Why Antiochus Epiphanes Ordered 1,000 Jewish Virgins Defiled in the Temple – Censored 2300 Years

Описание: #history #medievalhistory #medievalviolence
Cultural erasure through systematic violation sparked the rebellion that saved a faith. In 175 BCE, Antiochus IV Epiphanes seized the Seleucid throne after years as a Roman hostage, styling himself "god manifest" and pushing Hellenization across his empire stretching from Syria to Iran. When Rome humiliated him by forcing retreat from Egypt, he turned fury on Judea. In 169 BCE, he plundered Jerusalem's temple—gold altars, lampstands, hidden vaults—killing thousands. Two years later, General Apollonius received orders for total erasure: outlaw circumcision and Sabbath observance, build altars to Greek gods in villages, remake the temple as Zeus's shrine. On the 25th of the month, a pig was sacrificed on the sacred altar—deliberate defilement. But Antiochus demanded more: soldiers herded Jewish women into the temple's inner courts, targeting hundreds of virgins—brides-to-be like eighteen-year-old Miriam from a priestly family—to shatter purity taboos and force assimilation through violation.
Miriam refused: "Our God forbids." When dragged forward, she shouted scripture and escaped into the night, her testimony spreading through hidden networks. The machinery accelerated: burn scrolls, execute the circumcised, parade mothers with infants hung from their necks before hurling them from walls. But in Judea's hills, priest Mattathias killed a collaborator who stepped forward to sacrifice, fleeing with his sons. His son Judas Maccabeus launched guerrilla strikes, and in December—three years into desecration—stormed Jerusalem. At the temple gates, his fighters smashed idols, cleansed the altar, and lit lamps with oil lasting eight miraculous days. Antiochus, campaigning east, fell ill and died in agony, reportedly confessing his hubris against the Jews brought divine punishment.
Excavations in the 2020s by the Israel Antiquities Authority found oil lamps from this period at the Temple Mount, while Judean desert digs uncovered hidden silver coins from Antiochus's reign and burn layers at Hellenistic fortresses.
Systems targeting identity through violation breed the resistance that topples them.
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⚠️ Educational content documenting events through ancient accounts and archaeological evidence from recent excavations.