The Maccabean Revolt

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In the previous lesson, we looked at the Greek Empire. We saw that Daniel's prophecies foretold that Alexander the Great would rise as the notable king of the Greek Empire. Incidentally, this section of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament is actually written in Aramaic!

After the death of Alexander, the Greek Empire was split into four parts, ruled over by his four generals. Over time, the northern part of the Greek Empire (the Seleucids) would rise up against Israel. They would impose Greek customs against the Jews, and seek to eliminate Judaism and the belief in the one true God, and by deceit, to force the Jews to offer sacrifice to Greek gods, to eat swine's flesh, not to obey circumcision, and to be one people with the Greeks.

But some of the faithful priests rose up to fight the Greeks and their foreign ways. This became known as the Maccabean Revolt, and is celebrated down to the present day by Jews all over the world, as the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights.

This is a really exciting period of Biblical history, between the Old and New Testaments, leading up to the establishment of the Roman Empire and the events preceding the New Testament.

We look at the Maccabean Revolt in more detail in this lesson.

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