Faithfulness during Persecution

The king sent an elderly man from Athens to force the Jewish people to leave the laws of their ancestors and stop living by God’s law. The sanctuary in Jerusalem was polluted and named for Olympian Zeus, and the sanctuary in Gerizim was also renamed. The writer says this evil time was harsh and deeply grievous.

The temple was misused in shameful ways by the Gentiles, and things forbidden by the law were brought onto the altar. People could no longer keep the Sabbath, celebrate the feasts of their ancestors, or even openly say that they were Jews.

Every month, on the king’s birthday, people were bitterly forced to eat from the sacrifices. At the festival of Dionysia, they were compelled to join a procession honouring Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy. The pressure to join these rites was public and deliberate.

The same policy spread to nearby Greek cities. A decree ordered that Jewish people there too should be made to eat of the sacrifices, and that those who would not turn to Greek rites should be killed. The misery was out in the open for all to see.

The passage gives painful examples. Two women were killed because they had circumcised their children. Others gathered in nearby caves to keep the seventh day secretly, but they were betrayed and burned together. Even in this dark time, some still held fast to God’s law despite the cost.