Who Were the Maccabees? (And what did they mean for Jesus?)

What did the ancient Jews have in mind when they thought "Messiah"?

Included in some Bibles, but not often found in Protestant Bibles, are the Books of Maccabees. They detail some pretty intense stories, stories that help give context to the Gospels in the New Testament. The Jews were living in a time that had specific and intricate political and religious realities. We try to distill some of these events so we can get a better idea of the world the Jesus enters and ministers into.

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[ethath]

That final reflection is very interesting to me. Makes the reality of what and who Jesus was and his perspective on his choice of expressing the “kingdom of heaven” a lot more understandable.

[quartermoon]

Great video! Very informative without being condescending or boring.

[literallypreciousss]

Thank you for this lesson. I'm from Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹 and I'm really enjoying your vids.

[VforValenti]

"a part of Turkey" is quite an anachronistic quote. Great video in general!

[JustFollowHim]

The Jews were actually expecting two messiahs, a Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. They thought Yeshua would be the Messiah ben David (the conquering king) but he came as the suffering servant (Messiah ben Joseph). When Yochanan (John the Baptist) asks if Jesus is the one or should they be looking for someone else, he isn't having doubt and asking if he is the Messiah, he's asking what role he came to fulfill and Yeshua's responds by remezing with scriptures that allude to both Messiahs, saying that he will fulfill both!

[waynepret]

Great video. Especially since I'm reading the book

[sheltr]

So well done!
I wish you had the Thank You button, I'd contribute

[TheRisenLife]

That was a really good video, thank you

[johnbreitmeier]

Pretty good summary but you missed 2 huge and related points directly to your subject:
1) You did mention the one non-Levitical high priest being appointed but you completely missed the Maccabees - of the tribe of Levi and the Houses of Aaron and Zadok - grabbing not only the high priesthood for the Hasmoneans but also usurping the throne of David to which they had zero Biblical right. Descending from Zadok or Saddok, they became the Sadducees.

2) This spawned the two major political parties of Judea AND their doctrinal positions that are a constant background noise in the Gospels. To make this usurption seem legitimate, the sadducees HAD to de-legitimize the books of the prophets that spoke repeatedly of a Messiah from the House of David and the tribe of Judah, hence they only acknowledged the 5 Books of Moses where the tribe of Levi was in charge. To rebut this, the Pharisees party, largely of the tribe of Judah, was born. They invented the synagogue to take religious instruction away from the Temple. They invented the position and office of rabbi to lead that instruction or indoctrination. Those rabbis were seldon Levites and were Judeans often of the House of David like Hillel and Gamaliel. Neither is mentioned in the Old Testament. They emphasized the prophets and also invented "the oral Torah" That eventually became the Talmud which BOTH Jesus and the Sadducees roundly rejected.

If you do not see that, you miss a lot of what is going on in the Gospels. Jesus, a Judean of the House of David, is claiming to be BOTH Messiah King, heir of David AND the High Priest of Israel offering himself as sacrifice, as well as being Yahweh himself. At the same time he roundly rejects the Judean Pharisees for putting words in God's mouth and trying to seize the priesthood themselves. He is basically telling the Sadducees, who were still heading the Roman puppet government to get off his throne. They both hated him for very obvious reasons once you know who they really were.

[Pandərling]

6:31 Adonai Jesus is True God King Messiah 👑🌿✡✝️🕎🕊🌿🕯🙏

[PrinceDarius]

This video was very informative! Thanks.

[drewdauber]

well put together... informative and looking forward to more videos!

[DUZCO]

Why no mention that Jesus observed Hanukkah???

John 10:22-23

"Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade."

The "Festival of Dedication" refers to Hanukkah, which celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt.

[MazziPeled]

I think you meant to say “the Jews in Judea” in time stamp 7:08.
The name of the land was changed to “Syria Palestina” by the Romans way later.

[PumbaaStriking]

I think you did great, I'm studying on the changes to the Bible I've grown up with before going forward with either Catholic or Orthodox, and i have a much better understanding now as to 4 of the missing books. Thank you, i look forward to more of your videos

[stephenfriesen]

Great video. Thank you. Never heard of this stuff before…

[zack]

alexander the great empire divided into four 4 kingdoms not 3: the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, the Seleucid Empire in the east, the Kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor, and Macedon.

[KennethRamirez-ky]

Thank you for your commentary during the time of the Maccabees you have the dead sea scrolls. There are interesting books about the Messiah. One is the Melchiorek scroll and then there is first Enoch. They both talk about a Messiah that is very similar to Jesus.

[Aethelhart]

7:33 There is very good evidence that the Hasmoneans were not only Levites, they were Zadokites. This is an area of some special, but I highly recommend researching this area because it seems to me not likely than not that Simon was a valid high priest of the line of Zadok.

[ElidaOchoa-vt]

🔥Glory be to you Precious Father. Glory, Glory, Glory, be to you.🔥