Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia opened the eastern world to western influence and began the Hellenistic Age. His army of "Hellenes" from Macedonia and Greece, swept across Asia Minor and claimed and empire from Egypt to India by the time he was 31. After the gifted young general died of a fever in 323 B.C., Egypt, Syria and Macedonia emerged as three great kingdoms, ruled by his generals. Greek became the international language as Hellenistic cities were built throughout the Near East. In Judea (as the Greeks called Judah) the Jews fought to maintain their faith and ideals in the face of Greek religion and worldly culture. This fight, led by the family of the Maccabees was only partly successful: Hellenism permeated Jewish society for many years.
During the most intense and brutal religious repression that the Jews had ever known, a family of heroes arose to save Israel. They were called the Maccabees. Under the great Judas Maccabeus, the rebels successfully defied Syrian efforts to erase their culture. Judas' brothers continued the fight and their descendants ruled Israel as "priest-kings" until the arrival of the Romans. Though by that time they had absorbed much of the Greek culture that they had initially opposed, the Maccabees were revered and respected as men who would not, even under coercion, "desert the law and the ordinances".
One day in 175 B.C. a delegation of Jews returned to Jerusalem from Antioch in Syria. They had visited the Syrian King, Antiochus IV, and presented him with a revolutionary proposal concerning the government of Judea. They came back triumphant: Antiochus had granted all that they asked, and the proposal was now law. These men were the leaders of the "Hellenizers"- Jews who embraced the Greek way of life.
Their leader, Jason, was now declared high priest of the Jews. Jason's brother, Onias, the lawful high priest was deposed and placed under arrest. The traditional government by priests and clan chiefs was abolished, to be replaced by a Greek-style city-state. Jason even planned to change the name of the Holy City from Jerusalem to Antioch, afetr Antiochus IV. An official list of citizens was drawn up, leaving the majority of Jerusalem's Jews with no civic status and no effective voice in public affairs.
The people were outraged: no king had ever presumed to meddle with the government of the Jews. Jerusalemites watched indignantly as the Hellenists carried through their revolution.
To prepare their sons for citizenship, these would-be Greeks built a gymnasium within sight of the temple. Young Hellenized Jews now spent their days there, excercising in the nude, wrestling and throwing the discus. Even the young priests were forsaking the temple for the gymnasium. Before long, these young men grew ashamed of their circumcisions, which identified them as Jews in the athletic meets against the Syrians. Many of them even went through a painful operation to make it look as though they had never been circumcised.
Their dress was equally offensive to devout Jews. They walked through the streets of Jerusalem wearing abbreviated skirts, a short, fluttering cloak of bright stripes, zigzags or polka dots, and brooches at the shoulders, and (worst of all) the wide-brimmed "Greek hat", the badge of gymnasium membership. Modeled after the hat worn by the god Hermes, the Greek hat was an abominable sign to religious Jews. To the sullen majority of Israel, this cherade seemed final proof of the Hellenizers' treason. the Hellenizers had abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to do evil.
Within three years, fights between conservatives and Hellenizers became an everyday occurence. The streets of Jerusalem were no longer safe for anyone.
Then to make matters worse, Jason and his followers were thrown out of office by another faction of Hellenizers who plundered the temple treasury, where many of Jerusalem's poor had deposited their life savings. Fighting increased with the threat of rebellion. When the former high priest Onias echoed the popular outcry, he was assassinated.
That was the last straw and in 170 B.C., Jerusalem rose in revolt. A force of 3000 Hellenizers marched on the rebels, but the angry crowd stood it's ground and routed them. Antiochus acted to prevent further disorder: he had Onias' assassin executed and even went so far as to sympathize publicly with the rebellious Jews. Order was temporarily restored.
A year later, in the summer of 169 B.C., Antiochus invaded Egypt, which had also been Hellenized, with a great expeditionary force, including chariots, elephants, and a fleet of ships. Though he marched through Israel, Antiochus did not go to Jeruslaem.
Jerusalem's common people were well aware of the king's grandiose plans to unite Egypt and Asia under one rule and thus become the most powerful ruler on earth, a new Alexander the Great. They had seen the coins he issued bearing the image of the Olympian Zeus (with features closely resembling his own) and stamped with his assumed title, Epiphanes, meaning "god manifest". Strange tales were told about him: his love of performing in the theater, appearing uninvited at private parties, playing practical jokes, spending nights with prostitues and sailors. As long as Antiochus seemed to be winning in Egypt, Jerusalem's Hellenizers supported him. But no one seemed to know exactly waht was happening in the Egyptian campaign. According to one day's news, Antiochus had captured and deposed the young Egyptian king and had gone to Memphis to receive the ancient and mysterious rites of coronation as Egypt's new pharaoh. Later announcements became confused and at last made no sense at all. Seriously alarmed, the Hellenizers split into factions, pro-Syrians against pro-Egyptians. Throughout the country, a feeling of impending disaster pervaded the air.
Civil War
During the autumn of 169 B.C., according to the Book of Maccabees, some Jerusalemites started seeing things in the sky: "for almost forty days, there appeared golden-clad horsemen charging through the air, in companies fully armed, all men prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen".
Then came a startling rumor that Antiochus was dead. The people, incensed by the confusion and disorder, prepared to rise. Fighting broke out in the streets. At this moment the king himself still very much alive appeared in Jerusalem at the head of a very large army. He had just been forced to abandon Egypt on a threat of war with the Romans, whose policy was to maintain a balance of power in the East. Finding Judea in turmoil, he assumed that the Jews were in revolt. His response was to order a massacre.
With Jerusalem subdued, Antiochus went on to plunder the temple. Helped by the dishonest high priest, he confiscated a sum equivalent to several million dollars. Then after defiling and looting the sanctuary itself, he returned to Syria.
This was the beginning. Early in 167 B.C. before the people had recovered from Antiochus' first onslaught, he sent another army under a general named Apollonius. On the Sabbath, when Jews could neither work nor bear arms, the army entered the city unopposed. Appolonius' soldiers plundered and set fire to much of Jerusalem. Next they tore down the city walls and set up a heavily fortified camp on a hill overlooking the temple. This hill, called the "Acra" (citadel) would be their stronghold for 25 years.
By now, residents of Jerusalem were fleeing and taking refuge wherever they could. Hellenizers and their families started moving to safety within the Syrian garrison on the Acra, but only the rich and influential could afford to stay there. Most other Jews, whatever their allegience, moved away if they could. The Holy City had become a "dwelling of strangers".
The Syrian Persecution
Later in the same year, Antiochus proceeded from political repression to religious persecution, somewthing no Greek ruler had ever done before. His first step was to issue a proclamation stating that all should be united as one people and that non-Greeks should give up their ancestral customs and adopt customs prescribed by the king. He addressed this order to the entire kingdom, and throughout his lands, in Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia and parts of Asia Minor, public officials summoned the people to assemble and hear it read.
Then Antiochus moved directly against the Jews. In hundreds of letters carried by messengers to Jerusalem and the other towns of Judea, "he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to profane sabbaths and feasts, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised." The decree ended with the words: "And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die."
The king's command was enforced to the letter. In mid-December 167 B.C., Syrian authorities rededicated the temple to the Olympian Zeus. A statue of the god (which had been sculpted to look like Antiochus himself) was set up and pigs were sacrificed in front of it on the altar of burnt offering. Thereafter, "the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the Gentiles, who dallied with harlots and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts."
The Jewish law itself was the chief target of Antiochus. "A man could neither keep the sabbath, nor observe the feasts of his fathers, nor so much as confess himself to be a Jew." Possession of the scriptures was made a capital offense. The members of a congregation caught secretly observing the sabbath were all burned alive.
"Two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. These women they publicly paraded about the city, with their babies hung at their breasts, then hurled them down headlong from the wall."
When the festival of Dionysus came, conservative Jews were compelled to walk in the procession under the eyes of Syrian guards and Hellenizers. Amid the beating of drums and gongs, trumpet blasts and wild shouts honoring the wine god, they marched along, wearing wreaths of ivy (a symbol of Dionysus), their heads bowed in shame and humiliation.
Next, on pain of death for noncompliance, the entire population was summoned to eat pork. Most chose to live and ate a morsel. "But many in Israel stood firm, they chose to die rather than to be defiled by unclean food or to profane the holy covenant, and they did die."
One of these patriots, a 90-year-old scribe named Eleazer, was offered a dispensation because of his age and dignity. He would be allowed, they said, to smuggle in a portion of clean meat for himself and thus only appear to be eating the pig flesh.
"Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life." said Eleazer within the hearing of all. He was then savagely beaten to death by Antiochus' soldiers before his horrified countrymen.
Many had begun to despair of Israel's survival when a book suddenly appeared in their midst. No one knew where The book of Daniel came from but at once copies were passing from hand to hand among the faithful. Some believed it was the work of a prophet who had lived almost 400 years earlier in Babylonia. Why had no one heard of Daniel and his book? The book itself answered this question. It had been concealed by divine command until the moment of crisis when its message would be needed by the children of Israel. Who could doubt that the critical time was fast approaching?
Mattathias Strikes the First Blow
All over the country, people gathered in secret to listen while scribes read Daniel aloud, half-singing its rapturous visions. Composed in the highly colored language favored by the common folk, the message was an electrifying one. Hold out for another three years and you will cleanse the temple, it proclaimed. Keep fighting- a Messiah is coming and Israel will become God's kingdom on earth. Throughout that year many listened and believed.
One of the many heads of families fleeing Jerusalem at this time was an aged priest named MAttathias. He took his five sons (John, Simon, Judas, Eleazar and Jonathan) to the family's ancestral village of Modein, some 17 miles northwest of Jerusalem.
Antiochus' persecutions quickly spread beyond the capital, however, and soon an official arrived at Modein to enforce the royal edict. He publicly invited Mattathias, an honred elder, to set a good example by performing a small sacrifice in Greek fashion on the village altar. Mattathias vehemently refused. When another Jew advanced to fulfill the royal command, Mattathias rushed forward and killed both the Jew and the official and tore down the altar.
"Then Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: 'Let every one who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!' And he and his sons fled to the hills and left all that they had in the city."
They made for the rugged hill country some 12 miles northeast of Modein, a wild area of boulders, ravines and scraggly undergrowth. Others hastened to join the rebels, among them was a group of conservative scribes known as Hasideans (the pious ones).
The rebels in the hills grew larger and stronger. They "struck down sinners in their anger and lawless men in their wrath; the survivors fled to the gentiles for safety. And Mattathias and his friends went about and tore down the altars, they forcibly circumcised all of the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders of Israel and the work prospered in their hands."
Judas the Hammer
Mattathias was too old for the rigors of guerrilla warfare. Less than a year after slaying the Syrian official, he died, having named his third son, Judas, to succeed him as commander of the rebels.
Judas proved to be a genius at guerrilla warfare. He knew how to hold the loyalty of his men, how to keep them together in hard times and how to lead them in battle. When it came to the actual fighting, Judas always plunged right into the thick of it. "He was like a lion in his deeds, like a lion's cub roaring for pray." People nicknamed him Maccabeus (hammer).
One day in 166 B.C. he engaged a force led by the same Apollonius who hads sacked Jerusalem on the sabbath a year earlier. Recognizing the general in the melee, Judas rushed in and killed him, taking his sword. Judas was to use that weapon in battle for the rest of his life.
The Syrians then put a large army into the field, advancing without opposition to Beth-horon, about 12 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Judas had carefully positioned his men in the surrounding hills, and they watched as the glittering Syrian battalions marched along.
Those with Judas shook their heads. How could the Syrians be withstood? Judas was eirm. Numbers did not count, he said. It was surprise that would win. He waited for the precise moment when a sudden assault would throw the Syrians into disarray; then he gave the signal and led his army down the hills. The Syrians, caught by surprise, became a disorderly mass, incapable of striking back efficiently. Eight hundred were killed and the rest fled westward.
Thereafter, people talked excitedly of Judas and his brothers. His victory disturbed the king, but Antiochus had more pressing troubles. is outlying eastern provinces, hundreds of miles inland, had ceased paying their taxes. Taking an army eastward in the spring of 165 B.C., Antiochus left behind a viceroy named Lysias with half of his troops and orders to exterminate the Jews. Those fit for hard work were to be sold to slave traders, and the remainder were to be killed. Lysias quickly began his mission.
From their lookout points in the hills, Judas' scouts watched as a group of slave traders came out to meet the Syrian army. The traders had brought immense amounts of gold and silver and wagonloads of chains with which to fetter the able-body Jews they expected to buy.
At daybreak the next morning, after fasting and praying, Judas' army marched into position, lightly armed but confident that the Lord would defend them. Miraculously, the Syrians main force was soundly defeated, and Judas then turned to face a detachment which had come to attack him from behind. When this rear guard saw their camp in flames, however, they fled in panic and disarray.
Judas' army outsmarted the enemy again and again until finally, early in the year 164 B.C., he defeated the Syrians in a pitched battle at Beth-sur, 16 miles south of Jerusalem. Lysias had no choice but to negotiate a truce, the fighting continued as Judas and his men entered the temple precincts.
Undeterred, Judas now carried out the greatest act of his career, the cleansing and rededication of the temple. It was a formidable task. "In the courts they saw bushes sprung up as in a thicket, or as on one of the mountains. They saw also the chambers of the priests in ruins. Then they rent their clothes, and mourned with great lamentation, and sprinkled themselves with ashes. They fell face down on the ground, and sounded the signal on the trumpets, and cried out to Heaven." During the days that followed, they rebuilt, repaired and refurnished the temple.
Then, early one morning in mid-December 164 B.C., exactly three years after the Syrian desecration, "they rose and offered sacrifice, as the law directs, on the new altar of burnt offering which they had built. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs and harps and lutes and cymbals. All the people fell on their faces and worshiped and blessed Heaven, who had prospered them. So they celebrated the dedication of the altar for eight days, and offered burnt offerings with gladness; they offered a sacrifice of deliverance and praise.
They decorated the front of the temple with golden crowns and small shields; they restored the gates and the chambers for the priests, and furnished them with doors.
There was a very great gladness among the people and the reproach of the Gentiles was removed."
The annual winter festival of Hannukah commemorates this event.
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