Alexander
defeats the Persians
Safawid Iranian painting, (1502 - 1736 CE)
195 BCE
Seleucus's successors, under Antiochus III, push south and take Jerusalem.
So far, the Jews had enjoyed regimes which tolerated their
religious beliefs.
Many had prospered and assimilated with the Greek way of
life.
Now, a major change will hit them.
168 BCE
Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) plunders and desecrates the Temple.
Laws ban Jewish religious practices on pain of death.
Builds an altar for obscene sacrifices to pagan gods.
Many Jews submitted to all this, but it was too much for
some of the more pious; but the elderly Mattathias killed someone
making a sacrifice and also the King’s Commissioner who was forcing him to do it.
A revolt springs up.
Mattathias escapes into the mountains with his sons and
they start a guerrilla war. When Mattathias dies, his son Judas
(Judah) carries on and earns the name ‘Maccabee’,
which means ‘a hammerer’.
