MATTATHIAS BEN SIMEON

MATTATHIAS BEN SIMEON , son of *Simeon the Hasmonean. During the winter of 135 b.c.e., Mattathias, together with his mother and brother Judah, was seized at a banquet given in Simeon's honor by his son-in-law *Ptolemy, who was governor of Jericho. Simeon was killed, probably at the instigation of the Syrian monarch Antiochus vii Sidetes, but a third son of the high priest, John *Hyrcanus, managed to escape. Ptolemy withdrew to the nearby fortress of Dok, where the two brothers and their mother were tortured in full view of the grief-stricken Hyrcanus, who was unable to take the stronghold. When the sabbatical year came around, it was impossible to maintain an army for any great length of time, and Hyrcanus was forced to withdraw. Ptolemy thereupon killed the woman and her two sons and fled to Philadelphia (but according to Maccabees they were slain together with their father; i Macc. 16:15ff.; Jos., Wars, 1:54ff.; Jos., Ant., 13:228ff.)>mattathias ben simeon, son of *Simeon the Hasmonean. During the winter of 135 b.c.e., Mattathias, together with his mother and brother Judah, was seized at a banquet given in Simeon's honor by his son-in-law *Ptolemy, who was governor of Jericho. Simeon was killed, probably at the instigation of the Syrian monarch Antiochus vii Sidetes, but a third son of the high priest, John *Hyrcanus, managed to escape. Ptolemy withdrew to the nearby fortress of Dok, where the two brothers and their mother were tortured in full view of the grief-stricken Hyrcanus, who was unable to take the stronghold. When the sabbatical year came around, it was impossible to maintain an army for any great length of time, and Hyrcanus was forced to withdraw. Ptolemy thereupon killed the woman and her two sons and fled to Philadelphia (but according to Maccabees they were slain together with their father; I Macc. 16:15ff.; Jos., Wars, 1:54ff.; Jos., Ant., 13:228ff.).

bibliography:

Schuerer, Hist, 66; Graetz, Hist, 1 (1891), 530.

[Isaiah Gafni]