Editing Maccabees (section)

==Background==
In the 2nd century BCE, [[Judea]] lay between the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] (based in [[Lower Egypt|Egypt]]) and the [[Seleucid Empire]] (based in [[Syria-Coele|Syria]]), [[Diadochi|monarchies which had formed]] following the death of [[Alexander the Great]]. Judea had initially come under Ptolemaic rule but fell to the Seleucids around 197&nbsp;BCE, after the [[Battle of Panium]], during the Fifth Syrian War. Judea at that time had been affected by the [[Hellenization]] initiated by Alexander the Great. Some Jews, mainly those of the urban upper class, notably the [[Tobiads|Tobiad]] family, wished to dispense with Jewish law and to adopt a Greek lifestyle. According to historian [[Victor Tcherikover]], the main motive for the Tobiads' Hellenism was economic and political.<ref name=tcherikover/> The [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenizing Jews]] built a [[Gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasium]] in [[Jerusalem]], competed in international Greek games, "[[Epispasm|removed their marks of circumcision]] and [[antinomianism|repudiated the holy covenant]]".<ref>[[I Maccabees]], i, 15</ref>

When [[Antiochus IV Epiphanes]] became ruler of the [[Seleucid Empire]] in 175&nbsp;BCE, [[Onias III]] held the office of [[High Priest of Israel|high priest]] in Jerusalem. To Antiochus, the high priest was merely a local governor within his realm, a man whom he could appoint or dismiss at will, while orthodox Jews saw the holder of the high priesthood as divinely appointed.<ref name=Oesterley>Oesterley, W.O.E., ''A History of Israel'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1939.</ref> [[Jason (High Priest)|Jason]], the brother of Onias, bribed Antiochus to make him high priest instead of Onias. Jason abolished the traditional theocracy and "received from Antiochus permission to convert Jerusalem into a Greek ''[[polis]]'' called Antioch".<ref name=tcherikover/><ref name=delangeatlas>De Lange, Nicholas, ''Atlas of the Jewish World'', Oxford: Andromeda, 1992</ref> In turn, [[Menelaus (High Priest)|Menelaus]] then bribed Antiochus and was appointed high priest in place of Jason. Menelaus had Onias assassinated. Menelaus' brother Lysimachus stole holy vessels from the [[Solomon's Temple|Temple]]; the resulting riots led to the death of Lysimachus. Menelaus was arrested for Onias' murder and was arraigned before Antiochus, but he bribed his way out of trouble. Jason subsequently drove out Menelaus and became high priest again. In 168 Antiochus pillaged the Temple, attacked Jerusalem and "led captive the women and children."<ref>I Maccabees, i, 30–32</ref> From this point onwards, Antiochus pursued a zealous Hellenizing policy in the Seleucid satrapies of [[Coele Syria]] and [[Phoenicia]].<ref name="oxfordbibliographies.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0031.xml|title=Maccabean Revolt|work=Oxford Bibliographies}}</ref>

<blockquote>
Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking the city ([[Jerusalem]]), or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar; against which they all opposed themselves, and the most approved among them were put to death. —[[Flavius Josephus]], ''[[s:The War of the Jews|The War of the Jews]], Book 1.1 §2''</blockquote>

The author of the [[1 Maccabees|First Book of Maccabees]] regards the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king (who had tried to eradicate their religion) and against the Jews who supported him. The author of the [[2 Maccabees|Second Book of Maccabees]] presents the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism", concepts which he coined.<ref name=deLange>[[Nicholas de Lange]] (ed.), ''The Illustrated History of the Jewish People'', London, Aurum Press, 1997, {{ISBN|1-85410-530-2}}</ref> Most modern scholars argue that King Antiochus reacted to a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the Judean countryside and Hellenized Jews in Jerusalem,<ref>{{cite book |title = Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History|last= Telushkin |first= Joseph  |year = 1991|publisher= W. Morrow|isbn= 0-688-08506-7|page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=bIHtJzYCkqEC&pg=PA114 114] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title = The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays|last = Greenberg|first= Irving  |year= 1993 |publisher= Simon & Schuster |isbn = 0-671-87303-2|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=dFFiJEH53m8C&pg=PA29 29]}}</ref> though the king's response of persecuting the religious traditionalists was unusual in antiquity, and was the immediate provocation for the revolt.<ref name="ReligionsofAncientWorld">{{cite book |title = Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide|last= Johnston |first= Sarah Iles  |year= 2004 |publisher= Harvard University Press |isbn= 0-674-01517-7 |page= 186}}</ref> According to Joseph P. Schultz, modern scholarship "considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp",<ref>{{cite book |title= Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion |last= Schultz |first= Joseph P.|year= 1981|publisher= Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn= 0-8386-1707-7|page= 155|quote= Modern scholarship on the other hand considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish camp}}</ref> but John J. Collins writes that while the civil war between Jewish leaders led to the king's new policies, it is wrong to see the revolt as simply a conflict between Hellenism and Judaism, since "[t]he revolt was not provoked by the introduction of Greek customs (typified by the building of a gymnasium) but by the persecution of people who observed the Torah by having their children circumcised and refusing to eat pork."<ref name="ReligionsofAncientWorld" />

In the conflict over the office of high priest, traditionalists with Hebrew/Aramaic names like Onias contested with Hellenizers with Greek names like Jason and Menelaus.<ref>{{cite book |title= A Survey of the New Testament|last= Gundry |first= Robert H. |year= 2003 |publisher= Zondervan |isbn= 0-310-23825-0|page= 9}}</ref> Some scholars point to social and economic factors in the conflict.<ref name="tcherikover">Tcherikover, Victor ''Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews'', New York: Atheneum, 1975</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |last= Freedman |first= David Noel |author2= Allen C. Myers |author3= Astrid B. Beck |year= 2000 |publisher= Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn= 0-8028-2400-5 |page= [https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/837 837] |url= https://archive.org/details/eerdmansdictiona0000unse/page/837 }}</ref> What began as a civil war took on the character of an invasion when the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria sided with the Hellenizing Jews against the traditionalists.<ref>{{cite book |title= A Survey of Israel's History |last= Wood |first= Leon James |year= 1986|publisher= Zondervan|isbn= 0-310-34770-X|page= 357 }}</ref> As the conflict escalated, Antiochus prohibited the practices of the traditionalists, thereby, in a departure from usual Seleucid practice, banning the religion of an entire people.<ref name="tcherikover" /> The motives of Antiochus remain unclear: he may have been incensed at the overthrow of his appointee, Menelaus,<ref name="Oesterley" /> or – encouraged by a group of radical Hellenizers among the Jews,<ref name="deLange" /> he may have been responding to an orthodox Jewish revolt that drew on the Temple and the Torah for its strength.<ref name="tcherikover" /> Other scholars argue that, while the rising began as a religious rebellion, it was gradually transformed into a war of national liberation.<ref>''Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings'', By Louis H. Feldman, Meyer Reinhold,  Fortress Press, 1996, p. 147</ref>

According to 1 Maccabees, Antiochus banned many traditional Jewish and [[Samaritans|Samaritan]]<ref name="oxfordbibliographies.com" /> religious practices: he made possession of the Torah a capital offense and burned the copies he could find;<ref>I Macccabees. 1:57</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bourgel |first1=Jonathan |title=The Samaritans during the Hasmonean Period: The Affirmation of a Discrete Identity? |journal=Religions |date=2019 |volume=10 |issue=11 |page=628 |doi=10.3390/rel10110628 |doi-access=free }}</ref> [[sabbath]]s and feasts were banned; [[Circumcision in Judaism|circumcision]] was outlawed, and mothers who circumcised their babies were killed along with their families;<ref>{{cite web|title= 1 Maccabees 1:60–61 (New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha)|url= http://www.biblestudytools.com/nrsa/1-maccabees/passage.aspx?q=1-maccabees+1:60–61|publisher= biblestudytools.com}}</ref> and traditional Jewish ritual sacrifice was forbidden. It was said that an idol of Olympian [[Zeus]] was placed on the altar of the Temple and that Israelites set up altars to Greek gods and sacrificed "unclean" animals on them.<ref>I ''Maccabees'', 1, 41–50</ref>

The main objective of Antiochus is explained throughout [[Chabad]] Chassidic thought. It says that Antiochus didn't mind that the Jews kept the culture of Judaism, rather all he wanted was to eradicate the laws of the [[Torah]] ([[mitzvos]]) that weren't logical but rather kept solely because it is God's command. But when he saw that even the logical/rational and cultural commandments of the Torah were being practiced by the Jews in a way higher than logic, he then opposed Judaism in its entirety.<ref>Toras Menachem Melukat volume 2 pg. 162</ref>