Interestingly even though Alexander the Great conquered the known world including the remnant of the exiles who had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, he didn’t sack Jerusalem or stop their religious practices, in fact he pretty much left them alone. It was about 125 years after Alexander’s death that the prince of Greece made his move.
When Alexander died his kingdom was divided among his servants. In the one hundred and thirty seventh year of the Greek empire Antiochus IV Epiphanes became a Greek king of the Seleucid Empire in Syria (175 BCE). His birth name was Mithradates (gift of Mithra, the Persian sun god).
In 167 BCE Antiochus conquered Israel and Jerusalem, entered the temple and took away the golden altar, the golden lampstand and all the vessels of the temple (1 Maccabees 1:20-21). He then sided with the Hellenized (Greek thinking, Torah rejecting) Jews and outlawed all biblical rites and laws kept by observant Jews (1 Maccabees 1:41-50).
“The Greeks made decrees to eradicate Israel, ordering them to deny the kingdom of heaven, to declare that they have no portion with the God of Israel and not to mention the heavenly name on their lips.”
Scholion on Megillat Ta’anit
He specifically banned Sabbath observance, observing God’s feasts, circumcision and mentioning the name of YHVH. They burned any books of the law (Torah) they found and killed anyone in possession of a Torah scroll.
After looting the temple, Antiochus’ ordered the worship of Zeus as the supreme god. He sent a man from Athens (Greece) to pollute the temple and rename it the temple of Jupiter Olympius (2 Maccabees 6:1–11).
On December 15th they set up an abomination upon the altar in the temple and built idol altars throughout the cities of Judah. They forced the Jews to eat meat sacrificed to these idols and to participate in their pagan idol worship. Any Jew who didn’t obey was put to death as was anyone caught observing the Sabbath.
On December 25th they brought an image of Jupiter into the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar which was upon the altar of God in celebration of Jupiter’s birthday (1 Maccabees 1:54-59) – Christmas ham anyone? This is over 150 years before Christ! Jupiter is the Roman version of the Greek god Zeus who is also the Persian sun god Mithra. Note Mithra the sun god links both to Antiochus through his birth name Mithradates (gift of Mithra) and to our next article where he’ll reappear as Roman emperor Constantine’s god.
The temple was laid waste, the Gentiles profaned and burned it.
The desecration spurred the five sons of a priest by the name of Mattathias (the Maccabees) to take up a rebellion against Antiochus which eventually ended in their freeing Israel, reinstating the Torah and the name YHVH, re-establishing temple worship and setting up Hanukah as a festival to remember their cleansing and rededication of the temple from pagan sun god worship back to biblical worship of the one true God. The prince of Greece had been repulsed…
The prince of Greece had revealed his hand. He is hell bent on destroying the Torah, stopping people calling on the name of God (YHVH), stopping biblical feasts, stopping Sabbath observance and forcing us into pagan worship practices especially the December 25th birthday of Zeus/Jupiter/Mithra the sun god. We will see his handiwork again in our next article.
Shalom and God Bless.