63 myths · Page 2 of 3
Men from Israel sought a covenant with the nations, built a gymnasium, and hid the covenant mark. Judas answered with fire, siege, and a hard order.
Out of silver for his wars, Antiochus turned on the Temple while Judas fought through famine and a sabbatical year that left Judea without stores.
Rumor said the Temple held Alexander's gold shields. Antiochus came to strip it, met battle, and left for Babylon with heaviness in his gut.
While Judas fought in Gilead, Joseph and Azarias sought glory at Jamnia. Gorgias crushed them, two thousand fell, and after Judas died the wicked rose again.
His brother John was taken on the road with the baggage. Bacchides pinned the band against the Jordan, and Jonathan's blow missed as the general turned aside.
A priest of Aaron's line came to Jerusalem with a Greek army. The men who wanted peace trusted his family name. He swore no one would be harmed, and lied.
The high priest who served Greek power locked hostages in the birah, smashed the sanctuary's inner wall, and fell paralyzed before he could finish the crime.
Tryphon set a boy on Antioch's throne with war elephants. Jonathan took gold and purple, then marched at night while spies counted enemy tents.
Judas Maccabeus was dead and his men picked Jonathan to lead. Bacchides rebuilt seven forts and locked the sons of leading families in Jerusalem.
Antiochus billed Judea a thousand talents, five hundred for the cities and five hundred for harm done. Athenobius found a cupboard of gold and silver plate.
Enemy camps lit fires and fled before dawn. Jonathan struck the Zabadeans instead, and elsewhere his men stormed a city with massive slaughter.
Israel gave Simon purple, gold, and sole right to assemble. Soon a partner refused two thousand troops and sent Athenobius to reclaim cities.
El'azar, his father told him, you are like Pinhas. Yonathan, you are like the son of Shaul who killed Philistines. Five went out and not all came home.
Apollonius hid a thousand horsemen behind Jonathan at Azotus. From morning to evening darts fell, then Gaza shut its gates and learned what a siege costs.
While some Jews volunteered for Greek laws and a gymnasium, Simon strengthened the Temple hill, lived there with his men, and made the day a memorial.
Seleucid officers dared Judas to leave the hills for their plain. In Jerusalem the Akra held traitors while Rome wrote Demetrius a threat by sea and land.
Jonathan and Simon hid under the mountain, remembered their murdered brother, and broke a Canaanite wedding with drums still in the air.
After idols leave the squares, a new altar rises from gathered stones. Priests fall on their faces until the sacrifice is consumed in smoke.
After the firstborn died, Pharaoh summoned Moses at midnight and begged Israel to leave, even the flocks he once tried to hold as chains.
Judas was dead, and his friends asked Jonathan to lead them in his brother's place. He scraped Jordan mud off his calves with a stick and kept moving.
Hungry besiegers admitted the stronghold would not fall, then offered Israel the right to live again by its own laws.
Demetrius had lost the love of his soldiers. Tryphon saw his chance and spent a long season pressing an Arab chief to hand over Alexander's small son.
Under a ban that killed mothers for circumcision, Mattathias rose in Modin. Covenant deaths and later Temple freedom frame the revolt he began.
Judah's men cut off Nicanor's arm and hung it at the Temple gate. Antiochus answered by sending Bagris to outlaw the Sabbath and circumcision.
Judas's friends gathered like men around a cold hearth. We have no man like him, they said, and gave the command to his brother. Bacchides hunted him next.
He was the first Greek king to offer Judea true peace, and they took it. Within a season his own father-in-law walked into his capital wearing two crowns.
He sent most of his army home for a promised gift of strongholds, then walked a thousand men into a city that slammed its gates.
Simon the Maccabee sent Numenius to Rome with a gold shield of a thousand pounds while Judea asked how to thank its saviors.
Ptolemy Physco drove Jews toward drunken elephants in Alexandria. The beasts wheeled on his own ranks while envoys sought allies.
King Areus of Sparta sent High Priest Onias a letter claiming the Lacedemonians and Jews were brethren from the stock of Abraham.
