Monday, 11/20/17
In our next weeks the first readings
will have to do with the rebellion of the Maccabees against their Greek rulers.
And, to get any grasp on the readings, we must first learn who those Greek rulers
were.
First off, there was
Alexander the Great who came out of Macedonia in northern Greece, going on to
conquer the whole of the Middle East from India to Egypt. He did all of that in
ten years, beginning his conquests in 333 B. C., and dying in 322 B.C. .
After Alexander's death, his
generals fought for control of his kingdom, with two of them coming out on top.
One of them, General Ptolemy, took control of Egypt, while General Seleucus
took over the rest of the Middle East.
In 312 Seleucus built his
capitol City of Antioch, ninety miles north of Jerusalem, and he called that
year 312 the year one in the new kingdom of the Greeks.
When his dynasty had been in
charge for 128 years, the ninth king, Antiochus, thought he was strong enough
to subjugate Greece. But when his army had marched half way across Asia Minor
toward Greece, a Roman army swooped down on them, surrounding them, and
threatening to wipe them out if they did not pay Rome an immense sum in gold every
year thereafter. And to keep Antiochus paying, Rome took his five oldest sons
as hostages.
After that, to gt the gold
for Rome, Antiochus turned to robbing temples every year, eventually bringing
his son to robbing the temple in Jerusalem. After that, the son profaned the temple, turning
it into a shrine for the Greek gods.
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