MATTATHIAS măt’ a thī as (LXX Ματταθίας, G3478, gift of the Lord). 1. An attendant on Ezra at the law-reading (1 Esdras 9:43) prob. the same as Mattithiah of Nehemiah 8:4.

2. A son of Asom, who divorced his foreign wife (1 Esd 9:33 KJV MATTHIAS).

3. The priestly father of the famous Maccabean line, whose five sons carried on the fight for law and liberty after the father’s death. He was of the house of Jehoiarib (1 Chron 24:7). It was at Modein, W of Jerusalem, that the revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes began. Determined to eradicate Jewry, Antiochus abolished sacrifices, erected pagan altars, even one to Zeus in the Temple, and executed any who possessed the law (1 Macc 2:1, 14, 16, 19, 24, 27, 39, 45, 49; 14:29).

Mattathias defied the king, the climax coming when Gr. officers under Apelles set up an altar at Modein, demanding sacrifice to heathen gods. Mattathias, refusing, killed the Jew who volunteered, and also the Gr. officer, destroyed the altar and fled to the hills with his followers. He conducted a guerilla campaign, reversing his early refusal to fight on the Sabbath. At the end of one year, he died, c. 168, age 146. In special Hanukkah prayers this patriot is remembered as the spearhead of the warfare for religious freedom.

4. A son of Absalom who was captain of Maccabean forces warring against Demetrius (successor to Antiochus) after he killed Eupator. In the plain of Hazor, his loyal support enabled Jonathan to convert threatened defeat into victory (1 Macc 11:70).

5. One of three envoys from Nicanor, a general of Antiochus, regarding a treaty with Judas Maccabeus in 161 b.c. (2 Macc 14:17-19).

6. The third (or youngest) son of Simon the Maccabee was named Mattathias II (1 Macc 16:2). With his father and brothers, he was murdered by his brother-in-law Ptolemy at Jericho c. 135 b.c. (1 Macc 16:14-16).

7. The last of the notable Maccabeans, Antigonus, took this name. Thus the war for freedom began and ended with a Mattathias. (Fairweather: From Exile to Advent, pp. 182-184.)

8 and 9. The name of two ancestors of the Lord according to Luke 3:25, 26.

Bibliography R. H. Pfeiffer, History of OT Times (1949), 14, 80; Grant, Between the Testaments (undated), 93; N. H. Snaith, The Jews from Cyrus to Herod (undated), 37f.