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The Suppression of Judaism

Not long after this, the king sent an Athenian[a] senator[b] to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God,(A) also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and to call it the temple of Olympian Zeus and to call the one in Gerizim Zeus-the-Friend-of-Strangers, as the people who live in that place are known.(B)

Harsh and utterly grievous was the onslaught of evil. For the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the nations, who dallied with prostitutes and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit.(C) The altar was covered with abominable offerings that were forbidden by the laws.(D) People could neither keep the Sabbath nor observe the festivals of their ancestors nor so much as confess themselves to be Jews.(E)

On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews[c] were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices, and when a festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to wear wreaths of ivy and to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus.(F) At the suggestion of the people of Ptolemais,[d] a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek cities that they should adopt the same policy toward the Jews and make them partake of the sacrifices(G) and should kill those who did not choose to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, the misery that had come upon them.(H) 10 For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. They publicly paraded them around the city with their babies hanging at their breasts and then hurled them down headlong from the wall.(I) 11 Others who had assembled in the caves nearby in order to observe the seventh day secretly were betrayed to Philip and were all burned together, because their piety kept them from defending themselves, in view of their regard for that most holy day.(J)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.1 Other ancient authorities read Antiochian
  2. 6.1 Or Geron an Athenian
  3. 6.7 Gk they
  4. 6.8 Or of Ptolemy