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begun because the religious Jews wanted to rid Palestine of the pagan influences that had
been in the land for one hundred fifty years or more. However, such was not the case.
The Jews, on the whole, had accepted Hellenism to a major degree, as had all the
countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region. It was not the desire to eradicate
Hellenism from Palestine that prompted the Maccabean Revolt, surprisingas that may
seem.

The one rebellion which had been recorded in history as directed against
Hellenism, that of the Maccabees in Judea WAS NOT, in its origin, A
REACTION AGAINST HELLENISM. From the contemporary or almost
contemporary accounts in I and II Maccabees it is clear that HELLENISM HAD
PROCEEDED FAR INDEED, AND APPARENTLY WITHOUT PROTEST,
before the insurrection began. VIOLENCE STARTED in consequence of rivalry
between equally hellenized contenders for the high priesthood, AND RELIGION
WAS NOT AN ISSUE (Hadas, Hellenistic Culture, p. 43).

The revolt began when fighting broke out between the Jews on the side of Jason,
the deposed High Priest, and those on the side of Menelaus, the High Priest appointed by
Antiochus Epiphanes. It infuriated Antiochus that many of the Jews began to take sides
against his appointed official -- in fact, against the government! When a good number of
the Jews gathered to the side of Jason, the real reason for the revolt, the desire for
independence from the Seleucid yoke, began to be voiced. Religion did not enter in the
controversy at first, for Jason was as Hellenistic in his beliefs as Menelaus. The
insurrection began as a POLITICAL REVOLT for independence from the Seleucid
Kingdom.

The Maccabean uprising, at least in its initial stages, WAS NOT AGAINST
HELLENISM BUT FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE (Goodspeed, The
Apocrypha, p. xiv).

Religion Becomes A Factor

However, religion was later brought into the matter. In order to get the whole of
the Jews in a revolt against the Seleucids, the dissenters began to point to the heathenistic
beliefs of the Seleucids and of Menelaus the High Priest, claiming that such things were
anti-Jewish. Thus, the rebels brought religion into the issue, which they reasoned would
serve as a mark of distinction between the Jews and the Seleucids. So, in various quarters
the cries went up that the government was proclaiming policies that were fundamentally
anti-Jewish -- especially to the religious customs of their forefathers.

In 168 B.C., Antiochus Epiphanes, while endeavoring by war to take over the
Egyptian government, was forced by the Romans, after a humiliating experience, to
withdraw from Egypt and to forget his plans of conquering that country. On his way
back to Antioch, his capital to the north of Palestine, he determined to put an end to the
rebellion that was beginning in Judaea.