Lesson plan
Dathema
Dathema or Diathema was the name of a fortress in Gilead to which the local Jews fled when hard pressed by Timothy of Ammon during the Maccabee campaigns of 163 BC in the Maccabean Revolt. There they shut themselves in, prepared for a siege, and sent to Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) for aid. Dathema was one of many places in a similar plight, and seems, from the description of it, to have been strongly enough fortified to necessitate "an innumerable people bearing ladders and other engines of war" to take it. Judas attacked in three divisions, drove off Timotheus, killed eight thousand of the enemy, and saved the city. The Peshitta reads "Rametha," from which George Adam Smith infers that it was perhaps Ramath Gilead. Conder suggests the modern Dameh on the southern border of the Lejah district. It can not, however, be positively identified.
Article summary
Dathema or Diathema was the name of a fortress in Gilead to which the local Jews fled when hard pressed by Timothy of Ammon during the Maccabee campaigns of 163 BC in the Maccabean Revolt. There they shut themselves in, prepared for a siege, and sent to Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) for aid. Dathema was one of many places in a similar plight, and seems, from the description of it, to have been strongly enough fortified to necessitate "an innumerable people bearing ladders and other engines of war" to take it. Judas attacked in three divisions, drove off Timotheus, killed eight thousand of the enemy, and saved the city. The Peshitta reads "Rametha," from which George Adam Smith infers that it was perhaps Ramath Gilead. Conder suggests the modern Dameh on the southern border of the Lejah district. It can not, however, be positively identified.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.