Antiochus IV Epiphanes

Friday, April 24, 2009 -- Week of 2 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 958)
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) 134, 135 (evening)
Daniel 3:1-18
1 John 3:1-10
Luke 3:15-22

To understand the story of the fiery furnace and the three young men who refuse to worship the statue, it helps to know a bit of the contemporary politics happening at the time that the book of Daniel was written.

In 175 BCE Antiochus IV seized control of the Seleucid Empire which had been ruled by his brother. The Seleucid Empire was a large portion of the area conquered by Alexander the Great. It ran from Judea, through Syria east to modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Antiochus IV served as the king of the region under the authority of the Roman Emperor. His primary rival was Ptolemy VI of Egypt, with whom he fought over rival territorial claims. Antiochus was nearly successful in conquering Egypt, deterred only by the heroic challenge of a single, elderly Roman senator who threatened war with Rome by drawing a "line in the sand" demanding from Antiochus an answer for the Senate before he crossed that line. (Thus the origin of the common statement.) Antiochus backed down.

While he was busy in Egypt, however, a civil war broke out in Judea. Many Hellenized Jews, especially in Jerusalem, had supported Antiochus' strategy of encouraging Greek-Hellenistic customs, and discouraging, or even outlawing, the local customs and cults as being divisive within his kingdom. These Hellenized Jews discouraged circumcision and other practices which tended to alienate Jews from the surrounding Greek world. During Antiochus' Egyptian campaign, there was a rumor that he had been killed. Jewish traditionalists used that rumor as an opportunity to attack the Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem. Antiochus' High Priest was forced to flee. When Antiochus returned, he sacked Jerusalem and massacred thousands. He empowered the Hellenized Jews and forbade the practice of Judiasm.

Antiochus placed a statue of Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple and required observance of the Roman civil religion. The statue looked remarkably similar to Antiochus himself, and he gave himself the divine epithet "Epiphanes" -- "Manifest God."

The story in of the fiery furnace in Daniel starts with a golden statue that is almost 90 feet high and 10 feet wide. Although the story is set in the 6th century BCE Babylonian reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel making commentary about Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 160's BCE. The story shows heroes from the past who were faithful to their Jewish heritage and practice, who trusted God to defend them as they challenged the arrogance of empire.

This is powerful political commentary. The book of Daniel served the Maccebean rebellion which started in 167 not unlike Thomas Paine served our own American Revolution. On December 24, 164 BCE, Judas Maccabeus restored the Jewish services of the Temple, an event memorialized annually in the feast of Hanukkah. Antiochus died the following year, after a sudden illness during a military campaign in the east. The Jewish struggle continued until it achieved a period of independence during the leadership of Judas' sons.

Why is all of this important? The call to faithfulness in the face of the arrogant claims of empire and power is a lesson appropriate for all times. I think it is also important to note that we have scriptural precedent for political commentary. Part of our faithfulness to God will be for us to bear witness before the powers and empires and to challenge their arrogance on behalf of God's values.

One other note. Among the bizarre fortune-tellers that come to us today with their various "end-time prophecies" (the "Left Behind" series, the "Late Great Planet Earth" and countless preachers who interpret the Bible with various apocalyptic formulae), Daniel is a favorite book for their strange theories. They manipulate the Biblical visions and images, as if Daniel were written to predict the coming history of our age. In doing so, they distort and insult the book of Daniel's original and true intent. The end-time fever has many bad side effects -- us/they polarization, rationalization for genocide, uncritical defense of Israel and complete disregard for Palestinian justice, and a trivialization of environmental stewardship as they eagerly await the destruction of the planet. Bad Biblical manipulation creates bad ethics and theology.

Lowell

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Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

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Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas