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1 Maccabees 7:1-3
New Catholic Bible
1 Maccabees 7:1-3
New Catholic Bible
The Rise of the Hasmoneans
Judah Renews the Resistance
Chapter 7
Demetrius Becomes King.[a] 1 In the year one hundred and fifty-one, Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, departed from home and, arriving with a few men at a town on the seacoast, began to rule there. 2 As he was entering the royal palace of his ancestors, his troops seized Antiochus and Lysias with the intention of handing them over to him. 3 However, when he was informed of this act, he said, “Keep them out of my sight.”
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- 1 Maccabees 7:1 Demetrius I Soter (reigned 162–150 B.C.) was the son of Seleucus IV Philopator, elder brother of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the lawful heir to the kingdom. When his father Seleucus had become king (1 Mac 1:10), he had been sent as a hostage to Rome to replace his uncle. Upon the death of his uncle, he petitioned the senate to be released, but to no avail. At the age of twenty-five he fled from Rome with a small group of men and landed in Tripolis, a town on the seacoast. With the aid of the Syrians he defeated his rival Antiochus V and had him put to death. His ascent to the throne rekindled the internal conflict that pitted the Hellenizing Jews and the party of the resistance against one another. The family of the Maccabees ended up getting the best of him.
