whom Josephus called by the Hellenised form Asmoneus or Asamoneus , said to have been the great-grandfather of Mattathias, but about whom nothing more is known. The name appears to come from the Hebrew name Hashmonai . An alternative view posits that the Hebrew name Hashmona'i is linked with the village of Heshmon, mentioned in . P.J. Gott and Logan Licht attribute the name to "Ha Simeon", a veiled reference to the Simeonite Tribe.

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