26 Jesus, Prophet of Islam
the hands of the Egyptian Greeks. The new rulers were not happy
with the large concentration of Jews in the area, so a large number
of them were forcibly transported to Egypt. This resulted in what
was to become the largest Jewish colony outside [udah, The Jews
in Alexandria came into dose contact with Greek civilization, and
as a result the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, be
tween approximately 275 and 150 Be.
To the Ptolemaic rulers based in Alexandria, [udah was a far
off colony and the Iews, after they had paid the annual tribute,
were very much left to themselves, Then in 198 BC, the Seleucian
rulers took over [erusalem from the Ptolemaic rulers. For them,
Jerusalem was very much nearer at hand and they took a much
greater interest in the affairs of the people of [erusalem than had
the earlier rulers. The process of Hel1enisation, which had occurred
graduallyand at a natural pace under Ptolemaic rule, was acceler
ated by the new rulers in a deliberate attempt to assimilate the
[ewsintotheirway of life. This forced culturalconformityreached
its extreme expression during the reign of Antiochus Epeplianus.
He made the mistake of installinga statue of Zeus in the Temple of
Solomon. This outraged the [ews and they revolted under [udah
Maccabees. The hammer and sickle were their emblem of revoit.
Although Antiochus Epeplianus sacked both [erusalem and the
Temple, in 161 BC, the Jews refused to give in, and eventually the
Greeks were pushed out of [erusalem,
The victorious Jews found the Temple in ruins, the sanctuary
desolate, the altar profaned and the Temple gate burnt. They re
paired the Temple in accordance with its description in the Torah.
The new rulers were so popular that they became both the high
priests of the Temple and the new kings of Israel. With the concen
tration of power in the same hands, the rulers became very strict in
the observation of the Law, and the people began to pine for the
benevolent administration of foreign rulers. Finding dissatisfac
tion against their rule, the Maccabees became all the more haughty
and arrogant. The [ews once again began to intrigue against their
rulers, and this played no small part in ushering in Roman rule
over [erusalem, which was under their effective control by about
63BC.
At about the time that Jesus was born, in approximately 4 Be,
the Romans repeated the same mistake as that of the earlier rulers.
They erected a large golden eagle over the main gate of the TeU}
ple, This infuriated the Jews and resulted in a series of revolts
against the Romans. Two descendants of the Maccabees were the
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