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I and II Maccabees are historiographical sources which, along with the writings of the historian Josephus, give an account of these things. II Maccabees tells of the early stages of this series of episodes, conventionally, though somewhat misleadingly, called the “Hellenistic Crisis.” This text is in reality an epitome of a work in five books no longer extant by one Jason of Cyrene, who wrote before 124 BCE his account in Greek (possibly in Egypt); miraculous elements are to the fore, and the willingness of faithful Jews to die martyrs’ deaths is central to the narrative (Doran 1981; D.R. Schwartz 2008). Less dramatic is the account of I Maccabees, a main-line narrative which takes up the story from the point where Antiochus has attempted to suppress the Jewish religion. Recording some opposition to Antiochus on the part of Asideans (Hebrew Hasidim), the book tells how Judah Maccabee, son of the priest Mattathias who had also opposed Antiochus’s decrees, gathers a Jewish army and successfully and against all odds spearheads Jewish victories over the Seleucid forces until the Temple is restored to Jewish hands (I Macc. 2:1–4:61). This book gives explicit support to Judah and the Maccabee family, envisaging them as divinely chosen to save the Jews (I Macc. 5:55–62; 9:19–22). Judah’s younger brother Jonathan, who succeeded him as leader of the Jewish army, in 153 BCE accepted the high priesthood from the hands of the Seleucid Alexander Balas (I Macc. 10:62), thus establishing a dynasty of high priests (who came to be known as the Hasmoneans, a designation deriving from one of their ancestors) which held office until the time of Herod the Great. I Maccabees celebrates these triumphs, and the efforts of Jonathan’s brother and successor in office Simon, whose accession saw the establishment of an independent Jewish state in 144 BCE (I Macc. 13:41–42; Bickermann 1979).