NICANOR nī kā’ nər (Νικάνωρ, G3770, meaning conqueror). 1. A Syrian general of the Seleucid period of intertestamental history.

His service under Antiochus. Apparently all that is known about this Nicanor is found in 1 and 2 Maccabees. He is described as a mighty man and a personal friend of Antiochus Epiphanes. In 166-165 b.c. he, along with two other generals, was assigned by Antiochus’ regent, Lysias, to destroy Judah and Jerusalem (1 Macc 3:32-42). They took up their positions at Emmaus, just a few m. from Jerusalem, but were badly routed by Judas Maccabeus and his forces (4:3-14), forcing the Syrian generals and their army to flee into Philistine towns nearby (4:15).

His service under Demetrius. After an interval, during which Antiochus Epiphanes died, young Antiochus V and Lysias, his tutor, were assassinated, and Demetrius I became king, Nicanor’s name appears again in 1 Maccabees. This time he was sent on a similar mission by Demetrius to destroy Judas and his forces (162-161 b.c.). 2 Maccabees 14:12 says that he was made governor over Judea before he left. He is described as one of Demetrius’ honorable princes and a man who had a deadly hatred for Israel (1 Macc 7:26, 27).

His first attempt to overcome Judas was to lure him into a conference, intending to seize him by violence; however, the plot failed when Judas discovered it in time to escape (7:27-30). Two battles ensued, the first at Capharsalama, where Judas won a decisive victory, and the second in the neighborhood of Adasa and Beth-Horon, where Nicanor was among the first slain. After mutilating his body, the Jews displayed it in Jerusalem (7:47; 2 Macc 15:33), and set aside the thirteenth of Adar as “Nicanor’s Day” in honor of their great victory over him on that day (1 Macc 7:48, 49; 2 Macc 15:36).

The record of 2 Maccabees. Several details of 2 Maccabees differ radically from 1 Maccabees. (See esp. 2 Macc 14:12-30.) For example, Judas’s conference with Nicanor is described in 14:22 as peaceable, and Nicanor is said to have enjoyed a close friendship with Judas for a time (14:24). The scholars seem to prefer the account of 1 Maccabees as more reliable.

2. One of the seven men appointed by the Early Church to serve tables and thereby relieve the apostles for other duties (Acts 6:5).

Bibliography R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in English, I (1913); R. H. Pfeiffer, History of New Testament Times (1949).