The Hellenistic Reform and Religious Persecution in Judea in the time of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. A Review of the Most Important Hypotheses

Abstract

This article presents a short review of the most important theories dealing with the causes of Antiochus IV’s persecution of Jewish religious tradition. In my opinion the uniqueness of this phenomenon hasn’t been fully realised in Polish research. This is because the problem has been associated with and perceived by forthcoming religious conflicts and wars and because of this association, the causes of the religious persecution of Antiochus IV have not seemed unusual. Nevertheless Antiochus’s persecution poses a difficulty from the historical point of view because of the fact it was fully contrary to the ideological, religious, social and political principles of the Hellenistic world, if not of the Ancient Near East and Roman Civilizations as well.

First the article outlines and critiques the older attempts to explain the problem – the theory which connected the cause with the mental illness of the Seleucid king, the assumption that the king or his supporters were motivated by a love of Greek culture, the postulation that the king tried to unify his kingdom under one religion or culture. Secondly the article outlines the major thesis of such eminent scholars as E. Bickermann, M. Hengel, V. Tcherikover, J. A. Goldstein, K. Bringmann, and E. S. Gruen. Although single and isolated propositions haven’t seemed to explain the problem in full, first we may notice that they bring us understanding of some details of the case and there is easily recognised the tendency moving the plane of discussion from ideological and psychological to economic, sociological and political explanations of the events in Judea. If we also tend to see religious motivations they are closely bound up with the previous planes. Though we seem to be nowadays closer to solving the problem we must admit that “the basic and sole enigma in the history of Seleucid Jerusalem” (E. Bickermann) requires further research.