; time was come when an outward struggle alone could decide whether Judaism was to be merged into a ra- tionalized paganism, or to rise not only victorious from the conflict, but more vigorous and more pure. There were many symptoms which betokened the approach- ing struggle. The position which Juda?a occupied on the borders of the conflicting empires of Syria and Eg}'pt, exposed equally to the open miseries of war and the treacherous favors of rival sovereigns, ren- dered its national condition precarious from the first, though these very circumstances were favorable to the
i growth of freedom. The terrible crimes by which the
I wars of "the North and South" were stained, must
j have alienated the mind of every faithful Jew from his Grecian lords, even if persecution had not been super- added from Egypt first and then from Syria. Polit- ically nothing was left for the people in the reign of
! Antiochus but independence or the abandonment of every prophetic hope. Nor was their social position less perilous. The influence of Greek literature, of
I foreign travel, of extended commerce, had made itself felt in daily life. At Jerusalem the mass of the in- habitants seem to have desired to imitate the exercises of the Greeks, and a Jewish embassy attended the games of Hercules at Tyre (2 Mace, iv, 9-20). Even their religious feelings were yielding ; and before the rising of the Maccabees no opposition was offered to the execution of the king's decrees. Upon the first attempt of Jason the " priests had no courage to serve at the altar" (2 Mace, iv, 14 ; comp. 1 Mace, i, 43) ; and this not so much from wilful apostasy as from a disregard to the vital principles involved in the con- flict. Thus it was necessary that the final issues of a false Hellenism should be openly seen that it might be discarded forever by those who cherished the ancient faith of Israel. The conduct of Antiochus was in ev- ery way suited to accomplish this end; and yet it seems to have been the result of passionate impulse rather than of any deep-laid scheme to extirpate a
Tetradrachm (Attic Talent) of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Reverse
lienrinjr a ritrnre of Jupiter, seated and holding nn Image of Victory, with the Inscription (in Greek), " Of King Antiochus, Thi. os, Kpiphuncs, Niciphoro.-."
ANTIOCHUS
273
ANTIOCHUS
strange creed. At first he imitated the liberal policy of his predecessors, and the occasion for his attacks was furnished by the Jews themselves. Even the motives by which ha was finally actuated were per- sonal, or, at most, only political. Able, energetic (Po- lvk xxvii, 17), and liberal to profusion, Antiochus was reckless and unscrupulous in the execution of his plans. He had learned at Kome to court power and to dread it. He gained an empire, and he remembered that he had been a hostage. Regardless himself of the gods of his fathers (Dan. xi, 37), he was incapable of appreciating the power of religion in others ; and, like Nero in later times, he became a type of the en- emy of God, not as the Roman emperor, by the per- petration of unnatural crimes, but In- the disregard of every higher feeling. "He magnified himself above all." The real deity whom he recognised was the Ro- man war-god, and fortresses were his most sacred temples (Dan. xi, 38 sq. ; Ewald, Gesch. des Volkes Isr. iv, 340). Confronted with such a persecutor, the Jew realized the spiritual power of his faith. The evils of heathendom were seen concentrated in a per- sonal shape. The outward forms of worship became invested with something of a sacramental dignity. Common life was purified and ennobled by heroic de- votion. An independent n ition asserted the integrity of its hopes in the face of Egypt, Syria, and Rome. Antiochus himself left behind him among the Jews the memory of a detestable tyrant (!"IT23, contemptible, Dan. xi, 21 ; pi'^a w^rtprwXoc, 1 Mace, i, 10), although Diodorus Siculus (Eclog. 34) gives him the character of a magnanimous prince QiaatXtvc [ityaXoipi'xoQ Kcii to fftog ypepoc). It cannot, indeed, be denied that the portraitures of the Jewish writers are likely to have been exaggerated, but they could not well have fabricated the facts in the case, while the nature of the reaction (in the times of the Maccabees) shows an in- tolerable civil pressure preceding ; accordingly Antio- chus is depicted even in Diodorus (ii, 582 sq.) and other historians as a violently eccentric (almost atro- cious) monarch, wliose character is composed of con- tradictor}' elements (comp. Athen. x, 433). His at- tempt to extirpate the Jewish religion could certainly hardly have arisen from despotic bigotry, but he prob- ably sought by this means to render the Jews some- what more tractable, and to conform them to other na- tions— a purpose to which the predilection for foreign customs, already predominant among the prominent Jews (1 Mace, i, 12 ; 2 Mace, iv, 10 sq.), doubtless con- tributed. The Jews, no doubt, by reason of their po- sition between Syria and Egypt, were subject to many hardships unintentional on the part of Antiochus, and his generals may often have increased the severity of the measures enjoined upon them by him, on account of the usual rigid policy of his government toward for- eigners ; yet in the whole conduct of Antiochus to- ward the Jews an utter contempt for the people them- selves, as well as a relentless hastiness of disposition, is quite evident. — Smith, s. v. See Horn (Little).