Read The Age of the Maccabees (Illustrated) for Free Online

as
governor. Of the latter it is said that he was “in character more barbarous
than him that set him there”.
    On Antiochus’s conduct
at this time Prof. Mahaffy comments as follows: “I think his savage outbreak at
Jerusalem, where he sacrificed swine upon the altar, defiled the Holy of
Holies, and forced all the priests to pollute themselves, must have been caused
by some more special personal injuries on their part than the mere resistance
to his innovations. Our information is so scanty that we can only guess. In
some way the nationalist party in Judaea, and their relations in Egypt, must
have thwarted his advance and marred his campaign. We hear that his third
advance was slow; had he reached Alexandria but a few days sooner, he might
have seized the capital, murdered the royal princes, and then made his peace
with the Romans when the game was won. It seems likely that the opposition of
the patriotic party in Judea hindered his march, and so caused his signal
failure at the moment of victory”.
    On the occasion of
another expedition against Egypt two years later (168 BC), Antiochus was met by
a Roman envoy, Caius Popilius Lenas, who handed him the Senate’s written order
to discontinue the war, and on his hesitation to promise acquiescence, drew a
circle around him with his stick on the sand, and required his decision before
he stepped across that boundary. At the moment that Antiochus yielded to this
peremptory demand, the empire of Alexander may be said to have visibly passed
over to the Romans. But to a man of the king's ferocity of temper the occasion
proved one on which he had to wreak his vengeance in some direction, and now,
asbefore, the Jews were the victims. Sending Apollonius, his collector of
tribute, with 20,000 men to Jerusalem, he gave command that it should be thoroughly
Hellenized. On the first Sabbath after his arrival Apollonius proceeded to
carry out his orders. Those who opposed were killed or sold into slavery, and
colonists brought in to fill their places. The city walls were demolished, but
the citadel was fortified, and the Syrian garrison held it securely through
Maccabean times till 142 BC. All distinctively Jewish practices were forbidden,
circumcision, the sacrificial system, abstinence from unclean food, even the
possession of the sacred Books. On the 15th of Chisleu,i.e. late in December,
168 BC, an altar to the Olympian Zeus was placed on the altar of
burnt-offering, and ten days later it was hanselled by the sacrifice of a sow.
The Jews were compelled to keep the festival of Dionysus (Bacchus), crowned with
ivy. Violence, including death, was the penalty for detection in the
infringement of any of these commands, which were rigidly enforced by officers
appointed to see to their observance in all parts of the country. To this time
belong the well-known stories of the martyrdom of the aged scribe Eleazar, and
of the mother and her seven sons. It was emphatically a time of sifting. “Judah
was searched, and that which was unworthy cast out. Waverers turned with
rekindled fervor to the God of their fathers. In their hiding-places on the
outskirts of the land, the faces of the Chasidim (Assideans) grew stern. The
soldiers of Jehovah were ready for battle, waiting in prayer for a God-sent man
to lead them”.
     

THE MACCABEAN REVOLT TO THE DEATH OF JUDAS (168—160
BC).
     

     
    IN order to understand
the importance of the Maccabean revolt as a specially important epoch in the
history of Judaism, we must contemplate it on the one hand in its relation to
the establishment of the Law under Ezra and Nehemiah, and on the other hand in
its reference to the completion of the literary work which goes by the name of
the Mishnah (circ. 200 AD).
    When the Temple-worship
at Jerusalem was reestablished, there was placed before the pious Jew in detail
the ceremonial, as well as other, duties which that Law entailed. The festival
celebrations, the sacrifices and other offerings on stated