Seminar 1: "Between the Testaments"

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Introduction: PTOLEMIES AND SELEUCIDS
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Alexander the Great died of a fever in 323 at 32 years of age. After
Alexander the Great's death in 323 B.C.  his four generals divided his
empire into four parts. Ptolemy took Egypt, Seleucus took Syria,
Lysimachus held Thrace and Asia Minor, and Cassander ruled Macedon. Of
interest to Palestine are two, the Ptolemy and Seleucus dynasties
which fought a tug of war for the area known as Israel.  Ptolemies
controlled Palestine from 323 to 198 B.C., then the Seleucids of Syria
controlled it from 198 to 142 B.C. Palestine was a pawn in the hands
of foreign kings for nearly 200 years.  The Seleucid Dynasty was
frustrated. The Roman Senate had declared war on the leader of the
Seleucid Empire, Antiochus III.  By 190 B.C., being soundly defeated
by the Romans, Antiochus was mercilessly brought to his knees, disarmed
much of his army and was forced to pay a huge tribute.  But the Seleucids
refused to die. Before the empire finally cracked and fell, one last
surge of power against Egypt and Judea would bring it to a close. Like
the last surge of flames in a dying fire the new ruler Antiochus IV
moved against Egypt only to be thwarted by Rome's intervention. Now
his anger was vented against Judea, his remaining stronghold.

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Part 1: ANTIOCHUS IV:
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It was during the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanies (175-154) that the
Jews greatly suffered. Antiochus came to Jerusalem with a vengence.
His demon-like fury was set against the Jews and the God they served.

There were in Jerusalem those who wanted peace with the Greeks at any
cost. They were the liberal thinkers who believed that any religion was
good.  Upon being deposed of their religious powers they appealed to
king Antiochus to gain his favor.  They told him of their desire to
leave the laws of their countrymen and become like the Greeks
embracing their religion and way of life. They implored the king to
build a Greek gymnasium (where men exercised in the nude.)  They even
went so far as to hide their circumcision by surgical mutilation so as
to appear Gentile when accompanying non-Jews in the public baths.
Antiochus granted them their requests and retired to his home in
Antioch.

Upon his defeat in Egypt Antiochus set his heart on the city of
Jerusalem and its treasures.  He now had allies within the city and so
he was able to come without fighting into the city proper.  It was on
the occasion of the 153 Olympiad that the king entered the city under
peaceful pretenses.  He suddenly turned on the people and murdered
those of his own party and stole a great deal of money. He had looted
the Temple of its treasures he had envied for so long. He left the
Temple bare taking away the golden candlesticks, the golden altar of
incense, the table of shewbread, and the altar of burnt-offering. He
emptied the secret treasures and left absolutely nothing, even
carrying away the veils of the Temple.  He then murdered many in the
temple and carried 10,000 men, women, and children away captive. He
burned many of the city buildings and tore down its walls.

He tried to exterminate the Jews and their religion.  He ordered the
destruction of all the copies of the Torah, the Pentateuch, and
required that Jews make offerings to his god, Zeus. His final atrocity
was to enter the Temple and build a statue of Zeus, then offer a pig
on the altar and poured the swine broth throughout the temple polluting
it.  This was known to the Jews as the "abomination of desolation,"
prophesied by Daniel. Antiochus identified himself as the god Zeus and
wished to make his own worship the religion of the Jews.

Antiochus commanded every Jew on penalty of death to conform to the
Greek religion. He then ordered that everyone raise altars to Zeus and
other Greek gods throughout the land and to offer sacrifices to the
same.  He forced the Jews to work on the Sabbath, and worship on the
king's birthday by eating idol sacrifices and entering into the public
idolatrous parades.

His actions mirror the future final act of the Antichrist who is yet
to come before the Return of Christ. Even the minted coins of
Antiochus were stamped with the image of the Greek god, (which looked
much like the king) and imprinted with Antiochus' assumed name,
Epiphanes, meaning "god manifest."   (Others nicknamed him Epimanes,
"the madman" because of his bizarre behavior carousing with lowlifes,
both men and women, bathing with them in public, and throwing stones
at passers by.

Many Jews refused to abandon their faith choosing rather to die than
to shame the Lord God of their fathers.  Two women who refused the
kings command and circumcised their boys were thrown headlong over the
wall.  An eighty year old priest named Eliazar when forced to eat
swine's flesh spit it out and was murdered on the spot.  One young man
who spoke to the king saying, "I will not eat of it (swine's flesh)
for we would rather die than disobey the laws of God," had his tongue
cut off, parts of his hands and feet cut off, and then was fried in a
huge cooking pan. Others were roasted alive in caves where they fled
from the kings command.  This horrible persecution lasted three years.
(This event is referred to in Hebrews 11:35-37)  Josephus reported that
these committed people,


        "...they every day underwent great miseries and
        bitter torments; for they were whipped with rods,
        and their bodies were torn to pieces, and were
        crucified, while they were still alive, and
        breathed. They also strangled those women and
        their sons whom they had circumcised, as the king
        had appointed, hanging their sons about their
        necks as they were upon the crosses. And if there
        were any sacred book of the law found, it was
        destroyed, and those with whom they were found
        miserably perished also."
          (Josephus, Antiquities Book 12, ch. 5 part 4)



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Part 2: JUDAS MACCABEUS:
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Opposition and deliverance from Antiochus came from an unlikely
source through an elderly villager and his priestly family of five
sons, Mattathias Hasmoneas - Judas (Maccabeus), Jonathan, Simon, John,
and Eleazar.

The occasion was a visit from the king's emissary to a small village
20 miles from Jerusalem with the intent of forcing the Jews there to
offer sacrifices to Greek gods.  He commanded Mattathias the priest to
offer the sacrifice so that the rest of the village would follow his
example. Mattathias boldly refused and preached his reasons. At that
point another villager stepped forward and offered the sacrifice as
Antiochus commanded.  Mattathias was enraged!  He and his sons leaped
forward killing the one who sacrificed as well as Apelles, the king's
general and a few soldiers.  Mattathias boldly destroyed the Greek
altar in his home village. He then cried out in a loud voice, "Let
every one who is zealous for the law and supports of the covenant come
out with me!"  He and his sons fled to the hills and everyone left the
village for the caves in the desert.

When the king heard the news he sent all his forces at the citadel in
Jerusalem against the rebels.  Finding them in a cave and failing to
persuade them to exit nor to fight on the Sabbath they set fire to the
caves where thousands of men, women and children were burned alive.

This triggered a 24 year war (166-142) that eventually brought the
independence of Judah.  Mattathias died a year later and his son,
Judas, became the leader of the battle against Antiochus' armies.  The
title "Maccabee" (the hammer) allegedly was given to Judas who took
the appellation derived from the first letters of the Hebrew words of
Exodus 15:11, "Who is like unto thee among the gods, O Jehovah?"  The
stories of God's deliverance of the Jews by the hand of Judas and his
brothers is nothing short of miraculous. It reads much like the
miraculous victories of Gideon.