MATTANIA. – Name of various Israelites mentioned in the Bible (Hebr.: *Mattanjahtu* and *Mattanjahtu*; contracted *Matnaj*, in *Ezra* 10:33, 37; *Nehemiah* 12:19; *gift of Jahweh*).
1. King of Judah: see SEDECIA. – 2-7. Six Jews who sent away the foreign wives they had married (*Ezra* 10:26ff., 30, 33, 36ff.). – 8. A Levitical family of the lineage of Asaph (*1 Chron.* 9:15; *2 Chron.* 20:14; 29:13; *Nehemiah* 11:17, 22; 12:8, 35; 13:13). – 9. A Levite of the sons of Heman (*1 Chron.* 25:4, 16). –
10. A Levite gatekeeper (*Nehemiah* 12:25)
11. Head of a priestly family of the class of Joiarib (*Nehemiah* 12:19.**
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**MATTATHIA** (Hebr. *Mattithjaht* [a] *gift of Jahweh*); Septuagint *Mattat* [a] *i.e.* *Matthathias*.
A priest of the lineage of Joiarib who initiated the rebellion against the plan of Antiochus IV Epiphanes to Hellenize the Jews. When messengers of the king arrived in Modin (see) his native town and urged him to perform idolatrous acts, M. killed an apostate judge together with the royal envoy and overthrew the altar. Forced to go into hiding, he began guerrilla warfare, soon aided by the Hasideans (see). His activity, however, was quite limited; it was continued and expanded by his five sons (see MACCABEES). The brief biographical details on M. are collected in *1 Macc.* 2:1-70.
The name was also borne by a Levite, son of Shallum, descendant of Korah (*1 Chron.* 9:31; 15:18; 16:5), a son of Jeduthun (*1 Chron.* 25:3, 21), and a priest with a foreign wife at the time of Ezra (*Ezra* 10:43), distinct from the namesake in *Nehemiah* 8:4. Angelo Penna