Mattathias was the town priest for the town Modiin. When he was offered the choice of doing a sacrifice to a Greek god, he loudly refused and killed a Seleucid officer and a Jew who wanted to do the sacrifice. His sons, who gladly agreed with him about the hellenization of the Jews, names were Judas Maccabeus, Simon Thassi, Eleazar Avaran, and Jonathan Apphus.
The evil priest, Jason, wanted to build a gymnasium next to the Temple and planned to rename Judea Antioch, in honor of Antiochus IV. Antiochus IV was the ruler after Seleucis IV, but, unlike Seleucis IV and Antiochus III, he did not accept that the Jews were not going to be Greek or bow to him or anything, so he decided to hellenize them all. The Maccabeans were a group of zealots who had fled their home to keep the Torah. Mattathias became their leader and gathered other people who wanted to fight against Antiochus and his laws.