Quotes About Hasmoneans

I have heard that people once spoke of making Judas Maccabaeus king, but he would have none of it. I think he was wise as well as strong. I think he may have been the wisest of all the Hasmoneans

Hanukkah, officially instituted by the Hasmoneans, was, like Tabernacles, eight days, and it was also the eight-day period corresponding to the pagan winter solstice festivities celebrating the return of light, lustily celebrated in Greece and Rome. Triumphal days in the Greek style – like the Day of Nicanor commemorating the defeat of that general – were added to the calendar.