
to our laws, and the customs of our country, or to submit
to the most opprobrious sufferings; nor will any seed of your
nation remain if you be beat in this battle [if you doubt
the reality of what Judas was saying here, go back and read
what Antiochus did at the beginning of this article.].
Fight therefore manfully; and suppose that you must
die, though you do not fight; but believe, that besides such
glorious rewards as those of the liberty of your country,
of your laws, of your religion, you shall then obtain everlasting
glory. Prepare yourselves,
therefore, and put yourselves into such an agreeable posture,
that you may be ready to fight with the enemy as soon as it
is day to-morrow morning."
[Some speech! General Patton couldn't have said better.]
4.
And this was the speech which Judas made to encourage them.
But when the enemy sent Gorgias, with five thousand
foot and one thousand horse, that he might fall upon Judas
by night, and had for that purpose certain of the runagate
Jews as guides, the son of Mattathias perceived it, and resolved
to fall upon those enemies that were in their camp, now their
forces were divided. When they had therefore supped in good time,
and had left many fires in their camp, he marched all night
to those enemies that were at Emmaus; so that when Gorgias
found no enemy in their camp, but suspected that they were
retired and hidden themselves among the mountains, he resolved
to go and seek them wheresoever they were. But, about break of day, Judas appeared to those
enemies that were at Emmaus, with only three thousand men,
and those ill-armed, by reason of their poverty; and when
he saw the enemy very well and skilfully fortified in their
camp, he encouraged the Jews, and told them, that they ought
to fight, though it were with their naked bodies, for that
God had sometimes of old given such men strength, and that
against such as were more in number, and were armed also,
out of regard to their great courage. So he commanded the trumpeters to sound for
the battle: and by thus falling upon the enemy when they did
not expect it, and thereby astonishing and disturbing their
minds, he slew many of those that resisted him, and went on
pursuing the rest as far as Gadara, and the plains of Idumea,
and Ashdod, and Jamnia; and of these there fell about three
thousand. Yet did Judas exhort his soldiers not to be
too desirous of the spoils, for that still they must have
a contest and battle with Gorgias, and the forces that were
with him: but that, when they had once overcome them, then
they might securely plunder the camp because they were the
only enemies remaining, and they expected no others. And just as he was speaking to his soldiers,
Gorgias's men looked down into that army which they left in
their camp, and saw that it was overthrown, and the camp burnt;
for the smoke that arose from it shewed them, even when they
were a great way off, what had happened. When, therefore, those that were with Gorgias
understood that things were in this posture, and perceived
that those that were with Judas were ready to fight them,
they also were affrighted, and put to flight; but then Judas,
as though he had already beaten Gorgias's soldiers without
fighting, returned and seized on the spoils. He took a great quantity of gold and silver,
and purple, and blue, and then returned home with joy, and
singing hymns to God for their good success: for this victory
greatly contributed to the recovery of their liberty.
5.
Hereupon Lysias was confounded at the defeat of the army which
he had sent, and the next year he got together sixty-thousand
chosen men. He also
took five thousand horsemen, and fell upon Judea; and he went
up to the hill country of Bethsur, a village of Judea, and
pitched his camp there, where Judas met him with ten thousand
men; and when he saw the great number of his enemies, he prayed
to God that he would assist him, and joined battle with the
first of the enemy that appeared, and beat them, and slew
about five thousand of them, and thereby the battle became
terrible to the rest of them.
Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit of the
Jews, how they were prepared to die rather than lose their
liberty, and being afraid of their desperate way of fighting,
as if it were real strength, he took the rest of the army
back with him, and returned to Antioch, where he enlisted
foreigners into the service, and prepared to fall upon Judea
with a greater army [boy these stupid pagans just don't learn,
do they?]."
THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS--WHERE
IT CAME FROM
6.
"When, therefore, the generals of Antiochus's armies had
been beaten so often, Judas assembled the people together,
and told them, that after these many victories which God had
given them, they ought to go up to Jerusalem, and purify the
temple, and offer the appointed sacrifices. But as soon as he, with the whole multitude,
was come to Jerusalem, and found the temple deserted, and
its gates burnt down, and plants growing in the temple of
their own accord, on account of its desertion, he and those
that were with him began to lament, and were quite confounded
at the sight of the temple; so he chose out some of his soldiers,
and gave them order to fight against those guards that were
in the citadel, until he should have purified the temple.
When, therefore, he had carefully purged it, and had
brought in new vessels, the
candlestick [menorah], the table [of shewbread,] and the
altar [of incense,] which were made of gold, he hung up the
veils at the gates, and added doors to them. He also took down the altar [of burnt offering,]
and built a new one of stones that he gathered together, and
not of such as were hewn with iron tools.
So on the five and twentieth day of the month
of Casleu, which the Macedonians call Appelleus, they lighted
the lamps that were on the candlestick, and offered incense
upon the altar [of incense,] and laid the loaves upon the
table [of shewbread,] and offered burnt offerings upon the
new altar [of burnt offering.]
Now it so fell out, that these things were done
on the very same day on which their divine worship had fallen
off, and was reduced to profane and common use, after three
years' time; for so it was, that the temple was made desolate
by Antiochus, and so continued for three years.
This desolation happened to the temple in the hundred
forty and fifth year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month
Appelleus, and on the hundred and fifty-third olympiad; but
it was dedicated anew, on the same day, the twenty-fifth of
the month Appelleus, in hundred and forty-eighth year, on
the hundred and fifty-fourth olympiad.
And
this desolation came to pass according to the prophecy of
Daniel, which was given four hundred and eight years before;
for he declared that the Macedonians would dissolve that worship
[for some] time. [There was no doubt as to when Daniel 11 was
written in Josephus's mind!
I wonder what Amillennialists find so hard about believing
a respected historian from the first century (far closer to
the event than we are)?]
7.
Now Judas celebrated
the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple
for eight days; and omitted no sort of pleasures thereupon;
but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices;
and he honoured God, and delighted them, by hymns and psalms.
Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their
customs, when after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly
had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made
it law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival,
on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for
eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this
festival, and call it Lights.
I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond
our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given
to that festival. Judas
also rebuilt the walls round about the city, and reared towers
of great height against the incursions of enemies, and set
guards therein. He also fortified the city Bethsura, that it
might serve as a citadel against any distresses that might
come from our enemies."
That's the background history of the Festival of Lights, which
the Jews call Hanukkah, as accurately told by the Jewish historian
Josephus. As brought
out before, the Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus, could not have gone
through the special dedication ceremonies specified for a
Jewish male newborn. Without
following the Mosaic Law of God to the letter, he could not
have been sinless, and his sacrifice for the sins of the world
would have been in vain. Luke 2:21-24-32,
"And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision
of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named
of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were
accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him
to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every
male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)
and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in
the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name
was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting
for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon
him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost,
that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's
Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and
when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him
after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms,
and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant
depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation, [Yeshua, Hebrew for Jesus, means "salvation"]
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy
people Israel." [K'vod
Israel = Glory of Israel in Hebrew.]
In
spite of the archaic language of Josephus, I think the power
of God's divine providence and protection shine through, a
power bestowed on Judas Maccabeus so he could fulfill a special
mission from God, in preparation for the coming Messiah as
Jesus, Yeshua of Nazareth.
No, there could have been no Christmas without Hanukkah. If you've read about any of the battles of Jonathan
or David against their enemies in the Old Testament, you will
recognize God's divine hand in the life of Judas Maccabee,
and his father Mattathias.
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