Assidaeans
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [1]
Assidæ´ans (the pious or righteous; 1 Maccabees 7:13). As a description of a particular body of men this word does not occur in the canonical Scriptures, nor in Josephus; but in the First Book of Maccabees it is applied to the body of zealous and devoted men who rose at the signal for armed resistance given by Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees, and who, under him and his successors, upheld with the sword the great doctrine of the unity of God, and stemmed the advancing tide of Grecian manners and idolatries.
In the entire absence of collateral information, it seems the safest course to conclude that the Assidæans were a body of eminently zealous men, devoted to the Law, who joined Mattathias very early, and remained the constant adherents of him and his son Judas—not, like the mass of their supporters, rising occasionally and then relapsing into the ordinary pursuits of life. It is possible that, as Jennings conjectures, the name came to be applied to them by their enemies as a term of reproach, like 'Puritans' formerly in this country, and 'saints' very often in the present day.
