Antiochus IV faced serious problems when he became ruler of the empire he had inherited; he had to deal with disunity in the empire, lack of money and outside enemies. In his attempts to bring unity and greater stability to his empire, he enforced a policy of Hellenization on the various peoples of the huge area which stretched from what is modern Iran in the east to what is modern Turkey in the west. Antiochus accepted syncretistic attitudes to religion in his empire and Hellenization allowed for this because of the polytheism of Greek religion, so Antiochus did not anticipate serious opposition to the imposition of Hellenistic culture on his subjects. He was incapable of understanding the inflexible loyalty to their traditions and Law of the Jews of southern Palestine who were a minority group in one corner of his sprawling empire. To the strict Jew, acceptance of the Hellenistic life-style which Antiochus required his subjects to adopt meant breaking with his ancestral faith and customs, rejecting the Law on which the whole of Jewish life was based and failing to obey the God who had revealed himself to the ancestors of the Jews. It meant a betrayal.

 

In 169 B.C. Antiochus took a step which was blasphemous to, the Jews although to the king it was a step towards greater strengthening of his authority. He gave himself the title of 'Theos Epiphanes', translated as 'God Manifest', and meant that he-claimed in himself the manifestation of the powers of the Greek 'god Zeus. Worship of the king, as of a god in human form, was not uncommon in ancient times, but it was something totally impossible to the Jew who was bound by the Commandments to worship God alone.     

 

About this time, a power struggle had developed amongst the Jewish priests in Jerusalem over who should be the High Priest. One of them, Jason, offered Antiochus a large sum of money if the king would depose the High Priest, Onias, who was in office, and appoint Jason in his place. To gain his ends, Jason also expressed his willingness to Antiochus [promote Hellenization in Jerusalem, particularly Greek-style education for Jewish youth, if he became High Priest. Antiochus saw this as a way of enforcing his Hellenization programme amongst the uncooperative Jews of Jerusalem and therefore removed Onias and appointed Jason in his place. Most of the Jews were opposed to any such removal of High Priest, whose position was hereditary, and were very angry that a pagan king should have interfered in matters connected with the Temple The situation became worse when another priest, Menelaus, bribed the king to remove Jason and appoint Menelaus in his place as High Priest Fighting broke out between the supporters of Jason and Menelaus and Jerusalem was in an uproar.

 

By this time Antiochus had no patience left with the Jews and he took violent action to restore control, bringing an army to Jerusalem, killing many of the Jews, taking away holy and valuable vessels from the Temple and leaving one of his officials to govern the city and enforce Hellenization on the people. Menelaus and his supporters were given control of the Temple in return for supporting the enforced Hellenization of Jerusalem. In 167 B.C. Antiochus decided to try to wipe out the Jewish religion and traditional way of life and to enforce the worship of the Greek god Zeus. He issued an edict, banning all customs relating to the Jewish Law and traditional worship. All copies of the Law were to be destroyed: circumcision of boys was banned, as was observance of the Sabbath. The penalty for anyone found following the Jewish religion and Law was immediate death.

 

Idolatrous altars were set up in many places and Jews were ordered to offer sacrifices on them to pagan gods.

 

Idolterous alter

Idol of ancient egyptrian god zeus

 

 

 

The Temple was desecrated by the setting up of an idol of Zeus in it and a sacrificial offering of pig flesh was made on the altar. The king's officials began a reign of terror, hunting out Jews who resisted the king's orders. Many Jews fled into other areas and others were killed. Many who were caught by the officials on the Sabbath day refused to defend themselves, rather than break the Sabbath Law, and were killed.

 

The turning point came when an old priest named Mattathias publicly defied the king's orders and killed the official who was trying to enforce pagan sacrifice on the people of the village where the priest lived. Mattathias and his five sons fled into hiding but they had resolved to fight for their faith and way of life, and they were soon joined by many others who were prepared to die rather than be apostates. If necessary, they were ready to fight on the Sabbath for the sake of the faith that had been handed on to them over so many centuries. They took a vital decision because if the Jews of southern Palestine and Jerusalem had been crushed by the edict of Antiochus IV, the Jewish faith and way of life of the many Jews in other lands could have been affected and humanly speaking, could have disappeared from the world.

Judas, one of the sons of Mattathias, became the leader of the revolt when his father died and was nicknamed 'Maccabees' meaning 'hammer' because of his hard-hitting military campaigns against the Syrian rulers. He was so successful that by 164 B.C. he and his Jewish fighters had gained control of Jerusalem and the area around it. Judas re-dedicated the Temple, after its purification, and the annual remembrance of this became one of the Jewish religious Festivals, afterwards.

 

Judas was aiming not only at full religious freedom again for his people, but political freedom as well, and his aims were helped by the death of Antiochus. The new ruler who followed Antiochus agreed to withdraw the edict intended to destroy the Jewish faith and the Jews regained the religious freedom for which they had fought. To pursue his aims for political freedom for the Jews, Judas asked for the help of the Romans who were becoming an important power in the Mediterranean lands and to whom the Syrians were enemies. But at this point Judas was killed in a battle with the Syrians and the leadership of the Jewish fighters passed to Jonathan, a younger brother of Judas. The war for political independence continued and when Jonathan was also killed, yet another brother, Simon, took his place. Simon achieved what his brothers had set out to do and freed his people from Syrian domination. In 142 B.C. a new Jewish state was proclaimed, with Simon installed as High Priest and Commander of the Jews. From 142 to 63 B.C. the Jews continued to rule themselves but in time serious problems of leadership and internal rivalries arose. The country was in a very weak and troubled state in 63 B.C. when the Romans, whose help Judas Maccabeus had once asked for, conquered Jerusalem and became the new rulers of the Jewish homeland,

Our information about the war against Antiochus and the Syrians comes from the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees.