Military historians tend to laud Judas Maccabaeus’ talents for guerrilla and indirect warfare, and his ability to exploit to the fullest the advantages provided by rugged mountainous terrain. This is a fair evaluation of the first phase of the military struggle, before the purification of the Temple. But care should be taken not to extend it to cover all the stages of Judas Maccabaeus’ military operations.

After entrenching themselves in their mountain refuge in the Gophna region, Mattathias and his sons began with measures against internal opponents (I Macc. 2.43–7, 3–8; II Macc. 8.6) and perhaps also against elements that were compliant, undecided or fence-sitters. Since the religious question was the central one at this stage of the Revolt, some religious coercion was applied by the Jews as well: on the one hand the destruction of altars for idol worship (I Macc. 2.45) and on the other forced circumcision (ibid. 2.46: ἐν ἰσχύι = by force). II Maccabees even gives some details of the tactical methods adopted by Judas Maccabaeus in accomplishing his ends: making surprise raids against towns and villages, probably against homes and estates of opponents, burning them down, setting nocturnal ambushes, and the like (8.6–7). It appears from I Maccabees that at this stage no actions were taken against the civil authorities or the Seleucid forces. However, one may presume that raids on small Seleucid supply convoys had already been carried out by then.