THE STORY OF A TOWN IN ANCIENT ISRAEL CALLED MODI'IN


The name "Modi'in" ( Hebrew : מודיעין ) derives from the village "Modi'im" [4] of the high priest Mattathias and his five sons, which was located in the same area as the modern city. The name "Maccabim" is Hebrew for the
Maccabees and is a common nickname given to mattiathias and his five sons

In Ancient Israel, a town named Modi'in existed in the general area the modern city is located in. It was the place of origin of the Jewish Hasmonean dynasty that ruled Judea in the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE , and it is where the Maccabean revolt against the
Seleucid Greeks started. Ancient Jewish artifacts believed to date to the Hasmonean and First Temple periods have been found in that area

The Hasmonean dynasty [2] ( / ˌhæzməˈniːən/
( audio ); Hebrew : חשמונאים , Roman.
Ḥashmona'im ) was the ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during classical antiquity . Between c. 140 and c. 116 BCE the dynasty ruled semi-autonomously from the
Seleucids in the region of Judea. From 110 BCE, with the Seleucid empire disintegrating, the dynasty became fully independent, expanded into the neighbouring regions of
Samaria , Galilee , Iturea , Perea , and Idumea , and took the title " basileus". Some modern scholars refer to this period as an independent kingdom of Israel. [3]
In 63 BCE, the kingdom was conquered by the Roman Republic, broken up and set up as a Roman client state. The dynasty had survived for 103 years before yielding to the
Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE. Even then, Herod the Great tried to bolster the legitimacy of his reign by marrying a Hasmonean princess,
Mariamne , and planning to drown the last male Hasmonean heir at his Jericho palace.

The dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus , two decades after his brother Judah the Maccabee ( יהודה המכבי " Y'hudhah HaMakabi " defeated the
Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt . According to historical sources, including 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees and the first book of The Jewish War by Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus (AD 37–c. 100), [4] after
Antiochus IV's successful invasion of Ptolemaic Egypt was turned back by the intervention of the Roman Republic,[5][6] Antiochus instead moved to assert strict control over the Seleucid satrapy of Coele Syria and Phoenicia,
[7] sacking Jerusalem and its Temple , suppressing Jewish and Samaritan religious and cultural observances, [7] and imposing
Hellenistic practices. The ensuing revolt by the Jews (167 BCE) began a period of Jewish independence potentiated by the steady collapse of the Seleucid Empire under attacks from the rising powers of the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire.
However, the same power vacuum
that enabled the Jewish state to be recognized by the
Roman Senate c. 139 BCE was later exploited by the Romans themselves. Hyrcanus II and
Aristobulus II , Simon's great-grandsons, became pawns in a proxy war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great . The deaths of Pompey (48 BCE), Caesar (44 BCE), and the related
Roman civil wars temporarily relaxed Rome's grip on Israel, allowing a very brief Hasmonean resurgence backed by the Parthian Empire . This short independence was rapidly crushed by the Romans under Mark Antony and Octavian .
The installation of Herod the Great (an Idumean) as king in 37 BCE made Israel a Roman client state and marked the end of the Hasmonean dynasty. In AD 6, Rome joined
Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea (biblical Edom ) into the Roman province of Iudaea. In AD 44, Rome installed the rule of a Roman procurator side by side with the rule of the Herodian kings (specifically Agrippa I 41–44
and Agrippa 11 50-100)

The family name of the Hasmonean dynasty originates with the ancestor of the house,
Greek : Ἀσαμωναῖος ( Asamoneus or
Asmoneus ) (see Josephus Flavius), [8] who is said to have been the great-grandfather of
Mattathias , but about whom nothing more is known. An alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmona'i is linked with the village of Heshbon , mentioned in Joshua 15:27 . Gott and Licht attribute the name to "Ha Simeon," a veiled reference to the Simeonite Tribe.

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