Egyptian Rule Comes to an End
In 198 B.C., the Seleucid Kingdom on the north again came into Palestine and drove out the Egyptians.
The rulers of this kingdom were equally Hellenistic in their beliefs as were the Egyptians. However, the new rulers expected the Jews to follow their ways — and only their ways — of interpreting Hellenism. Only the Hellenism that supported the aims and customs of the Seleucids was allowed to exist.
Many of the Jews, after a century of Hellenistic influence, accepted this new enforcement of Seleucid Hellenism. About the only difference between the Egyptian Hellenism and that of the Seleucids was in the national aspect. The Seleucids demanded loyalty to their rule and their customs. The whole Hellenistic system was as much in effect among the Seleucids as with the Egyptians. In fact, if anything, the Seleucids were stronger in their Hellenistic convictions.
"A passion for Greek costumes, Greek customs, and Greek names seized the people. Large numbers were enrolled as citizens of Antioch [the capital of the Seleucid Kingdom]. Many even endeavored to conceal the fact that they had been circumcised. To the horror of the faithful, Hellenism seemed to be carrying all before it . . . To demonstrate that he had left all the traditions of his race behind, Jason [the High Priest himself] sent a rich present for sacrifices in connection with the great festival at Tyre in honor of the god Hercules" (Kent, History of the Jewish People, pp. 324-325).
It is remarkable the extent of the paganism that the Jews were observing at this time. So strong did Hellenistic beliefs become, that the High Priest himself was offering sacrifices to pagan gods. Because of this a reaction began to take place among some of the Jews. Some of them could not bring themselves to go as far as the High Priest. However, the vast majority had fallen under the sway of the Hellenism of the Seleucids as they had under the Egyptians.
The Prophecy of Daniel
The eleventh chapter of Daniel is the longest single prophecy in the whole Bible. It deals with events from the time of Daniel right up to the end of this age. The Prophet Daniel in this long prophecy foretold that the Persian Empire was to fall. It was to be conquered by a mighty king from Greece (v. 3). That king was Alexander the Great. In the height of his glory he was to die (which Alexander did in the thirty-third year of his life) and his kingdom was to be divided into four divisions (verse 4).
This happened exactly as foretold.
The prophecy continues the foretelling of Palestinian history by revealing in verse 5 that two of these four kingdoms would be fighting over Palestine for many years. Daniel calls the respective kingdoms, "the king of the south" and "the king of the north." These two kingdoms were specifically the Egyptian kingdom (Ptolemies) on the south, and the Seleucid kingdom, on the north. This prophecy shows, over 300 years in advance, the exact political conditions in Palestine during our period of discussion. History proves that this prophecy gave the precise state of affairs that did exist.
Daniel did not stop in verse 20, however, concerning the political situations in Palestine. In verse 21 Daniel speaks about a "vile person" who was to arise in the kingdom of the north — the Seleucid kingdom. This person was to be most wicked and was to cause many terrible indignities to the Jews. Verses 21 through 39 describe the activities of this man. And, the prophecies concerning him were fulfilled to the letter. This king of the north — the vile person — was Antiochus Epiphanes.
Antiochus Epiphanes Appoints Jewish High Priest
In the year 175 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes obtained the throne of the Seleucid kingdom, and thereby assumed control of Palestine.
When Antiochus took over theSeleucid kingdom there was a reaction between several of the priests in Jerusalem who were contending for the position of High Priest among the Jews. Jason, the brother of the reigning High Priest, persuaded Antiochus Epiphanes to permit him to be High Priest in his brother's stead. Because of the large sum of money he offered for the honor, Antiochus transferred the priesthood to Jason. The position of High Priest had dwindled to more of an aristocratic political honor. There was little regard paid to the Law of God by these High Priests. Most of them were outright Hellenists. See Cyc. Bib. Theo. and Ecc. hit. vol. i, p. 271.
About three years later, however, a Jew, Menelaus, of the tribe of Benjamin (not from Aaron), offered Antiochus Epiphanes a larger bribe than Jason, and he was named High Priest instead. Because of this, Jason fled beyond Jordan to the Ammonites for refuge.
Many of the Jews thought that Jason had been unjustly deprived of his priesthood. A good number of the Jews in Palestine began to take sides — between these two men — some were for Jason and others for Menelaus. So hot did tempers become between these factions that a good deal of violence broke out between them. Actually, those on the side of Jason were fighting in rebellion against the recognized authority that Antiochus Epiphanes had set up. The High Priest, Menelaus, had been given his position by the Seleucid government — even though Menelaus had bribed Antiochus into giving it to him — and fighting against this authority constituted fighting against the dictates of the Seleucid Kingdom. See Antiquities of the Jews, xii, 5, 1-5.
The Jewish War for Independence
The Jewish war for independence from the Seleucid Kingdom has often been called the Maccabean Revolt. Some people have hastily assumed that this revolt was begun because the religious Jews wanted to rid Palestine of the pagan influences that had been in the land for one hundred fifty years or more. However, such was not the case. The Jews, on the whole, had accepted Hellenism to a major degree, as had all the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region. It was not the desire to eradicate Hellenism from Palestine that prompted the Maccabean Revolt, surprising as that may seem.
"The one rebellion which had been recorded in history as directed against Hellenism, that of the Maccabees in Judaea, was not, in its origin, a reaction against Hellenism. From the contemporary or almost contemporary accounts in I and II Maccabees it is clear that Hellenism had proceeded far indeed, and apparently without protest, before the insurrection began. Violence started in consequence of rivalry between equally hellenized contenders for the high priesthood, and religion was not an issue" (Hadas, Hellenistic Culture, p. 43).
The revolt began when fighting broke out between the Jews on the side of Jason, the deposed High Priest, and those on the side of Menelaus, the High Priest appointed by Antiochus Epiphanes. It infuriated Antiochus that many of the Jews began to take sides against his appointed official — in fact, against the government! When a good number of the Jews gathered to the side of Jason, the real reason for the revolt, the desire for independence from the Seleucid yoke, began to be voiced. Religion did not enter in the controversy at first, for Jason was as Hellenistic in his beliefs as Menelaus. The insurrection began as a political revolt for independence from the Seleucid Kingdom.
"The Maccabean uprising, at least in its initial stages, was not against Hellenism but for national independence" (Goodspeed, The Apocrypha, p. xiv).
Religion Becomes A Factor
However, religion was later brought into the matter. In order to get the whole of the Jews in a revolt against the Seleucids, the dissenters began to point to the heathenistic beliefs of the Seleucids and of Menelaus the High Priest, claiming that such things were anti-Jewish. Thus, the rebels brought religion into the issue, which they reasoned would serve as a mark of distinction between the Jews and the Seleucids. So, in various quarters the cries went up that the government was proclaiming policies that were fundamentally anti-Jewish — especially to the religious customs of their forefathers.
In 168 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes, while endeavoring by war to take over the Egyptian government, was forced by the Romans, after a humiliating experience, to withdraw from Egypt and to forget his plans of conquering that country. On his way back to Antioch, his capital to the north of Palestine, he determined to put an end to the rebellion that was beginning in Judaea.
Because the issue of religion had been brought up in the insurrection, and because many of the rebels were proclaiming that their struggle was for religious freedom, Antiochus Epiphanes in a maddened frenzy, determined to obliterate any vestiges of the religious customs of the Jews! He boldly repudiated God and entered the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicated it to the pagan god Jupiter. He set up an idol which he called "the lord of heaven" but which is referred to in the Bible as the "abomination of desolation" (Dan. 11:31). He also offered swine's flesh on the Holy Altar and polluted the Temple with all the indecencies he could perpetrate. He even turned the Temple into a center of prostitution.
Notice some of the things commanded by Antiochus Epiphanes in his desire to exterminate any semblance of the commands of God. We find that many innocent Jews who had no thoughts of rebellion suffered many indignities as well as the guilty.
"By royal decree, the observance of the Sabbath or of the sacred feasts, and practicing the rite of circumcision, were absolutely forbidden under penalty of death. All copies of the law were destroyed. Heathen altars and temples were erected throughout Judaea, and every Jew was compelled in, public to sacrifice to idols, swine's flesh or that of some other unclean beast, and to present conclusive evidence that he had ceased to observe the laws of his fathers" (Kent, History of the Jewish People, pp. 328, 329).
All women who had their sons circumcised were publicly marched around the city of Jerusalem and then thrown from the high walls to their death. One group of people who fled to a cave near Jerusalem in order to keep the Sabbath service were surprised and committed to the flames. Such things were everyday occurrences against the Jews who failed to abide by the decrees of Antiochus Epiphanes. (Margolis, History of the Jewish People, pp. 137, 138).
Judas Maccabeus
Because of the outrages of Antiochus Epiphanes, many of the Jews became more than ever desirous of independence from the rule of the tyrant. Among them was Judas Maccabeus and his four brothers. They abhored the actions of this crazed ruler from the north, and not desiring to put up with the abuses that were being done to the Jews, they fled for refuge to the mountains of Judaea. While there, they gathered together many more of the dissenting Jews and formed an army. Their vow was to exterminate the foreigners from Judaea.
After a series of successful skirmishes, these men gathered more and more Jews to their cause. Surprisingly, in three short years (by 165 B.C) they had defeated the Seleucids to such an extent that, for all practical purposes, their desire for an independent autonomous Jewish state was realized. The Maccabees became the leaders of this new state.
Why the Maccabean Revolt?
It should be remembered that this revolt of the Jews was not at first a matter of religion. The main reason for the insurrection was to establish an independent Jewish state.
"The Maccabean uprising, at least in its initial stages, was not against Hellenism but rather for national independence. And when independence, real or nominal, was secured, the object of the Maccabean principality was to hold its head up among other principalities that had arisen out of the ruins of the Seleucid Empire; there was nothing like an anti-Greek program" (Goodspeed, The Apocrypha, pp. xiv, xv).
The majority of Jews had not been anxious to depart from their Hellenism. What they wanted primarily was their freedom from the foreign yoke. The matter of religion was really invoked to get the people united in one common cause — to drive the foreigner from Judaea. There was no real desire among the multitudes to get back to the Law of God. And religion only became a major issue when Antiochus Epiphanes voiced his anti-religious decrees.
The Jewish historian, Moses Hadas, adequately describes the situation during the Maccabean Revolt.
"The standard of religion was raised in the countryside, and then served to rally the people to the cause. It was only after religion had become the battle cry of the rebels that Antiochus IV [Epiphanes] issued his decrees against the observance of central religious rites, and it is highly significant that as soon as the anti-religious decrees were rescinded the pietest group [the religious people] withdrew from the fighting. The object of the Hasmonaean [Maccabean] rulers was not to protect religion . . .but to maintain a sovereignty. . .among others which were being carved out of the weakened geleucid empire" (Hellenistic Culture, p. 43).
After independence was realized, the Hellenistic element still remained among the Jews. They had been so wedded to its influence for so long that it was an impossibility to remove that influence from them. We will read more of this next month!