In what year did the Maccabean revolt begin?

The Maccabean revolt began in 167 BCE.

The uprising started in Judea under Mattathias, a Jewish priest from Modein, after Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed measures suppressing Jewish religious practice. Mattathias refused to participate in a pagan sacrifice, killed the official enforcing it, destroyed the altar, and fled into the hills with his sons. His son Judas Maccabeus later became the revolt’s principal military leader.

The year 167 BCE marks the beginning of the rebellion, not the rededication of the Temple. In 164 BCE, after several years of fighting, the Maccabees captured Jerusalem, cleansed the Second Temple, and rededicated its altar. That event became the foundation of Hanukkah.

The revolt’s main phase continued until 160 BCE, when Judas died in battle. Fighting and political maneuvering continued afterward, eventually leading to Judean autonomy and the Hasmonean dynasty. The dates 164 and 165 BCE therefore belong to important stages of the conflict, but they are not its conventional starting year.