The Third Temple (Part 3)

The

THIRD TEMPLE

and the

EASTERN GATE

(Sequel to The profile of the Antichrist and The wolf and the lamb)

Written by: Gavin Paynter

PROLOGUE

For modern religious Jews, the 9th of Av in the Jewish calendar is a day of mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the two Jewish temples in 586 BC and AD 70. In what some may consider a bizarre coincidence, both the Babylonians and the Romans destroyed the respective temples on the same date on the Jewish calendar (either the 9th or 10th of Av [1]).

Figure 1: Tisha B'Av at the Western Wall, 1970s [2]

Tisha B’Av (literally the 9th of Av) is the culmination of a three-week period of mourning, beginning with a fast on the 17th of Tammuz, which commemorates the first breach in the walls of Jerusalem, before the First Temple was destroyed. Weddings and other parties are not permitted throughout this three-week period, and people won’t have their hair cut. From the 1st to the 9th of Av, it is also customary to refrain from wearing new clothes and to abstain from eating meat or drinking wine, except on the Shabbat (Sabbath). In synagogues, the cabinet where the Torah resides is draped in black, while the book of Lamentations is read and mourning prayers are recited.

An apocryphal story relates how on one Tisha B’Av the French Emperor Napoleon and his entourage passed a synagogue. Hearing wailing coming from the building; Napoleon sent an aide to inquire what was going on. On his return, the aide told him that the Jews were mourning the loss of their Temple. The Emperor was indignant that no one had informed him of the disaster and requested more details of the event. To which the aide responded that the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed on that date, but 1700 years earlier. Napoleon is reputed to have been astounded and commented that a people that could mourn the loss of their Temple for so long, would certainly see it rebuilt one day.

In general, Christians who have a Futurist Premillennial Dispensational view of prophecy also believe that a Third Jewish Temple will be built in order to fulfil Bible prophecy. They maintain that this intense longing of many Jews to rebuild their most sacred site will result in their desires coming to fruition in the near future. These pending events are intrinsically tied up with the events surrounding Christ’s return predicted in the Bible.

While most Christians believe in the future return of Jesus, there are several areas which are hot items of debate. The major areas of study and debate include:

The timing of Bible prophecy

Futurism

Preterism

Historicism

The timing of the Millennium

Premillennialism

Amillennialism

Postmillennialism

The timing of the Rapture

Pre-Tribulationism

Post-Tribulationism

Mid-Tribulationism

In my first book (The Profile of The Antichrist), [3] we considered the differences between Preterism, Historicism and Futurism in some detail, stating my own preference for the Futurist view. In my second book (The Wolf and the Lamb), [4] we looked at the second area of debate, namely the timing of the Millennium, with a stated preference for the Premillennial view. We also briefly considered the third area of debate – i.e. the timing of the Rapture, with a preference for the Pre-Tribulation view.

We will now consider how these different views influence the interpretation of prophecies regarding the building of the Third Jewish Temple, the future desecration of that very temple, as well as looking at the prophecies surrounding the mysterious Eastern Gate of Jerusalem.

CHAPTER 1: JEWISH TEMPLE IN PROPHECY

Isaiah 2:2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.

To those who hold to a Futurist Premillennial view of prophecy (i.e. most prophecy is yet to be fulfilled and the Millennium is future) one cannot fail to note the allusions to a Jewish Temple in the events which must still unfold. Jesus spoke of the abomination that causes desolation that people would see standing in the holy place (Matt 24:15–16). The holy place Jesus spoke of is, of course, situated inside the Temple. Then Paul writes to the Thessalonians regarding the future man of lawlessness who sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:4) In his apocalyptic vision of the End Times, John speaks of the temple of God which, along with Jerusalem, is trampled on by the Gentiles for a 3 ½ year period (Rev 11:1-2).

With all the prophecies about the end times and the temple, the natural question is – which temple? There is clearly no Jewish Temple in Jerusalem today. Of course, some Historicists will respond that the Abomination of Desolation is actually the pope who sits in a spiritual temple, which they claim is the apostate Church. And while Preterists will accept it as referring to the Jewish Temple, they will assign the event to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in the first century AD. The Futurist view is that it points to the desecration of a future Third Jewish Temple, which will be rebuilt in Jerusalem.

Table 1: Different views on the temple of 2 Thessalonians

The temple of God in 2 Thessalonians

After Jesus’ ascension into heaven, we see that his disciples stayed continually at the Temple, praising God (Luke 24:53). In the early apostolic church, Christians in Jerusalem still used the Temple as a regular place of worship and instruction.

Acts 5:42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. [also, Acts 2:46

Peter and John would regularly pray in the Temple and it was on one of these occasions that they healed the lame man who sat at the gate called Beautiful. [5] The apostles would use the Temple as their platform for proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to the people, [6] being arrested by the Temple guards on more than one occasion for doing so.

Now, when considering Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, it is imperative to ask both what Paul would have meant by the phrase temple of God and also how his readers would have understood it. To answer that question, I will first remind the reader that Paul was educated by Gamaliel, a leading Pharisee in Jerusalem - and thus would have frequented the Temple in his youth. Addressing the crowd in Jerusalem outside the Temple, Paul would later say, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors." (Acts 22:3) When Paul was a persecutor of the church, he obtained letters of authority (to arrest Christians) from the Sanhedrin [7] - a Jewish court that convened at the Temple. After his conversion, at the outset of his ministry, Paul would still pray at the Temple while in Jerusalem.

Acts 22:17-18 When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking.

Figure 2: Paul in the Jerusalem Temple courts before his arrest [8]

Not only was the Temple in Jerusalem still standing at the time, Paul wrote the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (c. AD 52 [9]), when he visited Jerusalem five years after this epistle was written (c. AD 57 [10]), he went to the Temple to worship. At his defence before Felix, he says, After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. (Acts 24:17-18)

Now we will recall that Paul was writing his epistles to the Thessalonians to clear up confusion that existed in their church, caused by some who were teaching that Christ had already returned. In fact, this was the immediate context of Paul’s reference to the temple of God.

2 Thess 2:1-4 (ESV) Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

So Paul was not intending to be obscure or figurative when he referred to the temple of God. By using the definite article and speaking of the temple of God with no further explanation offered, it clearly indicates that he was referring to the Jerusalem Temple, with which he and his readers were familiar. There is no compelling reason to believe that the Thessalonians would have understood it in any other way. And Paul was intending to remove the misunderstanding that existed in their ranks, not to create additional uncertainty. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges aptly notes:

When he speaks of the temple of God, without other qualification, St Paul appears to refer to the existing Temple of Jerusalem (comp. Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11, cited by our Lord in Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). Attempts have been made to show that the Apostle’s words were literally fulfilled by certain outrages committed by Nero or Vespasian upon the sacred building. This does not seem to us clearly made out; and it will be evident from what has been said, that even the worst of the Roman Emperors was only a type, or adumbration of the Antichrist. The Jewish Temple being still, while it stood, God’s holy place, St Paul naturally associates with it this crowning act of profanation. [11]

Church Fathers’ view on Paul’s temple of God

We need to remember that there was no Jewish Temple intact in the days of the early Church Fathers, yet most of them still identified the temple in prophecy with a future temple rebuilt in Jerusalem.

Irenaeus

The highly respected 2nd-century Church Father, Irenaeus (AD 130-202), is always deemed to be extremely important in these particular debates on eschatology, because of his theological succession from John - the author of Revelation. The prophetic outlook of Futurists corresponds to the view held by Irenaeus, of a future rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. He unequivocally stated that the temple referred to by Paul is the Jewish Temple, which at that stage in history was already in ruins.

But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit inthe temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom.[12]

Moreover, he (the apostle) has also pointed out this which I have shown in many ways, thatthe temple in Jerusalemwas made by the direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own person, distinctlycalled it the temple of God. Now I have shown in the third book, that no one is termed God by the apostles when speaking for themselves, except Him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by whose directionsthe temple which is at Jerusalemwas constructed for those purposes which I have already mentioned;in which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavouring to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: But when you shall seethe abomination of Desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet,standing in the holy place… [13]

Hippolytus of Rome

Hippolytus (AD 170-235) is considered to be the most important 3rd- century Christian theologian in Rome. [14] Contrasting Christ and the Antichrist, he writes:

The Saviour appeared in the form of man, and he too will come in the form of a man. The Saviour raised up and showed His holy flesh like a temple, John 2:19 and he will raise a temple of stone in Jerusalem. [15]

Hippolytus saw the Antichrist as building the Temple in order to curry favour with the Jews.

And after that he will build the temple in Jerusalem and will restore it again speedily and give it over to the Jews. [16]

If this is the case, it stands to reason that the critical factor in the timing of the Temple rebuilding would be the revealing of the Antichrist.

Victorinus

Victorinus of Poetovio was a Christian writer who was martyred during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian around AD 303 or 304. In his only surviving book, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, he indicates his belief that the Abomination was an idol of the Antichrist, which would be placed in the Jerusalem Temple by the False Prophet.

He shall cause also that a golden image of Antichrist shall be placed in the temple at Jerusalem, and that the apostate angel should enter, and thence utter voices and oracles… And he shall place, says he, his temple within Samaria [an ancient term for Israel], upon the illustrious and holy mountain that is at Jerusalem, an image such as Nebuchadnezzar had made. [17]

In the context, Victorinus links Daniel’s Abomination with Jesus’ Abomination of Desolation and with John’s image of the beast (the prevailing view among modern Futurists).

Cyril of Jerusalem

In like fashion, Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 313 - 386), a 4th-century theologian highly respected in the Palestinian Christian Community, says that the coming Antichrist will sit in the Jewish Temple.

And again he says, Who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped… so that he seats himself in the temple of God. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 What temple then? He means, the Temple of the Jews which has been destroyed… For if he comes to the Jews as Christ, and desires to be worshipped by the Jews, he will make great account of the temple, that he may more completely beguile them; making it supposed that he is the man of the race of David, who shall build up the temple which was erected by Solomon. And Antichrist will come at the time when there shall not be left one stone upon another in the Temple of the Jews… [18]

Ephraim the Syrian

Ephraim the Syrian (AD 306-373), a 4th-century theologian from Assyria, especially beloved in the Syriac Orthodox Church, believed that the Antichrist (the man of evil) would enter Jerusalem and sit in the Temple.

The man of evil will prepare, and coming he will enter Jerusalem. He will build up and establish Sion, making himself to be God; and entering, he will sit in the

temple... [19]

Zenobius of Florence

Born of a Florentine noble family, Zenobius (AD 337-417) was educated by his pagan parents. He came under the influence early of the bishop Theodore, and after much opposition, succeeded in leading his father and mother to become followers of Christ. He later became the first bishop of Florence and evangelized the city and its outskirts completely, while also combating Arianism. [20] He writes the following regarding the future Antichrist.

Puffed up with pride, Antichrist shall enter in triumph the city of Jerusalem and will sit on a throne in the temple to be adored as if he were the Son of God. His heart being intoxicated with arrogance, he will forget his being a mere man, and the son of a woman of the tribe of Dan. [21]

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom (c. AD 349-407), was the Archbishop of Constantinople, and an important Early Eastern Church Father. He thought that Paul was speaking about the Jewish Temple, but also the Church in general.

Here he discourses concerning the Antichrist, and reveals great mysteries… For he will not introduce idolatry, but will be a kind of opponent to God; he will abolish all the gods, and will order men to worship him instead of God, and he will be seated in the temple of God, not that in Jerusalem only, but also in every Church. [22]

John Cassian

Probably born in the region of Scythia Minor (a historical region shared today by Romania and Bulgaria), John Cassian (AD 360-435) was a monk and theologian celebrated in both Western and Eastern Christianity for his writings. [23] He saw the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of Antiochus IV as the type of the prophecy fulfilment of the Abomination, but the ultimate Abomination of Desolation by Antichrist was to to stand in the Church.

… in the matter of the Abomination of desolation which stood in the holy place, by means of that idol of Jupiter which, as we read, was placed in the temple in Jerusalem, and which is again to stand in the Church through the coming of Antichrist… [24]

Sulpicius Severus

Sulpicius Severus (AD 363-425) was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania in modern-day France. He relates a conversation where Martin of Tours said the following:

Antichrist would first seize the empires of the East; he would have Jerusalem as his seat and imperial Capital. Both the city and its temple were to be rebuilt by him. His persecution would require the denial of Christ's divinity (he himself pretending to be Christ) … [25]

Athanasius

Athanasius (c. 293-373 AD), the Bishop of Alexandria who famously defended the doctrine of the Trinity against the Arians, warns his generation that, if it is not curbed, the compromise by the Emperor Constantius with the Arians (who denied the orthodox view of the deity of Jesus) could develop into the falling away or departure from the faith. He makes Constantius only a forerunner of the Antichrist, the latter whom he refers to as He and that other. Constantius’ act of giving churches over to the Arians, is considered by Athanasius to possibly be a precursor to the future Antichrist entering those very churches.

Wherefore it especially behoves us to be sober… lest, I say, this be that falling away [2 Thess 2:3, after which He shall be revealed, of whom Constantius is surely the forerunner. Else wherefore is he so mad against the godly? wherefore does he contend for it as his own heresy, and call every one his enemy who will not comply with the madness of Arius, and admit gladly the allegations of the enemies of Christ, and dishonour so many venerable Councils? why did he command that the Churches should be given up to the Arians? was it not that, when that other comes, he may thus find a way to enter into them, and may take to himself him who has prepared those places for him? [26]

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine (AD 354-430) was a theologian whose writings had a major influence on the development of Western Christianity. This bishop of Hippo Regius (modern-day Annaba, Algeria) was a prolific author whose works include Confessions and The City of God. In the latter book, published in AD 426, Augustine stated his uncertainty as to whether the temple of God spoken of in Paul’s prophecy in 2 Thessalonians referred to the Jewish Temple or the Church.

There is, however, some uncertainty about the temple in which he is to take his seat. Is it the ruins of the temple built by King Solomon, or actually in a church? For the apostle would not say the temple of God if he meant the temple of some idol or demon. [27]

John of Damascus

In the 8th century, the Eastern Church Father, John of Damascus (c. AD 676-749) was a Syrian monk and priest. He says that the Antichrist will come to the Jews - quoting Cyril of Jerusalem as support that the temple referred to by Paul is a Jewish Temple.

And the apostle says: Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son, of perdition: who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called Gad or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God [2 Thess 2:3,4] , shewing himself that he is God; in the temple of God he said; not our temple, but the old Jewish temple [Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. 15] . For he will come not to us but to the Jews: not for Christ or the things of Christ: wherefore he is called Antichrist. [28]

Adso the monk

Adso of Montier-en-Der, (born AD 910/915 in Burgundy—died AD 992) was a Benedictine monk and abbot, whose treatise on the Antichrist became the standard work on the subject from the mid-10th to the 13th century. [29] He declares:

Antichrist… will go to Jerusalem and place his seat in the temple which he will have restored. He will submit to the rite of circumcision, claiming that he is the Son of the Omnipotent God. His first converts will be kings and princes. His influence will extend from sea to sea, largely through force and persuasive eloquence. He will perform many signs and great miracles. Those who believe in him will be marked on the forehead with a sign. [30]

Anselm

The 11th-century Catholic scholar, Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033-1109 AD) was a Benedictine monk, abbot and theologian, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from AD 1093 to 1109. [31] He states his position on the subject as follows:

For, the Temple which Solomon built having been destroyed, in its place he (Antichrist) shall restore it, he shall circumcise himself, and he shall give forth the lie that he is the son of the omnipotent God.

Hence the prevailing view among the Church Fathers and early Christians is that the Antichrist would be a future man, who would sit in a literal rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. This is the precise position held by Futurists today. To claim otherwise is to betray an ignorance of what they wrote or of its contextual setting.

Table 2: Early Christians who expressly discussed Paul’s temple of God

CHAPTER 2: THE TEMPLES IN HISTORY

Before proceeding any further, let’s have a brief look at the Jewish temples in history, including the Temple Mount after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Table 3: The Jewish temples

The First Temple

David, the second king of the combined Kingdom of Israel and Judah, requested God to allow him to build a temple in Jerusalem, to replace the portable tabernacle in use as a place of worship since the time of the Exodus. Through the prophet, Nathan, God told David that his son Solomon, instead, would build the Temple.

1 Chron 28:2-6 King David rose to his feet and said: Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’ Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever… Of all my sons—and the Lord has given me many—he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.’

The site chosen by David was on Mount Moriah, where Abraham had once proved his readiness to offer up his beloved son Isaac, in obedience to God's instruction. The precise location was on the threshing floor of Araunah, where the angel of God had halted the plague of destruction on Jerusalem at the intercession of David. [32] At God’s instruction, David had subsequently purchased the area to build an altar of sacrifice to the Lord. [33]

2 Chron 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.

Solomon began to build the First Temple in the fourth year of his reign [34] in the 10th century BC. It took 7 years to build [35] being completed around 957 BC and it was the crowning achievement of his reign. It was 60 cubits (27.4 m) long, 20 cubits (9.1 m) wide and 30 cubits (13.7 m) high. [36] Solomon drafted 153,600 of his subjects into service for the gigantic operation. Enormous blocks of stone were quarried by 80,000 stonecutters and hauled to Mount Moriah by 70,000 carriers, where these stones served as the foundation of the Temple. 3,600 foremen oversaw the construction project. [37] Massive amounts of cedar wood were used in the construction, imported from King Hiram, in the adjacent kingdom of Tyre (in modern Lebanon). [38] Pure gold was used as an overlay in many sections [39] and a master craftsman from Tyre was brought in to oversee the finishing work done by Solomon’s skilled craftsmen. [40] The Most Holy Place contained a pair of sculptured cherubim with a total wingspan of 20 cubits (9.1 m) which were overlaid with gold. [41] It also housed the famous Ark of the Covenant. [42] At the grand dedication of the completed Temple, when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices - and the glory of God filled the sanctuary. [43]

Figure 3: Depiction of the Ark of the Covenant in the First Temple [44]

Destruction and exile

Serving the Hebrews as a place of worship for over 4 centuries, the First Temple was eventually plundered by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned c. 605 – c. 562 BC), when he attacked Jerusalem during the reign of the Judean king Jehoiachin. [45] A portion of the elite population of the Kingdom of Judah was taken into exile to Babylon, leaving only the poorest people in the land [46] ruled by a vassal king, Zedekiah. [47]

Figure 4: The Babylonians plunder the Temple [48]

But when Zedekiah rebelled a decade later, Nebuchadnezzar’s armies again besieged Jerusalem and after 30 months breached the city walls in 587 BC, [49] subsequently burning the Temple, along with most of Jerusalem.

2 Kings 25:8-11 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon.

What remained of the Temple treasures were plundered and taken to Babylon. [50] Jewish tradition relates that the Temple was destroyed on Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of Av in the Hebrew calendar.

Figure 5: Painting of Judah’s exile from Jerusalem by the Babylonians [51]

The Second Temple

Ezra and Zerubbabel

The prophet Jeremiah had predicted a 70-year desolation of Jerusalem.

Jer 25: 11 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Dan 9:2 … I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

When Cyrus the Great (590-530 BC) conquered Babylonia and founded the Achaemenid Empire (i.e. the First Persian Empire), many of the Jews remained in exile, but were now under Persian rule. After 70 years in captivity, Ezra relates that the Jews received authorisation from Cyrus to return and rebuild the Temple.

Ezra 1:1-4 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’

Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, [52] who returned from exile. Construction began in 538 BC at the original site of the First Temple [53] The first thing they rebuilt was the altar, so that sacrifice could resume. [54] When they laid the foundations for the new temple there were mixed feelings, with some singing for joy at this new beginning, while the older men who had seen the former temple wept loudly. [55] The Temple was completed 23 years later on 12 March 515 BC, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the Great. [56] Although it was a more modest version of the original temple and lacked the Ark of the Covenant, it resumed its role as the centre of worship for Jews.

Figure 6: Rebuilding the Temple [57]

The Seleucids and Maccabees

After the death of Alexander the Great, Judea was initially ruled by the Ptolemies until around 200 BC, when it fell to the Seleucids. On assuming power the infamous Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, adopted a policy of enforced Hellenization (i.e. the spread and in cases enforcement of ancient Greek culture and language). When the Jews rebelled, the enraged king retaliated with overwhelming force. In his attack on Jerusalem, the author of 2 Maccabees relates that in the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery. [58] He also plundered the Temple, robbing it of approximately $1 billion by modern calculations. [59] An angel had foretold these events to the Biblical prophet Daniel.

With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. (Daniel 11:32-33)

After Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practices, Mattathias, a Jewish priest, sparked a revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. When a royal official was enforcing the decree to sacrifice to pagan gods, the author of I Maccabees relates:

Just as he finished speaking, one of the men from Modein decided to obey the king's decree and stepped out in front of everyone to offer a pagan sacrifice on the altar that stood there. When Mattathias saw him, he became angry enough to do what had to be done. Shaking with rage, he ran forward and killed the man right there on the altar. He also killed the royal official who was forcing the people to sacrifice, and then he tore down the altar… Then Mattathias went through the town shouting, Everyone who is faithful to God's covenant and obeys his Law, follow me! With this, he and his sons fled to the mountains, leaving behind all they owned. [60]

About a year later, in 166 BC, Mattathias died, after nominating his son Judah as the new commander of the rebels. The family of Mattathias, known as the Hasmoneans, would be referred to by the Jews as the Maccabees - from the Hebrew word for ‘hammer’ - because they were said to strike hammer blows against their enemies. [61]

The legendary Judah Maccabee (aka Judas Maccabeus) led the revolt against the Seleucids until 160 BC. Mindful of the superiority of their armies, Judah initially adopted