CHANUKAH VII: Temple Desecration

CORRUPT PRIESTHOOD

The hardest period for the Maccabees was not the persecution by their enemies, but the persecution that came from their own Jewish Brothers who had been Hellenized and were assimilated into the Greek culture. One of the most relevant cases was that of Jason, who bought the right to the priesthood.

(II Maccabees 4:7-12) When Seleucus had departed this life and Antiochus styled Epiphanes had succeeded to the kingdom, Jason, brother of Onias, usurped the high priesthood: he approached the king with a promise of three hundred and sixty talents of silver, with eighty talents to come from some other source of revenue. He further committed himself to paying another hundred and fifty, if the king would empower him to set up a gymnasium and youth centre, and to register the Antiochists of Jerusalem. When the king gave his assent, Jason, as soon as he had seized power, imposed the Greek way of life on his fellow-countrymen. He suppressed the liberties which the kings had graciously granted to the Jews at the instance of John, father of that Eupolemus who was later to be sent on an embassy to negotiate a treaty of friendship and alliance with the Romans and, overthrowing the lawful institutions, introduced new usages contrary to the Law. He went so far as to found a gymnasium at the very foot of the Citadel, and to fit out the noblest of his young men in the petasos.

Corruption and contamination was not restricted to the people in general, it even reached the priesthood.

(II Maccabees 4:13-16) Godless wretch that he was and no true high priest, Jason set no bounds to his impiety; indeed the Hellenizing process reached such a pitch that the priests ceased to show any interest in serving the altar; but, scorning the Temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they would hurry, on the stroke of the gong, to take part in the distribution, forbidden by the Law, of the oil on the exercise ground; setting no store by the honors of their fatherland, they esteemed Hellenic glories best of all. But all this brought its own retribution; the very people whose way of life they envied, whom they sought to resemble in everything, proved to be their enemies and executioners.

TEMPLE OCUPATION

Evil reached its peak in Jerusalem when Antiochus occupied the Temple in Jerusalem. To make matters worse, he was brought into the Temple by Menelaus, who had also bought the high priest position after Jason. Antiochus not only entered into the Temple, but he took its treasures and desecrated it.

(II Maccabees 5:15-18) Not content with this, he had the audacity to enter the holiest Temple in the entire world, with Menelaus, that traitor to the laws and to his country, as his guide; with impure hands he seized the sacred vessels; with impious hands he seized the offerings presented by other kings for the aggrandizement, glory and dignity of the holy place. Holding so high an opinion of himself, Antiochus did not realize that the Lord was temporarily angry at the sins of the inhabitants of the city, hence his unconcern for the holy place. Had they not been entangled in many sins, Antiochus too, like Heliodorus when King Seleucus sent him to inspect the Treasury, would have been flogged the moment he arrived and checked in his presumption.

This was only the beginning of the desecration. It continued among his delegates even after Antiochus had left Jerusalem.

(II Maccabees 6:1-7) Shortly afterwards, the king sent Gerontes the Athenian to force the Jews to violate their ancestral customs and live no longer by the laws of God; and to profane the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and the one on Mount Gerizim to Zeus, Patron of Strangers, as the inhabitants of the latter place had requested. The advent of these evils was painfully hard for all the people to bear. The Temple was filled with reviling and debauchery by the gentiles, who took their pleasure with prostitutes and had intercourse with women in the sacred precincts, introducing other indecencies besides. The altar of sacrifice was loaded with victims proscribed by the law as profane. No one might either keep the Sabbath or observe the traditional feasts, or so much as admit to being a Jew. People were driven by harsh compulsion to take part in the monthly ritual meal commemorating the king's birthday; and when a feast of Dionysus occurred, they were forced to wear ivy wreaths and walk in the Dionysiac procession.

WHY?

One may wonder: Why did God allow this to happen?

The writter of the Maccabees books pauses during his narrative to comment about this.

(II Maccabees 6:12-17) Now, I urge anyone who may read this book not to be dismayed at these calamities, but to reflect that such visitations are intended not to destroy our race but to discipline it. Indeed, when evil-doers are not left for long to their own devices but incur swift retribution; it is a sign of great benevolence. In the case of other nations, the Master waits patiently for them to attain the full measure of their sins before he punishes them, but with us he has decided to deal differently, rather than have to punish us later, when our sins come to full measure. And so he never entirely withdraws his mercy from us; he may discipline us by some disaster, but he does not desert his own people. Let this be said simply by way of reminder; we must return to our story without more ado.

After discipline comes restoration…

About the restoration of the Temple, the narrative says:
(II Maccabees 5:19-20)  The Lord, however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the holy place, but the holy place for the sake of the people; and so the holy place itself, having shared the disasters that befell the people, in due course also shared their good fortune; having been abandoned by the Almighty in his anger, once the great Sovereign was placated it was reinstated in all its glory.

PURIFICATION OF THE TEMPLE

The Lord gave the people who repented, the opportunity to conquer the enemy in a miraculous way. Immediately after their victory, they set out to purify the Temple. 

(II Maccabees 10:1-8) Maccabaeus and his companions, under the Lord's guidance, restored the Temple and the city, and pulled down the altars erected by the foreigners in the market place, as well as the shrines. They purified the sanctuary and built another altar; then, striking fire from flints and using this fire, they offered the first sacrifice for two years, burning incense, lighting the lamps and setting out the loaves. When they had done this, prostrating themselves on the ground, they implored the Lord never again to let them fall into such adversity, but if they should ever sin, to correct them with moderation and not to deliver them over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.

This day of the purification of the Temple fell on the very day on which the Temple had been profaned by the foreigners, the twenty-fifth of the same month, Chislev. They kept eight festal days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of Shelters, remembering how, not long before at the time of the feast of Shelters, they had been living in the mountains and caverns like wild beasts. Then, carrying thyrsuses, leafy boughs and palms, they offered hymns to him who had brought the cleansing of his own holy place to a happy outcome. They also decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole Jewish nation should celebrate those same days every year.

… and that is why, in this season, we are celebrating CHANUKAH, the Festival of the Dedication.