The father of the Hasmonean dynasty of religious and political leaders, he was the initiator and first leader of the Maccabean revolt (167 BCE), the success of which is celebrated by the Hanukkah festival. He was the priest in the Judean village of Modi'in when a Syrian Seleucid officer came to enforce the edicts of Antiochus IV Epiphanes regarding sacrifices to the hellenistic idols. He refused an order to offer the first sacrifice, and when another Jew volunteered to do so, Mattathias killed him and the officer. He and his five sons then fled to the Judean hills, gathering a band of fighters to wage the struggle against the Seleucids and the hellenization of the Jews. Af-ter a battle in which 1,000 Judean fighters suffered devastating losses because they would not fight on the Sabbath, Mattathias decreed that defensive military action is permitted on holy days, a precedent that has served modern Israel's religious leaders. On his death, his son Judah Maccabee succeeded him as leader of the revolt.
