4 Maccabees 4

¹For a certain man named Simon, who was in opposition to an honorable and good man who once held the high priesthood for life, named Onias. After slandering Onias in every way, Simon couldn’t injure him with the people, so he went away as an exile, with the intention of betraying his country. ²When coming to Apollonius, the military governor of Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia, he said, ³“Having good will to the king’s affairs, I have come to inform you that tens of thousands in private wealth is laid up in the treasuries of Jerusalem which do not belong to the temple, but belong to King Seleucus.” ⁴Apollonius, acquainting himself with the particulars of this, praised Simon for his care of the king’s interests, and going up to Seleucus informed him of the treasure. ⁵Getting authority about it, and quickly advancing into our country with the accursed Simon and a very heavy force, ⁶he said that he came with the commands of the king that he should take the private money of the treasury. ⁷The nation, indignant at this proclamation, and replying to the effect that it was extremely unfair that those who had committed deposits to the sacred treasury should be deprived of them, resisted as well as they could. ⁸But Appolonius went away with threats into the temple. ⁹The priests, with the women and children, asked God to throw his shield over the holy, despised place, ¹⁰and Appolonius was going up with his armed force to seize the treasure, when angels from heaven appeared riding on horseback, all radiant in armor, filling them with much fear and trembling. ¹¹Apollonius fell half dead on the court which is open to all nations, and extended his hands to heaven, and implored the Hebrews, with tears, to pray for him, and take away the wrath of the heavenly army. ¹²For he said that he had sinned, so as to be consequently worthy of death, and that if he were saved, he would proclaim to all people the blessedness of the holy place. ¹³Onias the high priest, induced by these words, although for other reasons anxious that King Seleucus wouldn’t suppose that Apollonius was slain by human device and not by Divine punishment, prayed for him; ¹⁴and he being thus unexpectedly saved, departed to report to the king what had happened to him. ¹⁵But on the death of Seleucus the king, his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom—a terrible man of arrogant pride.

¹⁶He, having deposed Onias from the high priesthood, appointed his brother Jason to be high priest, ¹⁷who had made a covenant, if he would give him this authority, to pay yearly three thousand six hundred and sixty talents. ¹⁸He committed to him the high priesthood and rulership over the nation. ¹⁹He both changed the manner of living of the people, and perverted their civil customs into all lawlessness. ²⁰So that he not only erected a gymnasium on the very citadel of our country, but neglected the guardianship of the temple. ²¹Because of that, Divine vengeance was grieved and instigated Antiochus himself against them. ²²For being at war with Ptolemy in Egypt, he heard that on a report of his death being spread abroad, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had exceedingly rejoiced, and he quickly marched against them. ²³Having subdued them, he established a decree that if any of them lived according to the ancestral laws, he should die. ²⁴When he could by no means destroy by his decrees the obedience to the law of the nation, but saw all his threats and punishments without effect, ²⁵for even women, because they continued to circumcise their children, were flung down a precipice along with them, knowing beforehand of the punishment. ²⁶When, therefore, his decrees were disregarded by the people, he himself compelled by means of tortures every one of this race, by tasting forbidden meats, to renounce the Jewish religion.