L’idéologie maccabéenne: Entre idéologie de la résistance armée et idéologie du martyre

This article analyzes two types of Maccabean ideology, which can also be considered as two sides of an ideology of resistance: armed struggle and martyrdom. Whereas 2 Maccabees promotes martyrdom as the just way to resist the enemy and save the Jewish people, 1 Maccabees stands strongly in favour of armed struggle. A kind of polemical tension can be perceived between the two options. Both ideologies are still present in later Jewish literature, but rabbinic texts show that the ideology of armed struggle tends to disappear after the failure of the revolt in 132-135, while the ideology of martyrdom develops and seems to benefit from a new legitimacy. But it is also criticized. It seems that in rabbinic texts, concern for the life of individuals as well as of communities leads to the rejection of both the ideology of armed struggle and the ideology of martyrdom.