1 Maccabees 1:1-28
New Catholic Bible
A Great Danger for the Faith
Chapter 1[a]
The Succession of Alexander the Great.[b] 1 After Alexander of Macedon, the son of Philip, had come from the land of Kittim[c] and defeated Darius, the king of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as king, in addition to his position as king of Greece. 2 He engaged in many campaigns, captured strongholds, and executed kings. 3 In his advance to the ends of the earth, he plundered countless nations. When the earth was reduced to silence before him, his heart swelled with pride and arrogance.[d] 4 He recruited a very powerful army, and as provinces, nations, and rulers were conquered by him, they became his tributaries.
5 However, when all this had been accomplished, Alexander became ill, and he realized that his death was imminent. 6 Therefore, he summoned his officers, nobles who had been brought up with him from his youth, and he divided his kingdom among them while he was still alive. 7 Then, in the twelfth year[e] of his reign, Alexander died.
8 After that, his officers assumed power in the kingdom, each in his own territory. 9 They all put on royal crowns after his death, as did their heirs who succeeded them for many years, inflicting great evils on the world.
10 From these there sprang forth a wicked offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, the son of King Antiochus. Previously he had been a hostage in Rome. He began his reign in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the Greeks.[f]
11 Hellenism in Palestine.[g] In those days there emerged in Israel a group of renegades who led many people astray, saying, “Let us enter into an alliance with the Gentiles around us. Many disasters have come upon us since we separated ourselves from them.” 12 This proposal received great popular support, 13 and when some of the people immediately thereafter approached the king; he authorized them to introduce the practices observed by the Gentiles. 14 Therefore, they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to Gentile custom, 15 concealed the marks of their circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. Thus they allied themselves to the Gentiles and sold themselves to the power of evil.
16 The Temple of Jerusalem Is Sacked.[h] Once his kingdom had been firmly established, Antiochus was determined to become king of Egypt so that he might reign over both kingdoms. 17 He invaded Egypt with a massive force of chariots, elephants, and cavalry, supported by a large fleet. 18 When he engaged Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, in battle, Ptolemy fled in fear before him, amidst a great number of casualties. 19 The fortified cities in the land of Egypt were captured, and Antiochus plundered the kingdom.
20 After his return from his conquest of Egypt in the year one hundred and forty-three, Antiochus advanced upon Israel and Jerusalem with a massive force. 21 In his arrogance he entered the sanctuary and removed the golden altar, the lampstand for the light with all its fixtures, 22 the table for the loaves of offering, the libation cups and bowls, the golden censers, the curtain, and the crowns. He stripped off all the gold decorations on the front of the temple, 23 and he seized the silver and gold and precious vessels and all the hidden treasures he could find. 24 Taking all this, he returned to his own country, having caused great bloodshed and boasted arrogantly of what he had accomplished.
25 There was great mourning throughout Israel,
26 and the rulers and the elders groaned.
Girls and young men wasted away,
and the beauty of the women waned.
27 Every bridegroom raised up laments,
and the bride sat mourning in her bridal chamber.
28 The land trembled for its inhabitants,
and the entire house of Jacob was clothed in shame.
Footnotes
- 1 Maccabees 1:1 In the sixth century B.C., the Exile had endangered the existence of Israel as a nation. Out of this crisis, the national hope came forth purified: the vocation of Israel, reduced to a little protectorate, was not that of being a power but of remaining, above all, the people bearing witness to God. The crisis of the Maccabean period is more grave. For the first time, Israel is threatened as a spiritual family: it is the trial of hope.
- 1 Maccabees 1:1 The young Macedonian conqueror had formed an immense empire for himself (333–324 B.C.). He died prematurely, and his kingdom was divided among the generals who quarreled over his inheritance. Judea profited from the benevolence of the Lagids who ruled Egypt. However, at the beginning of the second century B.C., it became subjugated by the successors of Seleucus, the Seleucids, who ruled in Syria and spread Hellenism throughout the Middle East. With the advent of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 175 B.C., the pressure reaches its zenith.
- 1 Maccabees 1:1 Kittim: designates primarily Cyprus but encompasses other foreign countries among which was Macedonia. Greece here designates the region of Asia Minor that had already been colonized by the Greeks for a long time.
- 1 Maccabees 1:3 After defeating the Persians, Alexander the Great reached the Indian Ocean.
- 1 Maccabees 1:7 Twelfth year: 334 B.C.
- 1 Maccabees 1:10 The year 137 of the Seleucid era corresponds to 175 B.C.
- 1 Maccabees 1:11 In order to unify his kingdom, the new monarch Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed Greek customs everywhere. These were contradictory to the Jewish religious requirements, which were made precise from the end of the Exile. Nonetheless, the king could rely—especially at Jerusalem—on a current of opportunists favorable to Hellenism because of ambition or a desire for cultural integration: the clan of Jason whose members are termed renegades.
- 1 Maccabees 1:16 This event took place in 169 B.C. The plunderer of the temple had great need of money after his first campaign in Egypt; after the second, he brutally occupied the city of Jerusalem. The arrogance of the king, who wanted to incarnate Zeus, impressed his contemporaries and especially the author of the Book of Daniel (Dan 7:8-25; 8:11-14; 9:27; 11:31, 36; 12:11ff). The prince who makes himself a god and plays with the life of human beings becomes the type of the Antichrist (Rev 13:15).
