A Document Concerning The Persecution by Antiochus IV Epiphanes

TL;DRAbstract

The letter of Antiochus IV to Apollonius and three letters of 164, transcribed in 2 Macc. 11:17ff., are the only surviving official documents related to the religious persecution by Epiphanes. Whereas the documents quoted in 2 Maccabees mark the end of the oppression, the order addressed to Apollonius was issued while it was still raging. This unique piece of testimony deserves an attentive study. It is commonly held that Epiphanes undertook the persecution in order to hellenize the Jews, and the Samaritan document appears to supply direct confirmation of this theory, since the king himself praises the Samaritans “for making it clear that they have done nothing of those things with which the Jews are reproached, and that they desire to live according to the customs of the Greeks.” It is clear, then, that Epiphanes desired to hellenize the Jews.Keywords: 2 Maccabees; Antiochus IV; Apollonius; Epiphanes; Greeks; Jews; religious persecution; Samaritan document

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