Adopting a page from Greek political theory, Judah the Maccabee had the people declare by acclamation that Hanukkah was to be celebrated annually in commemoration of the great victory over Epiphanes (1 Macc. 4:59). A generation later, Simon the Maccabee had himself declared the high priest through acclamation (1 Macc. 14:41). In Greek political theory, the power to declare festivals, appoint priests, and so on, was vested in the people (the demos), but such an idea was completely foreign to Judaism. The Maccabees, the alleged opponents of foreign ways, adopted a Hellenistic practice for their
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