II. Obstacles against Which Judas Contended. When Judas was called to champion the cause of the Jews, they were hated by the rest of the world. It was a disorganized band of fugitives that rallied about him, without homes, resources, or arms. Opposed to him were the large armies of a powerful empire. The Greek mercenaries that fought in the Syrian ranks were armed with coats of mail and the best weapons known to the ancient world. They were also thoroughly trained in the art of war and under the direction of experienced generals. On every battle-field the Syrians outnumbered the Jews almost six to one. Pitted against Judas and his followers were apostates of his own race, who knew the land, were able to spy out the movements of the Jews, and were inspired by the bitterest hatred. The few advantages on the side of Judas were: first, his followers were aroused to heroic deeds by the peril of the situation. In the second place they were inspired by an intense religious zeal. The one force throughout Semitic history that has bound together tribes and nations and made the Semite an almost invincible fighting power has been religion. The familiar illustrations are the Mohammedan conquests that swept victoriously across the Bosporus and conquered Constantinople, also across northern Africa, and surged into southern Europe over the Straits of Gibraltar and threatened for a time completely to engulf the Western civilization. Familiar modern illustrations are the Mahdist insurrections that have from time to time taxed the resources of the English in northern Africa. In the third place the land of Judea, with its narrow western passes rapidly ascending to the heights above, enabled Judas to choose his battle-field at a point where only a few of the enemy could be brought into action and where a handful of valiant men could keep an army at bay.
III. Defeat of Apollonius and Seron. At first Judas wisely confined himself to guerilla warfare. This enabled him in time to clothe and arm his followers with the garments and weapons taken from the enemy. The most important of these smaller engagements took place north of Jerusalem. As Apollonius, the Syrian governor of Samaria, was advancing into Judea, Judas suddenly fell upon the Syrians and slew their leader. Henceforth the sword of the Syrian governor was effectively wielded by Judas in behalf of religious liberty.
News of the victory soon brought Seron, the governor of Coele-Syria, with a large army. He advanced from the coast plain by the most direct road to Jerusalem over the famous pass of the Bethhorons. Within a distance of two miles the road ascended nearly fifteen hundred feet. At points it was merely a steep, rocky pass, so that an invading army was forced to march single file and to pull themselves up over the rocks. Here on the heights that looked out toward his home at Modein Judas, appealing to the faith and patriotism of his men, swept down upon the enemy and won his first great victory.
IV. The Battle of Emmaus. The first great Jewish victory was a severe blow to the power of Antiochus Epiphanes, for at that time he was confronted by a depleted treasury. He therefore left his kingdom in charge of Lysias, one of his nobles, and set out on a campaign into Persia from which he never returned. Three generals with a large army were sent by Lysias against the Jews. So confident were they of a Syrian victory that a horde of slave merchants accompanied the army that they might purchase the Jewish captives. This time the Syrians avoided the difficult pass of Bethhoron and chose the Wady Ali, along which the modern carriage road winds up from the coast to Jerusalem. The main camp was pitched at Emmaus at the southeastern side of the Plain of Ajalon under the Judean hills. Meantime Judas had selected as his head-quarters the lofty hill of Mizpah, associated by earlier tradition with Samuel and the scene of the short-lived rule of Gedaliah. It was well chosen, for it commanded a view of the territory to the north, south, and west. While the army of the Syrians, sent by night to surprise Judas, were marching up the northern valley, the Jewish patriots were led westward toward the plain along one of the parallel valleys that penetrated the Judean hills. Having appealed to the patriotic memories and the religious zeal of his followers, Judas led them in a sudden early morning attack against the Syrians encamped near Emmaus. Soon the Syrians were in wild flight across the plain to the Philistine cities, and Judas and his followers were left in possession of the camp and its rich spoil. Panic also seized his pursuers when they saw their camp in possession of the enemy, and Judas was left for the moment undisputed master of the land of his fathers. This victory in the year 166 B.C. was in many ways the most sweeping and significant in early Maccabean history.
V. The Battle at Bethsura. The next year Lysias himself gathered a huge army of sixty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry and led them against the Jews. This time the Syrians advanced through the broad valley of Elah where David had fought against the Philistine giant. Thence they followed the Wady Sur, turned southward and then eastward, penetrating to the top of the Judean plateau a little north of Hebron. Approaching from this point the Syrians were protected in their rear by the Idumeans, the descendants of the Edomites. They succeeded in reaching the point where the road from the west joins the central highway from Hebron to Jerusalem. There on a sloping hill crowned with the border town of Bethsura, Judas was able to rally ten thousand followers to meet the huge Syrian army. From the parallel account in II Maccabees it is clear that he did not succeed in winning a decisive victory, but a crisis in Antioch suddenly compelled Lysias to return, leaving the Jews in possession of the battle-field.
VI. Restoration of the Temple Service. With mingled sadness and rejoicing Judas proceeded at once to Jerusalem and with his followers took up the task of restoring the desecrated temple and its service. The citadel of Acra, which appears to have been situated on the Hill of Ophel to the south of the temple, was still strongly garrisoned by apostate Jews and Syrian soldiers. For nearly a quarter of a century, until the days of Simon, it continued to be held by Syrian forces, and remained a constant menace to the peace of Jerusalem. The vivid account of the purification of the temple reveals the intense devotion of the Jews to this ancient sanctuary, and throws clear light upon the nature of its service. This epoch-making act is commemorated even to-day by the Jews throughout the world and is known as the Feast of Lights. It is a memorial of that successful struggle for religious freedom in which Principles were established that have affected the thought and action of all succeeding generations. Through all their many vicissitudes and under their many Gentile rulers, with few exceptions, the Jews have enjoyed uninterruptedly the right of worshipping in accordance with the dictates of their law and the customs of their fathers.
VII. The New Spirit in Judaism. Henceforth the law for which their fathers had poured out their life-blood and for which the Jews had fought so valiantly was regarded with new and deeper veneration and its commands gained a new authority. Again the Jews had enjoyed a taste of freedom and had learned that by united and courageous action they could shake off the hated heathen yoke. This new warlike note is sounded in many of the later psalms of the Psalter. Chapters 9-14, appended to the older books of Zechariah, apparently come from this same period and voice the thought of the conquerors. The words of the ninth chapter express their joy and exultation:
For I have bent Judah to me,
As a bow which I have filled with Ephraim;
I will urge thy sons against the sons of Greece,
And I will make thee like the sword of a hero.
Then Jehovah shall be seen above them,
And his shaft shall go forth like lightning.
Jehovah shall blow a blast upon a trumpet,
And travel on the whirlwinds of the south.
Jehovah of hosts shall defend them;
And they shall devour and tread down the slingstones,
They shall drink their blood like wine,
They shall be filled with it like the crevices of an altar.
And Jehovah their God shall give them victory in that day.
Like sheep he shall feed them in his land.
Yea, how good and how beautiful shall it be!
Corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens.
The victories of Judas in all probability also inspired the messianic hope expressed in 9:9-10:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold thy king will come to thee;
Vindicated and victorious is he,
Humble, and riding upon an ass.
Upon the foal of an ass.
He shall cut off chariots from Ephraim,
And horses from Jerusalem;
The battle-bow shall also be cut off,
And he shall speak to the nations;
His rule shall be from sea to sea,
From the river to the ends of the earth.