So, I want to preface this by pointing out that history is normally simplified so that it can be true easily digested by its intended audience. Not historians think the audience is dumb, but paint it in broad strokes in order to get to the more “exciting” parts of history.

To achieve this, many have painted major shifts in history either from the POV of the majority, from the POV of the societal elites, or only focus on “large” societies.

We see this everywhere in modern times from grouping the Danes and the Norse as just “Vikings”, all of Africa being covered as one “African History”, or how all Indigenous Americans are talked about as one group.

It has always been easier to describe history in monoliths. But it’s equally lazy and dangerous as key moments in a groups history are just completely left out or overlooked.

This brings me to the Apocrypha, particularly the Maccabees, as those books describe key moments in Judean history from the perspective of the people of Judah as they experience major shifts in Eastern politics and culture.

We normally describe the shifting politics by just naming the influential empires of the region: Babylon, Persia, Greece, & Rome (if you find a good textbook they’ll include both Egypt, Media, and maybe Lydia too).

Obviously, just naming the big four is a gross oversimplification and does not describe what those nations did and how those nations changed everything.

I’ve already covered Babylon and Persia before, so I’m moving on to Greece.

You have probably learned that when Alexander died in 323, his empire went into civil war and was split into 4 kingdoms. This one of those oversimplifications. There were at least 6 kingdoms to come out of all those wars, but only 3 are important rn.

The first to have control of Palestine was Egypt under the rule of the Ptolemies(the Greek family that hated Egyptians so much they turned to incest that Cleopatra is from).

While they weren’t the best overlords, the Ptolemies allowed freedom of religion and there was little push for universal hellenization.

IYDK, Hellenization is a fancy word for Greek culture. It includes dress, philosophy, language. infrastructure, politics, and religion. In many places people adopted hellenization naturally, i.e. the Romans or Egyptian mythology merging with Greek mythology.

Hellenization is the reason the LXX (Greek OT) was written in the 3rd century BCE and also the reason the NT is written in Greek centuries later. However, between the end of the 3rd century BCE and the CE, that did not fly in Palestine.

The conservative Jews (mostly elites) did not want foreign influence to taint their culture or religion (I talked about the Sadducees before). Their willpower was tested when the Seleucids took control of Palestine in 200.

Antiochus III, king of Seleucids, defeated the Egyptians and began running Palestine in a more hellenistic way, including taking money from temples which was a common practice in the hellenized world.

The temple in Jerusalem, led by the high priest Onias, would be filled with money as they collected tithes, donations, and it’s own “temple tax”. What made the temple in Jerusalem stand out even more is that at the time it functioned as a bank that held the money of the elites.

A man named Simon snitched and told the Antiochus III about the money. The king attempted to take the money from the temple but his collectors were stopped, Maccabees says by angels. This shows the initial resistance the Jews had to the way Greek culture operated.

But this wouldn’t last. The king’s son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, (who gave himself the title of “God Manifest”, AE for short), came to power. Onias’s brother, Jason, gave large sum of money to AE so that he’ll be the new high priest.

For the Jews the high priest position was a life-long appointment, but in Greek culture that position could be given to anyone if the offer a large enough donation. This essentially secured Jason’s appointment as high priest.

As high priest, Jason had near unlimited power in Jerusalem. He built a school (which would’ve only admitted wealthy young men) near the temple that essentially indoctrinated Jewish boys into Greek culture.

The school regularly had Greek games where the contestants would’ve had to play naked. Nakedness was a taboo in Jewish culture so this further pissed off the Jews. The icing on the cake is that young priests would have gone to this school and played in the games naked.

All of this would’ve been seen as a betrayal of Jewish culture by Jason, but his rule doesn’t end well. A man named Menelaus, brother of the snitch Simon, paid AE even more money for the high priest position, and Jason runs into hiding.

At the same time AE attempts to invade Egypt but is stopped by Rome. While in hiding, Jason hears that AE is dead and gets some loyal followers to take back Jerusalem and the temple. Obviously, AE isn’t dead, and he hears that there is a rebellion in Judea.

AE then attacks Jerusalem, he kills Jason and begins to massacre its inhabitants. Maccabees says that no one is safe, young, old, boys, girls, women, children, or infants. After the massacre AE raids the temple, taking all the money and leaving a garrison in Jerusalem.

The soldiers just make things worse. They demand the remaining inhabitants provide food and supplies. They completely disregard the Jewish temple and place their own idols and preform their own sacrifices within it.

Obviously, this doesn’t sit well with the Jews and there are rumors that they might try to cause problems for the Seleucids. AE, in his infinite wisdom, decides that the best course of action is to ban Judaism outright. No Judaism, no Jews. No Jews, no problem.

All Jewish religious rites were outlawed. The Torah was made illegal and anyone owning a copy is killed. Circumcision is illegal. Idols to other gods are placed around Judea and advertised as better alternatives. The temple is dedicated to Zeus. Jews are forced to eat pork.

You get the picture. This level of persecution lead to 2 things in particular. 1st was religious revolution, and the other was political revolution.