Handout - Western Christadelphian Bible School

(d)
(i) Alexander’s four generals divided the Greek Empire after Alexander’s
death: Ptolemy (south - Egypt); Seleucus (north - Syria); Lysimachus (east
- Thrace); Cassander (west - Macedonia).
See OHPs 2 and 3: The Abomination of Antiochus and Judas Maccabæus
Restores the Temple.
OHP 2: The Abomination of Antiochus
‣ The king … issued a decree: Ways and customs foreign to the country
were to be introduced. Burnt offerings, sacrifices, and libations in the
temple were forbidden; sabbaths and feast-days were to be profaned; the
temple and its ministers to be defiled. Altars, idols and sacred precincts
were to be established; swine and other unclean beasts to be offered in
sacrifice. … The penalty for disobedience was death.
‣ On the fifteenth day of the month Kislev in the (Seleucid) year 145
(Wednesday, December 3, BC 167), ‘the abomination of desolation’ was
set up on the altar. Pagan altars were built throughout the towns of Judæa;
incense was offered at the doors of houses and in the streets. All scrolls of
the law which were found were torn up and burnt. Anyone discovered in
possession of a Book of the Covenant, or conforming to the law, was put
to death by the king’s sentence.
‣ On the twenty fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the pagan
altar which was on top of the altar of the Lord …” (1 Maccabees 1:44-59
NEB).
OHP 3: Judas Maccabæus Restores the Temple
‣ Judas and his brothers said: … ‘let us go up to Jerusalem to cleanse the
temple and rededicate it.’ So the whole army … went up to Mount Zion.
There they found the temple laid waste, the altar profaned, the gates burnt
down, the courts overgrown … and the priest’s rooms in ruin.
‣ Then Judas … selected priests … and they purified the temple, removing
to an unclean place the stones which defiled it. They discussed what to do
with the altar of burnt offering … and rightly decided to demolish it …
They therefore pulled down the altar, and stored the stones in a fitting
place on the temple hill, until a prophet should arise who could be
consulted about them … and built a new altar on the model of the previous
one …
‣ Then, early on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, the month Kislev,
in the year 148 (Sunday, December 10, BC 164), sacrifice was offered as
the law commands on the newly made altar of burnt offering” (1
Maccabees 4:36-53).
(e)
(i) The Maccabees cleansed the temple 1103 days after its desolation.
We would have said that these prophecies in Daniel were completely fulfilled:
(i) Daniel 8:20-25.
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