Antiochus Plunders the Temple

About this time, on the death of Onias the high priest, Antiochus gave the high priesthood to his brother Jesus, since the son Onias left was still only an infant; in its proper place we will tell the reader everything that happened to this child. But this Jesus, Onias’s brother, was deprived of the high priesthood by the king, who was angry with him, and he gave it to his youngest brother, whose name was also Onias; for Simon had these three sons, and the priesthood came to each of them, as we have already told the reader. This Jesus changed his name to Jason, and Onias was called Menelaus. Now when Jesus, the former high priest, formed a faction against Menelaus, who had been appointed after him, the people were divided between the two. The sons of Tobias took the side of Menelaus, but most of the people supported Jason. Hard pressed in this way, Menelaus and the sons of Tobias withdrew to Antiochus and told him that they wished to abandon the laws of their country and the Jewish way of life that went with them, and to follow the king’s laws and the Greek way of life. So they asked his permission to build a gymnasium at Jerusalem. When he had given them leave, they also hid the circumcision of their genitals, so that even when they were naked they might look like Greeks. So they gave up all the customs of their own country and imitated the practices of the other nations. [a]

Now Antiochus, finding the affairs of his kingdom going well, resolved to make an expedition against Egypt, both because he wanted to gain it and because he despised Ptolemy’s sons, who were still weak and not yet able to manage affairs of such importance. So he came with great forces to Pelusium, outwitted Ptolemy Philometor by treachery, and seized Egypt. Then he came to the places around Memphis, and when he had taken them he hurried to Alexandria, hoping to take it by siege and to subdue Ptolemy, who reigned there. But he was driven not only from Alexandria but out of all Egypt by the declaration of the Romans, who ordered him to leave that country alone, as I have already related elsewhere. I will now give a detailed account of this king — how he subdued Judea and the temple; for in my former work I mentioned these things very briefly, and so I have thought it necessary to go over that history again, and with great accuracy. [d]

On his way back from Egypt, out of fear of the Romans, King Antiochus made an expedition against the city of Jerusalem. When he was there, in the 143rd year of the kingdom of the Seleucids, he took the city without a fight, for those of his own party opened the gates to him. When he had gained possession of Jerusalem, he killed many of the opposite party, and after plundering a great deal of money from it he returned to Antioch. [e]

Two years later, in the 145th year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month we call Chislev and the Macedonians call Apellaios, in the 153rd Olympiad, the king came up to Jerusalem with a large army, and by pretending peace he got possession of the city by treachery. This time he did not spare even those who had let him in, because of the riches that lay in the temple. Led on by his greed — for he saw that there was a great deal of gold in it and many very valuable ornaments that had been dedicated there — and in order to plunder its wealth, he dared to break the agreement he had made. So he stripped the temple bare, even carrying off the vessels of God — the golden lampstands, the golden altar, the table and the altars — and did not hold back even from the curtains, which were made of fine linen and scarlet. He also emptied it of its hidden treasures and left nothing at all behind. By this he threw the Jews into great mourning, for he forbade them to offer the daily sacrifices they used to offer to God according to the law. When he had pillaged the whole city, he killed some of its inhabitants and carried others away captive with their wives and children, so that the number of captives taken alive came to about ten thousand. He also burned down the finest buildings; and when he had thrown down the city walls, he built a citadel in the lower part of the city. The place was high and overlooked the temple, so he fortified it with high walls and towers and put a garrison of Macedonians in it. In that citadel, however, lived the impious and wicked part of the people, and from them the citizens suffered many severe calamities. When the king had built an idol’s altar on God’s altar, he slaughtered pigs on it, and so offered a sacrifice that was neither lawful nor in keeping with the ancestral worship of the Jews. He also forced them to abandon the worship they paid their own God and to worship those he took to be gods. He made them build temples and set up idol altars in every city and village, and sacrifice pigs on them every day. He also commanded them not to circumcise their sons, and threatened to punish anyone found to have broken his order; and he appointed overseers to force them to do what he commanded. And indeed many Jews obeyed the king’s commands, either willingly or out of fear of the penalty that had been announced. But the best men, those of the noblest souls, paid no attention to him; they cared more for the customs of their country than for the punishment he threatened the disobedient. For this reason they were tortured every day, and died enduring bitter torments. They were whipped with rods and their bodies were torn apart, and they were crucified while they were still alive and breathing. They strangled the women and the sons whom they had circumcised against the king’s decree, hanging the children from the necks of their crucified parents. And wherever a sacred book of the law was found, it was destroyed, and those with whom it was found perished miserably as well. [f]

When the Samaritans saw the Jews suffering in this way, they no longer admitted that they were their kin, or that the temple on Mount Gerizim belonged to the greatest God. This was in keeping with their nature, as we have already shown. They now said that they were a colony of Medes and Persians — and indeed they were a colony of theirs. So they sent ambassadors to Antiochus with a letter, whose contents are these: “To King Antiochus the god, Epiphanes, a petition from the Sidonians who live at Shechem. Our forefathers, because of certain droughts in the country, and following a certain ancient superstition, had the custom of observing the day the Jews call the Sabbath. And when they had built a temple on the mountain called Gerizim, though without a name, they offered the proper sacrifices on it. Now that you have dealt with the Jews as their wickedness deserves, those who manage the king’s affairs suppose that we are related to them and practice what they do, and so they make us liable to the same accusations, although we are Sidonians by origin, as is plain from the public records. We therefore beg you, our benefactor and savior, to order Apollonius, the governor of this part of the country, and Nicanor, the manager of your affairs, not to trouble us or charge us with what the Jews are accused of, since we are foreign to their nation and to their customs. And let our temple, which at present has no name at all, be named the Temple of Zeus Hellenios. If this were once done, we should no longer be troubled, but could give our attention to our own work in quiet, and so bring in greater revenue for you.” When the Samaritans had petitioned for this, the king sent them back the following answer in a letter: “King Antiochus to Nicanor. The Sidonians who live at Shechem have sent me the enclosed petition. When we were taking counsel with our friends about it, the messengers they sent informed us that they have nothing to do with the accusations that belong to the Jews, but choose to live by the customs of the Greeks. Accordingly we declare them free of such accusations, and order that, in agreement with their petition, their temple be named the Temple of Zeus Hellenios.” He also sent a similar letter to Apollonius, the governor of that part of the country, in the forty-sixth year, on the eighteenth day of the month Hyrcanian Hecatombaeon. [l]