IN THIS OLD BOOK ONCE MORE we find a lot of history as to the affairs of this special race of people who came from Adam, and here in this book we are interested in the time of the Maccabees, up through the time of Jesus. By this time of the year of 1895 as our Author, Ernest Renan, was writing his book difference in the word Jew and Israel was not realized by most Christian writers. However as we look back to this time in history from an Identity point of view we find many interesting things in this old book.
Today we know there were different races in the land of Judea at that time just as there is in our nation of today. Here in Judea the Maccabees, who were Israelites, were struggling to hold on to their religion and their nation. They knew they were the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their God was the great YAHWEH of the heavens. These Maccabees were the sons of Mattathiah of the Asmonean Dynasty. The names of these sons were: Mattathiah, Judas, Jonathan and Simon. As this story begins the eldest son Mattathiah, is dead as well as Judas and Jonathan has been taken prisoner. Simon then takes the place of High Priest and leader of the Israelites and continues this struggle to try to hold their place in Judea until the Messiah comes. The greatest danger to Israel in this time was the hatred of these nations of people who lived on the borders of Israel. And they hated the Israelites because of the God they followed, and they now thought that the time had now come when they could finally wipe out completely this nation of Israel.