When Jerusalem fell to the Greco-Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes it fell twice. The first time was a gradual assimilation into the Greek culture that was first introduced by Alexander the Great and whose precepts were inherited by his military successors throughout the remnant of that once great yet brief empire. The vision that Alexander had was to see the whole world transformed by a single language and culture; this in turn was the thrust of this madman cum megalomaniac whose political and military pressure turned the rulers of Jerusalem’s religious class upon themselves. The new Greek thought in the form of Hellenism was pitted against the traditions of Rabbinic Judaism and the new usurped the old with the result being the political and cultural domination of Greco-Syria. Continue reading →