Hasmonean Dynasty. This family stayed faithful to God

The celebrated Jewish Hasmonean family 170-37BC who defended Jewish rights and customs.

This Jewish Hasmonean family and other Jewish families stayed faithful to God during the time called the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments.

Old Testament Bible reference: this happened in the silent 400 years period.

Purified the temple in 164BC that had been built by Zerubbabel, from which we get the feast of Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication.

The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple following Judah Maccabee’s victory over the Seleucids and their king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The sanctuary oil that was supposed to last one day lasted eight days.

Maccabee in Hebrew means: Hammer. This was the nickname for Judas, one of the five sons of a Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean. Judas continued to lead the revolt after the death of his father and the Hasmonean dynasty ruled Israel between 168BC-63BC. The Hasmonean dynasty ended in 37 BCE when the Idumean Herod the Great became king of Israel. He was put in by the Roman Senate.

The Seleucid Empire based in Syria was the occupying force in Israel at this time and forced on the local Jews to Greek ways and thinking. The Seleucid Empire was one of the four parts that emerged after the death of Alexander the Great in 332BC in Babylon at the age of 32 years old.


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