[Berosus]

After all, the Maccabees were an “insurgency,” and Eliezer, one of the Maccabees, who died sacrificing himself in battle, “sounds to me like a Biblical version of the suicide bombers who launch themselves at military convoys in Iraq.

It wasn't a sacrifice so much as a lesson gone wrong. Eliezer told his soldiers that the best way to kill a war elephant was to run underneath and stab it with a spear, but when he demonstrated in the middle of a battle, the elephant fell on him. I believe that Eliezer's death was the oldest known case in history where somebody's last words were, "Hey y'all, watch this!"

[SunkenCiv]

:’D