Judas Maccabeus

Life

Judas was the third son of Mattathias, a priest from the village of Modein, northwest of Jerusalem. His story is known chiefly from 1 and 2 Maccabees and from the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. The epithet "Maccabeus" is widely explained as deriving from an Aramaic word meaning "hammer," but its etymology is uncertain.

Around 167 BC, Antiochus IV of the Seleucid dynasty (a Hellenistic dynasty that ruled Syria and the surrounding region after the death of Alexander the Great) began persecuting Judaism. He prohibited circumcision and the observance of the Sabbath and set up an altar to a pagan god in the Temple in Jerusalem. In response, Mattathias and his sons rose in revolt, and after his father's death Judas led the resistance. Judas was killed around 160 BC at Elasa in battle against the army of the Seleucid general Bacchides.

Career and Achievements

Despite being outnumbered, Judas defeated Seleucid armies on several occasions. Around 164 BC he recaptured Jerusalem, purified the defiled Temple, and rededicated it. Jews commemorate this event with the festival of Hanukkah, which is the Feast of the Dedication (the festival marking the rededication of the Temple) mentioned in John 10:22. First Maccabees also records that he sought an alliance with Rome. After his death his brothers Jonathan and Simon carried on the struggle, and the Hasmonean dynasty was founded by Simon's descendants.

Influence on the Korean Church

The books of Maccabees, which contain the story of Judas Maccabeus, are included in the Bible by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, but Protestantism does not accept them as canonical and classifies them among the Apocrypha. Accordingly, they do not appear in the New Korean Revised Version, but they are included in the edition of the Common Translation Bible that contains the deuterocanonical books.

In Korean Protestantism, Judas is discussed mainly in Bible studies and sermons dealing with the intertestamental period. Many interpreters read the prophecy of Daniel 11 as referring to the era of Antiochus IV, and this period is also cited in explanations of "the abomination of desolation" in Matthew 24:15. Some scholars also hold that the description of suffering believers in Hebrews 11:33–38 includes the martyrs of the Maccabean era. The tune of the Easter hymn "Thine Be the Glory," which appears in the Korean New Hymnal, is known to be taken from Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabaeus.

Assessment

In Jewish tradition, Judas is remembered as a hero who defended both the faith and the nation. The Catholic Church has cited the passage in 2 Maccabees 12, in which Judas offers a sin offering on behalf of fallen soldiers, as one of the grounds for prayer for the dead. Since the Reformation, Protestants have not used the books of Maccabees as a basis for doctrine, nor do they accept this interpretation. Historians, for their part, differ over whether his revolt was a struggle for religious freedom or was also bound up with an internal conflict within Jewish society between Hellenizers and traditionalists.