Judas Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus († 160 BC ; Hebrew יהודה המכבי Yehuda haMakabi ; also: Juda ; also: Makabäus ) was a Jewish freedom fighter of the 2nd century BC. Chr. After his nickname was revolt of the Maccabees named.
origin
Judas comes from the Hasmonean family , an Aaronite priestly family (division of Jojarib ). His father Mattatias was the initiator of the revolt against the rule of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV. Epiphanes and the high priest Menelaus .
Liberation struggle
The starting point was the revolt of the Jews against the religious edict of Antiochus IV, which demanded a demonstrative apostasy from the Jews under threat of severe punishment: they should be forced to make a pagan sacrifice. Judas' father Mattatias refused to make the sacrifice, killed the royal ambassador and, according to tradition, set the signal for the beginning of an uprising that began in 167 BC. Began as partisan war and 165 BC. Ended with the conquest of Jerusalem.
After the death of his father Mattatias in 166 BC. Judas appears as the leader of the rebels. The first military successes achieved in open field battles against the Seleucid army at Emmaus and Beth-Sur prompted the Seleucid imperial administrator Lysias to start negotiations with the rebels and to agree an armistice.
The result of the negotiations is an offer from Antiochus IV. It includes ( 2 Makk 11.27-33 EU ):
- Repeal of the religious edict
- Amnesty for the insurgents
Victory and temple consecration
The high priest Menelaus , however, was to remain in office, a condition which the insurgents found unacceptable, as Menelaus was for them the embodiment of apostasy and iniquity. In addition, they had to fear that after the laying down of their weapons they would be sacrificed to a certain extent as "terrorists" by more moderate groups.
Therefore, Judas surprisingly took the initiative and conquered Jerusalem by surprise. Only one Seleucid garrison remained in the City of David . He had the pagan altar stone in the temple destroyed and on 25 Kislew in December 164 BC. Solemnly rededicate the temple. This event is celebrated by the Jews to this day on Hanukkah , the festival of lights.
The capture of Jerusalem was followed by military campaigns in the areas of the Idumeans and Ammonites as well as in Galilee and Perea , which served partly to secure the area and partly to protect the local Jewish population. Part of these measures included the resettlement of Jews from Galilee and the East Bank to the Jewish heartland. The resettled people were assigned the land of dispossessed supporters of the Seleucids and Menelaus.
Defeat and death
After the death of Antiochus IV in November (164 BC) Lysias , the Seleucid imperial administrator and guardian of the still underage Antiochus V , tried again to reach peace with the rebels. Again Judas had to fear that if there was an understanding between the Jewish pious, the Hasideans (“ Hasideans ”), and the Seleucids, his followers and especially the leaders and activists of the freedom struggle would be marginalized and possibly later persecuted. He therefore decided to take action against the Seleucid garrison that remained in Jerusalem and began a siege of the City of David.
The Seleucid side then came to the conviction that a reliable peace and a return to the status quo ante (including regular tax payments from Judea) was not possible, and sought a military decision. In the year 163 BC The Jewish armed forces under Judas' leadership suffered a crushing defeat at Beth-Zechariah . Beth-sur , which was fortified by Judas, also fell into the hands of the Seleucids. Only on the Temple Mount did a few insurgents withstand the siege.
Actually, the end of the uprising would have come here if Lysias had not been forced to come to an agreement with the Jews due to internal difficulties. He made peace with the Hasideans, a mutually acceptable new high priest named Alkimos was installed, and Menelaus was executed. However, the Seleucid occupation remained in Jerusalem and the fortifications of the Temple Mount were razed.
Judas, his brothers and the leaders of the uprising had to flee. Another partisan war with terror and counter terrorism followed. In the flat country in particular, actual and supposed followers of Alcimus fell victim to the partisans of Judas. To put an end to these attacks, a Seleucid force was sent against Judas under the general Nikanor . In the battle of Adasa in March 161 BC. However, Nikanor lost both battle and life. Victory day, the 13th Adar, entered the Jewish calendar as Nikanortag .
More difficult than the victory against a relatively small armed force was the influence of Rome, which was gaining more and more importance in the east. A letter handed down in the 2nd Book of Maccabees (11.34-38 EU ) from a Roman embassy in Antioch at that time (164 BC) to the leaders of the Jews represents a cheeky interference in internal affairs of the Seleucid Empire and an implicit recognition of the Jewish rebels . Judas seized the opportunity and sent in the summer of 161 BC. A delegation to Rome. One of these messengers was Eupolemus , son of Jochanan and the author of a Jewish story in the Greek language. The result of the negotiations in Rome was a treaty on mutual arms aid ( 1 Makk 8, 17-32 EU ). This treaty, politically smart in the short term, formed one of several starting points for Roman interference in Judea in the long term.
In view of this situation, the Seleucid king Demetrios I decided to undertake a military liberation. He sent a great army under the general Bakchides to Judea. In March 160 BC Judas fell in the battle of Elasa after his army had largely disbanded in view of the hostile superiority. Rome saw no need for anything more than verbal action.
Surname
Maccabeus is the form derived from the Greek Maccabeus , which in turn is derived from the Aramaic Makkaba (hammer). The underlying Hebrew letters MKB have also been interpreted as an acrostic for the first letters of the words mi kamoka ba'elim YHWH in Exodus 15:11 ( who is like you among the gods, YEAR? ). MKB , for example, could have been the watchword of the Jewish freedom fighters, which became the epithet of their leader.
Impact history
In the Carolingian era, around the 9th century, Judas Maccabeus became a warrior-martyr who was instrumentalized to mobilize against the Hungarians.
And also in 1095 Pope Urban II presented Judas Maccabeus to the crusaders as a shining example. Around 1390 Judas Maccabeus was portrayed as one of the Nine Good Heroes at the summer house in Runkelstein Castle .
Furthermore, there are numerous artistic implementations in occidental cultural history, such as the oratorio of the same name by Georg Friedrich Handel .
swell
- 1. Maccabees
- 2. Maccabees
- Flavius Josephus : Jewish antiquities ( Antiquitates Judaica. )
literature
- Bar-Kochva, Bezalel: Judas Maccabaeus . Cambridge et al. 1989.
- Klaus Bringmann: History of the Jews in Antiquity . Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-608-94138-X , p. 113ff.
- Heinrich Graetz : History of the Jews . Vol. 2.2, chap. 10 u. 11.
- Hans Kloft: The Maccabees - History and Memory , in: From Magna Grarcia to Asia Minor, Festschrift for Linda-Marie Günther, Wiesbaden 2017, pp. 349–364.
- Doris Lambers-Petry: Judas Maccabeus. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Judas Maccabeus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yehuda haMakabi; Judas Macabre |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Jewish freedom fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd century BC BC or 2nd century BC Chr. |
| DATE OF DEATH | 160 BC Chr. |