THE GREEK EMPIRE 2: HASMONEAN PERIOD
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. The Greek Empire
a) Jewish history is indelibly marked by Alexander the Great’s short rule over the Greek Empire. While none of the history of the Greek Empire is recorded in the Bible, we do have relevant prophecy. Another source of information concerning Greek influence on the history of the Jews is the Apocrypha, specifically 1 and 2 Maccabees.
2. The Divided Greek Empire and the Hasmonean Period
i) For the history of the divided Greek Empire and how it impacted Jewish history, we turn to the Apocrypha. Alexander the Great’s generals “put crowns upon themselves; so did their sons after them many years: and evils were multiplied in the earth” (1 Maccabees 1:9). The Selucid Empire ended up with control over Palestine and Jerusalem. One of the Selucid kings was Antiochus IV, who called himself “Antiochus Epiphanes” (“Epiphanes” means “god manifest”).
ii) In 167 B.C., Antiochus committed an “abomination of desolation”; specifically, he set up an altar to the Greek god Zeus inside the Jewish temple and sacrificed a pig on it. Antiochus proceeded to require pagan sacrifices in all Jewish villages. In the village of Modein, a Levite named Mattathias, who had five sons, was told to make the sacrifice. Mattathias refused and killed the troops and the villager who volunteered to do the deed. This sparked the Maccabean Revolt, led by Mattathias’s sons. Israel gained its freedom from the Selucids for a time and was later recognized as an independent state by the Roman Senate. The years that the Jews were led by Mattathias’s descendants are called the Maccabean or Hasmonean Period.
The End ...
1. The Greek Empire a) Jewish history is indelibly marked by Alexander the Great’s short rule over the Greek Empire. While none of the history of the Greek Empire is recorded in the Bible, we do have relevant prophecy. Another source of information concerning Greek influence on the history of the Jews is the Apocrypha, specifically 1 and 2 Maccabees.
2. The Divided Greek Empire and the Hasmonean Period
i) For the history of the divided Greek Empire and how it impacted Jewish history, we turn to the Apocrypha. Alexander the Great’s generals “put crowns upon themselves; so did their sons after them many years: and evils were multiplied in the earth” (1 Maccabees 1:9). The Selucid Empire ended up with control over Palestine and Jerusalem. One of the Selucid kings was Antiochus IV, who called himself “Antiochus Epiphanes” (“Epiphanes” means “god manifest”).
ii) In 167 B.C., Antiochus committed an “abomination of desolation”; specifically, he set up an altar to the Greek god Zeus inside the Jewish temple and sacrificed a pig on it. Antiochus proceeded to require pagan sacrifices in all Jewish villages. In the village of Modein, a Levite named Mattathias, who had five sons, was told to make the sacrifice. Mattathias refused and killed the troops and the villager who volunteered to do the deed. This sparked the Maccabean Revolt, led by Mattathias’s sons. Israel gained its freedom from the Selucids for a time and was later recognized as an independent state by the Roman Senate. The years that the Jews were led by Mattathias’s descendants are called the Maccabean or Hasmonean Period.
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