Second Maccabees

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First Maccabees
Third Maccabees
See Fourth Maccabees for a vivid description of torture alluded to in Hebrews 11

See how the WEALTHY bribed to introduce the Gymnasium to facilitate Greek Worship

How the perverted Jews would try to Triumph Over Jesus

2 Maccabees 1

1 - The Jewish brethren in Jerusalem and those in the land of Judea, To their Jewish brethren in Egypt, Greeting, and good peace.

2 - May God do good to you, and may he remember his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants.

3 - May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a strong heart and a willing spirit.

4 - May he open your heart to his law and his commandments, and may he bring peace.

5 - May he hear your prayers and be reconciled to you, and may he not forsake you in time of evil.

6 - We are now praying for you here.

7 - In the reign of Demetrius, in the one hundred and sixty-ninth year, we Jews wrote to you, in the critical distress which came upon us in those years

after Jason and his company revolted from the holy land and the kingdom

8 - and burned the gate and shed innocent blood. We besought the Lord and we were heard, and we offered sacrifice and cereal offering, and we lighted the lamps and we set out the loaves.

9 - And now see that you keep the feast of booths in the month of Chislev, in the one hundred and eighty-eighth year.

10 - Those in Jerusalem and those in Judea and the senate and Judas,

To Aristobulus, who is of the family of the anointed priests, teacher of Ptolemy the king, and to the Jews in Egypt,

Greeting, and good health.

11 - Having been saved by God out of grave dangers we thank him greatly for taking our side against the king.

12 - For he drove out those who fought against the holy city.

13 - For when the leader reached Persia with a force that seemed irresistible, they were cut to pieces in the temple of Nanea by a deception employed by the priests of Nanea.

14 - For under pretext of intending to marry her, Antiochus came to the place together with his friends, to secure most of its treasures as a dowry.

15 - When the priests of the temple of Nanea had set out the treasures and Antiochus had come with a few men inside the wall of the sacred precinct, they closed the temple as soon as he entered it.

16 - Opening the secret door in the ceiling, they threw stones and struck down the leader and his men, and dismembered them and cut off their heads and threw them to the people outside.

17 - Blessed in every way be our God, who has brought judgment upon those who have behaved impiously.

18 - Since on the twenty-fifth day of Chislev we shall celebrate the purification of the temple, we thought it necessary to notify you, in order that you also may celebrate the feast of booths

and the feast of the fire given when Nehemiah, who built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices.

19 - For when our fathers were being led captive to Persia, the pious priests of that time took some of the fire of the altar and secretly hid it in the hollow of a dry cistern, where they took such precautions that the place was unknown to any one.

20 - But after many years had passed, when it pleased God, Nehemiah, having been commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to get it. And when they reported to us that they had not found fire but thick liquid, he ordered them to dip it out and bring it.

21 - And when the materials for the sacrifices were presented, Nehemiah ordered the priests to sprinkle the liquid on the wood and what was laid upon it.

22 - When this was done and some time had passed and the sun, which had been clouded over, shone out, a great fire blazed up, so that all marveled.

23 - And while the sacrifice was being consumed, the priests offered prayer -- the priests and every one. Jonathan led, and the rest responded, as did Nehemiah.

24 - The prayer was to this effect:

"O Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, who art awe-inspiring and strong and just and merciful, who alone art King and art kind,

25 - who alone art bountiful, who alone art just and almighty and eternal, who dost rescue Israel from every evil, who didst choose the fathers and consecrate them,

26 - accept this sacrifice on behalf of all thy people Israel and preserve thy portion and make it holy.

27 - Gather together our scattered people, set free those who are slaves among the Gentiles, look upon those who are rejected and despised, and let the Gentiles know that thou art our God.

28 - Afflict those who oppress and are insolent with pride.

29 - Plant thy people in thy holy place, as Moses said."

30 - Then the priests sang the hymns.

31 - And when the materials of the sacrifice were consumed, Nehemiah ordered that the liquid that was left should be poured upon large stones.

32 - When this was done, a flame blazed up; but when the light from the altar shone back, it went out.

33 - When this matter became known, and it was reported to the king of the Persians that, in the place where the exiled priests had hidden the fire, the liquid had appeared with which Nehemiah and his associates had burned the materials of the sacrifice,

34 - the king investigated the matter, and enclosed the place and made it sacred.

35 - And with those persons whom the king favored he exchanged many excellent gifts.

36 - Nehemiah and his associates called this "nephthar," which means purification, but by most people it is called naphtha.

2 Maccabees 2

1 - One finds in the records that Jeremiah the prophet ordered those who were being deported to take some of the fire, as has been told,

2 - and that the prophet after giving them the law instructed those who were being deported not to forget the commandments of the Lord, nor to be led astray in their thoughts upon seeing the gold and silver statues and their adornment.

3 - And with other similar words he exhorted them that the law should not depart from their hearts.

4 - It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God.

5 - And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance.

6 - Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it.

7 - When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: "The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy.

8 - And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated."

9 - It was also made clear that being possessed of wisdom Solomon offered sacrifice for the dedication and completion of the temple.

10 - Just as Moses prayed to the Lord, and fire came down from heaven and devoured the sacrifices, so also Solomon prayed, and the fire came down and consumed the whole burnt offerings.

11 - And Moses said, "They were consumed because the sin offering had not been eaten."

12 - Likewise Solomon also kept the eight days.

13 - The same things are reported in the records and in the memoirs of Nehemiah, and also that he founded a library and collected the books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David, and letters of kings about votive offerings.

14 - In the same way Judas also collected all the books that had been lost on account of the war which had come upon us, and they are in our possession.

15 - So if you have need of them, send people to get them for you.

16 - Since, therefore, we are about to celebrate the purification, we write to you. Will you therefore please keep the days?

17 - It is God who has saved all his people, and has returned the inheritance to all, and the kingship and priesthood and consecration,

18 - as he promised through the law. For we have hope in God that he will soon have mercy upon us and will gather us from everywhere under heaven into his holy place, for he has rescued us from great evils and has purified the place.

19 - The story of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, and the purification of the great temple, and the dedication of the altar,

20 - and further the wars against Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator,

21 - and the appearances which came from heaven to those who strove zealously on behalf of Judaism, so that though few in number they seized the whole land and pursued the barbarian hordes,

22 - and recovered the temple famous throughout the world and freed the city and restored the laws that were about to be abolished, while the Lord with great kindness became gracious to them --

23 - all this, which has been set forth by Jason of Cyrene in five volumes, we shall attempt to condense into a single book.

24 - For considering the flood of numbers involved and the difficulty there is for those who wish to enter upon the narratives of history because of the mass of material,

25 - we have aimed to please those who wish to read, to make it easy for those who are inclined to memorize, and to profit all readers.

26 - For us who have undertaken the toil of abbreviating, it is no light matter but calls for sweat and loss of sleep,

27 - just as it is not easy for one who prepares a banquet and seeks the benefit of others. However, to secure the gratitude of many we will gladly endure the uncomfortable toil,

28 - leaving the responsibility for exact details to the compiler, while devoting our effort to arriving at the outlines of the condensation.

29 - For as the master builder of a new house must be concerned with the whole construction, while the one who undertakes its painting and decoration has to consider only what is suitable for its adornment, such in my judgment is the case with us.

30 - It is the duty of the original historian to occupy the ground and to discuss matters from every side and to take trouble with details,

31 - but the one who recasts the narrative should be allowed to strive for brevity of expression and to forego exhaustive treatment.

32 - At this point therefore let us begin our narrative, adding only so much to what has already been said; for it is foolish to lengthen the preface while cutting short the history itself.

2 Maccabees 3

1 - While the holy city was inhabited in unbroken peace and the laws were very well observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of wickedness,

2 - it came about that the kings themselves honored the place and glorified the temple with the finest presents,

3 - so that even Seleucus, the king of Asia, defrayed from his own revenues all the expenses connected with the service of the sacrifices.

4 - But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been made captain of the temple, had a disagreement with the high priest about the administration of the city market;

5 - and when he could not prevail over Onias he went to Apollonius of Tarsus, who at that time was governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.

6 - He reported to him that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of untold sums of money,

so that the amount of the funds could not be reckoned, and that they did not belong to the account of the sacrifices,

but that it was possible for them to fall under the control of the king.

7 - When Apollonius met the king, he told him of the money about which he had been informed. The king chose Heliodorus, who was in charge of his affairs, and sent him with commands to effect the removal of the aforesaid money.

8 - Heliodorus at once set out on his journey, ostensibly to make a tour of inspection of the cities of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, but in fact to carry out the king's purpose.

9 - When he had arrived at Jerusalem and had been kindly welcomed by the high priest of the city, he told about the disclosure that had been made and stated why he had come, and he inquired whether this really was the situation.

10 - The high priest explained that there were some deposits belonging to widows and orphans,

11 - and also some money of Hyrcanus, son of Tobias, a man of very prominent position, and that it totaled in all four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold. To such an extent the impious Simon had misrepresented the facts.

12 - And he said that it was utterly impossible that wrong should be done to those people who had trusted in the holiness of the place and in the sanctity and inviolability of the temple which is honored throughout the whole world.

13 - But Heliodorus, because of the king's commands which he had, said that this money must in any case be confiscated for the king's treasury.

14 - So he set a day and went in to direct the inspection of these funds. There was no little distress throughout the whole city.

15 - The priests prostrated themselves before the altar in their priestly garments and called toward heaven upon him who had given the law about deposits, that he should keep them safe for those who had deposited them.

16 - To see the appearance of the high priest was to be wounded at heart, for his face and the change in his color disclosed the anguish of his soul.

17 - For terror and bodily trembling had come over the man, which plainly showed to those who looked at him the pain lodged in his heart.

18 - People also hurried out of their houses in crowds to make a general supplication because the holy place was about to be brought into contempt.

19 - Women, girded with sackcloth under their breasts, thronged the streets. Some of the maidens who were kept indoors ran together to the gates, and some to the walls, while others peered out of the windows.

20 - And holding up their hands to heaven, they all made entreaty.

21 - There was something pitiable in the prostration of the whole populace and the anxiety of the high priest in his great anguish.

22 - While they were calling upon the Almighty Lord that he would keep what had been entrusted safe and secure for those who had entrusted it,

23 - Heliodorus went on with what had been decided.

24 - But when he arrived at the treasury with his bodyguard, then and there the Sovereign of spirits and of all authority caused so great a manifestation that all who had been so bold as to accompany him were astounded by the power of God, and became faint with terror.

25 - For there appeared to them a magnificently caparisoned horse, with a rider of frightening mien, and it rushed furiously at Heliodorus and struck at him with its front hoofs. Its rider was seen to have armor and weapons of gold.

26 - Two young men also appeared to him, remarkably strong, gloriously beautiful and splendidly dressed, who stood on each side of him and scourged him continuously, inflicting many blows on him.

27 - When he suddenly fell to the ground and deep darkness came over him, his men took him up and put him on a stretcher

28 - and carried him away, this man who had just entered the aforesaid treasury with a great retinue and all his bodyguard but was now unable to help himself; and they recognized clearly the sovereign power of God.

29 - While he lay prostrate, speechless because of the divine intervention and deprived of any hope of recovery,

30 - they praised the Lord who had acted marvelously for his own place. And the temple, which a little while before was full of fear and disturbance, was filled with joy and gladness, now that the Almighty Lord had appeared.

31 - Quickly some of Heliodorus' friends asked Onias to call upon the Most High and to grant life to one who was lying quite at his last breath.

32 - And the high priest, fearing that the king might get the notion that some foul play had been perpetrated by the Jews with regard to Heliodorus, offered sacrifice for the man's recovery.

33 - While the high priest was making the offering of atonement, the same young men appeared again to Heliodorus dressed in the same clothing, and they stood and said, "Be very grateful to Onias the high priest, since for his sake the Lord has granted you your life.

34 - And see that you, who have been scourged by heaven, report to all men the majestic power of God." Having said this they vanished.

35 - Then Heliodorus offered sacrifice to the Lord and made very great vows to the Savior of his life, and having bidden Onias farewell, he marched off with his forces to the king.

36 - And he bore testimony to all men of the deeds of the supreme God, which he had seen with his own eyes.

37 - When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of person would be suitable to send on another mission to Jerusalem, he replied,

38 - "If you have any enemy or plotter against your government, send him there, for you will get him back thoroughly scourged, if he escapes at all, for there certainly is about the place some power of God.

39 - For he who has his dwelling in heaven watches over that place himself and brings it aid, and he strikes and destroys those who come to do it injury."

40 - This was the outcome of the episode of Heliodorus and the protection of the treasury.

2 Maccabees 4

1 - The previously mentioned Simon, who had informed about the money against his own country, slandered Onias, saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus and had been the real cause of the misfortune.

2 - He dared to designate as a plotter against the government the man who was the benefactor of the city, the protector of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws.

3 - When his hatred progressed to such a degree that even murders were committed by

one of Simon's approved agents,

4 - Onias recognized that the rivalry was serious and that Apollonius, the son of Menestheus and governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was intensifying the malice of Simon.

5 - So he betook himself to the king, not accusing his fellow citizens but having in view the welfare, both public and private, of all the people.

6 - For he saw that without the king's attention public affairs could not again reach a peaceful settlement, and that Simon would not stop his folly.

7 - When Seleucus died and Antiochus who was called Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom,

Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption,

8 - promising the king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of silver and, from another source of revenue, eighty talents.

9 - In addition to this he promised to pay one hundred and fifty more if permission were given to

establish by his authority a gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enrol the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch.

See Ignatius of Antioch to Ephesus

See First Maccabees on the Gymnasium

10 - When the king assented and Jason came to office,

he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life.

11 - He set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews, secured through John the father of Eupolemus, who went on the mission to establish friendship and alliance with the Romans;

and he destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced new customs contrary to the law.

12 - For with alacrity he founded a gymnasium right under the citadel, and

he induced the noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.

See how Hermes is related to sexual religions in First Maccabees Introduction.

In ancient times, just prior to 186 BCE, the land of Yisrael was ruled by a Greek Seleucid, Antiochus Epiphanes IV. He was extremely cruel, and outlawed the Hebrew religion, forcing his Greek customs on them. In the record of 2 Maccabees, an apostate high priest (named “Jason” in translation, but really named Y'shua) helped this Greek ruler impose the Greek ways of living:

“And abrogating the lawful way of living, he introduced new customs contrary to the Torah; for he willingly established a gymnasium right under the citadel (the Temple), and he made the finest of the young men wear the Greek hat.” (Recall that Hermes, the Greek deity of the mind, was associated with skills in commerce, fortune, gymnastics, cunning, and shrewdness. Reading the previous quote carefully, it is obvious that the "gymnasium" and the "finest of the young men" are linked to the special "hat" they were made to wear.   This strongly implies that Hermes was involved, and the prowess and skill of the young men was rewarded. The hat must have been an icon or badge of honor to the Greeks for skill in gymnastics, leaving no doubt that Hermes would be the deity related to the hat.)

Paul writes at 1Cor. 11:7 that a man is not to have his head covered in the assembly, but a woman is required to, to keep from dishonoring one another’s headship. Yahushua is the man’s ‘head’, while a woman’s ‘head’ is her husband. We are to follow the Torah, and not add to it in any way: “Do not add to nor take away from it”. Dt. 12:32.Dt. 12:32.

Man-made customs, including all the camouflaged Paganism found in Christendom, are traditions that are forbidden in the worship of YHWH. They represent more than a “strange fire”, but are like the golden calf. It is forbidden to worship Him after the customs of the Pagans. “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” ~ 1 Yoch. 2:6. Walk in Light ~ the Torah. (END OF EXCERPT)

The Homosexual Roots of the Nazi Party:

At the heart of the 'sodomy delusion' lies the Judaic rejection of Hellenism and paiderasteia, one of the distinctive features of the culture brought by the Greek conquerers of Asia Minor. It is a fundamental, ineluctable clash of values within what was destined to become Western civilization. Only in the Maccabean era did the opposition to Hellenization and everything Hellenic lead to the intense, virtually paranoid hatred and condemnation of male homosexuality, a hatred that Judaism bequeathed to the nascent Christian church (ibid.:36).
In his article 'Homosexuality and the Maccabean Revolt,' Catholic scholar Patrick G. D. Riley also identifies homosexuality as the focal point of conflict between the Jews and the Greeks. The Greek King, Antiochus, had ordered that all the nations of his empire be 'welded... into a single people' (Riley:14). This created a crisis for the Jews, forcing them to choose between faithfulness to Biblical commandments (at the risk of martyrdom) and participation in a range of desecrations from'the sacrificing of pigs and the worshipping of idols, to 'leaving their sons uncircumsized, and prostituting themselves to all kinds of impurity and abomination' (1 Macc. 1:49-51)' (ibid.:14). The Greeks also built one of their gymnasia (these were notorious throughout the ancient world for their association with homosexual practices) in Jerusalem, which 'attracted the noblest young men of Israel...subduing them under the petaso' (emphasis ours -- 2 Macc. 4:12). In the traditional Latin translation the above phrase is rendered'to put in brothels' (Riley:15).

The tensions which led to the Jewish revolt were exacerbated when the Jewish high priest, a Hellenist himself, offered a sacrifice to Heracles (Hercules) who was a Greek symbol of homosexuality. Riley adds,'The Jewish temple itself became the scene of pagan sacrificial meals and sexual orgies [including homosexuality].' The final insult (for which Antiochus is identified in the Bible as the archtype of the antichrist)'was the installation in the temple of a pagan symbol, possibly a representation of Zeus [Baal], called by a sardonic pun 'the abomination of desolation'' (ibid.:16).

In the ensuing religious revolt, the Maccabes'preserved what would become the moral charter of Christendom, just as in defending marriage they saved what would be the very material of its construction, namely, the family' (ibid.:17). Yet, though they preserved the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic, the Maccabees did not vanquish Greek philosophy as a rival social force. Of the two irreconcilable belief systems the Judeo-Christian one would prevail, allowing the development of what we know today as Western culture, yet Hellenism survived.

Clement Contra Heresies.
Hercules, the son of Zeus-a true son of Zeus-was the offspring of that long night, who with hard toil accomplished the twelve labours in a long time, but in one night deflowered the fifty daughters of Thestius, and thus was at once the debaucher and the bridegroom of so many virgins.
It is not, then, without reason that the poets call him a cruel wretch and a nefarious scoundrel. It were tedious to recount his adulteries of all sorts,
        and debauching of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys, homosexuals
        one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, and another Ganymede.
Let such gods as these be worshipped by your wives, and let them pray that their husbands be such as these-so temperate; that, emulating them in the same practices, they may be like the gods.

Such gods let your boys be trained to worship, that they may grow up to be men with the accursed likeness of fornication on them received from the gods. But it is only the male deities, perhaps, that are impetuous in sexual indulgence.

13 - There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no high priest,

14 - that the priests were no longer intent upon their service at the altar.

Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the sacrifices,
they hastened to take part in the unlawful proceedings
in the wrestling arena after the call to the discus,

15 - disdaining the honors prized by their fathers and putting the highest value upon Greek forms of prestige.

16 - For this reason heavy disaster overtook them, and

those whose ways of living they admired and wished to imitate
completely became their enemies and punished them.

17 - For it is no light thing to show irreverence to the divine laws -- a fact which later events will make clear.

18 - When the quadrennial games were being held at Tyre and the king was present,

19 - the vile Jason sent envoys, chosen as being Antiochian citizens from Jerusalem, to carry three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules.

Those who carried the money, however, thought best not to use it for sacrifice, because that was inappropriate, but to expend it for another purpose.

20 - So this money was intended by the sender for the sacrifice to Hercules,

but by the decision of its carriers it was applied to the construction of triremes.

21 - When Apollonius the son of Menestheus was sent to Egypt for the coronation of Philometor as king, Antiochus learned that Philometor had become hostile to his government, and he took measures for his own security. Therefore upon arriving at Joppa he proceeded to Jerusalem.

22 - He was welcomed magnificently by Jason and the city, and ushered in with a blaze of torches and with shouts. Then he marched into Phoenicia.

23 - After a period of three years Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the previously mentioned Simon, to carry the money to the king and to complete the records of essential business.

24 - But he, when presented to the king, extolled him with an air of authority, and secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.

25 - After receiving the king's orders he returned, possessing no qualification for the high priesthood, but having the hot temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage wild beast.

26 - So Jason, who after supplanting his own brother was supplanted by another man, was driven as a fugitive into the land of Ammon.

27 - And Menelaus held the office, but he did not pay regularly any of the money promised to the king.

28 - When Sostratus the captain of the citadel kept requesting payment, for the collection of the revenue was his responsibility, the two of them were summoned by the king on account of this issue.

29 - Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cyprian troops.

30 - While such was the state of affairs, it happened that the people of Tarsus and of Mallus revolted because their cities had been given as a present to Antiochis, the king's concubine.

31 - So the king went hastily to settle the trouble, leaving Andronicus, a man of high rank, to act as his deputy.

32 - But Menelaus, thinking he had obtained a suitable opportunity,

stole some of the gold vessels of the temple and gave them to Andronicus; other vessels,

as it happened, he had sold to Tyre and the neighboring cities.

33 - When Onias became fully aware of these acts he publicly exposed them, having first withdrawn to a place of sanctuary at Daphne near Antioch.

34 - Therefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus aside, urged him to kill Onias. Andronicus came to Onias, and resorting to treachery offered him sworn pledges and gave him his right hand, and in spite of his suspicion persuaded Onias to come out from the place of sanctuary; then, with no regard for justice, he immediately put him out of the way.

35 - For this reason not only Jews, but many also of other nations, were grieved and displeased at the unjust murder of the man.

36 - When the king returned from the region of Cilicia, the Jews in the city appealed to him with regard to the unreasonable murder of Onias, and the Greeks shared their hatred of the crime.

37 - Therefore Antiochus was grieved at heart and filled with pity, and wept because of the moderation and good conduct of the deceased;

38 - and inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped off the purple robe from Andronicus, tore off his garments, and led him about the whole city to that very place where he had committed the outrage against Onias, and there he dispatched the bloodthirsty fellow. The Lord thus repaid him with the punishment he deserved.

39 - When many acts of sacrilege had been committed in the city by Lysimachus with the connivance of Menelaus, and when report of them had spread abroad, the populace gathered against Lysimachus, because many of the gold vessels had already been stolen.

40 - And since the crowds were becoming aroused and filled with anger, Lysimachus armed about three thousand men and launched an unjust attack, under the leadership of a certain Auranus, a man advanced in years and no less advanced in folly.

41 - But when the Jews became aware of Lysimachus' attack, some picked up stones, some blocks of wood, and others took handfuls of the ashes that were lying about, and threw them in wild confusion at Lysimachus and his men.

42 - As a result, they wounded many of them, and killed some, and put them all to flight; and the temple robber himself they killed close by the treasury.

43 - Charges were brought against Menelaus about this incident.

44 - When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate presented the case before him.

45 - But Menelaus, already as good as beaten, promised a substantial bribe to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes to win over the king.

46 - Therefore Ptolemy, taking the king aside into a colonnade as if for refreshment, induced the king to change his mind.

47 - Menelaus, the cause of all the evil, he acquitted of the charges against him, while he sentenced to death those unfortunate men, who would have been freed uncondemned if they had pleaded even before Scythians.

48 - And so those who had spoken for the city and the villages and the holy vessels quickly suffered the unjust penalty.

49 - Therefore even the Tyrians, showing their hatred of the crime, provided magnificently for their funeral.

50 - But Menelaus, because of the cupidity of those in power, remained in office, growing in wickedness, having become the chief plotter against his fellow citizens.

2 Maccabees 5

1 - About this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt.

2 - And it happened that over all the city, for almost forty days, there appeared golden-clad horsemen charging through the air, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn swords --

3 - troops of horsemen drawn up, attacks and counterattacks made on this side and on that, brandishing of shields, massing of spears, hurling of missiles, the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all sorts.

4 - Therefore all men prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen.

5 - When a false rumor arose that Antiochus was dead, Jason took no less than a thousand men and suddenly made an assault upon the city. When the troops upon the wall had been forced back and at last the city was being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the citadel.

6 - But Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his fellow citizens, not realizing that success at the cost of one's kindred is the greatest misfortune, but imagining that he was setting up trophies of victory over enemies and not over fellow countrymen.

7 - He did not gain control of the government, however; and in the end got only disgrace from his conspiracy, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites.

8 - Finally he met a miserable end. Accused before Aretas the ruler of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, pursued by all men, hated as a rebel against the laws, and abhorred as the executioner of his country and his fellow citizens, he was cast ashore in Egypt;

9 - and he who had driven many from their own country into exile died in exile, having embarked to go to the Lacedaemonians in hope of finding protection because of their kinship.

10 - He who had cast out many to lie unburied had no one to mourn for him; he had no funeral of any sort and no place in the tomb of his fathers.

11 - When news of what had happened reached the king, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt. So, raging inwardly, he left Egypt and took the city by storm.

12 - And he commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly every one they met and to slay those who went into the houses.

13 - Then there was killing of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of virgins and infants.

14 - Within the total of three days eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting; and as many were sold into slavery as were slain.

15 - Not content with this, Antiochus dared to enter the most holy temple in all the world, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country.

16 - He took the holy vessels with his polluted hands, and swept away with profane hands the votive offerings which other kings had made to enhance the glory and honor of the place.

17 - Antiochus was elated in spirit, and did not perceive that the Lord was angered for a little while because of the sins of those who dwelt in the city, and that therefore he was disregarding the holy place.

18 - But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been scourged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodorus was, whom Seleucus the king sent to inspect the treasury.

19 - But the Lord did not choose the nation for the sake of the holy place, but the place for the sake of the nation.

20 - Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled.

21 - So Antiochus carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple, and hurried away to Antioch, thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on the land and walk on the sea, because his mind was elated.

22 - And he left governors to afflict the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, by birth a Phrygian and in character more barbarous than the man who appointed him;

23 - and at Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these Menelaus, who lorded it over his fellow citizens worse than the others did. In his malice toward the Jewish citizens,

24 - Antiochus sent Apollonius, the captain of the Mysians, with an army of twenty-two thousand, and

commanded him to slay all the grown men and to sell the women and boys as slaves.

25 - When this man arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be peaceably disposed and waited until the holy sabbath day; then, finding the Jews not at work, he ordered his men to parade under arms.

26 - He put to the sword all those who came out to see them, then rushed into the city with his armed men and killed great numbers of people.

27 - But Judas Maccabeus, with about nine others, got away to the wilderness, and kept himself and his companions alive in the mountains as wild animals do; they continued to live on what grew wild, so that they might not share in the defilement.

The Abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy Place involved the GREEK GYMNASIUM and INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC in the Holy Sanctuaries. Eating the flesh of swine was the usual test of whether you agreed to be INITIATED or MURDERED by stretching your HIDE on a drum frame and bataoning you to death. See First Maccabees

2 Maccabees 6

1 - Not long after this, the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their fathers and cease to live by the laws of God,

2 - and also to pollute the temple

> in Jerusalem and call it the temple of Olympian Zeus,
> and to call the one in Gerizim the temple of Zeus the Friend of Strangers, as did the people who dwelt in that place.

> Ganymede:

GANYMEDE stands for anybody who, like his Two-Spirit native brother, the coupan of the sub-Arctic Konyagas, stands "drinking in the light of the moon, the stars, absorbing all its brilliance and splendors to become a man of god."

"Upon hearing that Ganymede was to be cup bearer as well as Zeus' lover, the infinitely jealous Hera was outraged. Therefor Zeus set Ganymede's image among the stars as the constellation Aquarius, the water carrier. Aquarius was originally the Egyptian god over the Nile. The Egyptian god poured water not wine from a flagon.

"All of Zeus' scandalous liaisons have allegorical meanings. Zeus' torrid affair with Ganymede was a religious justification for homosexuality within the Greek culture.

Before the popularity of the Zeus and Ganymede myth spread,
the only toleration for sodomy was an external form of goddess worship.

Cybele's male devotees tried to achieve unity with her by castrating themselves and dressing like women. .
            "While Platonic love needed women for regeneration purposes (grow the attendance)
           the philosopher used this myth to justify his sexual feelings towards his all male pupils.

> "During the fourth century the Jews came under the influence of Greek Rationalism. In 332 BC Alexander of Macedonia defeated Darius III of Persia and the Greeks began to colonize Asia and Africa. The founded city-states in Tyre, Sidon, Gaza, Philadelphis (Amman) and Tripolis and even in Shechem.

The Jews of Palestine and the diaspora were surrounded by a Hellenic culture which some found disturbing,

but others were excited by Greek theater, philosophy, sport and poetry. They learned Greek, exercised at the gymnasium and took Greek names. Some fought as mercinaries in the Greek armies.

"Thus some Greeks came to know the God of Israel and decided to worship Yahweh (Iao) alongside Zeus and Dionysus.

Some were attracted to the synagogue... There they read scriptures, prayed and listened to sermons (explanations).

The synagogue was unlike anything else in the rest of the ancient religous world.
Since there was no ritual or sacrifice, it must have seemed more like a school of philosophy, and many flocked in the synagogue if a well-known Jewish preacher came to town...

"By the second century BC this hostility was entrenched: in Palestine there had even been a revolt when Antiochus Epiphanes, the Selucid governor,
           had attempted to Hellenize Jerusalem and introduce the cult of Zeus into the temple....

"In the second century BC Jesus Ben Sirach...

made Wisdom (Sophia)
stand up in the Divine Council
and sing her praises:

she had come forth from the mouth of the Most High as the Divine Word by which God had created the world...

Wisdom leaving God to wander through the world in search of humanity, it is hard not to be reminded of the pagan goddesses such as Ishtar, Anat and Isis, who had also descended from the divine world in a redemptive.

"When monotheists fell in love with Greek philosophy, they inevitably wanted to try to adapt its God to their own." (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 67f)

> "In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (also Phoebus) was the god of the sun, music, poetry, prophecy, agriculture, and pastoral life, and leader of the Muses. He was the twin child of Zeus and Leto. Ancient statues show Apollo as the embodiment of the Greek ideal of male beauty. Apollo epitomized the transition between adolescence and manhood in Greek male society.

LETO: In Greek mythology Leto was the daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe and the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She was an early lover of Zeus and Hera was jealous of her. The Romans called her Latona.

"Thamyris was the first "man to love another man" for Hyacinthus was a beautiful young boy. In what was to become the Greek way, Apollo vied for the same love. Thamyris, however, made the mistake of challenging the Nine Muses to a contest of their skills. Thamyris proposed a wager, if he should win, he would have sex with each of the Muses.

"The Muses agreed, but put the condition that if he lost he would be made blind and lose his memory of harp playing. Thamyris lost and Apollo was left to enjoy the fruits of divine homosexuality, until Zephyr, the West Wind, also took a liking to Hyacinthus.

"One day while Apollo and Hyacinthus were hurling a discus, Zephyr caught the discus and in a jealous rage hurled it against Hyacinthus's skull. Apollo's cradled his dying lover in his arms and from the boy's death's blood which fell to the ground, sprang the hyacinth flower.

This is somewhere between legend and myth, as it has little to do with the cosmos, but rather it is used as historical justification for homosexuality among the Greeks.

There is no question that homosexuality (or rather male bi-sexuality) was very much a part of the early religious practices.

But this was sacred homosexual ritual. By making the sex of Hyacinthus and Apollo, "love" between a mortal and a god, Greek men were justified in emulating their god. Resource

> But when it is known that "Zeus the Saviour" was only a title of Dionysus, the "sin-bearing Bacchus," his character, as "The Saviour," appears in quite a different light. In Egypt, the Chaldean god was held up as the great object of love and adoration, as the god through whom "goodness and truth were revealed to mankind." He was regarded as the predestined heir of all things; and, on the day of his birth, it was believed that a voice was heard to proclaim, "The Lord of all the earth is born." In this character he was styled "King of kings, and Lord of lords," it being as a professed representative of this hero-god that the celebrated Sesostris caused this very title to be added to his name on the monuments which he erected to perpetuate the fame of his victories. Hislop shows how this fits seeing the S.U.N. god to think of the S.O.N. God as Rubel Shelly recommends. And as seen in Cosmic Christmas which is the worship of Shamash.

> Zeus

When Zeus had an affair with Mnemosyne, he coupled with her for nine consecutive nights, which produced nine daughters, who became known as the Muses.

They entertained their father and the other gods as a celestial choir on Mount Olympus.

They became deities of intellectual pursuits. Also the three Charites or Graces were born from Zeus and Eurynome. From all his children Zeus gave man all he needed to live life in an ordered and moral way.

Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Castor and Polydeuces, the Tyndaridae, who sprang from Olympian Zeus. Beneath the heights fo Taygetus stately Leda bare them, when the dark-clouded Son of Cronos had privily bent her to his will.

Very easily he softened the son of all-glorious Leto as he would, stern though the Far-shooter was.

He took the lyre upon his left arm and tried each string in turn with the key, so that it sounded awesomely at his touch.

And Phoebus Apollo laughed for joy; for the sweet throb of the marvellous music went to his heart,
           and a soft longing took hold on his soul as he listened.

Then the son of Maia, harping sweetly upon his lyre, took courage and stood at the left hand of Phoebus Apollo; and soon,
           while he played shrilly on his lyre,
           he lifted up his voice and sang, and lovely was the sound of his voice that followed.

He sang the story of the deathless gods and of the dark earth, how at the first they came to be, and how each one received his portion. First among the gods he honoured Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses, in his song; for the son of Maia was of her following.

And next the goodly son of Zeus hymned the rest of the immortals according to their order in age, and told how each was born, mentioning all in order as he struck the lyre upon his arm.

But Apollo was seized with a longing not to be allayed, and he opened his mouth and spoke winged words to Hermes (Mercury, Greek Logos):

(ll. 436-462) `Slayer of oxen, trickster, busy one, comrade of the feast, this song of yours is worth fifty cows, and I believe that presently we shall settle our quarrel peacefully.

But come now, tell me this, resourceful son of Maia: has this marvellous thing been with you from your birth, or did some god or mortal man give it you -- a noble gift -- and teach you heavenly song?

For wonderful is this new-uttered sound I hear, the like of which I vow that no man nor god dwelling on Olympus ever yet has known but you, O thievish son of Maia.

What skill is this? What song for desperate cares? What way of song? For verily here are three things to hand all at once from which to choose, -- mirth, and love, and sweet sleep. And though I am a follower of the Olympian Muses who love dances and the bright path of song -- the full-toned chant and ravishing thrill of flutes --

yet I never cared for any of those feats of skill at young men's revels, as I do now for this:

I am filled with wonder, O son of Zeus, at your sweet playing. But now, since you, though little, have such glorious skill, sit down, dear boy, and respect the words of your elders.

For now you shall have renown among the deathless gods, you and your mother also. This I will declare to you exactly: by this shaft of cornel wood I will surely make you a leader renowned among the deathless gods, and fortunate, and will give you glorious gifts and will not deceive you from first to last.'

> Of Hermes, Mercury or the Greek logos:

Hermes, the herald of the Olympian gods, is son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, daughter of Atlas and one of the Pleiades.

Hermes is also the god of shepherds, land travel, merchants, weights and measures, oratory, literature, athletics and thieves,

and known for his cunning and shrewdness.
He was also a minor patron of poetry.
He was worshiped throughout Greece especially in Arcadia. Festivals in honor of Hermes were called Hermoea.

Originally Hermes was a phallic god, being attached to fertility and good fortune, and also a patron of roads and boundaries. His name coming from herma, the plural being hermaiherm was a square or rectangular pillar in either stone or bronze, with the head of Hermes (usually with a beard), which adorned the top of the pillar, and male genitals near to the base of the pillar.

The offspring of Hermes are believed to be Pan, Abderus and Hermaphroditus. Hermes as with the other gods had numerous affairs with goddesses, nymphs and mortals. In some legends even sheep and goats. Pan, the half man half goat, is believed to be the son of Hermes and Dryope,

It would be natural that the people who had adopted the worship of the Greek gods and the gymnasium would anticipate their "messiah" as the same kind of perverted agent of Dionysus (Bacchus). They piped and tried to seduce Jesus into the perverted song and dance. When that failed they used the triumph-over music of the warrior Levites to mock Him to death.

Remember that the Musical Levites were Warrior noise makers. They made a loud, crashing sound during the offering and burning of animal sacrifices. This was their PROPHETIC ROLE to be fulfilled as Jesus was sacrificed with mocking music.

No Levitical musician was ever permitted to enter into the Holy Place as a type of the church of Christ in heaven and the church as "synagogue" on earth. To do so would have caused them to be executed.

From Third Maccabees

27 - He proposed to inflict public disgrace upon the Jewish community, and he set up a stone on the tower in the courtyard with this inscription:

28 - "None of those who do not sacrifice shall enter their sanctuaries, and all Jews shall be subjected to a registration involving poll tax and to the status of slaves.
           Those who object to this are to be taken by force and put to death;

29 - those who are registered are also to be
           branded on their bodies by fire with the ivy-leaf
           symbol of Dionysus, and they shall also be reduced to their former limited status."

The ivy leaf is phallic, depicting the male trinity
Ivy was also sacred to :-
Osiris - Egyptian God of magic.
Dionysus - Greek God of vegetation and wine.
Bacchus - the Roman equivalent of Dionysus.
Triquetra: MARK of the trinity of persons = 666

30 - In order that he might not appear to be an enemy to all, he inscribed below:
"But if any of them prefer to join those who have been initiated into the mysteries, they shall have equal citizenship with the Alexandrians."

3 - Harsh and utterly grievous was the onslaught of evil.

4 - For the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the Gentiles,
           who dallied with harlots and
           had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts,
           and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit.

SINCERITY counts for nothing: mixing SEXUALITY and 'WORSHIP' is manifest in ALL pagan religions and many modern churches:

First: "Women and girls from the different ranks of society were proud to enter the service of the gods as singers and musicians. The understanding of this service was universal: these singers constituted the 'harem of the gods'." (Johannes Quasten. In Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, beginning on page 41)

Second: Preside over roles of women are known beforehand to create LUST and therefore attract the SEEKERS. It is not possible for women to put themselves on public display without COMMERCIALIZING the lust which is AUTOMATIC:

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Mt.5:28

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Matt 5:29

Third: Of Dionysus or Bacchus worship which was REVELING Smith's Bible Dictionary notes that&emdash;

"It was used in very early times by the Syrians of Padan-aram at their merry-making (Gen. 31:27). It was played principally by women (Ex. 15:20); Judg. 11:34; 1 Sam. 18:6; Psa lxvii:25 as an accompaniment to the song and dance, and appears to have been worn by them as an ornament (Jer. 31:4)... It is beat with the fingers, and is the Trye tympanum of the ancients, as appears from its figure in several relieves, representing the orgies of Bacchus and rites of Cybele." (Smiths Bible Dictionary, Timbrel)

Tumpanon , to, also in the form tupanon (q.v.): ( [tuptô] ):--kettledrum, such as was used esp. in the worship of the Mother Goddess and Dionysus, Hdt.4.76, E.HF892; tumpanôn alalagmoi, aragmata, Id.Cyc.65 (lyr.), 205; tumpana, Rheas te mêtros ema th' heurêmata, says Dionysus, Id.Ba.59, cf. 156 (lyr.), IG42(1).131.9, 10 (Epid.); in Corybantic rites, Ar.V.119; t. arassein, rhêssein, AP6.217 (Simon.), 7.485 (Diosc.); kataulêsei chrêtai kai tumpanois Sor.2.29 .

2. metaph., tumpanon phusan, of inflated eloquence, AP13.21 (Theodorid.).

II. name of some instrument of torture of execution, Ar. Pl.476 (xula eph' hois [en hois Suid. ] etumpanizon: echrônto gar tautêi têi timôriai: ê bakla, para to tuptein Sch.); tinôn men eis desmôtêrion, tinôn de epi tumpanon apagomenôn S.E.M.2.30 ; tous ek tumpanou kai tous aneskolopismenous Luc.Cat.6 ; epi to t. prosêge LXX 2 Ma.6.19 , cf.28; cf. tupanon.

2. = tumix, sirimpio (dub. sens.), Gloss.

3. cudgel, tas pollas epi tou nôtou dia tôn t. plêgas Dam.Isid.185 ; so perh. in LXX ll. cc.

III. in a machine, drum, Hero Bel.86, cf. Orib. 49.4.43; in Verg.G.2.444, tympana are wagon-wheels made of a solid piece of wood, rollers; similarly perh. in PLond.1821.204, possibly of the wheel of an irrigating machine: cf. tumpanion.

IV. Archit., the sunken triangular space enclosed by the cornice of the pediment, Lat. tympanum fastigii, Vitr.4.7.5; the square panel of a door, Id.4.6.4.

Fourth: Of dallying with women in the Sacred Precincts, Paul warned the women in areas where Bacchus worship was so powerful as he outlawed non-sedentary, teaching roles of women:

"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without. wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array: but (which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety (2:8-15).

1261. dialogismos, dee-al-og-is-mos´; from 1260; discussion, i.e. (internal) consideration (by implication, purpose), or (external) debate: dispute, doubtful(-ing), imagination, reasoning, thought.

Paul outlawed such doubtful disputations in the "synagogue" (Rom 15) which was confined to the Marketplace (where Jesus cast the musical minstrels, pipers, singers and dancers). That was REINFORCED by demanding that we SPEAK that which is written to OURSELVES without ANY private imaginations in songs and sermons. The word SPEAK is the opposite of POETRY or MUSIC which is "doubtful disputings."

The word for authority is authentia and is translated as to "rule over" or "Thrust self forward. However, Authentes means SEXUAL AUTHORITY which is both EROTIC and MURDEROUS.

"In fury the legitimate wife castigates Andromache with sexually abusive terms as
"having the effrontery to sleep with the son of the father who destroyed your husband, in order to bear the child of an authentes."

IT is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his fathers wife. I Cor 5:1

"The literal crime of the authentas parents appears to be the procreation of souls doomed to everlasting damnation-although most English translations render the phrase "parents murdering innocent souls." See Wisdom of Solomon

A true history of Corinth: [2.7.5] On the modern citadel is a sanctuary of Fortune of the Height, and after it one of the Dioscuri. Their images and that of Fortune are of wood.

On the stage of the theater built under the citadel is a statue of a man with a shield, who they say is Aratus, the son of Cleinias. After the theater is a temple of Dionysus. The god is of gold and ivory, and by his side are Bacchanals of white marble. These women they say are sacred to Dionysus and maddened by his inspiration.

The Sicyonians have also some images which are kept secret. These one night in each year they carry to the temple of Dionysus from what they call the Cosmeterium (Tiring-room)

The modern "church growth cult" knows that women exercise AUTHENTIA and that is how you get the crowd out. However, there can be no doubt that they are committing deliberate sin and the CHILDREN they engender throug mocking Lord Jesus will be SACRIFICED.

Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and he watches over his holy ones. Wisdom 3:9

But the ungodly will be punished as their reasoning deserves, who disregarded the righteous man and rebelled against the Lord; Wisdom 3: 10

for whoever despises wisdom and instruction is miserable. Their hope is vain, their labors are unprofitable, and their works are useless. Wisdom 3: 11

Their wives are foolish, and their children evil; Wisdom 3: 12

their offspring are accursed. For blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not entered into a sinful union; she will have fruit when God examines souls. Wisdom 3:13

But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. You first have to make Paul into a liar as well as the Holy Spirit into a liar as He universally condemned Satan's Music because it REPUDIATED the Words of God.

The MASS as in Christ MASS denies that Christ came fully in the flesh. Therefore, Christ is crucified over and over through the Dionysic or Bacchic musical rituals:

As Servius tells us that the grand purpose of the Bacchic orgies "was the purification of souls," and as in these orgies there was regularly the tearing asunder and the shedding of the blood of an animal,

in memory of the shedding of the life's blood of the great divinity commemorated in them, could this symbolical shedding of the blood of that divinity have no bearing on the "purification" from sin, these mystic rites were intended to effect?

5 - The altar was covered with abominable offerings which were forbidden by the laws.

No musical instruments were allowed into the holy places of the temple.

6 - A man could neither keep the sabbath, nor observe the feasts of his fathers, nor so much as confess himself to be a Jew.

Sabbath "worship" was Babylonian "worship." Therefore, God outlawed "worship" by insisting upon REST on the Sabbath. The Jews hold that it would have been unlawful to play musical instruments on the Sabbath. Therefore, no one could keep the Sabbath and bow to Baal at the same time.

7 - On the monthly celebration of the king's birthday, the Jews were taken, under bitter constraint,
to partake of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Dionysus came,
they were compelled to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy.

To literally become an "all things" could not exclude becoming a god -- or get ones assignment as a Christ:

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Acts 14:11

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes (Mercury) because he was the chief speaker. Acts 14:12

The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. Acts 14:13

This WOULD have included instrumental music but with the worship of Zeus it was held unseemly to use music to worship a MASCULINE God.

Now, here is the ideal place for Paul to participate with the prostitutes, homosexuals, women prophetesses, musical worship teams and some good old Rock (a vulgar, sexual word) and Rap:

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: Acts 14:14

Remember how Joseph rushed out of the presence of the prostitute queen?

Paul was not going to accommodate to paganism but put his very life at risk to be counter-cultural. The idea that Paul would have to merge his gospel message into Greek culture is truly outrageous:

Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. Acts 14:15

So, you see, the gospel includes telling people to turn away from pagan rituals where music is the mind-altering and attracting power.

So, you see, Paul didn't lie to affirm these people's religion just so he could preach the gospel which would, sooner or later, have to repudiate their musical idolatry.

What would worship of Zeus involve?

This would have been an animal sacrifice with lots of instrumental music -- just like the Jews. Surely it would do no harm if the people looked up to Paul and Barnabas. Isn't that exactly the goal of collecting the most charismatic gurus and applauding them? Isn't this worshiping the performer as these people wanted to worship Paul's performance?

Might be good for a hundred baptisms! Do it Paul. You said that you would become anything to win converts! This was similar to what Paul condemned in Ephesus and Corinth:

Euripides Helen notes:

Chorus

When she made an end to banquets for gods and the race of men, Zeus spoke out, appeasing the Mother's gloomy wrath: "Go, holy Graces, go and with a loud cry take from Demeter's angry heart her grief for the maiden; and you, Muses, with song and dance." Then Kypris, fairest of the blessed gods,

first took up the rumbling voice of bronze and the drum with tight- stretched skin; and the goddess smiled, and received in her hand the deep-toned flute, pleased with its loud note.

"Kypris was a Greek Goddess and an epithet of Aphrodite, who was said to have risen from the sea from the island of Cyprus. Aphrodite's cult came to Greece from Cyprus, where she was known as Kypris (Lady of Cyprus.)

"Aphrodite was probably the Cypriot version of the great mother goddess, who was worshiped under various names almost universally around the Near and Middle East. Many primitive idols of the mother goddess (Kypris, or Aphrodite) were found in Cyprus. The Cyprian city of Paphos was the site of one of the oldest centers of her worship.

Euripides Ion I am ashamed before the god of many hymns, if he, the sleepless night watcher, shall see the torch procession on the twentieth day, beside the springs with lovely dances, when the starry sky of Zeus also joins in the dance, and the moon dances, and the fifty daughters of Nereus, in the sea and the swirls of ever-flowing rivers, celebrating in their dance the maiden with golden crown and her revered mother;

where this vagabond of Phoebus' (Apollo) hopes to rule, entering upon the labor of others.

You who turn to music and sing in discordant hymns our beds and the lawless, unholy loves of Kypris, see how we surpass in piety the unjust seed of men. (This is Rock)
           Let the song recant and let discordant music go against the beds of men!

The descendant of Zeus shows his ingratitude, when he does not breed children for the house in common with my mistress; showing favor to another Aphrodite, he has found a bastard child.

You made burnt offerings that were neither right nor holy, in the chambers of the gods, and you have incurred the wrath of the great mother, child, by not honoring her sacrifices.

Oh! Great is the power of dappled fawn-skin robes, and green ivy that crowns a sacred thyrsos, the

whirling beat of the tambourine circling in the air, hair streaming wildly for the revelry of Bromios, and the night-long festivals of the goddess. . . . You gloried in your beauty alone.

See Euripides defining the Bacchae. This informs Paul who warned us all:

Athenian. I am glad to hear that you agree with me; for, indeed, the discipline of pleasure and pain which, when rightly ordered, is a principle of education, has been often relaxed and corrupted in human life.

And the gods, pitying the toils which our race is born to undergo,
have appointed holy festivals, wherein men alternate rest with labour;
           and have given them the Muses and Apollo,
           the leader of the Muses, and
           Dionysus, to be companions in their revels,
           that they may improve their education
                      by taking part in the festivals of the gods, and with their help.

I should like to know whether a common saying is in our opinion true to nature or not.

For men say that the young of all creatures cannot be quiet in their bodies or in their voices; they are always wanting to move and cry out; some leaping and skipping,

and overflowing with sportiveness and delight at something, others uttering all sorts of cries. But, whereas the animals have no perception of order or disorder in their movements, that is, of rhythm or harmony, as they are called, to us,

The gods, who, as we say, have been appointed to be our companions in the dance,

have given the pleasurable sense of harmony and rhythm; and so they stir us into life,

and we follow them, joining hands together in dances and songs; and these they call choruses, which is a term naturally expressive of cheerfulness. Shall we begin, then, with the acknowledgment that education is first given through Apollo and the Muses? What do you say?

Remember that Apollo is the Abaddon or Apollyon of the book of Revelation. The "musicians" who will be destroyed out of the Babylon Harlot religious system are named after Apollo's MUSES.

Look again at verse 4

4 - For the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the Gentiles,
           who dallied with harlots and
           had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts,
           and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit.

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Ga.5:21

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 1Pe.4:3

Reveling is to sing and play musical instruments. The nakedness, as at Mount Sinai, was actually CAUSED by Aaron as their PRIEST.

Komos (g2970) ko'-mos; from 2749; a carousal (as if a letting loose): - revelling, rioting.

The picture below defines the KOMOS of the Greek.

The Judas Bag is the little box attached to the flute case on the left. In all of the KOMOs in antiquity the BAG is defined as "for carrying the mouthpieces ow wind instruments." In Psalm 42 it was prophesied that Judas would try to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus. Triumph over or ALARM means "to play musical instruments and 'make a joyful noise before the Lord'." This was the universal Warriors Chant as it brought down HOLOCAUST against the enemy warriors.

8 - At the suggestion of Ptolemy 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,

9 - and should slay those who did not choose to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, the misery that had come upon them.

Daniel 8:25 - the note in the originak KJV margin reads, "2 Macc. 6:9," a cross-reference to a book of 2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. Dan 8:25Modern KJV

10 - For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. These women they publicly paraded about the city, with their babies hung at their breasts, then hurled them down headlong from the wall.

11 - Others who had assembled in the caves near by, 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.

12 - Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people.

13 - In fact, not to let the impious alone for long, but to punish them immediately, is a sign of great kindness.

14 - For in the case of the other nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but he does not deal in this way with us,

15 - in order that he may not take vengeance on us afterward when our sins have reached their height.

16 - Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Though he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people.

17 - Let what we have said serve as a reminder; we must go on briefly with the story.

18 - Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat swine's flesh.

19 - But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh,

20 - as men ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.

21 - Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside, because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal which had been commanded by the king,

22 - so that by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship with them.

23 - But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs which he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.

24 - "Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life," he said, "lest many of the young should suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year has gone over to an alien religion,

25 - and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they should be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old age.

26 - For even if for the present I should avoid the punishment of men, yet whether I live or die I shall not escape the hands of the Almighty.

27 - Therefore, by manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age

28 - and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws." When he had said this, he went at once to the rack.

29 - And those who a little before had acted toward him with good will now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer madness.

30 - When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: "It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him."

31 - So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to the young but to the great body of his nation.

2 Maccabees 7

1 - It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine's flesh.

See 4th Maccabees for torturing

2 - One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers."

3 - The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated.

4 - These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on.

5 - When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying,

6 - "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us,
           as Moses declared (spoke or recited) in his song
           which bore witness against the people to their faces,
           when he said, `And he will have compassion on his servants.'"

7 - After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. (mocking) They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?"

1611 KJV: Hebrews 11:35 - the note in the margin reads, "2 Macc. 7:7," a cross-reference to a book of 2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha

Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: Heb 11:35

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; Proverbs 1:24
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: Proverbs 1:25
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; Proverbs 1:26

Laugh is: Sachaq (h7832) saw-khak'; a prim. root; to laugh (in pleasure or detraction); by impl. to play: - deride, have in derision, laugh, make merry, mock (-er), play, rejoice, (laugh to) scorn, be in (make) sport.

"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it; but the employment of music in religious services, though idolatrous, is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).

"Not to be overlooked here is the accompaniment of music and dancing which, with the character of the ensuing phenomena, makes the diagnosis (of idolatry) certain." (Schaff-Herzog, Ecstasy, p. 71).

Mock is: Leag (h3932) law-ag'; a prim. root; to deride; by impl. (as if imitating a foreigner) to speak unintelligibly: - have in derision, laugh (to scorn), mock (on), stammering.

Bruner in The Holy Spirit says that "church music is low level glossolalia--just speaking in tongues.

"we recognize the same elements: the sacrifices and libation, the cultic feast in which the congregation gets a share of food and drink after it has been blessed by the king, and the merry-making, now in the form of instrumental and vocal music. But the central act of the ritual, which was performed by the king, is called literally 'drinking' the god (Gurney, O. R. Some Aspects of Hittite Religion, p. 33-34, Oxford University Press, 1977)

8 - He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.

9 - And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."

"Others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection" brings to mind yet another scene during the Maccabean Revolt. The word "tortured" is tumpanizo, from which we get the term tympani or a kettledrum with a tightly drawn skin covering it.

The victim would be stretched on a rack or wheel until their skin was as tight as a drum, and then beaten until every bone was out of joint and he eventually died.

"Not accepting their release" refers to the countless brethren that refused to renounce the Christian faith, accepting the punishment handed them. In Afghanistan and other Islamic countries, those arrested for being Christians are sometimes given three days to recant their faith and return to Islam.

Afterward many of them are hanged or beheaded or left to rot in a prison because they did not accept release that required them to deny their Lord. But the reality of resurrection keeps them pressing on by faith. One of the seven brothers told Antiochus Epiphanes, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws" [Second Maccabees 7:9].

10 - After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands,

11 - and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again."

12 - As a result the king himself and those with him were astonished at the young man's spirit, for he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

13 - When he too had died, they maltreated and tortured the fourth in the same way.

14 - And when he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"

15 - Next they brought forward the fifth and maltreated him.

16 - But he looked at the king, and said, "Because you have authority among men, mortal though you are, you do what you please. But do not think that God has forsaken our people.

17 - Keep on, and see how his mighty power will torture you and your descendants!"

18 - After him they brought forward the sixth. And when he was about to die, he said, "Do not deceive yourself in vain. For we are suffering these things on our own account, because of our sins against our own God. Therefore astounding things have happened.

19 - But do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God!"

20 - The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord.

21 - She encouraged each of them in the language of their fathers. Filled with a noble spirit, she fired her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them,

22 - "I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.

23 - Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws."

24 - Antiochus felt that he was being treated with contempt, and he was suspicious of her reproachful tone. The youngest brother being still alive, Antiochus not only appealed to him in words, but promised with oaths that he would make him rich and enviable if he would turn from the ways of his fathers, and that he would take him for his friend and entrust him with public affairs.

25 - Since the young man would not listen to him at all, the king called the mother to him and urged her to advise the youth to save himself.

26 - After much urging on his part, she undertook to persuade her son.

27 - But, leaning close to him, she spoke in their native tongue as follows, deriding the cruel tyrant: "My son, have pity on me. I carried you nine months in my womb, and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to this point in your life, and have taken care of you.

28 - I beseech you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.

29 - Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers."

30 - While she was still speaking, the young man said, "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command, but I obey the command of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses.

31 - But you, who have contrived all sorts of evil against the Hebrews, will certainly not escape the hands of God.

32 - For we are suffering because of our own sins.

33 - And if our living Lord is angry for a little while, to rebuke and discipline us, he will again be reconciled with his own servants.

34 - But you, unholy wretch, you most defiled of all men, do not be elated in vain and puffed up by uncertain hopes, when you raise your hand against the children of heaven.

35 - You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty, all-seeing God.

36 - For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of everflowing life under God's covenant; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance.

37 - I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our fathers, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by afflictions and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God,

38 - and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty which has justly fallen on our whole nation."

39 - The king fell into a rage, and handled him worse than the others, being exasperated at his scorn.

40 - So he died in his integrity, putting his whole trust in the Lord.

41 - Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.

42 - Let this be enough, then, about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures.

2 Maccabees 8

1 - But Judas, who was also called Maccabeus, and his companions secretly entered the villages and summoned their kinsmen and enlisted those who had continued in the Jewish faith, and so they gathered about six thousand men.

2 - They besought the Lord to look upon the people who were oppressed by all, and to have pity on the temple which had been profaned by ungodly men,

3 - and to have mercy on the city which was being destroyed and about to be leveled to the ground, and to hearken to the blood that cried out to him,

4 - and to remember also the lawless destruction of the innocent babies and the blasphemies committed against his name, and to show his hatred of evil.

5 - As soon as Maccabeus got his army organized, the Gentiles could not withstand him, for the wrath of the Lord had turned to mercy.

6 - Coming without warning, he would set fire to towns and villages. He captured strategic positions and put to flight not a few of the enemy.

7 - He found the nights most advantageous for such attacks. And talk of his valor spread everywhere.

8 - When Philip saw that the man was gaining ground little by little, and that he was pushing ahead with more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, for aid to the king's government.

9 - And Ptolemy promptly appointed Nicanor the son of Patroclus, one of the king's chief friends, and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand Gentiles of all nations, to wipe out the whole race of Judea. He associated with him Gorgias, a general and a man of experience in military service.

10 - Nicanor determined to make up for the king the tribute due to the Romans, two thousand talents, by selling the captured Jews into slavery.

11 - And he immediately sent to the cities on the seacoast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment from the Almighty that was about to overtake him.

12 - Word came to Judas concerning Nicanor's invasion; and when he told his companions of the arrival of the army,

13 - those who were cowardly and distrustful of God's justice ran off and got away.

14 - Others sold all their remaining property, and at the same time besought the Lord to rescue those who had been sold by the ungodly Nicanor before he ever met them,

15 - if not for their own sake, yet for the sake of the covenants made with their fathers, and because he had called them by his holy and glorious name.

16 - But Maccabeus gathered his men together, to the number six thousand, and exhorted them not to be frightened by the enemy and not to fear the great multitude of Gentiles who were wickedly coming against them, but to fight nobly,

17 - keeping before their eyes the lawless outrage which the Gentiles had committed against the holy place, and the torture of the derided city, and besides, the overthrow of their ancestral way of life.

18 - "For they trust to arms and acts of daring," he said, "but we trust in the Almighty God, who is able with a single nod to strike down those who are coming against us and even the whole world."

19 - Moreover, he told them of the times when help came to their ancestors; both the time of Sennacherib, when one hundred and eighty-five thousand perished,

20 - and the time of the battle with the Galatians that took place in Babylonia, when eight thousand in all went into the affair, with four thousand Macedonians; and when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand, by the help that came to them from heaven, destroyed one hundred and twenty thousand and took much booty.

21 - With these words he filled them with good courage and made them ready to die for their laws and their country; then he divided his army into four parts.

22 - He appointed his brothers also, Simon and Joseph and Jonathan, each to command a division, putting fifteen hundred men under each.

23 - Besides, he appointed Eleazar to read aloud from the holy book, and gave the watchword, "God's help"; then, leading the first division himself, he joined battle with Nicanor.

24 - With the Almighty as their ally, they slew more than nine thousand of the enemy, and wounded and disabled most of Nicanor's army, and forced them all to flee.

25 - They captured the money of those who had come to buy them as slaves. After pursuing them for some distance, they were obliged to return because the hour was late.

26 - For it was the day before the sabbath, and for that reason they did not continue their pursuit.

27 - And when they had collected the arms of the enemy and stripped them of their spoils, they kept the sabbath, giving great praise and thanks to the Lord, who had preserved them for that day and allotted it to them as the beginning of mercy.

28 - After the sabbath they gave some of the spoils to those who had been tortured and to the widows and orphans, and distributed the rest among themselves and their children.

29 - When they had done this, they made common supplication and besought the merciful Lord to be wholly reconciled with his servants.

30 - In encounters with the forces of Timothy and Bacchides they killed more than twenty thousand of them and got possession of some exceedingly high strongholds, and they divided very much plunder, giving to those who had been tortured and to the orphans and widows, and also to the aged, shares equal to their own.

31 - Collecting the arms of the enemy, they stored them all carefully in strategic places, and carried the rest of the spoils to Jerusalem.

32 - They killed the commander of Timothy's forces, a most unholy man, and one who had greatly troubled the Jews.

33 - While they were celebrating the victory in the city of their fathers, they burned those who had set fire to the sacred gates, Callisthenes and some others, who had fled into one little house; so these received the proper recompense for their impiety.

34 - The thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews,

35 - having been humbled with the help of the Lord by opponents whom he regarded as of the least account, took off his splendid uniform and made his way alone like a runaway slave across the country till he reached Antioch, having succeeded chiefly in the destruction of his own army!

36 - Thus he who had undertaken to secure tribute for the Romans by the capture of the people of Jerusalem proclaimed that the Jews had a Defender, and that therefore the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws ordained by him.

2 Maccabees 9

1 - About that time, as it happened, Antiochus had retreated in disorder from the region of Persia.

2 - For he had entered the city called Persepolis, and attempted to rob the temples and control the city. Therefore the people rushed to the rescue with arms, and Antiochus and his men were defeated, with the result that Antiochus was put to flight by the inhabitants and beat a shameful retreat.

3 - While he was in Ecbatana, news came to him of what had happened to Nicanor and the forces of Timothy.

4 - Transported with rage, he conceived the idea of turning upon the Jews the injury done by those who had put him to flight; so he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping until he completed the journey.

But the judgment of heaven rode with him! For in his arrogance he said, "When I get there I will make Jerusalem a cemetery of Jews."

5 - But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him an incurable and unseen blow.

As soon as he ceased speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels for which there was no relief and with sharp internal tortures --

6 - and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions.

7 - Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body.

8 - Thus he who had just been thinking that he could command the waves of the sea, in his superhuman arrogance,
and imagining that he could weigh the high mountains in a balance,
was brought down to earth and carried in a litter, making the power of God manifest to all.

9 - And so the ungodly man's body swarmed with worms, and while he was still living in anguish and pain,
his flesh rotted away, and because of his stench the whole army felt revulsion at his decay.

10 - Because of his intolerable stench no one was able to carry the man
who a little while before had thought that he could touch the stars of heaven.

11 - Then it was that, broken in spirit, he began to lose much of his arrogance and to come to his senses under the scourge of God, for he was tortured with pain every moment.

12 - And when he could not endure his own stench, he uttered these words:
"It is right to be subject to God, and no mortal should think that he is equal to God."

13 - Then the abominable fellow made a vow to the Lord, who would no longer have mercy on him, stating

14 - that the holy city, which he was hastening to level to the ground and to make a cemetery, he was now declaring to be free;

15 - and the Jews, whom he had not considered worth burying

but had planned to throw out with their children to the beasts, for the birds to pick, he would make, all of them, equal to citizens of Athens;

16 - and the holy sanctuary, which he had formerly plundered, he would adorn with the finest offerings; and the holy vessels he would give back, all of them, many times over; and the expenses incurred for the sacrifices he would provide from his own revenues;

17 - and in addition to all this he also would become a Jew and would visit every inhabited place to proclaim the power of God.

18 - But when his sufferings did not in any way abate, for the judgment of God had justly come upon him, he gave up all hope for himself and wrote to the Jews the following letter, in the form of a supplication. This was its content:

19 - "To his worthy Jewish citizens, Antiochus their king and general sends hearty greetings and good wishes for their health and prosperity.

20 - If you and your children are well and your affairs are as you wish, I am glad. As my hope is in heaven,

21 - I remember with affection your esteem and good will. On my way back from the region of Persia I suffered an annoying illness, and I have deemed it necessary to take thought for the general security of all.

22 - I do not despair of my condition, for I have good hope of recovering from my illness,

23 - but I observed that my father, on the occasions when he made expeditions into the upper country, appointed his successor,

24 - so that, if anything unexpected happened or any unwelcome news came, the people throughout the realm would not be troubled, for they would know to whom the government was left.

25 - Moreover, I understand how the princes along the borders and the neighbors to my kingdom keep watching for opportunities and waiting to see what will happen.

So I have appointed my son Antiochus to be king, whom I have often entrusted and commended to most of you when I hastened off to the upper provinces; and I have written to him what is written here.

26 - I therefore urge and beseech you to remember the public and private services rendered to you and to maintain your present good will, each of you, toward me and my son.

27 - For I am sure that he will follow my policy and will treat you with moderation and kindness."

28 - So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the more intense suffering, such as he had inflicted on others, came to the end of his life by a most pitiable fate, among the mountains in a strange land.

29 - And Philip, one of his courtiers, took his body home; then, fearing the son of Antiochus, he betook himself to Ptolemy Philometor in Egypt.

2 Maccabees 10

1 - Now Maccabeus and his followers, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city;

2 - and they tore down the altars which had been built in the public square by the foreigners, and also destroyed the sacred precincts.

3 - They purified the sanctuary, and made another altar of sacrifice; then, striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices, after a lapse of two years, and they burned incense and lighted lamps and set out the bread of the Presence.

4 - And when they had done this, they fell prostrate and besought the Lord that they might never again fall into such misfortunes, but that, if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by him with forbearance and not be handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.

5 - It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which was Chislev.

6 - And they celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of booths, remembering how not long before, during the feast of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals.

7 - Therefore bearing ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place.

8 - They decreed by public ordinance and vote that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year.

9 - Such then was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes.

10 - Now we will tell what took place under Antiochus Eupator, who was the son of that ungodly man, and will give a brief summary of the principal calamities of the wars.

11 - This man, when he succeeded to the kingdom, appointed one Lysias to have charge of the government and to be chief governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.

12 - Ptolemy, who was called Macron, took the lead in showing justice to the Jews because of the wrong that had been done to them, and attempted to maintain peaceful relations with them.

13 - As a result he was accused before Eupator by the king's friends. He heard himself called a traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus, which Philometor had entrusted to him, and had gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes. Unable to command the respect due his office, he took poison and ended his life.

14 - When Gorgias became governor of the region, he maintained a force of mercenaries, and at every turn kept on warring against the Jews.

15 - Besides this, the Idumeans, who had control of important strongholds, were harassing the Jews; they received those who were banished from Jerusalem, and endeavored to keep up the war.

16 - But Maccabeus and his men, after making solemn supplication and beseeching God to fight on their side, rushed to the strongholds of the Idumeans.

17 - Attacking them vigorously, they gained possession of the places, and beat off all who fought upon the wall, and slew those whom they encountered, killing no fewer than twenty thousand.

18 - When no less than nine thousand took refuge in two very strong towers well equipped to withstand a siege,

19 - Maccabeus left Simon and Joseph, and also Zacchaeus and his men, a force sufficient to besiege them; and he himself set off for places where he was more urgently needed.

20 - But the men with Simon, who were money-hungry, were bribed by some of those who were in the towers, and on receiving seventy thousand drachmas let some of them slip away.

21 - When word of what had happened came to Maccabeus, he gathered the leaders of the people, and accused these men of having sold their brethren for money by setting their enemies free to fight against them.

22 - Then he slew these men who had turned traitor, and immediately captured the two towers.

23 - Having success at arms in everything he undertook, he destroyed more than twenty thousand in the two strongholds.

24 - Now Timothy, who had been defeated by the Jews before, gathered a tremendous force of mercenaries and collected the cavalry from Asia in no small number. He came on, intending to take Judea by storm.

25 - As he drew near, Maccabeus and his men sprinkled dust upon their heads and girded their loins with sackcloth, in supplication to God.

26 - Falling upon the steps before the altar, they besought him to be gracious to them and to be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries, as the law declares.

27 - And rising from their prayer they took up their arms and advanced a considerable distance from the city; and when they came near to the enemy they halted.

28 - Just as dawn was breaking, the two armies joined battle, the one having as pledge of success and victory not only their valor but their reliance upon the Lord, while the other made rage their leader in the fight.

29 - When the battle became fierce, there appeared to the enemy from heaven five resplendent men on horses with golden bridles, and they were leading the Jews.

30 - Surrounding Maccabeus and protecting him with their own armor and weapons, they kept him from being wounded. And they showered arrows and thunderbolts upon the enemy, so that, confused and blinded, they were thrown into disorder and cut to pieces.

31 - Twenty thousand five hundred were slaughtered, besides six hundred horsemen.

32 - Timothy himself fled to a stronghold called Gazara, especially well garrisoned, where Chaereas was commander.

33 - Then Maccabeus and his men were glad, and they besieged the fort for four days.

34 - The men within, relying on the strength of the place, blasphemed terribly and hurled out wicked words.

35 - But at dawn of the fifth day, twenty young men in the army of Maccabeus, fired with anger because of the blasphemies, bravely stormed the wall and with savage fury cut down every one they met.

36 - Others who came up in the same way wheeled around against the defenders and set fire to the towers; they kindled fires and burned the blasphemers alive. Others broke open the gates and let in the rest of the force, and they occupied the city.

37 - They killed Timothy, who was hidden in a cistern, and his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes.

38 - When they had accomplished these things, with hymns and thanksgivings they blessed the Lord who shows great kindness to Israel and gives them the victory.

2 Maccabees 11

1 - Very soon after this, Lysias, the king's guardian and kinsman, who was in charge of the government, being vexed at what had happened,

2 - gathered about eighty thousand men and all his cavalry and came against the Jews.
He intended to make the city a home for Greeks,

3 - and to levy tribute on the temple as he did on the sacred places of the other nations, and to put up the high priesthood for sale every year.

4 - He took no account whatever of the power of God, but was elated with his ten thousands of infantry, and his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants.

5 - Invading Judea, he approached Beth-zur, which was a fortified place about five leagues from Jerusalem, and pressed it hard.

6 - When Maccabeus and his men got word that Lysias was besieging the strongholds, they and all the people, with lamentations and tears, besought the Lord to send a good angel to save Israel.

7 - Maccabeus himself was the first to take up arms, and he urged the others to risk their lives with him to aid their brethren. Then they eagerly rushed off together.

8 - And there, while they were still near Jerusalem, a horseman appeared at their head, clothed in white and brandishing weapons of gold.

9 - And they all together praised the merciful God, and were strengthened in heart, ready to assail not only men but the wildest beasts or walls of iron.

10 - They advanced in battle order, having their heavenly ally, for the Lord had mercy on them.

11 - They hurled themselves like lions against the enemy, and slew eleven thousand of them and sixteen hundred horsemen, and forced all the rest to flee.

12 - Most of them got away stripped and wounded, and Lysias himself escaped by disgraceful flight.

13 - And as he was not without intelligence, he pondered over the defeat which had befallen him, and realized that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God fought on their side. So he sent to them

14 - and persuaded them to settle everything on just terms, promising that he would persuade the king, constraining him to be their friend.

15 - Maccabeus, having regard for the common good, agreed to all that Lysias urged. For the king granted every request in behalf of the Jews which Maccabeus delivered to Lysias in writing.

16 - The letter written to the Jews by Lysias was to this effect: "Lysias to the people of the Jews, greeting.

17 - John and Absalom, who were sent by you, have delivered your signed communication and have asked about the matters indicated therein.

18 - I have informed the king of everything that needed to be brought before him, and he has agreed to what was possible.

19 - If you will maintain your good will toward the government, I will endeavor for the future to help promote your welfare.

20 - And concerning these matters and their details, I have ordered these men and my representatives to confer with you.

21 - Farewell. The one hundred and forty-eighth year, Dioscorinthius twenty-fourth."

22 - The king's letter ran thus: "King Antiochus to his brother Lysias, greeting.

23 - Now that our father has gone on to the gods, we desire that the subjects of the kingdom be undisturbed in caring for their own affairs.

24 - We have heard that the Jews do not consent to our father's change to Greek customs but prefer their own way of living and ask that their own customs be allowed them.

25 - Accordingly, since we choose that this nation also be free from disturbance, our decision is that their temple be restored to them and that they live according to the customs of their ancestors.

26 - You will do well, therefore, to send word to them and give them pledges of friendship, so that they may know our policy and be of good cheer and go on happily in the conduct of their own affairs."

27 - To the nation the king's letter was as follows: "King Antiochus to the senate of the Jews and to the other Jews, greeting.

28 - If you are well, it is as we desire. We also are in good health.

29 - Menelaus has informed us that you wish to return home and look after your own affairs.

30 - Therefore those who go home by the thirtieth day of Xanthicus will have our pledge of friendship and full permission

31 - for the Jews to enjoy their own food and laws, just as formerly, and none of them shall be molested in any way for what he may have done in ignorance.

32 - And I have also sent Menelaus to encourage you.

33 - Farewell. The one hundred and forty-eighth year, Xanthicus fifteenth."

34 - The Romans also sent them a letter, which read thus:

"Quintus Memmius and Titus Manius, envoys of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greeting.

35 - With regard to what Lysias the kinsman of the king has granted you, we also give consent.

36 - But as to the matters which he decided are to be referred to the king, as soon as you have considered them, send some one promptly, so that we may make proposals appropriate for you. For we are on our way to Antioch.

37 - Therefore make haste and send some men, so that we may have your judgment.

38 - Farewell. The one hundred and forty-eighth year, Xanthicus fifteenth."

2 Maccabees 12

1 - When this agreement had been reached, Lysias returned to the king, and the Jews went about their farming.

2 - But some of the governors in various places, Timothy and Apollonius the son of Gennaeus, as well as Hieronymus and Demophon, and in addition to these Nicanor the governor of Cyprus, would not let them live quietly and in peace.

3 - And some men of Joppa did so ungodly a deed as this: they invited the Jews who lived among them to embark, with their wives and children, on boats which they had provided, as though there were no ill will to the Jews;

4 - and this was done by public vote of the city. And when they accepted, because they wished to live peaceably and suspected nothing, the men of Joppa took them out to sea and drowned them, not less than two hundred.

5 - When Judas heard of the cruelty visited on his countrymen, he gave orders to his men

6 - and, calling upon God the righteous Judge, attacked the murderers of his brethren. He set fire to the harbor by night, and burned the boats, and massacred those who had taken refuge there.

7 - Then, because the city's gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come again and root out the whole community of Joppa.

8 - But learning that the men in Jamnia meant in the same way to wipe out the Jews who were living among them,

9 - he attacked the people of Jamnia by night and set fire to the harbor and the fleet, so that the glow of the light was seen in Jerusalem, thirty miles distant.

10 - When they had gone more than a mile from there, on their march against Timothy, not less than five thousand Arabs with five hundred horsemen attacked them.

11 - After a hard fight Judas and his men won the victory, by the help of God. The defeated nomads besought Judas to grant them pledges of friendship, promising to give him cattle and to help his people in all other ways.

12 - Judas, thinking that they might really be useful in many ways, agreed to make peace with them; and after receiving his pledges they departed to their tents.

13 - He also attacked a certain city which was strongly fortified with earthworks and walls, and inhabited by all sorts of Gentiles. Its name was Caspin.

14 - And those who were within, relying on the strength of the walls and on their supply of provisions, behaved most insolently toward Judas and his men, railing at them and even blaspheming and saying unholy things.

15 - But Judas and his men, calling upon the great Sovereign of the world, who without battering-rams or engines of war overthrew Jericho in the days of Joshua, rushed furiously upon the walls.

16 - They took the city by the will of God, and slaughtered untold numbers, so that the adjoining lake, a quarter of a mile wide, appeared to be running over with blood.

17 - When they had gone ninety-five miles from there, they came to Charax, to the Jews who are called Toubiani.

18 - They did not find Timothy in that region, for he had by then departed from the region without accomplishing anything, though in one place he had left a very strong garrison.

19 - Dositheus and Sosipater, who were captains under Maccabeus, marched out and destroyed those whom Timothy had left in the stronghold, more than ten thousand men.

20 - But Maccabeus arranged his army in divisions, set men in command of the divisions, and hastened after Timothy, who had with him a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry.

21 - When Timothy learned of the approach of Judas, he sent off the women and the children and also the baggage to a place called Carnaim; for that place was hard to besiege and difficult of access because of the narrowness of all the approaches.

22 - But when Judas' first division appeared, terror and fear came over the enemy at the manifestation to them of him who sees all things; and they rushed off in flight and were swept on, this way and that, so that often they were injured by their own men and pierced by the points of their swords.

23 - And Judas pressed the pursuit with the utmost vigor, putting the sinners to the sword, and destroyed as many as thirty thousand men.

24 - Timothy himself fell into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men. With great guile he besought them to let him go in safety, because he held the parents of most of them and the brothers of some and no consideration would be shown them.

25 - And when with many words he had confirmed his solemn promise to restore them unharmed, they let him go, for the sake of saving their brethren.

26 - Then Judas marched against Carnaim and the temple of Atargatis, and slaughtered twenty-five thousand people.

27 - After the rout and destruction of these, he marched also against Ephron, a fortified city where Lysias dwelt with multitudes of people of all nationalities. Stalwart young men took their stand before the walls and made a vigorous defense; and great stores of war engines and missiles were there.

28 - But the Jews called upon the Sovereign who with power shatters the might of his enemies, and they got the city into their hands, and killed as many as twenty-five thousand of those who were within it.

29 - Setting out from there, they hastened to Scythopolis, which is seventy-five miles from Jerusalem.

30 - But when the Jews who dwelt there bore witness to the good will which the people of Scythopolis had shown them and their kind treatment of them in times of misfortune,

31 - they thanked them and exhorted them to be well disposed to their race in the future also. Then they went up to Jerusalem, as the feast of weeks was close at hand.

32 - After the feast called Pentecost, they hastened against Gorgias, the governor of Idumea.

33 - And he came out with three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry.

34 - When they joined battle, it happened that a few of the Jews fell.

35 - But a certain Dositheus, one of Bacenor's men, who was on horseback and was a strong man, caught hold of Gorgias, and grasping his cloak was dragging him off by main strength, wishing to take the accursed man alive, when one of the Thracian horsemen bore down upon him and cut off his arm; so Gorgias escaped and reached Marisa.

36 - As Esdris and his men had been fighting for a long time and were weary, Judas called upon the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in the battle.

37 - In the language of their fathers he raised the battle cry, with hymns; then he charged against Gorgias' men when they were not expecting it, and put them to flight.

38 - Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and they kept the sabbath there.

39 - On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchres of their fathers.

40 - Then under the tunic of every one of the dead they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. And it became clear to all that this was why these men had fallen.

41 - So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who reveals the things that are hidden;

42 - and they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.

43 - He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection.

44 - For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.

45 - But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.

2 Maccabees 13

1 - In the one hundred and forty-ninth year word came to Judas and his men that Antiochus Eupator was coming with a great army against Judea,

2 - and with him Lysias, his guardian, who had charge of the government. Each of them had a Greek force of one hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots armed with scythes.

3 - Menelaus also joined them and with utter hypocrisy urged Antiochus on, not for the sake of his country's welfare, but because he thought that he would be established in office.

4 - But the King of kings aroused the anger of Antiochus against the scoundrel; and when Lysias informed him that this man was to blame for all the trouble, he ordered them to take him to Beroea and to put him to death by the method which is the custom in that place.

5 - For there is a tower in that place, fifty cubits high, full of ashes, and it has a rim running around it which on all sides inclines precipitously into the ashes.

6 - There they all push to destruction any man guilty of sacrilege or notorious for other crimes.

7 - By such a fate it came about that Menelaus the lawbreaker died, without even burial in the earth.

8 - And this was eminently just; because he had committed many sins against the altar whose fire and ashes were holy, he met his death in ashes.

9 - The king with barbarous arrogance was coming to show the Jews things far worse than those that had been done in his father's time.

10 - But when Judas heard of this, he ordered the people to call upon the Lord day and night, now if ever to help those who were on the point of being deprived of the law and their country and the holy temple,

11 - and not to let the people who had just begun to revive fall into the hands of the blasphemous Gentiles.

12 - When they had all joined in the same petition and had besought the merciful Lord with weeping and fasting and lying prostrate for three days without ceasing, Judas exhorted them and ordered them to stand ready.

13 - After consulting privately with the elders, he determined to march out and decide the matter by the help of God before the king's army could enter Judea and get possession of the city.

14 - So, committing the decision to the Creator of the world and exhorting his men to fight nobly to the death for the laws, temple, city, country, and commonwealth, he pitched his camp near Modein.

15 - He gave his men the watchword, "God's victory," and with a picked force of the bravest young men, he attacked the king's pavilion at night and slew as many as two thousand men in the camp. He stabbed the leading elephant and its rider.

16 - In the end they filled the camp with terror and confusion and withdrew in triumph.

17 - This happened, just as day was dawning, because the Lord's help protected him.

18 - The king, having had a taste of the daring of the Jews, tried strategy in attacking their positions.

19 - He advanced against Beth-zur, a strong fortress of the Jews, was turned back, attacked again, and was defeated.

20 - Judas sent in to the garrison whatever was necessary.

21 - But Rhodocus, a man from the ranks of the Jews, gave secret information to the enemy; he was sought for, caught, and put in prison.

22 - The king negotiated a second time with the people in Beth-zur, gave pledges, received theirs, withdrew, attacked Judas and his men, was defeated;

23 - he got word that Philip, who had been left in charge of the government, had revolted in Antioch; he was dismayed, called in the Jews, yielded and swore to observe all their rights, settled with them and offered sacrifice, honored the sanctuary and showed generosity to the holy place.

24 - He received Maccabeus, left Hegemonides as governor from Ptolemais to Gerar,

25 - and went to Ptolemais. The people of Ptolemais were indignant over the treaty; in fact they were so angry that they wanted to annul its terms.

26 - Lysias took the public platform, made the best possible defense, convinced them, appeased them, gained their good will, and set out for Antioch. This is how the king's attack and withdrawal turned out.

2 Maccabees 14

1 - Three years later, word came to Judas and his men that Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, had sailed into the harbor of Tripolis with a strong army and a fleet,

2 - and had taken possession of the country, having made away with Antiochus and his guardian Lysias.

3 - Now a certain Alcimus, who had formerly been high priest but had wilfully defiled himself in the times of separation, realized that there was no way for him to be safe or to have access again to the holy altar,

4 - and went to King Demetrius in about the one hundred and fifty-first year, presenting to him a crown of gold and a palm, and besides these some of the customary olive branches from the temple. During that day he kept quiet.

5 - But he found an opportunity that furthered his mad purpose when he was invited by Demetrius to a meeting of the council and was asked about the disposition and intentions of the Jews. He answered:

6 - "Those of the Jews who are called Hasideans, whose leader is Judas Maccabeus, are keeping up war and stirring up sedition, and will not let the kingdom attain tranquillity.

7 - Therefore I have laid aside my ancestral glory -- I mean the high priesthood -- and have now come here,

8 - first because I am genuinely concerned for the interests of the king, and second because I have regard also for my fellow citizens. For through the folly of those whom I have mentioned our whole nation is now in no small misfortune.

9 - Since you are acquainted, O king, with the details of this matter, deign to take thought for our country and our hard-pressed nation with the gracious kindness which you show to all.

10 - For as long as Judas lives, it is impossible for the government to find peace."

11 - When he had said this, the rest of the king's friends, who were hostile to Judas, quickly inflamed Demetrius still more.

12 - And he immediately chose Nicanor, who had been in command of the elephants, appointed him governor of Judea, and sent him off

13 - with orders to kill Judas and scatter his men, and to set up Alcimus as high priest of the greatest temple.

14 - And the Gentiles throughout Judea, who had fled before Judas, flocked to join Nicanor, thinking that the misfortunes and calamities of the Jews would mean prosperity for themselves.

15 - When the Jews heard of Nicanor's coming and the gathering of the Gentiles, they sprinkled dust upon their heads and prayed to him who established his own people for ever and always upholds his own heritage by manifesting himself.

16 - At the command of the leader, they set out from there immediately and engaged them in battle at a village called Dessau.

17 - Simon, the brother of Judas, had encountered Nicanor, but had been temporarily checked because of the sudden consternation created by the enemy.

18 - Nevertheless Nicanor, hearing of the valor of Judas and his men and their courage in battle for their country, shrank from deciding the issue by bloodshed.

19 - Therefore he sent Posidonius and Theodotus and Mattathias to give and receive pledges of friendship.

20 - When the terms had been fully considered, and the leader had informed the people, and it had appeared that they were of one mind, they agreed to the covenant.

21 - And the leaders set a day on which to meet by themselves. A chariot came forward from each army; seats of honor were set in place;

22 - Judas posted armed men in readiness at key places to prevent sudden treachery on the part of the enemy; they held the proper conference.

23 - Nicanor stayed on in Jerusalem and did nothing out of the way, but dismissed the flocks of people that had gathered.

24 - And he kept Judas always in his presence; he was warmly attached to the man.

25 - And he urged him to marry and have children; so he married, settled down, and shared the common life.

26 - But when Alcimus noticed their good will for one another, he took the covenant that had been made and went to Demetrius. He told him that Nicanor was disloyal to the government, for he had appointed that conspirator against the kingdom, Judas, to be his successor.

27 - The king became excited and, provoked by the false accusations of that depraved man, wrote to Nicanor, stating that he was displeased with the covenant and commanding him to send Maccabeus to Antioch as a prisoner without delay.

28 - When this message came to Nicanor, he was troubled and grieved that he had to annul their agreement when the man had done no wrong.

29 - Since it was not possible to oppose the king, he watched for an opportunity to accomplish this by a stratagem.

30 - But Maccabeus, noticing that Nicanor was more austere in his dealings with him and was meeting him more rudely than had been his custom, concluded that this austerity did not spring from the best motives. So he gathered not a few of his men, and went into hiding from Nicanor.

31 - When the latter became aware that he had been cleverly outwitted by the man, he went to the great and holy temple while the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and commanded them to hand the man over.

32 - And when they declared on oath that they did not know where the man was whom he sought,

33 - he stretched out his right hand toward the sanctuary, and swore this oath:
           "If you do not hand Judas over to me as a prisoner,
           I will level this precinct of God to the ground and tear down the altar,
           and I will build here a splendid temple to Dionysus."

34 - Having said this, he went away. Then the priests stretched forth their hands toward heaven and called upon the constant Defender of our nation, in these words:

35 - "O Lord of all, who hast need of nothing, thou wast pleased that there be a temple for thy habitation among us;

36 - so now, O holy One, Lord of all holiness, keep undefiled for ever this house that has been so recently purified."

37 - A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a man who loved his fellow citizens and was very well thought of and for his good will was called father of the Jews.

38 - For in former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism, and for Judaism he had with all zeal risked body and life.

39 - Nicanor, wishing to exhibit the enmity which he had for the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him;

40 - for he thought that by arresting him he would do them an injury.

41 - When the troops were about to capture the tower and were forcing the door of the courtyard,
they ordered that fire be brought and the doors burned. Being surrounded, Razis fell upon his own sword,

42 - preferring to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of sinners and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth.

43 - But in the heat of the struggle he did not hit exactly, and the crowd was now rushing in through the doors. He bravely ran up on the wall, and manfully threw himself down into the crowd.

44 - But as they quickly drew back, a space opened and he fell in the middle of the empty space.

45 - Still alive and aflame with anger, he rose, and though his blood gushed forth and his wounds were severe he ran through the crowd; and standing upon a steep rock,

46 - with his blood now completely drained from him,
he tore out his entrails, took them with both hands and hurled them at the crowd,
calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give them back to him again. This was the manner of his death.

2 Maccabees 15

1 - When Nicanor heard that Judas and his men were in the region of Samaria, he made plans to attack them with complete safety on the day of rest.

2 - And when the Jews who were compelled to follow him said, "Do not destroy so savagely and barbarously, but show respect for the day which he who sees all things has honored and hallowed above other days,"

3 - the thrice-accursed wretch asked if there were a sovereign in heaven who had commanded the keeping of the sabbath day.

4 - And when they declared, "It is the living Lord himself, the Sovereign in heaven, who ordered us to observe the seventh day,"

5 - he replied, "And I am a sovereign also, on earth, and I command you to take up arms and finish the king's business." Nevertheless, he did not succeed in carrying out his abominable design.

6 - This Nicanor in his utter boastfulness and arrogance had determined to erect a public monument of victory over Judas and his men.

7 - But Maccabeus did not cease to trust with all confidence that he would get help from the Lord.

8 - And he exhorted his men not to fear the attack of the Gentiles, but to keep in mind the former times when help had come to them from heaven, and now to look for the victory which the Almighty would give them.

9 - Encouraging them from the law and the prophets, and reminding them also of the struggles they had won, he made them the more eager.

10 - And when he had aroused their courage, he gave his orders, at the same time pointing out the perfidy of the Gentiles and their violation of oaths.

11 - He armed each of them not so much with confidence in shields and spears as with the inspiration of brave words, and he cheered them all by relating a dream, a sort of vision, which was worthy of belief.

12 - What he saw was this: Onias, who had been high priest, a noble and good man, of modest bearing and gentle manner, one who spoke fittingly and had been trained from childhood in all that belongs to excellence, was praying with outstretched hands for the whole body of the Jews.

13 - Then likewise a man appeared, distinguished by his gray hair and dignity, and of marvelous majesty and authority.

14 - And Onias spoke, saying, "This is a man who loves the brethren and prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God."

15 - Jeremiah stretched out his right hand and gave to Judas a golden sword, and as he gave it he addressed him thus:

16 - "Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will strike down your adversaries."

17 - Encouraged by the words of Judas, so noble and so effective in arousing valor and awaking manliness in the souls of the young, they determined not to carry on a campaign but to attack bravely, and to decide the matter, by fighting hand to hand with all courage, because the city and the sanctuary and the temple were in danger.

18 - Their concern for wives and children, and also for brethren and relatives, lay upon them less heavily; their greatest and first fear was for the consecrated sanctuary.

19 - And those who had to remain in the city were in no little distress, being anxious over the encounter in the open country.

20 - When all were now looking forward to the coming decision, and the enemy was already close at hand with their army drawn up for battle, the elephants strategically stationed and the cavalry deployed on the flanks,

21 - Maccabeus, perceiving the hosts that were before him and the varied supply of arms and the savagery of the elephants, stretched out his hands toward heaven and called upon the Lord who works wonders; for he knew that it is not by arms, but as the Lord decides, that he gains the victory for those who deserve it.

22 - And he called upon him in these words: "O Lord, thou didst send thy angel in the time of Hezekiah king of Judea, and he slew fully a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Sennacherib.

23 - So now, O Sovereign of the heavens, send a good angel to carry terror and trembling before us.

24 - By the might of thy arm may these blasphemers who come against thy holy people be struck down." With these words he ended his prayer.

25 - Nicanor and his men advanced with trumpets and battle songs;

26 - and Judas and his men met the enemy in battle with invocation to God and prayers.

27 - So, fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts,
they laid low no less than thirty-five thousand men, and were greatly gladdened by God's manifestation.

28 - When the action was over and they were returning with joy, they recognized Nicanor, lying dead, in full armor.

29 - Then there was shouting and tumult, and they blessed the Sovereign Lord in the language of their fathers.

30 - And the man who was ever in body and soul the defender of his fellow citizens, the man who maintained his youthful good will toward his countrymen, ordered them to cut off Nicanor's head and arm and carry them to Jerusalem.

31 - And when he arrived there and had called his countrymen together and stationed the priests before the altar, he sent for those who were in the citadel.

32 - He showed them the vile Nicanor's head and that profane man's arm, which had been boastfully stretched out against the holy house of the Almighty;

33 - and he cut out the tongue of the ungodly Nicanor and said that he would give it piecemeal to the birds and hang up these rewards of his folly opposite the sanctuary.

34 - And they all, looking to heaven, blessed the Lord who had manifested himself, saying, "Blessed is he who has kept his own place undefiled."

35 - And he hung Nicanor's head from the citadel, a clear and conspicuous sign to every one of the help of the Lord.

36 - And they all decreed by public vote never to let this day go unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month -- which is called Adar in the Syrian language -- the day before Mordecai's day.

37 - This, then, is how matters turned out with Nicanor. And from that time the city has been in the possession of the Hebrews. So I too will here end my story.

38 - If it is well told and to the point, that is what I myself desired; if it is poorly done and mediocre, that was the best I could do.

39 - For just as it is harmful to drink wine alone, or, again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one's enjoyment, so also the style of the story delights the ears of those who read the work. And here will be the end.

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