Mattathias Hasmon
Lived in Modein, a town outside of Jerusalem. He watched Jerusalem and Modein sacrifice to Zeus. He called the people to uphold the Law and killed the Jews who were sacrificing then the Greek officials. He led the Rebellion of the Maccabbees, Maccabean Revolt, or the Maccabaean war of liberation.
Thousands rise up against the Greek to end the oppression from 167 to 165. The resistance under Judas Maccabeus was so successful that the Syrian regent Lysias guaranteed the return of Jewish liberties, obstructing the hellenizing party in Judea, and winning some internal independence within the Seleucid Empire.
Later, Judea achieved some political and territorial solidarity under John Hyrcanus. The Hasmonean kingdom in Judea was the last truly independent Jewish state in the Holy Land until 1948.
(Hillsdale College - Ancient Christianity, The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Old Testament and New Testament Apocrypha by R. K. Harrison, Page 80-81.))