Mattathias
2nd century BCE Jewish priest of the Hasmonean Dynasty
Mattathias ben Johanan was a Kohen who helped spark the Maccabean Revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. Mattathias's story is related in the deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees and in the writings of Josephus. Mattathias is accorded a central role in the story of Hanukkah and, as a result, is named in the Al HaNissim prayer Jews add to the Birkat Hamazon and the Amidah during the festival's eight days.
“Mattathias” enters the record as 2nd century BCE Jewish priest of the Hasmonean Dynasty. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mattathias, century and Jewish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mattathias” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.