Mattathias Maccabeus - Jewish Encycloedia

The originator of the Maccabean rebellion. His genealogy is given as follows in the First Book of Maccabees, the most authentic source: "Mattathias, the son of John, the son of Simeon, a priest of the sons of Joiarib, from Jerusalem; and he dwelt at Modin" (I Macc. ii. 1). Josephus ("Ant." xii. 6, Â§ 1) traces the genealogy back for one generation further, mentioning Asamoneus (= HasmonÃ"us) after Simon. But this HasmonÃ"us should not be considered as Mattathias' great-grandfather, but merely as a distant ancestor of the whole house, since only so is it comprehensible why both Greek and rabbinical sources of the following period call the whole house that of the Hasmoneans. The fact, moreover, that the names John and Simeon recur in the family in the very next generation after Mattathias, while the name "HasmonÃ"us" is not found in historic times, is a proof that the first bearer of this name belongs to antiquity.