Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
← →
⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Empires 1 ▾
Hasmonean Kingdom c. 140-37 BC 41
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is 1 Maccabees 13 about?

With Jonathan a captive, Simon, the last of the brothers, steps forward and is chosen leader, rallying the people to stand firm. Though Simon sends the ransom and hostages Trypho demands, the deceiver keeps his word to no one and murders Jonathan at Bascama; Simon recovers his brother's bones, buries them at Modein, and raises a great monument over the family. Making terms with Demetrius, Simon wins tax immunity so that the yoke of the Gentiles is lifted from Israel, and he captures Gazara and at last the citadel of Jerusalem, cleansing it of its defilement. The chapter marks the effective independence of the Jews under the Hasmoneans, the aim toward which the whole revolt had striven.

Historical backdrop

Alexander's empire had shattered into the kingdoms of his generals, and Judea lay under the Seleucids who ruled the East from Antioch. When Antiochus the Fourth outlawed the Law, forced Greek ways on Jerusalem, and raised an altar to Zeus on the altar of the LORD, a priest's family in the hills rose in revolt. The war that followed pitted farmers and their sons against the Seleucid phalanx and its armored war elephants, and it ended with the temple cleansed and rededicated, a rising Jewish state, and envoys sent to a distant new power named Rome. This is the world between the Testaments, the fight that set the stage on which the Gospels open.

The Church Fathers on 1 Maccabees 13
Deuterocanon (Catholic & Orthodox) · Accepted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the original 1611 KJV (between the Old and New Testaments). Not in the Protestant 66-book canon. Read with the same care you bring to other Scripture, conscious that Protestants and Catholics weigh its authority differently.

1 Maccabees 13

1 Maccabees Chapter 13
13
← Chapter 12 Chapter 14 →
What is 1 Maccabees 13 about?

With Jonathan a captive, Simon, the last of the brothers, steps forward and is chosen leader, rallying the people to stand firm. Though Simon sends the ransom and hostages Trypho demands, the deceiver keeps his word to no one and murders Jonathan at Bascama; Simon recovers his brother's bones, buries them at Modein, and raises a great monument over the family. Making terms with Demetrius, Simon wins tax immunity so that the yoke of the Gentiles is lifted from Israel, and he captures Gazara and at last the citadel of Jerusalem, cleansing it of its defilement. The chapter marks the effective independence of the Jews under the Hasmoneans, the aim toward which the whole revolt had striven.