Quite casually, without either plan or concert, a
warlike opposition arose. There was a certain priest Mattathias,
of the family of the Hasmonaeans, a man far advanced in life,
whose home was in Modein, a little country town to the west of
Jerusalem. Hither also the Syrian soldiers came to put the
population to a positive proof of their change of faith; they
insisted upon Mattathias leading the way. But he was steadfast in
his refusal; and, when another Jew addressed himself before his
eyes to the work of making the heathen offering, he killed him and
the Syrian officer as well, and destroyed the altar. Thereupon he
fled to the hill country, accompanied by his sons (Johannes Gaddi,
Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabaeus, Eleazar Auaran, Jonathan Apphus)
and other followers. But he resolved to defend himself to the
last, and not to act as some other fugitives had done, who about
the same time had allowed themselves to be surrounded and butchered
on a Sabbath-day without lifting a finger. Thus he became the head
of a band which defended the ancestral religion with the sword.
They traversed the country, demolished the altars of the false gods,
circumcised the children, and persecuted the heathen and heathenishly
disposed.
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