After Antiochus Epiphanes obtained the kingdom, he entered into war with the Egyptians, regained Judea, and mistreated the Jews severely. In 170 B.C., returning from his expedition to Egypt, he entered Jerusalem and allowed his soldiers to carry on a three day massacre. Approximately one hundred thousand Jews, including men and women, old and young, were slaughtered, and some tens of thousands were captured and sold into slavery. Moreover, he robbed the temple of its precious vessels.
In 168 B.C., he again led his army to invade Egypt and met with apparent success. The surprise intervention of Rome forced him to evacuate, as depicted in Daniel 11:30, where it says, “He shall be grieved, and return.” Disappointed, he turned his indignation toward the holy people, who were to experience a much greater persecution than before. Countless were seized and slaughtered. Sacrifices, circumcision, and keeping of the Sabbath were absolutely forbidden, and violators received capital punishment. The books of the law were burned and their preaching prohibited. On December 25 of the same year he erected another altar to Zeus on the altar of burnt offering in the temple, the very abomination mentioned by Daniel. He set up his own image in the temple, sacrificed a sow on that altar, and sprinkled its blood in the temple. He forced the holy people to worship the idol and to eat pork, and he seduced young men to commit fornication in the temple and to sell their priesthood. This Antiochus Epiphanes is the “little horn” in Daniel 8:9-12. It was he who took away the daily sacrifice, cast down the sanctuary, trod on the holy people, and attacked the true God. He is a type of Antichrist who is “the abomination of desolation” as prophesied by the Lord Himself (Matt. 24:15). At that time, confronted with such unprecedented calamity, God’s people called upon Him night and day for deliverance.
As in the age of the judges, God again heard the cry of His people, raising up for them an old priest named Mattathias to resist Syria’s persecution. His age preventing him from serving in the temple, Mattathias had long moved back to his hometown Modin northwest of Jerusalem with his five sons—John, Simon, Judas (Maccabaeus), Eleazar, and Jonathan. Witnessing the desecration of Jerusalem and Judea, he sighed, “Alas! Why was I born to see this, the ruin of my people, the ruin of the holy city, and to dwell there when it was given over to the enemy, the sanctuary given over to aliens?” Mattathias and his sons rent their garments, put on sack cloth, and wept bitterly. When King Antiochus’ commissioner came to Modin to force all the Jews to worship idols, Mattathias steadfastly refused, declaring, “Even if all nations that live under rule of the king obey him...I and my sons will live by the covenant of our fathers.” As he finished speaking, a Jew was about to make an offering at the altar according to the king’s decree before the rest of the people. When he saw this, his heart now burning in him with indignation, Mattathias rushed forward and slew the man. Following this, the old man and his sons dashed recklessly toward the commissioner and his aids, killing all of them. While destroying the heathen altar he cried, “Let everyone who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!” He then organized a kind of guerrilla force to attack the Syrian troops everywhere, burning the idols and doing away with traitors. Patriotic Jews in all the places soon rose up in bands to respond to the cause.
Mattathias died of old age in 167 B.C. Before his death, he repeatedly charged his sons to continue his resolve to be zealous for God’s law and to die for their ancestors’ covenant. His son Judas, also named Maccabaeus, later rose up to take his place.
Judas Maccabaeus was of huge stature and possessed both wisdom and courage. He loved God and his own country, leading a company of people and fighters who were faithful to God’s law to resist foreign invasion. He engaged the Syrian armies in several dozen battles and managed to win almost every time. Renowned Syrian generals such as Apollonius, Lysias, Gorgias, and Nicanor, with troops many times more than the Jews, were defeated by him. His famous proverb was, “It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from heaven.” Between 166 B.C. and 165 B.C., he won three major battles known in history as the Battle of Beth-Horon, the Battle of Emmaus, and the Battle of Beth-Zur.
After the victory at Beth-Zur, Judas Maccabaeus told his brothers, “Behold, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.” He then prepared his entire army and went up to Mount Zion to cleanse the temple, hew down the idols, rebuild the altar, and drive out the priests who had purchased their offices. On December 25, 165 B.C., the people rose up early to offer sacrifices to God on the rebuilt altar according to the ancient ordinances. That particular day was selected to sanctify the altar because it was on the very same day and month when the Gentiles first defiled it. They rejoiced for eight straight days, and that period became the origin of “the feast of Dedication” (John 10:22) of the Jews.
Antiochus Epiphanes began to persecute the holy people and defiled the temple in 170 B.C., and Judas Maccabaeus purified the temple in 165 B.C. The entire period was about six years and four months, thereby fulfilling the prophecy in Daniel 8:13-14: “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
The money in his treasury being lacking, Antiochus Epiphanes set off to Persia to collect tribute. While he was staying in Babylon, a report came to him that the armies sent to conquer Judah had been defeated, and Lysias’ bravest had suffered tremendous setback and shame. Moreover, the Jews had destroyed Zeus’ altar on the altar in Jerusalem, and they had built high walls around the sanctuary and restored it to its former state. When he heard this, he was astounded and badly shaken, and he took to his bed and became sick from grief. He stayed there for many days and soon realized that his end was near. Before he died, he was regretful of the evil doings in Jerusalem which resulted in his final distress. In 164 B.C., two years after the cleansing of the temple, Antiochus finally succumbed in a foreign land, thus concluding a sinful life.
Besides defeating Syria, Judas Maccabaeus also conquered the Edomites, the Philistines, and the Amorites, and recovered many lost territories. Unfortunately, in order to consolidate his victories, he sought man’s assistance to subdue his enemies. He sent emissaries to Rome in 161 B.C. to seek a war alliance with the Romans. The Romans consented, yet even before the signed treaty was announced, this folk hero was slain in battle.
After Judas Maccabaeus died, his brothers Jonathan (161-143 B.C.) and Simon (142-135 B.C.) continued successively to fight for the Israelites. When the four brothers of Judas Maccabaeus had all passed away one after another, John Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, became the high priest and leader. Following that, there were no more glorious events of history or courageous acts worthy of record, but only internal power struggles, in-fighting, and civil war. The Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C. and finally ended the Maccabees’ war for independence.