"King Antiochus besieged Jerusalem; but the Jews resisted him for some
time. When, however, all their provision was spent, they were forced to
send ambassadors to him to treat on terms. Many of his friends persuaded
him to storm the city, and
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to root out the whole nation of the Jews; because they only, of all
people, hated to converse with any of another nation, and treated all of
them as enemies. They likewise suggested to him, that the ancestors of
the Jews were driven out of Egypt as impious and hateful to the Gods.
For their bodies being overspread and infected with the itch and
leprosy, they brought them together into one place by way of expiation,
and as profane and wicked wretches expelled them from their coasts.
Those too that were thus expelled seated themselves about Jerusalem,
and being afterwards embodied into one nation, called the nation of
the Jews, their hatred of all other men descended with their blood to
posterity. Hence they made strange laws, entirely different from those
of other nations. In consequence of this, they will neither eat nor
drink with any one of a different nation, nor wish him any prosperity.
For, say they, Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, having subdued the Jews,
entered into the temple of God, into which by their law no one was
permitted to enter but the priest. Here, when he found the image of a
man with a long beard carved in stone sitting on an ass, he conceived
it to be Moses who built Jerusalem, established the nation, and made all
their impious customs and practises legal: for these abound in hatred
and enmity to all other men. Antiochus, therefore, abhorring this
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their contrariety to all other nations, used his utmost endeavour to
abrogate their laws. In order to effect this, he sacrificed a large hog
at the image of Moses and at the altar of God that stood in the outward
court, and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice. He commanded
likewise that the sacred books, whereby they were taught to hate all
other nations, should be sprinkled with the broth made of the hog's
flesh. And he extinguished the lamp called by them immortal, which was
continually burning in the temple. Lastly, he compelled the high priest
and the other Jews to eat swine's flesh. Afterwards, when Antiochus and
his friends had deliberately considered these things, they urged him to
root out the whole nation, or at least to abrogate their laws and compel
them to change their former mode of conducting themselves in common
life. But the king being generous and of a mild disposition, received
hostages and pardoned the Jews. He demolished, however, the walls of
Jerusalem, and took the tribute that was due."