- published: 06 Aug 2015
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The Maccabees also spelled Machabees (Hebrew: מכבים or Maqabim, מקבים, Machabi (Latin) or Machado from Latin (marculatum) that means "Hammer" (Greek: Μακκαβαῖοι, /makav'εï/) were a Jewish rebel army that took control of Judea, which had been a client state of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion, expanding the boundaries of the Land of Israel and reducing the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.
In the 2nd century BCE, Judea lay between the Ptolemaic Kingdom based in Egypt and the Seleucid empire based in Syria, kingdoms formed after the death of Alexander the Great (336–323 BCE). Judea had been under Ptolemaic rule, but fell to the Seleucids around 200 BCE. Judea at that time had been affected by the Hellenization begun by Alexander. Some Jews, mainly those of the urban upper class, notably the Tobiad family, wished to dispense with Jewish law and to adopt a Greek lifestyle. According to the historian Victor Tcherikover, the main motive for the Tobiads' Hellenism was economic and political. The Hellenizing Jews built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, competed in international Greek games, "removed their marks of circumcision and repudiated the holy covenant".
It's not for the faint hearted
Not for the ones who've parted from you
It's not for you
It's not for those who gamble
It's not for hearts that strangle
But you, its' for you
Its all so disconcerting
At times it is just unnerving
But you, you helped me through