xample, Mattathias and his sons wisely decided that it
was more important to fight for their lives than to die for a mere
institution. They soon attracted to their standard all who were still
faithful to the law. Chief among these were those known as the Hasideans
or Pious. They were the spiritual successors of the pious or afflicted,
whose woes are voiced in the earlier psalms of the Psalter (Section
XLVII:v). They were also the forerunners of the party of the Pharisees,
which was one of the products of the Maccabean struggle. In them faith and
patriotism were so blended that, like Cromwell's Ironsides, they were
daunted by no odds. At first they depended upon the guerilla type of
warfare, to which the hills of Judea were especially adapted. By enforcing
the law of circumcision, by punishing the apostates, and by attacking
straggling Syrian bands, they encouraged the faltering Jews, and
intimidated the agents of Antiochus. Mattathias soon died, leaving the
leadership to his third son, Judas. The poem recording his dying
injunctions voices the inspiration that came at this time to Israel's
patriots from their nation's past, and that supreme devotion to the law
and dauntless courage that animated the leaders in this great movement.

III. Date of the Visions in Daniel 7-12. A parallel but different type
of character and hope is reflected in the latter part of the book of
Daniel. In the form of visions or predictions, these chapters interpret
the meaning of the great world movements from the beginning of the
Babylonian to the end of the Greek period. Each vision culminates in
a symbolic but detailed description of the rule and persecutions of
Antiochus Epiphanes. Several passages describe the destructive policies
of this Syrian ruler almost as vividly as the books of Maccabees (Dan.
8:11, 12): "It (Antiochus) magnified itself even to the Prince of the Host
(Jehovah), and took away from him the daily sacrifice, and cast down
the place of his sanctuary, and set up the sacrilegious thing over the
daily sacrifice, and cast down truth to the ground, and did it and
prospered."

Daniel 11:20-44 contains a review of the chief events of Antiochus's
reign. This description closes with the prediction: "He shall plant his
palace between the Mediterranean and the glorious holy mountain; so he
shall come to his end and none shall help him." Contemporary records
indicate, however, that Antiochus died while engaged in a campaign in
dista