The Hellenistic World and Rome
as meaning that they will live according to Greek customs); and ask for their
temple ‘‘without a name’’ on Mount Gerizim to be dedicated to Zeus Hel-
lenius.
Even if we take this document as essentially authentic (some doubts are
expressed in text following n. above), it and the parallel reference in
Maccabees remain the only evidence that anybody in the locality actually
requested that the temple should be dedicated to Zeus. No such evidence
exists for Jerusalem.
Thus our evidence, both pagan and Jewish, shows that what was involved
in the s involved (a) measures taken by officials and troops sent by An-
tiochus; (b) a renunciation of Jewish customs and observances by all those
regarded as following them, in Jerusalem, in the ‘‘cities’’ of Judaea (like
Modein), in the Samaritan territory, and (according to Maccabees) in the
surrounding Greek cities (but not, so far as we know, among the Jewish com-
munities of Greek cities elsewhere, such as Antioch); (c) an imposition on
individuals of acts of pagan worship; (d) an attribution to Zeus, under differ-
ent names, of the temples on Mount Gerizim and in Jerusalem; and (e) (at-
tested only for Jerusalem) a transformation of the cult in the Temple, of a
nature and purpose which have yet to be discussed.
The evidence of actual events would thus support the view of Diodorus,
or his source, that at any rate one motive which was involved was an inten-
tion on the part of Antiochus to abolish by force all observance of the Law.
This conclusion is strongly supported if we accept as authentic the royal let-
ters collected out of chronological order in Macc. .^44 In spring ..,
before the recapture of the Temple, Antiochus writes from his eastern ex-
pedition, to the ‘‘gerousia[council or council of elders?] of the Jews and the
other Jews’’ promising an amnesty to those who return home before a cer-
tain date and saying ‘‘the Jews may use their own way of life and customs as
before’’ (:–). Even more clearly, after Antiochus’ death near the end
of , his successor, Antiochus V Eupator, writes to an official: ‘‘Now that
our father has departed to the gods...learningthat the Jews, not consent-
ing to the adoption of Greek customs wished by our father, but preferring
their own way of life, demand that they should be granted the observance
of their laws, we, desiring that this people should be at peace, have decided
that their temple should be restored to them and that this community should
live according to the customs of their forebears’’ (:–).
By this time the Temple had already been re-captured and re-dedicated,
. For the most authoritative discussion, see Habicht,. Makkabäerbuch,–.Note
Habicht, ‘‘The Royal Letters in Maccabees II,’’Harv. Stud. Class. Phil. (): –.