1,419 related texts · Page 89 of 158
Our scene unfolds in a small town in Judea, under the oppressive rule of the Seleucid Empire. King Antiochus IV Epiphanes has decreed that everyone must abandon their ancestral tra...
That’s what faced Judah Maccabee and his followers as they finally reached the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Let’s set the scene. The year is roughly 164 BCE. After...
Let’s peek into a moment of incredible renewal – the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after it had been defiled. We find this story not in the Hebrew Bible as we know it, bu...
Times were tough. The Maccabees, that heroic family, were leading a revolt against the Seleucid Empire, who were trying to Hellenize Judea – to force Greek culture and religion upo...
The aftermath of battle... it's never pretty. The Book of Maccabees I tells us, starkly, that "there were burned and slain with the sword well nigh eight thousand men." Eight thous...
Our story centers on Jonathan, a leader of the Jewish people during a turbulent time. He's negotiating with someone who seems to be offering a pretty sweet deal: "I will give it th...
We're turning to the Book of Maccabees I, a historical text not included in the Hebrew Bible, but valued for its account of the Maccabean revolt. Specifically, we're looking at cha...
We know their story. Hanukkah celebrates their victory. But have you ever paused to consider the weight of leadership they carried, the sacrifices they made? In the First Book of M...
That’s the kind of pressure Simon Maccabeus and his family were facing. Our story picks up in the Book of Maccabees I, Chapter 16. Simon, the leader of the Maccabees after the deat...
