69. B.C. 175 to 169

B.C. 175 to 169

Chapter VI

Antiochus Epiphanes

Athletic Exercises

1. The Jews had now been so long under the Greek monarchs of Egypt and Syria, that they had become well acquainted with the customs, the literature, and the philosophy of the Greeks. A large party regarded the manners of that people with preference, and their religion without displeasure, and were willing to sink the distinctive peculiarities of their own practices and faith. Of this number was Jesus, the brother of the high-priest Onias, whose predilections were manifested by the Greek name of Jason which he assumed. He offered a large sum of money for the high-priesthood to Antiochus Epiphanes, who succeeded Seleucus Philopator in b.c. 175. His offer was accepted. Onias was called to Antioch, and kept there a prisoner at large; and Jason took his place. The party which gathered around this man was considerable; for not only was there among the educated classes a strong leaning towards the Greek customs, to which he was known to be favorable, but the citizenship of Antioch, which he had been empowered to bestow, was to them an object of great desire. Jason delayed not to establish at Jerusalem a gymnasium for athletic exercises, which soon became so popular, that even the priests neglected the Temple services to be present at the games. Jason also established an academy for bringing up the Hebrew youth after the manner of the Greeks; and by every kind of influence he encouraged the adoption of Greek customs and habits, not only of external life, but of action and thought. It appears, however, that the Jews generally, and even his own adherents, were not prepared to go so far as himself; and when he sent some young men to Tyre, to assist at the games celebrated there in honor of the Tyrian Hercules, and entrusted them with large sums of money to expend in sacrifices to that idol, they chose rather to give the money for the building of ships. Jason did not long enjoy his ill-gotten dignity; for after three years he was supplanted in turn by his younger brother Onias IV or Menelaus, who offered the king 300 talents more for that dignity than Jason had given. Jason fled to the country of the Ammonites. Menelaus proved even more wicked than his brother. One of his first acts was to abstract sonic of the golden vessels of the Temple, and to send them secretly to Tyre for sale. The fact, however, transpired, and excited considerable ferment, especially among the numerous Jews at Antioch, where the exiled high-priest, the venerable Onias, took such notice of it, as gave deep offence to his brother, who prevailed on Andronicus, the king’s deputy at Antioch, to put him to death; for which deed Andronicus was himself slain on the same spot by order of the king, when he returned to the capital.

Ancient Light Vessel, Pompeii

2. Soon after Antiochus engaged in a war with Egypt. He invaded led that country twice with success; but a rumor of his death was believed in Palestine. This, together with the absence of the Syrian forces, encouraged the exiled Jason to attempt the recovery of his lost power. With a body of 1000 men, assisted by friends within the city, he surprised Jerusalem, and inflicted great severities upon the adherents of Menelaus, who himself sought refuge in the castle. The return of Antiochus, however, compelled him to abandon the city and relinquish the power which he thought he had recovered; and after wandering from place to place, he died miserably in Lacedaemonia. Antiochus, provoked at the satisfaction which the news of his death was reported to have given the Jews, chose to consider the transaction as a revolt, and to punish it accordingly. The city was abandoned to the fury and license of the soldiers for three days, during which 4000 of the inhabitants were slain, and nearly an equal number carried away and sold for slaves. The king, conducted by the impious Menelaus, then entered the Temple, which he plundered of all its treasures, vessels, and golden ornaments, and carried away 1800 talents of gold and silver to Antioch. But he did not quit the place until he had offered to the people and their God, the outrage, of sacrificing a large hog upon the altar of burnt-offerings. Menelaus was left in the high-priesthood; for although be was hated by the people, no one dared to move against one who stood so high in the favor of the king.

3. In another invasion of Egypt, Antiochus was met by the Roman ambassadors, who, in the name of the Senate, commanded him to desist from the enterprise, and, drawing a circle around him on the sand, forbade him to quit it until he decided between the friendship and the enmity of Rome. He bent his proud heart to the hard task of obedience, and turned homeward with the formidable army he had assembled for this enterprise. Burning with the sense of this disgrace, he failed not to wreak a portion of his wrath on the Jews as he returned. The baffled tyrant detached Apollonius to Jerusalem with an army of 22,000 men, commanding him to destroy the city, to massacre the male inhabitants, and to sell the women and children for slaves. Apollonius entered the city peaceably, and gave no sign of his intentions until the first Sabbath-day after his arrival. Then, while the people were engaged in the solemn worship of the Most High, he executed his dreadful commission with unrelenting ferocity. After having slain great multitudes of the people, and sent away 10,000 captives, he plundered the town, after which it was set on fire, and the wall demolished. The Temple was allowed to stand, but its service was altogether abandoned; for it was commanded by a fortress which the Syrians erected, and from which the soldiers assaulted all who went there to worship. Thus, in the month of June, B.C. 168, the daily sacrifices of the Temple ceased, and the city of Jerusalem was deserted.

4. Antiochus next issued a decree, enjoining the establishment of the Grecian form of idolatry throughout his wide dominions, that the various nations under his sway might, by the relinquishment of their distinctive observances, “become one people.” When we consider the variety of the forms of worship among the different nations in the empire of Antiochus, it is scarcely credible that so wild a project was seriously entertained; nor is it likely that the decree was exclusively leveled against the Jewish people; but it is more probable, that his object was to find a pretext for plundering the temples of the recusants; and as the temples were, from their sanctity, the great banks of deposit in those times, their spoils offered great temptations to so needy a king as Antiochus. Although the Temple of the Jews had been already plundered, his hatred to that people was gratified by the sufferings in which this law involved them; and so rigidly was it enforced, that death was the penalty of disobedience. What reception this decree met with among the heathen, is scarcely known; but, except the Jews and the Persians, there were few nations likely to offer any serious opposition. Officers were especially appointed to enforce the decree in every province. In the different towns, many of the Jews submitted to sacrifice to idols, and to profane the Sabbath. The Samaritans consented to receive the statue of Jupiter Xenius into their temple on Mount Gerizim; and the Lord’s Temple at Jerusalem was dedicated to Jupiter Olympius, his statue placed therein, and sacrifices regularly offered to him. Such of the Jews as refused to share in this worship, or to evince their conformity by eating swine’s flesh, were cruelly massacred, or subjected to the most exquisite tortures. The same proceedings were repeated in other towns; for the idol altars, groves, and statues were everywhere set up, and every where the tests of obedience were exacted. It was not long, however, before Antiochus perceived that, in as far as the Jews were concerned, his decree was less effectual than he had expected. He therefore issued another decree, forbidding, under pain of death, the worship of Jehovah, and the observance of the distinctive requirements of the Mosaical law, such as circumcision and the Sabbath. He went further, and endeavoured to extinguish the law itself, forbidding it to be read, and commanding every copy to be given up under pain of death. It was in this emergency that the Jews commenced reading lessons from the prophets, instead of the law, in their synagogues; and when afterwards they resumed the reading of the law, they did not cease to read the prophets; whence arose the subsequent use of both the books of the law and of the prophets in their synagogues. Many, as we have said, apostatized under these trying circumstances; but many also were found faithful unto death, and many others went forth to wander in deserts and in mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, subsisting on such herbs and roots as they could find in those solitary places.

5. Astonished at the obstinacy which the Jews manifested, Antiochus, mistrusting the zeal of his officers, repaired himself to Jerusalem to see that his decrees was rigidly enforced. It were charity to suppose that Antiochus Epiphanes had by this time become mad; for it is difficult otherwise to imagine how any human creature would endure to witness, much less to take delight in, the horrid tortures and cruel deaths to which the unhappy recusants were subjected. As examples of these dreadful transactions, the historian relates at length the case of the venerable Eleazer, who, in his ninetieth year, chose rather to die, than to eat the forbidden flesh of swine; and of the heroic mother and her seven sons, who nobly set the tyrant at defiance, and professed their faith and hope that “the king of the world would raise up those that died for his laws to everlasting life.”