Revolt Against Antiochus
1. While Antiochus, called Epiphanes, was disputing with Ptolemy VI over his right to the whole country of Syria, a serious conflict broke out among the powerful men of Judea. They competed for control of the government, since none of these men of rank could bear to be subject to his equals. Onias, one of the high priests, gained the upper hand and expelled the sons of Tobias from the city. They fled to Antiochus and begged him to use them as his guides and march into Judea.
The king was already inclined to do this. He agreed to their request, advanced against the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force. He killed a great many supporters of Ptolemy and sent his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also plundered the temple and stopped the regular offering of the daily sacrifice of atonement for three years and six months.
But Onias, the high priest, fled to Ptolemy, who gave him a place in the district of Heliopolis. There he built a city resembling Jerusalem and a temple like its temple. We shall discuss this further in its proper place later.
2. Antiochus was not satisfied with his unexpected capture of the city, its plunder, or the great slaughter he had carried out there. Overcome by his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he forced the Jews to abandon their country’s laws, leave their infants uncircumcised, and sacrifice pigs’ flesh on the altar. They all resisted these demands, and the most respected among them were put to death.
Bacchides, who was sent to hold the fortresses, combined these wicked orders with his own natural brutality. He indulged in every kind of extreme wickedness, tortured the worthiest inhabitants one by one, and openly threatened every day to destroy their city. At last, the extremity of his crimes provoked these suffering people to take revenge.
3. Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, was one of the priests living in a village called Modin. He took up arms together with his family, including his five sons, and killed Bacchides with daggers. Fearing the enemy’s many garrisons, he then fled to the mountains. So many people followed him that he was encouraged to come down and fight Antiochus’s generals. He defeated them and drove them out of Judea.
Through this success he gained control of the government, and his people freely chose him as their ruler. He then died, leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son.
4. Judas expected that Antiochus would not remain inactive. He gathered an army from his own countrymen and was the first to make a treaty of friendship with the Romans. When Epiphanes invaded the country a second time, Judas inflicted a great defeat on him and drove him out.
Encouraged by this great success, Judas attacked the garrison in the city, which had not yet been eliminated. He expelled its soldiers from the upper city and drove them into the lower city, the part called the Citadel. He then gained possession of the temple, purified the entire site, and built a wall around it. He made new vessels for sacred service and brought them into the temple, because the former vessels had been desecrated. He also built another altar and began offering sacrifices.
After the city’s sacred order had been restored, Antiochus died. His son Antiochus succeeded him both in the kingdom and in his hatred of the Jews.
5. This Antiochus assembled 50,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 80 elephants, and marched through Judea into the mountainous regions. He took the small city of Bethsura. But at Bethzacharias, where the passage was narrow, Judas met him with his army.
Before the armies joined battle, Judas’s brother Eleazar saw the tallest elephant, adorned with a large tower and protected by golden military trappings. Supposing that Antiochus himself was riding it, he ran far ahead of his own army. He cut his way through the enemy troops and reached the elephant. The man who seemed to be the king was too high for him to reach. Instead, Eleazar thrust his weapon into the animal’s belly and brought it down on himself. He was crushed to death, having done no more than attempt great things and show that he preferred glory to life.
The man directing the elephant was merely an ordinary man. But even if he had been Antiochus, Eleazar’s bold stroke would have accomplished no more than show that he chose death with only the hope of doing something glorious. Indeed, this disappointment became an omen to his brother Judas of how the whole battle would end.
The Jews fought bravely for a long time. But the king’s forces were more numerous, and fortune favored them, so they won the victory. After many of his men had been killed, Judas took the survivors and fled to the district of Gophna.
Antiochus went to Jerusalem but stayed only a few days, since he lacked provisions. He then departed, leaving behind a garrison that he thought sufficient to hold the place. He withdrew the rest of his army to winter quarters in Syria.
6. After the king’s departure, Judas did not remain idle. As people of his own nation came to him, he also gathered those who had escaped from the battle. He again fought Antiochus’s generals at a village called Adasa. He overpowered his enemies in battle and killed a great many of them, but in the end he too was killed. Only a few days later, supporters of Antiochus plotted against his brother John and killed him.
