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Because the issue of religion had been brought up in the insurrection, and because
many of the rebels were proclaiming that their struggle was for religious freedom,
Antiochus Epiphanes in a maddened frenzy, determined to obliterate any vestiges of the
religious customs of the Jews! He boldly repudiated God and entered the Temple in
Jerusalem and dedicated it to the pagan god Jupiter. He set up an idol which he called the
"lord of heaven." He also offered swine's flesh on the Holy Altar and polluted the
Temple with all the indecencies he could perpetrate. He even turned the Temple into a
center of prostitution.

Notice some of the things commanded by Antiochus Epiphanes in his desire to
exterminate any semblance of the commands of God. We find that many innocent Jews
who had no thoughts of rebellion suffered many indignities as well as the guilty.

By royal decree, the observance of the SABBATH or of the SACRED FEASTS,
and practicing the rite of circumcision, WERE ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN
UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH. ALL COPIES OF THE LAW WERE
DESTROYED. Heathen altars and temples were erected throughout Judaea, and
every Jew was compelled in public to sacrifice to idols, swine's flesh or that of
some other unclean beast, AND TO PRESENT CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE
THAT HE HAD CEASED TO OBSERVE THE LAWS OF HIS FATHERS
(Kent, History of the Jewish People, pp. 328, 329).

All women who had their sons circumcised were publicly marched around the city
of Jerusalem and then thrown from the high walls to their death. One group of people
who fled to a cave near Jerusalem in order to keep the Sabbath service were surprised and
committed to the flames. Such things were everyday occurrences against the Jews who
failed to abide by the decrees of Antiochus Epiphanes. (Margolis,History of the Jewish
People, pp. 137, 138).

Judas Maccabeus

Because of the outrages of Antiochus Epiphanes, many of the Jews became more
than ever desirous of independence from the rule of the tyrant. Among them was Judas
Maccabeus and his four brothers. They abhorred the actions of this crated ruler from the
north, and not desiring to put up with the abuses that were being done to the Jews, they
fled for refuge to the mountains of Judaea. While there, they gathered together many
more of the dissenting Jews and formed an army. Their vow was to exterminate the
foreigners from Judaea.

After a series of successful skirmishes, these men gathered more and more Jews
to their cause. Surprisingly, in three short years (by 165 B.C.) they had defeated the
Seleucids to such an extent that, for all practical purposes, their desire for an independent
autonomous Jewish state was realized. The Maccabees became the leaders of this new
state.