[1] Toward the end of the summer of 165 BC, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes gathered forces from the Western part of his empire to leave for an expedition to the eastern satrapies in Babylonia and Persia.

There, he intended to stay awhile, replace or do battle with rebellious governors, deter the growing Parthian Empire from invading, and restore a flow of taxes to the capital.

[2] He left Lysias in charge as regent in the Seleucid capital Antioch and to raise his young son, the future Antiochus V. At the time, Jerusalem was still ruled by Seleucid-friendly Hellenist Jews and High Priest Menelaus.

Emmaus is at the eastern edge of the Ayalon Valley and along the western border of Judea; it is a spot with easy access to numerous routes into the Judean hills and good water, making it an excellent base to project power from.

Judas's scouts and spies found out that Gorgias was leading troops on a march against his camp and was planning to surprise the Jewish rebels in a night-time attack.

Some scholars believe this claim is ahistorical and added to buttress the righteousness of the cause; others think the passage is historical, and suspect Judas intentionally favored the speed of a small force, and used the Biblical criteria on who to exclude as a way to build morale.

The timing on such a maneuver would have been strict: the Maccabees would have required excellent, speedy intelligence such as signal fires or riders and to have left just at nightfall for such a tactic to work, and to have chosen a different road than Gorgias took.

Judas's troops numbered about 3,000 who had gone with him on the night march, and consisted of light infantry armed with swords and shields, perhaps fighting similar to peltasts of the era.

Many rebellions existed during this time period, but most were quickly put out; the staying power of the Maccabees helped set up the eventual independence of the Hasmonean kingdom.

Some later manuscripts of 1 Maccabees adds that the rebel troops lacked "helmets and slings and stones and armor" as well in the battle; this is considered likely to be a gloss of an unknown scribe copying the material, and unlikely to be historical.