Publisher's Synopsis
Raised to be a peaceful Hebrew high priest, he must fight for an infant nation. But, can he and his people survive his country's fiery birth?
The three-volume Maccabee Series, which chronicles the eight-year Judean Maccabean Revolt begun in 168 B.C.E., opens with Book I, The Eleventh Horn, as Judah, soon to be known as 'The Maccabee, ' finds himself in a predicament. How can he be expected to engage in the peaceful study of the Law, when his Hebrew brothers and sisters are being crushed under the yoke of the Greek Seleucid Empire? The ruthless emperor Antiochus is encouraging the torture, rape and murder of any Jew who refuses to worship his strange gods and participate in infidel debaucheries that defile Jewish traditions. Then Judah's father, the pacifist High Priest Mattathias, surprises his son when he defies the empire by refusing to violate the altar of his synagogue with a swine sacrifice. After watching his father cut down the offender before he can commit the spiritual atrocity, Judah follows Mattathias into a famous rebellion where both become the beating heart of the impossible resistance against the Greeks. One of the stories from this epoch of history is the inspiration for the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah. The Miracle of the Lamps and the tale surrounding it appear in Book II, The People of the Prophecy. Read this series and find out why The Eleventh Horn won First Place in the Full-Length Book Category of the annual State-wide League of Utah Writers contest. It is a heroic tale where a people endure astounding difficulties as they attempt to found a free homeland.
