Mattathias (מתתיהו Matitiyahu or Matisyahu ben Yochanan HaCohen in Hebrew) was a Jewish priest epicted in the Books of the Maccabees, and the father of Judah Maccabee, the leader of the Maccabees. Mattathias was from a rural priestly family in Modiin, and served as a priest in Jerusalem. After the Seleucid persecutions began, he returned to Modiin. In 167 BC, when asked by a Seleucid Greek government representative under King Antiochus IV to offer sacrifice to the Greek gods, he not only refused to do so, but slew with his own hand the Jew who had stepped forward to do so. He then attacked the government official that required the act.