The policy which Antiochus thus inaugurated he carried on rigorously and
systematically. His whole kingdom was to be unified; Judaism was an
eccentricity and as such doomed to extinction. The Temple of Jerusalem
was made over to Zeus Olympius: the temple of Gerizim to Zeus Xenius.
All the religious rites of Judaism were proscribed and the neighbouring
Greek cities were requested to enforce the prohibition upon their Jewish
citizens. Jerusalem was occupied by an army which took advantage of the
Sabbath and proceeded to suppress its observance. An Athenian came to be
the missionary of Hellenism and to direct its ceremonies, which were
established by force up and down the country.
28. _The Maccabees._--Jerusalem and Gerizim were purged and converted to
the state religion with some ease. Elsewhere, as there, some conformed
and some became martyrs for the faith. And the passive resistance of
those who refused to conform at length gave rise to active opposition.
"The king's officers who were enforcing the apostasy came into the city
of Modein to sacrifice, and many of Israel went over to them, but
Mattathias ... slew a Jew who came to sacrifice and the king's officer
and pulled down the altar" (1 Macc. ii. 15 sqq.). Whether led by this
Mattathias or not, certain Jews fled into the wilderness and found a
leader in Judas Maccabaeus his reputed son, the first of the five
Asmonean (Hasmonean) brethren. The warfare which followed was like that
which Saul and David waged against the Philistines. Antiochus was
occupied with his Parthian campaign and trusted that the Hellenized Jews
would maintain their ascendancy with the aid of the provincial troops.
In his last illness he wrote to express his confidence in their loyalty.
But the rebels collected adherents from the villages; and, when they
resolved to violate the sabbath to the extent of resisting attack, they
were joined by the company of the Assideans (Hasidim). Such a breach of
the sabbath was necessary if the whole Law was to survive at all in
Palestine. But the transgression is enough to explain the disfavour into
which the Maccabees seem to fall in the judgment of later Judaism, as,
in that judgment, it is enough to account for the instability of their
dynasty. Unstable as it was, their dynasty was soon established. In the
country-side of Judaea, Judaism--and no longer Hellenism--was propagated
by force. Apollonius, the commander of the Syrian garrison in Jerusalem,
and Seron the commander of the army in Syria, came in turn against Judas
and his bands and were defeated. The revolt thus became important enough
to engage the attention of the governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, if
not of Lysias the regent himself. Nicanor was despatched with a large
army to put down the rebels and to pay the tribute due to Rome by
selling them as slaves. Judas was at Emmaus; "the men of the citadel"
guided a detachment of the Syrian troops to his encampment by night. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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