The Maccabees/Hasmoneans: History & Overview

The following article was obtained through the Jewish Virtual Library and gives a brief synopsis of the members or followers of the family of the Jewish leader, Mattathias ben Johanan, who led the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE).

The Maccabees/Hasmoneans: History & Overview (166 - 129 BCE)

Maccabees: Table of Contents | Hasmonean Dynasty | Scroll of Antiochus     

The death of Alexander the Great of Greece in 323 BCE led to the breakup of the Greek empire as three of his generals fought for supremacy and divided the Middle East among themselves.

Ptolemy secured control of Egypt and the Land of Israel. Seleucus grabbed Syria and Asia Minor, and Antigonus took Greece. The Land of Israel was thus sandwiched between two of the rivals and, for the next 125 years, Seleucids and Ptolemies battled for this prize. The former finally won in 198 B.C. when Antiochus III defeated the Egyptians and incorporated Judea into his empire.

Initially, he continued to allow the Jews autonomy, but after a stinging defeat at the hands of the Romans he began a program of Hellenization that threatened to force the Jews to abandon their monotheism for the Greeks' paganism. Antiochus backed down in the face of Jewish opposition to his effort to introduce idols in their temples, but his son, Antiochus IV, who inherited the throne in 176 B.C. resumed his father's original policy without excepting the Jews. 

A brief Jewish rebellion only hardened his views and led him to outlaw central tenets of Judaism such as the Sabbath and circumcision, and defile the holy Temple by erecting an altar to the god Zeus, allowing the sacrifice of pigs, and opening the shrine to non-Jews.

The Jewish Hammer

Though many Jews had been seduced by the virtues of Hellenism, the extreme measures adopted by Antiochus helped unite the people.

When a Greek official tried to force a priest named Mattathias to make a sacrifice to a pagan god, the Jew murdered the man. Predictably, Antiochus began reprisals, but in 167 BCE the Jews rose up behind Mattathias and his five sons and fought for their liberation.

The family of Mattathias became known as the Maccabees, from the Hebrew word for "hammer," because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. Jews refer to the Maccabees, but the family is more commonly known as the Hasmoneans.  

Like other rulers before him, Antiochus underestimated the will and strength of his Jewish adversaries and sent a small force to put down the rebellion. When that was annihilated, he led a more powerful army into battle only to be defeated. In 164 BCE, Jerusalem was recaptured by the Maccabees and the Temple purified, an event that gave birth to the holiday of Chanukah.   

Jews Regain Their Independence

Judah goes up against a Seleucid imperial soldier.
Artwork by Mark Strauss

It took more than two decades of fighting before the Maccabees forced the Seleucids to retreat from the Land of Israel. By this time Antiochus had died and his successor agreed to the Jews' demand for independence.

In the year 142 BCE, after more than 500 years of subjugation, the Jews were again masters of their own fate.

When Mattathias died, the revolt was led by his son Judas, or Judah Maccabee, as he is often called. By the end of the war, Simon was the only one of the five sons of Mattathias to survive and he ushered in an 80-year period of Jewish independence in Judea, as the Land of Israel was now called. The kingdom regained boundaries not far short of Solomon's realm and Jewish life flourished.   

The Hasmoneans claimed not only the throne of Judah, but also the post of High Priest. This assertion of religious authority conflicted with the tradition of the priests coming from the descendants of Moses' brother Aaron and the tribe of Levi.   

It did not take long for rival factions to develop and threaten the unity of the kingdom. Ultimately, internal divisions and the appearance of yet another imperial power were to put an end to Jewish independence in the Land of Israel for nearly two centuries.

Sources: Mitchell G. Bard, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict. 4th Edition. NY: Alpha Books, 2008.

Obama Administration Wants to Allow Scientists to Make Human-Animal Hybrids

The following article was posted on the Catholic website, LifeNews.com, and written by Steven Ertelt, founder and editor of LifeNews.com, on 4 August 2016. 

Obama Administration Wants to Allow Scientists to Make Human-Animal Hybrids

The Obama administration today announced it has flung the door wide open to scientists making grisly human-animal hybrids.

After overturning the Bush administration limits on forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research, this is the latest move by President Barack Obama to manipulate and destroy human life in unethical experiments. Here’s more:

The federal government announced plans Thursday to lift a moratorium on funding of certain controversial experiments that use human stem cells to create animal embryos that are partly human.

The National Institutes of Health is proposing a new policy to permit scientists to get federal money to make embryos, known as chimeras, under certain carefully monitored conditions.

One issue is that scientists might inadvertently create animals that have partly human brains, endowing them with some semblance of human consciousness or human thinking abilities. Another is that they could develop into animals with human sperm and eggs and breed, producing human embryos or fetuses inside animals or hybrid creatures.

But scientists have argued that they could take steps to prevent those outcomes and that the embryos provide invaluable tools for medical research.

Bioethicist Wesley Smith has previously warned about letting scientists police themselves — because they often throw ethics and a respect for human life out the window.

The real question is when are we going to enforce the regulations with sharp teeth? Do we need to criminalize these experiments to get scientists to stop? Because when we say, “ban ” certain kinds of experiments, we are pejoratively labeled as “anti science,” and that we should trust “the scientists” not to stray too far afield.

Talk is cheap. The truth is, I think many scientists oppose any permanent and meaningful restraints–on themselves and each other. If I am right, society will have to forcefully take matters into its own hands.

So just what will these scientists do?

Researchers in the U.S. are tinkering with a disturbing new experiment that mixes human and pig cells to produce a hybrid embryo. Scientists at the University of California, Davis are trying to use pigs as “biological incubators” to grow human organs, according to the report. Walter Low, a professor at the University of Minnesota, said scientists hope to develop a method to grow various organs for transplant, including pancreases, hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs and corneas.

Low explained that cells would be taken from the patient needing an organ and used to grow “an exact genetic copy” of that organ in a pig embryo. This method would reduce the chance of a patient’s body rejecting the organ transplant, he said.

Sometimes referred to as chimeras, animal-human hybrids have been the subject of experiments in the past. The University of Rochester implanted newborn mice with nascent human glial cells to test brain activity involved with learning and memory, LifeNews reported. The University of Wisconsin also has conducted human-animal studies.

There are serious concerns about the ethical implications of such research.

In 2009, pro-abortion President Barack Obama issued an executive order allowing funding on life-destroying embryonic stem cell research, including for human-animal hybrid embryos, LifeNews reported. This rescinded President George Bush’s policy prohibiting taxpayer-funding of the life-destroying practices.

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According to Snopes.com, the above story is a 'mixture' of being both true and false ...

Mixture

WHAT'S TRUE: The National Institute of Health proposed a new policy which would allow researchers to receive federal funds to make part human, part animal embryos.

WHAT'S FALSE: The United States has not approved crossbreeding humans and animals.

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Related Articles:

Obama Opening Door for Human Animal Hybrids
OBAMA GREENLIGHTS HUMAN-ANIMAL 'HYBRID' MONSTERS
Obama Admin Legalizes Taxpayer-Funded Research On Human-Animal Hybrids

The 1968 Prophecy of a Norwegian Woman

For quite some time a prophecy has been circulating around the internet about a 90 year old woman from Norway predicting World War III, falling away from Christianity, great calamities, horrible transgression of sin, and moral disintegration... all before the return of the Christian's prophet, in what is referred to as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. 

Photo: Eude, E. / Oslo Museum
Born: June 11, 1925
Died: Nov. 15, 2014

While the old woman is not named in any article available about her on the internet, a renowned Norwegian theologian, Emanuel Minos, proclaimed that the old woman shared with him her incredible visions of a future world. Minos was also a preacher associated with the Norwegian Pentecostal movement and referred to as the "Nordic Billy Graham".

It is purported the traveling evangelist held revival services in the town of Valdres, Norway, where she [the old woman] lived and this is his claim to meeting her and writing down the visions she foresaw. 

Emanuel Minos did not share these revelations until much later in his lifetime, asserting that his initial reaction was ambiguous towards such a prophecy and filed the old woman's revelation away. It was almost 50 years after the fact that Minos went public with the informative premonition. 

According to Minos, the woman from Valdres was a reliable and credible Christian, with a good reputation among all who knew her. She bespoke of happenstances occurring in what is known as "four waves". This is the prophecy of the '90 Year-Old Woman from Valdres' and Emanuel Minos responses to it:

"I saw the time just before the coming of Jesus and the outbreak of the Third World War. I saw the events with my natural eyes. I saw the world like a kind of a globe and saw Europe, land by land. I saw Scandinavia. I saw Norway. I saw certain things that would take place just before the return of Jesus, and just before the last calamity happens, a calamity the likes of which we have never before experienced."

The Four Waves:

1. "First before Jesus comes and before the Third World War breaks out, there will be a 'détente' like we have never had before. There will be peace between the super powers in the east and the west, and there will be a long peace. (Remember, that this was in 1968 when the cold war was at its highest. — E. Minos) In this period of peace there will be disarmament in many countries, also in Norway and we are not prepared when it (the war) comes. The Third World War will begin in a way no one would have anticipated—and from an unexpected place." 

2. "A lukewarmness without parallel will take hold of the Christians, a falling away from true, living Christianity. Christians will not be open for penetrating preaching. They will not, like in earlier times, want to hear of sin and grace, law and gospel, repentance and restoration. There will come a substitute instead: prosperity (happiness) Christianity. The important thing will be to have success, to be something; to have material things, things that God never promised us in this way. Churches and prayer houses will be emptier and emptier. Instead of the preaching we have been used to for generations—like, to take your cross up and follow Jesus—entertainment, art and culture will invade the churches where there should have been gatherings for repentance and revival. This will increase markedly just before the return of Jesus." 

3. "There will be a moral disintegration that old Norway has never experienced the likes of. People will live together like married without being married. (I do not believe the concept 'co-habitor'? existed in 1968. — E. Minos.) Much uncleanness before marriage, and much infidelity in marriage will become the natural (the common), and it will be justified from every angle. It will even enter Christian circles and we pet it—even sin against nature. Just before Jesus' return there will be TV programs like we have never experienced. (TV had just arrived in Norway in 1968. — E. Minos) TV will be filled with such horrible violence that it teaches people to murder and destroy each other, and it will be unsafe in our streets. People will copy what they see. There will not be only one 'station' on TV, it will be filled with 'stations.' (She did not know the word 'channel' which we use today. Therefore she called them stations. — E. Minos.) TV will be just like the radio where we have many 'stations,' and it will be filled with violence. People will use it for entertainment. We will see terrible scenes of murder and destruction one of the other, and this will spread in society. Sex scenes will also be shown on the screen, the most intimate things that takes place in a marriage." (I protested and said, "We have a paragraph that forbids this kind of thing." — E. Minos.) It will happen, and you will see it. All we have had before will be broken down, and the most indecent things will pass before our eyes."

4. "People from poor countries will stream to Europe. (In 1968 there was no such thing as immigration. — E. Minos) They will also come to Scandinavia and Norway. There will be so many of them that people will begin to dislike them and become hard with them. They will be treated like the Jews before the Second World War. Then the full measure of our sins will have been reached (I protested at the issue of immigration. I did not understand it at the time. —E. Minos) 

At this point, it is told by Minos, the tears streamed from the old woman's eyes down her cheeks. "I will not see it, but you will. Then suddenly, Jesus will come and the Third World War breaks out. It will be a short war." (She saw it in the vision — E. Minos) All that I have seen of war before is only child's play compared to this one, and it will be ended with a nuclear atom bomb. The air will be so polluted that one cannot draw one's breath. It will cover several continents, America, Japan, Australia and the wealthy nations. The water will be ruined (contaminated? — E. Minos). We can no longer till the soil. The result will be that only a remnant will remain. The remnant in the wealthy countries will try to flee to the poor countries, but they will be as hard on us as we were on them. 

"I am so glad that I will not see it, but when the time draws near, you must take courage and tell this. I have received it from God, and nothing of it goes against what the Bible tells. The one who has his sin forgiven and has Jesus as Savior and Lord, is safe." 

The prophecy this old woman supplied Minos with is very much paralleling our modern 21st century, yet no definitive proof exists outside of Emanuel Minos' own claim to the revelations.

Whether the old woman from Valdres was an actual person or a work of fiction, it cannot be denied in our modern world that she nailed these prophecies with such precision!

A Vision About World War III

Astonishing 1968 Prophecy by 90 Year Old Woman