"... Books like 1 Maccabees were written to celebrate the sons of Mattathias as “the family of those people through whom deliverance was given to Israel” (1 Maccabees 5:62), God’s chosen agents who rescued Israel from the ills that beset it. Two poetic passages are particularly important for the author’s interpretation of the role of this family in the plan of God, namely, the poem in praise of Judas in 1 Maccabees 3:3–9 and the encomium on Simon in 1 Maccabees 14:4–15. The author lauds Judas as “a lion in his deeds, a lion’s cub roaring for prey” (1 Maccabees 3:4), recalling Hosea’s description of God’s agent (Hosea 5:14) as well as Jacob’s description of Judah’s ancient namesake (Genesis 49:9). By cleansing Israel of apostate and lapsed Jews, Judas “turned away wrath from Israel” (1 Maccabees 3:8), words directly reminiscent of the important episode of Phinehas, whose similarly violent response to compromise won him the covenant of an eternal priesthood (Numbers 25:10–13; see also 1 Maccabees 2:23–26, 54). Judas emerges as a hero of biblical proportions striding onto the scene, entrusted with restoring and extending “the glory of his people” ..."