The Maccabean Revolt is the name commonly given to the revolt of the Jews in Judea against Seleucid domination in the period 166-160 B.C. The name is derived from the leader, Judas Maccabeus, while another term for the revolt is the Hasmonean revolt after the family to which Judas, his father, and his brothers belonged. Some historians have extended the dates of the revolt to 142 B.C., the year when Judea became independent. The Maccabean Revolt was part of other events in the history of the Jews at that time and would in turn become a source for much of the history that would follow. The revolt can be examined for how it relates to broader Jewish concerns at the time, to the thrust of history prior to that era, and for what it says to later generations.
The revolt has a role in the wider Jewish issue of the Diaspora. The story of the Diaspora is a key element in the history of the Jewish people and in the focus of their aspirations and purposes in the world. The word "Diaspora" is derived from the Greek for "a scattering" or "to scatter about." The word has come to signify the body of Jews today living not in Israel but scattered outside the boundaries of Israel. Diaspora is much more than this, however, being seen as both a way of life and an intellectual concept, as a state of being and a state of mind. Some historians date the Diaspora from the time of the destruction of the first kingdom of Judah and the captivity in Babylon, but this would make Diaspora synonymous with exile. It is more proper to see the Diaspora as beginning with the Persian, or Seleucid, conquest of Babylonia. The Persians permitted the Jews to return to their homeland, but most of them chose to remain where they were instead of returning to Palestine. These Jews were now living in Diaspora, something that had become a voluntary absence from their homeland. The preservation of Jewish ideas became of paramount importance in the Diaspora, the sc...