Mattathias

Life

According to 1 Maccabees 2, Mattathias was a priest of the family of Joarib (Jehoiarib). He was the grandson of Simeon and the son of John (Johanan), and he left Jerusalem to settle in Modein, a village northwest of Jerusalem known as the place where his family had lived for generations. He had five sons: John, called Gaddi; Simon, called Thassi; Judas, called Maccabeus; Eleazar, called Avaran; and Jonathan, called Apphus.

At that time Judea was under the rule of the Seleucid dynasty, a Greek dynasty that governed the region of Syria after the death of Alexander the Great. Antiochus IV Epiphanes of this dynasty forced Greek religion and customs upon the Jews. Around 167 BC, when the king's officers came to Modein and demanded that sacrifice be offered to foreign gods, Mattathias refused. When a Jew then came forward to offer a sacrifice on the altar, Mattathias killed him, killed the king's officer as well, and tore down the altar. He then fled to the mountains with his sons and gathered a resistance force. 1 Maccabees records that he died in the year 146 of the Seleucid era (around 166 BC) and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors at Modein.

Ministry and Achievements

• Beginning of the revolt: The incident at Modein is regarded as the starting point of the Maccabean Revolt. The narrative in Maccabees compares his action to the zeal for the law that Phinehas showed in Numbers 25.
• Decision to fight on the Sabbath: A group that was attacked on the Sabbath refused to fight back and was annihilated. In response, Mattathias and his companions resolved to fight if attacked, even on the Sabbath.
• Last testament: Before his death he encouraged his sons by citing the faith of ancestors such as Abraham, Joseph, David, Elijah, and Daniel. He appointed Simon as counselor and Judas Maccabeus as commander of the army.

After his death, Judas Maccabeus led the revolt and purified the Temple in Jerusalem, an event that became the origin of the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). His son Simon later founded the Hasmonean dynasty.

Influence on the Korean Church

The story of Mattathias appears only in the books of Maccabees. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church accept these books as part of the canon. Most Korean Protestants, by contrast, regard them as apocrypha (books not included in the canon) and do not include them in the Bible. For this reason his name does not appear in the New Korean Revised Version. The Korean Common Translation, which includes the apocrypha, renders his name as Mattadia, while the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea's Seonggyeong (The Holy Bible) renders it as Matatiaseu (Mattathias). The Mattathias who appears in the genealogy of Luke 3 (Korean Matdadia) is a different person who merely bears the same name.

In Korean Protestantism he is discussed mainly in accounts of the history of the intertestamental period. He is often introduced as background for understanding the state of Judaism in New Testament times and the Feast of Dedication.

Assessment

• Catholic and Jewish traditions honor him as one who upheld the law against the imposition of pagan religion.
• Protestants do not regard the books of Maccabees as Scripture inspired by God, and therefore treat his deeds as historical material rather than as a norm for faith. The Westminster Confession of Faith states that the apocrypha are not divinely inspired.
• Some point out that his zeal, which led him to kill a fellow Jew at the altar, could be used to justify religious violence. Others note that 1 Maccabees was written from a perspective that defends the legitimacy of the Hasmonean dynasty, and that its account of him may therefore be idealized.