What is the name of the father of Judah Maccabee?

The father of Judah Maccabee was Mattathias.

Mattathias was a Jewish priest from Modi'in who helped ignite the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire around 167 BCE. According to the account in 1 Maccabees, he refused to participate in an imposed pagan sacrifice, killed the official enforcing it and a Jewish man who had stepped forward, and then fled into the countryside with his five sons.

His sons were Judah, Eleazar, Simon, John, and Jonathan. Mattathias led the rebellion for roughly a year before his death in 166 or 165 BCE. On his deathbed, he designated Simon as a counselor and Judah as the military commander. Judah then became the revolt’s most famous leader and acquired the epithet Maccabee.

The names Eleazar, Simon, and Jonathan are therefore especially easy to confuse with the answer: they were Judah’s brothers, not his father. Simon later founded the Hasmonean dynasty, while Judah led the early military campaign and died in battle in 160 BCE.