Proposed Reconstructions of the Antiochan Persecution

There is little consensus among historians concerning Antiochus's actions and more importantly for his reasons for his actions. The primary sources are both incomplete and polemical, which makes historical reconstruction difficult, if not impossible. There are several reconstructions of the Antiochan persecution of the Jews (see summaries in Bickerman, The God of the Maccabees, 24-31; Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews, 175-85; Bringmann, Hellenistische Reform und Religionsverfolgung in Judäa, 99-111; see also the work of D. J. Harrington, The Maccabean Revolt). The "traditional" reconstruction is that Antiochus intended to hellenize Judea, in order to bring unity and stability to the Seleucid kingdom (see Schürer, 1.147-48); this was the reason for his anti-Jewish decrees, found in 1 and 2 Maccabees. Often his ruthless suppression of Judaism is attributed to his degenerate moral character. Support for this position is in the explicit statement in 1 Macc 1:41-43 that Antiochus sent an edict to all the peoples of his kingdom requiring that they all abandon the customs (ta nomina) peculiar to each and become one people (implicitly, by adopting Hellenism). When some of the Jews did not cooperate, the result was persecution (see Tacitus, Hist. 5.8). (see Ant. 12.263; 2 Macc 6:9; 11:24

E. Bickermann does not accept the view that Antiochus sought to impose Hellenism of the Jews as a means of uniting his kingdom (The God of the Maccabees). There is not no corroborating evidence that Antiochus did as 1 Macc 1:41-43 claims. Moreover, according to Bickermann, there is evidence that Antiochus had no interest in changing the religious beliefs and practices of his subjects (see also Mørkholm, Antiochus IV of Syria). For this reason, 1 Macc 1:41-43 is rejected as historically false. According to Bickermann, the cause of the Antiochan persecution was not Antiochus IV, but the extreme Hellenists Menelaus and the Tobiads, who hoped to reform their ancestral religion in order to remove the barriers between the Jews and the surrounding Hellenistic world abolish Jewish particularism (see Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism, 1.267-303). When some Jews resisted this new elightened form of Judaism, Menelaus and the Tobiads requested and received military support from Antiochus IV for the purpose of suppressing dissent.

The cause of the Antiochan persecution, according to V. Tcherikover, was the renewed revolt led by the "Hasidim" (Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews). On this hypothesis, it was the Hasidim who drove Jason and his supporters from Jerusalem (2 Macc 5:7), and then attempted to restore things to the way they were under Onias III, before Jerusalem had begun the Hellenistic city "Antioch at Jerusalem." Antiochus, however, re-established Menelaus in power. Although never stated in the sources, Tcherikover proposes that the revolt of the Hasidim was rekindled after the departure of Antiochus IV, which led him to send Apollonius with troops in order to suppress it. Since the revolt was religiously inspired, Antiochus IV had no option but to outlaw traditional Judaism. The native Syrian troops that accompanied Apollonius to Jerusalem formed a clerurch or military colony, and resided in the Akra. These new citizens of Jerusalem used the Temple to worship their gods; the Hasidim interpreted as its desecration of the Temple.

J. A. Goldstein interprets the action taken by Antiochus IV against the Jews against how the Romans handled religiously-inspired dissent (I Maccabees, 104-60). Goldstein's thesis is that the years that Antiochus IV had spent in Rome as a hostage had introduced him to the Roman method of handling the troublesome cult of Dionysius in Rome. Antiochus is supposed to have identified the Judaism as the cause of the political problems in Jerusalem, in the same way that the cult of Dionysius was the cuase of civil unrest in Rome, and took steps to suppress the distinctly Jewish practices in Roman fashion.

Like Bickermann and Tcherikover, K. Bringmann rejects the view that Antiochus IV persecuted the Jews for religious reasons: because they would not abandon their ancestral religion and embrace Hellenism. Rather his aims were poltical and practical (Hellenistische Reform und Religionsverfolgung in Judäa). Neither did Jason nor Menelaus do anything to change traditional Jewish practice or worship. The changes were the result of the military colony of native Syrians who took up residence in the Akra after the suppression of the revolt begun by Jason; these foreigners dedicated the Temple to Zeus, who was also identified with the Syrian god Baal Shamem. Menelaus attempted to accommodate these newcomers and so instituted a new cult in Jerusalem, one that amalgamated the gods Yahweh, Baal Shamem and Zeus, mutually identifying them. It was Antiochus IV who officially issue the decree to begin this new cult. This was considered an outrage by some Jews.

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