Bible Figure
John Gaddi
John Gaddi was the eldest son of Mattathias and a brother of Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan Apphus, Simon Thassi, and Eleazar Avaran. He participated in the Hasmonean resistance to Seleucid rule but played a smaller recorded role than several of his brothers. He was later killed by a group associated with Medaba east of the Jordan.
Biography
John, surnamed Gaddi or Gaddis, was one of the five sons of the priest Mattathias, whose resistance at Modein began the Maccabean revolt. John therefore belonged to the family at the center of the Jewish struggle against Seleucid religious and political domination. The surviving sources provide considerably less information about him than about Judas, Jonathan, or Simon. After Judas Maccabeus was killed, the Hasmonean party faced renewed pressure from the Seleucid commander Bacchides. During this difficult period John was entrusted with property and baggage that the brothers hoped to place in safekeeping with the Nabateans. On the journey he was seized and killed by the sons of Jambri, associated with Medaba. Jonathan and Simon later retaliated against the group responsible. John's career consequently forms part of the dangerous transitional period in which the Hasmonean movement survived the death of Judas and continued under Jonathan.
Biblical Significance
John Gaddi's importance is primarily historical and familial. He belonged to the generation whose resistance preserved the Hasmonean cause during the second century BC. Although his role is recorded in 1 Maccabees rather than the Protestant canon, his family's struggle helped establish the political and religious setting inherited by Judea in the centuries leading to the New Testament.