By the early second century BC, Israel had long been under the rule of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. But the policy of deliberate Hellenization and suppression of Jewish religious practices by Antiochus IV, sparked a revolt in 167 BC which was led initially by Judah Maccabee and later by his brothers and their descendants. Relying on guerrilla tactics the growing insurrection repeatedly took on the sophisticated might of the Seleucid army with mixed, but generally successful, results, establishing the Maccabees as the Hasmonean Dynasty of rulers over a once-more independent Israel. (It is Judah Maccabee's ritual cleansing of the Temple after his victories over the Seleucids that is celebrated by Jews every year at Hannukah). Internal disputes weakened the revived state, however, and it eventually fell victim to the Romans who replaced the Seleucids as the local superpower. John D Grainger explains the causes of the revolt and traces the course of the various campaigns of the Maccabees, first against the Seleucids and then the Romans who captured Jerusalem in 63BC and partitioned the kingdom. The last chapters consider the continued Jewish resistance to Roman rule and factional fighting, until the crowning of Herod, marked the end of the Hasmonean dynasty

到公元前二世纪初，以色列长期处于希腊化的塞琉古帝国的统治之下。但是，安提阿哥四世蓄意的希腊化政策和对犹太人宗教习俗的压制，在公元前167年引发了一场叛乱，最初由犹大-马卡比领导，后来由他的兄弟和他们的后代领导。依靠游击战术，日益壮大的叛乱多次与塞琉古军队的复杂力量对抗，结果好坏参半，但总的来说是成功的，建立了马卡比王朝，成为一度比较独立的以色列的统治者。(犹太人每年在汉努卡节庆祝的正是犹大-马卡比在战胜塞琉西王朝后对圣殿的清洗仪式）。然而，内部纠纷削弱了这个复兴的国家，它最终成为罗马人的牺牲品，罗马人取代了塞琉古王朝成为当地的超级大国。约翰-D-格林格解释了起义的原因，并追溯了马加比人各种运动的过程，首先是反对塞琉古王朝，然后是反对罗马人在公元前63年占领耶路撒冷并瓜分王国。最后几章考虑了犹太人对罗马统治和派系斗争的持续抵抗，直到希律王登基，标志着哈斯蒙尼王朝的结束。