Antiochus IV Enters Jerusalem

Competition for the High Priesthood

About this time, upon the death of Onias the high priest, Antiochus gave the high priesthood to Jesus his brother, for the son of Onias was an infant. [ . . . ] But this Jesus—who was the brother of Onias—was deprived of the high priesthood by the king, who became angry with him, and gave it to his younger brother, whose name also was Onias; Simeon had these three sons, each of whom attained the high priesthood. [ . . . ] This Jesus changed his name to Jason, while Onias [the younger] was called Menelaus.¹ Now as the former high priest, Jesus [i.e., Jason], engaged in sedition against Menelaus, who was ordained after him. The people were divided between them both. And the sons of Tobias sided with Menelaus, but the greater part of the people supported Jason. Menelaus and the sons of Tobias, being hard-pressed by him, went to Antiochus to inform him that they were willing to abandon their ancestral laws and the Jewish way of living associated with them to follow the king’s laws and acquire the Greek way of life.² They requested his permission to build a gymnasium at Jerusalem. When he granted their wish, they also hid the circumcision of their genitals, so that even when they were naked they might appear to be Greeks. Accordingly, they gave up all the customs that belonged to their own country and imitated the practices of the other nations.

Antiochus’ First Expedition to Egypt

Seeing that the affairs in his own kingdom were going well, Antiochus resolved to make an expedition against Egypt, both because he had a desire to gain it and because he despised the son of Ptolemy, who was now weak and unable to manage affairs of great import. Antiochus came with great forces to Pelusium, cunningly circumvented Ptolemy Philometor, and seized upon Egypt. He then came to the area around Memphis. When he had taken them, he hastened to Alexandria, in the hopes of taking it by siege and subduing Ptolemy, who reigned there. He was, however, driven not only from Alexandria but out of all Egypt by the declaration of the Romans, who ordered him to leave that country alone. [ . . . ]

King Antiochus, on his return from Egypt out of fear of the Romans, made an expedition against Jerusalem. When he was there, in the one hundred and forty-third year of the kingdom of the Seleucids [in the autumn of 169 BCE], he took the city without battle, for those of his own party opened the gates to him. When he had taken possession of Jerusalem, he slew many of the opposing party. After plundering it, he returned to Antioch with a great deal of money.

Antiochus Plunders the Temple Again

Now it came to pass, after two years—in the one hundred and forty-fifth year [168 BCE], on the twenty-fifth day of that month, which we call Kislev [around December], and the Macedonians call Apelleos, in the hundred and fifty-third Olympiad—that the king came up to Jerusalem. Pretending to offer peace, he gained possession of the city by treachery. This time, because of the riches that lay in the Temple, he did not even spare those who admitted him into the city; but, led by his greed—for he saw there was a great deal of gold in it [the Temple], and many ornaments that had been dedicated to it, of very great value—and in order to plunder its wealth, he ventured to break the treaty he had made. So he left the Temple bare and took away the golden candlesticks, the golden altar [of incense], the table, and the altar [of burnt offering]. He did not even leave the coverings, which were made of fine linen and scarlet. He also emptied the Temple of its secret treasures and left nothing at all remaining. He cast the Jews into great lamentation, for he forbade them to offer those daily sacrifices that they used to offer to God, according to the law. When he had pillaged the whole city, he slew some of the inhabitants, and some he carried away captive, together with their wives and children, so that the multitude of those captives who were taken alive amounted to about ten thousand. He also burned down the finest buildings. When he had overthrown the city walls, he built a citadel in the lower part of the city, for the place was high and overlooked the Temple. For this reason, he fortified it with high walls and towers and installed a garrison of Macedonians there. However, in that citadel dwelt the impious and wicked part of the [Jewish] multitude, from whom it proved that the citizens suffered many severe calamities. And when the king had built a pagan altar upon God’s altar, he slew swine upon it and thereby offered a sacrifice neither according to the law nor native to the Jewish religious worship in that country. He also compelled them to forsake the worship that they paid their own God and to adore those whom he took to be gods. He made them build temples and raise pagan altars in every city and village and offer swine upon them every day. He also commanded them not to circumcise their sons and threatened to punish any who should be found to have transgressed his injunction. He also appointed overseers to compel them to do what he commanded. Indeed, many Jews there complied with the king’s commands either voluntarily or out of fear of the prescribed penalty. But the best men and those of the noblest souls did not regard him but paid a greater respect to the customs of their country than concern as to the punishment that he threatened to those who disobeyed. Indeed, every day they underwent great miseries and bitter torments. They were whipped with rods, and their bodies were torn to pieces and were crucified while they were still alive and breathing. They also strangled those women and their sons whom they had circumcised, despite the king’s orders, hanging their sons about their necks as they were upon the crosses. And when a sacred book of the Law [i.e., a Torah] was found, it was destroyed, and those who were in possession of it also perished miserably.