Mormon Maccabees Podcast

Welcome to the Mormon Maccabees Podcast! In Episode 1, host Nathanael Maccabee introduces the purpose and values of the show and tells the story behind its name: the Maccabean revolt and the origin of Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication).

The story of the Maccabees, found in 1st and 2nd Maccabees in the Apocrypha, is the story of a covenant people facing a tyrannical empire, a corrupted priesthood, and a great division between those who stayed faithful to Jehovah and those who embraced Hellenism. This episode explores why it carries so many parallels for Latter-day Saints, Book of Mormon readers, and truth-seekers today.

In this episode:

• The intentions, focus, and core values of the podcast: seeking truth, protecting freedom and agency, sanctifying ourselves, and rallying around the Book of Mormon
• Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” and the buying and selling of the high priesthood (Jason and Menelaus)
• D&C 121 and Mosiah 11: why authority comes from righteousness, not office
• The persecution under Antiochus, including the desecration of the temple and the martyrdom of Eleazar and the seven brothers and their mother (2 Maccabees 6–7)
• The idea of expiatory martyrdom and hope in the resurrection
• Covenant theology: why God permits covenant curses, how the law of justice works (Alma 42, D&C 88), and what it means that God is a “jealous” God (Hebrew qanna’)
• Mattathias, the flight into the wilderness, and the rise of Judah Maccabee (“the Hammer”)
• Judah’s faith-filled leadership at Emmaus: 3,000 men against a vastly larger army
• The cleansing and rededication of the temple, and the origin of Hanukkah
• Connections to our day: apostate leadership, propaganda, persecution, the wheat and the tares, the gathering, and the transition from chaos and division to unity and power
• The spectrum of “awakening” among Latter-day Saints, and why everyone who is seeking truth is welcome here
• Reflective questions: What would you do if Mattathias were alive today?