1 Maccabees 1

The beginning of the book of the Maccabees is similar to the beginning of the book of the prophet Ezekiel, where it is written: And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, etc. (Ezek. 1:1) Therefore, the first question arises for us as to why he who had said nothing yet began in this way, saying: And it came to pass, after Alexander, etc. For the word "and" is a conjunction, and we know that a following statement is not joined unless to a preceding statement; therefore, why does he who had said nothing say: "And it came to pass," when there is no statement to which what he begins can be joined? In this matter, it must be considered that just as we perceive corporeal things, so prophets and writers of divine books perceive spiritual things with their senses, and to them, even those things are present which seem absent to our ignorance; therefore it happens that in the minds of prophets, the internal things are so joined to the external that they see both at the same time, and simultaneously in them there is both the word they hear inwardly and the word they speak outwardly. Therefore, the reason is clear why he who had said nothing began by saying: And it happened; then he adds: After Alexander, son of Philip the Macedonian, who first reigned in Greece, went out from the land of Kittim, he struck Darius, king of the Persians and Medes. Therefore, it is shown to all that Alexander, son of Philip and Olympias, killed Darius, king of the Persians and Medes. Daniel also clearly expressed this in his vision, in which he describes the he-goat breaking the ram with its horns. But it is asked how Alexander is said to have first reigned in Greece, when many are found to have reigned there in different places before; for long before, kings presided over the Argives, Athenians, Lacedaemonians, Corinthians, and Lydians. Nor is Alexander found to be the first king in Macedonia, but the twenty-fourth: for the first king of the Macedonians was Caraunus, at the time when Azariah, who is also Uzziah, was king of the Hebrews in Judah (1 Kings 12), and Jeroboam was king of the Hebrews in Israel (2 Chron. 26). Also, Procas Sylvius of the Latins, Calcamenes of the Lacedaemonians, Alexander of the Corinthians, and Thespites of the Athenians; but Alexander is said to have first reigned in Greece because, while other kings previously reigned in individual regions, he alone was the first to reign over all of Greece. For, after overthrowing Thebes, taking up arms against the Persians, he overcame the leaders of Darius in battle at the river Ganges, and finally struck the ram itself, and broke its two horns, the Medes and Persians, and placed it under his feet, and subdued both horns under his rule. And when it is said he went out from Kittim, it signifies Greece itself. For Sethim was of the descendants of Noah, that is, the son of Javan, the son of Japheth, the son of Noah, and he possessed the island of Sitammam, which is now called Cyprus, as Josephus is witness, and from it all islands and naval places are called Cethim in Hebrew. Let us read the books of Varro on Antiquities and those of Sisinnius Capito and the Greek Phlegon and other most learned men, and we will see that almost all islands and the shores of the whole world and lands near the sea were occupied by Greek settlers, who, from the mountains of Amanus and Taurus, possessed all maritime places as far as the British Ocean.

Therefore, Alexander the Great, as historians relate, after the death of Darius, subdued Hyrcania and the Macedonians; after this, he engaged in battle with the Parthians, whom, resisting for a long time, he almost destroyed before he conquered them. Then he subdued the Thracians, the Evergetes, the Parymas, the Parxammenians, the Hydaspians, and other peoples who dwelled at the foot of the Caucasus, establishing there the city of Alexandria above the river Tanais. But, greedy for human blood, whether of enemies or even of allies, he always thirsted for fresh gore. Therefore, rushing into wars with persistent zeal, he received the Cherasinos and Dracas, a strong people, into surrender; Callisthenes the philosopher, his fellow student under Aristotle, along with many other leaders, he killed because, abandoning the custom of greeting, he would not worship him as a master. After this, he sought India, so that he might end his empire at the Ocean and the farthest East, approached the city of Nisa, the Daedalos mountains, and conquered the kingdoms of Queen Cleophis; who, when she had surrendered, redeemed her kingdom by royal intercourse. Having crossed and subdued India, Alexander, when he had reached a rock of remarkable ruggedness and height, to which many peoples had fled, learned that Hercules had been prevented from attacking the same rock by an earthquake. Moved by rivalry, so that he might surpass the deeds of Hercules, with the greatest labor and danger he gained possession of the rock, and received all the peoples of that place into surrender. He waged a most bloody war with Porus, the bravest king of the Indians. Afterwards, when he had conquered the eastern peoples of each province, not without bloody victories, he boarded ships and, as he crossed the shores of the Ocean, he arrived at a certain city over which King Ambiger presided. But in the assault on the city, he lost a great part of his army to the arrows of the enemy, which were smeared with poison; and afterwards, with the help of an herb which had been shown to him in a dream and given as a drink to the wounded, when relief was brought to the rest, he stormed and captured the city. After he had circled to the Ocean and entered the river Indus, he quickly returned to Babylon, where envoys from the provinces of the whole world, terrified, awaited him, namely, those of the Carthaginians and all the cities of Africa, as well as the Spaniards, Gauls, Sicily and Sardinia, and, moreover, many parts of Italy. So great was the fear of the general established in the far East that the peoples of the farthest West were seized with terror, so that you might see an embassy from distant lands in his presence, from whom you would scarcely believe even a rumor could have reached; therefore it is well written: and the earth was silent in his presence, because no one dared to rebel against him.

Having conquered nations everywhere, Alexander took away their treasures and wealth from all sides, so that after his death, his attendants and soldiers, because of the massiveness of the riches he had accumulated and because of the power of the kingdom, disagreed among themselves, as Pompeius Trogus and his abbreviator Justin show in their books of Histories, writing that, after Alexander's death, fifty thousand talents of gold were found in his treasury, and thirty thousand in annual tribute. Finally, Alexander, preserved by God's will amid the dangers of battles, was at last, while staying in the city of Babylon, killed by the betrayal of the Medes, and especially by the faction of his commander Antipater, who, through his son Cassander, destroyed him with poison, as the aforementioned Pompeius Trogus narrates, saying that when Alexander, returning to Babylon, had given many days to leisure, he diligently resumed the banquet which had previously been interrupted, and, pouring himself entirely into joy, had joined night to day in wakefulness; as he was already leaving the banquet, the physician Thessalus, with the feast renewed, invited him and his companions, where, having taken a cup, he suddenly groaned as if pierced by a weapon in the middle of drinking, and was carried away from the banquet half-alive, so tortured that he called for iron as a remedy, and the touch of men caused pain as if it were wounds. But in truth, there was a plot: for the aforementioned Antipater, seeing his dearest friends killed by Alexander, and realizing that, despite his great achievements in Greece, he was not so much esteemed by the king as envied, and being harassed by various accusations from his mother Olympias, arranged for his son Cassander to poison the king, giving him the poison, since Cassander, along with his brothers Philip and Iollas, was accustomed to serve the king. The poison was so potent that it could not be contained in bronze, iron, or clay, and could only be carried in a horse's hoof, with the son warned not to trust anyone except Thessalus and his brothers. Therefore, a banquet was prepared and repeated at Thessalus's house; Philip and Iollas, who were accustomed to taste and mix the king's drink, had the poison in cold water, and after tasting it, they poured it into the king's drink. On the fourth day, Alexander, feeling certain death approaching, declared that he recognized the fate of his ancestral house: for most of the Aeacidae had died before their thirtieth year. Then, as the soldiers were in turmoil and suspected the king was dying from a plot, he himself calmed them, and when he was brought out to the highest place in the city, he admitted them all to his presence, and extended his right hand for them to kiss as they wept. And while all were crying, he himself was not only tearful, but showed no sign of a troubled mind, so much so that he comforted some who grieved more impatiently, giving them messages for their parents, so that just as he was unconquered against enemies, so too in death his spirit remained undefeated. When his friends saw that he was failing, they asked whom he would make heir to the empire; he replied, "The most worthy." So great was his nobility of spirit that, although he left behind his son Hercules, his brother Arrhidaeus, and his pregnant wife Roxana, he forgot family ties and named the most worthy as heir: as if it were a crime for a brave man to be succeeded by anyone other than a brave man, or for the wealth of such a great kingdom to be left to any but the worthy. With this voice, as if he had sounded the war trumpet among friends, or had sent the apple of discord, so all rose up in rivalry and sought the ambition of the common people with silent conversation and the favor of the soldiers. On the sixth day, with his voice failing, he handed over Perdiccas' ring, which he had removed from his finger, and this act calmed the growing disagreement among his friends. For although he was not named heir by voice, he seemed to have been chosen by judgment. Alexander died within a month, at the age of thirty-three. However, because mention of the kingdom of Alexander is made in the history of the Maccabees, I have inserted this from the books of the Gentiles, so that the reader may recognize that the virtue of Alexander is not recounted in vain, but that he himself is the principal by greatness of spirit and action. But as for what is said, that Alexander divided his kingdom while he was still alive among his sons, who had been raised with him in youth, it was not so much that he himself divided it, as that he left it to be divided by them. Therefore, Alexander oppressed the trembling world under himself for twelve years. His leaders, in fact, ruled for fourteen years, and like greedy cubs tore apart the rich prey struck down by the great lion; and, incited against each other by rivalry for the prey, they destroyed themselves in quarrels. Therefore, Egypt first, and part of Africa and Arabia, fell to Ptolemy by lot. The neighboring province, Syria, went to Laomedon of Mytilene, Cilicia to Philotas with his son, and Illyria to Philo. Greater Media was assigned to Acropatus, and Lesser Media to Alcetas, the brother of Perdiccas. The Susian people went to Sinos, Greater Phrygia to Antigonus, son of Philip; Lycia and Pamphylia to Nearchus, Caria to Cassander, Lydia to Menander. Leonnatus received Lesser Phrygia. Thrace and the regions of the Pontic Sea were given to Lysimachus, Cappadocia with Paphlagonia to Eumenes; the chief command of the camp fell to Seleucus, son of Antiochus; the king's bodyguards and attendants were commanded by Cassander, son of Antipater. In Bactria beyond and the regions of India, the previous governors who had begun under Alexander remained. Taxiles held the Seres, situated between the two rivers Hydaspes and Indus. Phyton, son of Agenor, was sent to the colonies founded in India. The borders of Parapamisus at Mount Caucasus were given to Apiarches. The Aracussi and Gedrosii were assigned to Fibnuti. Drancae and Rani to Statanus, Bactrians to Amyntas, Sechodae, etc. Nicanor received the Parthians, Philip the Hyrcanians, Fratafernes the Armenians, Neoptolemus the Persians, Pencestes the Babylonians, Arthous the Pelasgians, Archesilaus obtained Mesopotamia. Yet among all these kingdoms, only four were truly prominent: that of Egypt, held by Ptolemy, son of Lagus; that of the Macedonians, possessed by Philip, also called Arrhidaeus, brother of Alexander; that of Syria and Babylon, claimed by Seleucus Nicanor; and that of Asia, held by Antigonus, as was foreshown in the vision of Daniel, where, after the breaking of one great horn on the head of that notable goat, four smaller horns arose in its place.

Therefore, upon the death of Alexander the Great, the entire body of the kingdom of the Macedonians, which he had united not without great effort, was torn apart by his successors through tyranny and was rent by many and grievous battles, as is found written at length in the histories of the nations. But omitting many of these, the writer of the present history arrives at Antiochus Epiphanes, who committed many evils against the Jews, polluted the holy place, and profaned the law; concerning whom it follows: Therefore, the first to reign over Syria after Alexander the Great was Seleucus, surnamed Nicanor, for thirty-two years; the second was Antiochus, called Soter, for nineteen years; the third was Antiochus, called Theos, who reigned for fifteen years; the fourth was Seleucus, surnamed Gallinicus, son of Antiochus, for twenty years; the fifth, Seleucus Ceraunus, son of Seleucus Gallerius, for three years; the sixth, Antiochus the Great, whom Scripture here calls the illustrious Antiochus as the father, who was the brother of Seleucus Ceraunus and son of Seleucus Gallinicus, reigned for thirty-six years; the seventh, Seleucus, who was also surnamed Philopator, for twelve years; after whom Antiochus Epiphanes, who is also called renowned or noble, brother of Seleucus Philopator and son of Antiochus the Great, reigned for eleven years, about whom Scripture now narrates that from them arose the sinful root,

He is rightly called the sinful root, since he was a useless stock, prone to sin and most ready for wickedness, under whom the persecution of the law of God and the wars of the Maccabees are recounted. For the entire period of the kingdom of the Greeks is gathered from the first year of Seleucus Nicanor up to the beginning of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, one hundred and thirty-seven years.

Greek and Roman history recounts that Antiochus Epiphanes plotted deceit against Ptolemy Philopator, the son of Cleopatra his sister, of whom he was the uncle, and deprived him of the kingdom of Egypt; and after the death of Cleopatra, when Alanicus the eunuch, the tutor of Philometor, and Leneus governed Egypt and sought to recover Syria, which Antiochus had seized by betrayal, a battle arose between the uncle and the boy Ptolemy. And when they engaged between Pelusium and Mount Casius, the leaders of Ptolemy were defeated; but Antiochus, sparing the boy and pretending friendship, went up to Memphis, and there, according to the custom of Egypt, received the kingdom, and claiming to provide for the boy's affairs, with a small force he subdued all Egypt, and entered the abundant and most fertile cities, and did what neither his fathers nor his forefathers had done, as it is written of him in Daniel. For no one in the kingdom of Syria had so devastated Egypt, and he scattered all their wealth, and was so cunning that he overthrew by his deceit the wise counsels of those who were the boy's leaders.

[Daniel 11:30] "And he shall return and shall be angry at the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed; and he shall return and take thought concerning (Vulgate: against) those who have abandoned the covenant of the sanctuary." We read of these matters at greater length in the exploits of the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 1:20-64), where we learn that after the Romans expelled him from Egypt, he came in anger against the covenant of the sanctuary and was welcomed by those who had forsaken the law of God and taken part in the religious rites of the Gentiles. But this is to be more amply fulfilled under the Antichrist, for he shall become angered at the covenant of God and devise plans against those whom he wishes to forsake the law of God. And so Aquila has rendered in a more significant way: "And he shall devise plans to have the compact of the sanctuary abandoned."

[Daniel 11:31] "And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall defile (Vulgate: that (?) they may defile) the sanctuary of strength, and they shall take away the continual sacrifice, and shall place there the abomination unto desolation." Instead of "arms," another writer has rendered it as "seed," so as to imply descendants and progeny. But those of the other viewpoint claim that the persons mentioned are those who were sent by Antiochus two years after he had plundered the Temple in order to exact tribute from the Jews, and also to eliminate the worship of God, setting up an image of Jupiter Olympius in the Temple at Jerusalem, and also statues of Antiochus himself. These are described as the abomination of desolation, having been set up when the burnt offering and continual sacrifice were taken away. But we on our side contend that all these things took place in a preliminary way as a mere type of the Antichrist, who is destined to seat himself in the Temple of God, and make himself out to be as God. The Jews, however, would have us understand these things as referring, not to Antiochus Epiphanes or the Antichrist, but to the Romans, of whom it was earlier stated, "And war galleys shall come," whether Italian or Roman, "and he shall be humbled." Considerably later, says the text, a king, Vespasian, shall emerge from the Romans themselves, who had come to Ptolemy's assistance and threatened Antiochus. It is his arms or descendants who would rise up, namely his son Titus, who with his army would defile the sanctuary and remove the continual sacrifice and devote the temple to permanent desolation. By the terms siim (Siyyim) and chethim (Kittiym), which we have rendered as "galleys" and "Romans," the Jews would have us understand "Italians" and "Romans."

[Daniel 11:32] "And ungodly men shall deceitfully dissemble against the covenant. But the people who know their God shall prevail and succeed." And in Maccabees we read that there were some who, to be sure, pretended that they were custodians of God's law, and later they came to terms with the Gentiles; yet the others adhered to their religion. But in my opinion this will take place in the time of the Antichrist, when the love of many shall wax cold. It is concerning these people that our Lord says in the Gospel, "Dost thou think that the Son of man, when He comes, will find faith upon the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

Therefore, it is consequently narrated about the same king in the aforementioned histories that after he was driven out by the Egyptians, he came into Judea, that is, against the holy covenant, and plundered the temple and took away a great amount of gold, and after placing a military base of Macedonians in the citadel, he returned to his own land and, after two years, again gathered an army against Ptolemy to the south. And when the two brothers of Ptolemy, sons of Cleopatra, whose uncle was Antiochus, were besieged in Alexandria, Roman envoys came, one of whom was Marcus Publius Letias. When he found him standing on the shore and delivered a decree by which he was ordered by the friends of the Roman people to withdraw and be content with his own dominion, and when he had brought the answer to the council of friends, Marcus is said to have drawn a circle in the sand with the staff he held in his hand, and to have limited the king and said: The Senate and the Roman people command that you answer in this place what you intend to do. At these words, he, terrified, said: If this pleases the Senate and the Roman people, I must withdraw from here; and so he immediately moved his army. Josephus wrote things consistent with these, that the king Antiochus, having returned from Egypt because of fear of the Romans, led his army to Jerusalem; and arriving there in the one hundred and forty-third year after the reign of the first Seleucus, in the one hundred and fifty-third Olympiad, on the twenty-fourth day of the month Casleu, which the Macedonians call Apelleon, he took it without any resistance, as those who agreed with his will opened the gates for him, and entering the city of Jerusalem, he killed many who thought contrary to him, as well as those who, by opening the gate, betrayed the city of God, because of the wealth of the temple, and having taken away much money from it, he returned to Antioch. But after he plundered the temple, so that he carried away the vessels of God and the golden lamps, and the golden altar, and the table, and the sanctuary, nor did he refrain from the veils, which were of fine linen and scarlet, and draining the gold and treasures, leaving absolutely nothing, he brought the Jews to the greatest mourning because of these things. For he also forbade the daily sacrifices which they offered to God according to the law; and after destroying the whole city, he killed some, led others away captive with their sons and wives, so that the number of the multitude of captives seemed to be up to ten thousand.

But mystically, this Antiochus, who entered the Holy Land with arrogance, devastated the temple, and defiled the holy place with pagan superstition, holds the type of the Antichrist, who wages a cruel war against the Church of Christ, and strives to defile the souls of believers, which are truly the temple of God, with his error. Concerning him, it is written in the prophecy of Daniel, under the figure of this Antiochus: "His heart shall be set against the holy covenant, and he shall act, and return to his own land. At the appointed time he shall return and come toward the south, and he shall be enraged against the holy covenant, and he shall act, and return, and shall devise against those who forsake the holy covenant. And arms from him shall stand, and they shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice, and they shall set up the abomination of desolation. And the wicked shall pretend deceitfully in the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and act," etc. (Dan. 11:28-32) There is no doubt that these things, which happened under Antiochus Epiphanes as a prefigurement, that is, that the most wicked king persecuted the people of God, foreshadow the cruelty of the Antichrist, who will persecute the Christian people, who will be outraged against the covenant of God, and will plot against those whom he wishes to abandon the law of God, and will defile the sanctuary of God, namely, by corrupting men, created in the image of God, with various vices. He will take away the continual sacrifice when he prohibits the offering of the sacrifice of praise to Christ, the Son of God, in the Church; he will set up the abomination of desolation in the holy place when he forces Christians to render divine worship to himself, so that, sitting in the temple of God, he shows himself as if he were God. Therefore, many of our people think, because of the magnitude of his cruelty and baseness, that Domitian or Nero will be the Antichrist; but although they were themselves Antichrists, as far as his body is concerned, and are his members, yet he himself is the head of all, who is to come at the end of the world, when, according to the word of Truth, there will be tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be (Matt. 24:22). Yet, according to John's words, there are already many Antichrists (1 Jn. 2:18), through whose members the same evil enemy already works the mystery of iniquity, namely through heretics, schismatics, and pagans, and seduces many; then also, if it were possible, he will scandalize even the elect, because Satan will be released from his prison, and will pour out all his fury, as much as is permitted, upon the followers of Christ. Therefore, Antiochus takes away the golden altar from Jerusalem when, by the persuasion of the evil one, he removes from the Church those who seemed to be more perfect and to pray to the Lord for the state of the people not without great zeal. He also takes away the lampstand of light and all its vessels when he casts down from their order, either through fear or earthly desire, those who were fulfilling the office of preaching and ought to shine among the people of God as lights through various forms of doctrine. He therefore takes away the table of the showbread and its vessels when he strives, through heretics, to confuse the Holy Scriptures with wicked interpretation, and seeks to corrupt with the cunning of his wickedness and lead into error those who seemed to remain in the meditation of the law of God, as vessels of the table of God and loaves of proposition.

The same ancient enemy also takes away the veil and the crowns, and the golden ornament which was on the face of the temple, and destroys everything, when he twists the letter of God's law, in which divine wisdom and heavenly mysteries are hidden, and where the crown of perpetual reward is promised to those who labor well and keep God's commandments, to be received in the heavenly kingdom and everlasting glory, by distorting the meanings and corrupting the sense into a foreign understanding, therefore deceiving souls who obey him. For I understand the gold, silver, and hidden treasures as nothing other than the beauty of eloquence and the purity of thoughts, together with the treasure of virtues which are placed in the hidden hearts of the faithful; the Devil tries to take all these things away from the kingdom of Christ, as he attempts to drag their possessors, stripped of these goods, with him into the abyss of his own destruction. Therefore, every day, weeping and groaning arise in the Church, as the assembly of the faithful is not a little saddened by compassion for the fall of their neighbors.

Every rank, every age, and every sex grieves when the persecutor rages, because no person is immune from persecution, and each one groans both for the loss of calmness and for the harm to the faith of those who fall, because, as Paul says (1 Cor. 12:26): The members in the body of Christ care for one another, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer together; and so the same Apostle, writing against those who loved vain glory, after listing the hardships he himself suffered physically, added, saying (2 Cor. 11:28-30): Besides those things which are outside, my daily pressure, the care for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. And elsewhere: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, having the same feeling toward one another; not being wise in your own sight, but consenting to the humble. (Rom. 12:15-16)

We have said above that Antiochus was a type of Antichrist; likewise, in this place, the son of perdition can similarly be understood as the chief collector of tribute, whom the prince of this world and the ruler of these present darknesses, the Devil, incites to demand that in the cities of Judah, that is, in the Churches of Christ, the tribute of sins be paid to him; however, he does not always demand this everywhere by force of persecutions, but sometimes by torments, sometimes by flattery, sometimes by threats and open cruelty, sometimes by deceit and trickery.

But whoever believes him, prepares persecution for himself; for this same most wicked enemy, by evil persuasion, performs lying signs and wonders, so that men may believe him to be God and offer him divine worship. Therefore, those who believe him, he spiritually kills in their soul; but those who resist, he afflicts with bodily torment. Therefore it happens, which must be read with great sorrow of mind, that he might destroy a great number of the people of Israel, when he converts many from the Christian faith into apostasy: he takes the spoils of the city, when he removes the ornaments of the church; he sets it on fire, when he devastates it with persecution; he destroys its houses and walls all around, when he scatters the people of believers and kills their defenders, that is, the teachers, and leads captive the women, and the children, and the livestock, because those who are soft in spirit and are children in understanding and serve carnal desires, living after the manner of brute animals, are especially open to the captivity and snare of the ancient enemy, with the churches of Christ devastated and his ministers scattered because of persecution, the evil enemy strives to establish the art of wickedness in their place and to substitute blasphemous worshipers, so that, if possible, through wicked men, the Christian name, which alone has prevailed in the world, may be utterly destroyed, and the will of the Devil may be fulfilled in the pollution of idols and the multiplication of sins.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem flee when, as the persecution grows fierce, some flee physically so that they may not be scandalized; others flee in mind, and suffer great scandal in their souls; others persevere in the confession of Christ even unto death, and, free from the hands of the persecutors, escape to heaven to be rewarded; and therefore the holy land becomes the dwelling of foreigners, when, as the number of persecutors multiplies throughout the world, the members of Christ destined to be crowned through martyrdom increase: its feast days are turned into mourning, when the most celebrated rite of the Christian religion is not permitted to have the adornment of its splendor;

and the hope which the faithful have in the future rest of souls is abolished, or is mocked by the enemy.

For the glory of the Church of the faithful is defiled by shame, when, with the enemy ruling, the glory of the heavenly ceremonies and the dignity of the divine offices suffer the greatest reproach from the blasphemies of the wicked.

The writings and spiritual letters of Antiochus, the philosopher, are from the pagan heretics and schismatics among the Christians, who desire to subvert the truth of Christ's law and the decrees of the Catholic faith, and who are pained by divine worship and the Christian religion. Yet the more they strive through error to unite people to themselves, the more they cause them to disagree with one another, because they themselves are not in harmony with each other, but, rebel through various sects, they differ and therefore are less able to serve and unite in unity. For among the proud, as Scripture testifies, there are always quarrels, and according to the judgment of Truth, Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and house will fall upon house. (Luke 11:18) The books and letters of Antiochus command in Jerusalem and in the cities of Judea that they follow the laws of the nations, and therefore define holocausts, and sacrifices, and offerings to be made in the temple of God. For the greatest care and zeal of heretics and pagans is that in the church of Christ they either confuse or utterly extinguish divine worship, lest the sincerity of true faith, which works through love, offer a pleasing holocaust to God on the altar of the believer's heart, nor the mystical sacrifices of the body and blood of the Lord, together with the sacred prayers of the faithful and the offering of good deeds, be worthily presented in the true temple of God to the creator of all and giver of all good things. They forbid the celebration of the Sabbath, because they deny that in the heavenly kingdom there will be the rest of holy souls. They order the building of altars, temples, and idols, because they desire to make the minds of the faithful vessels for evil spirits; to sacrifice swine's flesh and common animals, that is, to lead an unclean life and, like brute animals, to live in lust and the desires of the flesh; to leave their sons uncircumcised, that is, with no guard, no self-control, and no discernment to temper thoughts, words, and deeds, so that they forget the divine law and change God's justifications into the commission of various crimes. And all these things they compel to be done not only by persuasion of words, but also by the torment of various punishments.

Cruelty blazes when wickedness burns; savagery rages when desire boils. Throughout his entire kingdom, Antiochus decrees torments by written orders, and brings death upon the worshippers of the God of the land. In the same way, Antichrist, through his most wicked ministers, seeks out various kinds of punishments, so that he might uproot, crush, and destroy Christians from the state of the most holy religion.

The month of Casleu is the same among the Greeks as what is called December among the Latins. On the tenth day of this month, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year of the reign of the Greeks, which they begin to count from the first year of Seleucus, Antiochus Epiphanes placed the abominable idol of desolation in the temple of God, that is, the statue of Jupiter Olympius; moreover, in the eighth year of his rule, in which year he built a shrine of Jupiter Peregrinus or Hospitaller on the summit of Mount Garizim in Samaria, at the request of the Samaritans themselves, who asked him to do so by letter, as Josephus testifies. But we read in the Gospel according to Matthew, when the Savior was questioned by his disciples about the sign of his coming and the end of the age, that he replied among other things: Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand (Matt. 24:15). When we are called to understanding, it shows that what has been said is mystical. It is written in Daniel in this way: And in the middle of the week my sacrifice and offerings will be taken away, and in the temple there will be the abomination of desolation, and desolation will persist until the consummation of time and the end. (Dan. 9:27)

The Apostle speaks of this (2 Thess. 2), that the man of lawlessness, the adversary, will be exalted against everything that is called God and is worshipped, so that he will dare to stand in the temple of God and show that he himself is the Lord. His coming, according to the working of Satan, will destroy them and bring to desolation those who have received him. This can be understood simply either about the Antichrist, or about the image of Caesar which Pilate placed in the temple, or about the equestrian statue of Hadrian, which stood in the very Holy of Holies even to the present day. Also, according to the truth of the Scriptures, an abomination is called an idol, and therefore desolation is added, because in the desolate and deserted temple an idol was set up; but when the idol of jealousy was established in the temple of God throughout all the cities, then the ministers of the most wicked king built altars all around, and before the doors of houses and in the streets they burned incense and offered sacrifices; because, with the unclean Antichrist reigning in the house, his supporters and promoters, and all the wicked, having rejected the worship of the one God and despised the house of God, which is the holy Church, with confused mind and disordered conduct, in various places, to the demons of different errors and various crimes, they bring deadly sacrifices. And it is well said that they built altars all around, because, having abandoned the simplicity of the truth, they follow the erroneous sects of wickedness. For, as the Psalmist testifies, all the wicked walk around (Ps. 11:9). And before the doors of their houses and in the streets they burn incense and offer sacrifices, who do not deserve to enter to the altar of God and there to offer the incense of pure prayer to God, but on the broad and spacious way which leads to death (Matt. 7:13), they carry their deeds and words as offerings to the evil enemy.

They tear apart and burn the books of God with fire, who, through the fire of desire, wish to tear apart the purity of the law of God from its state of righteousness by heretical depravity, and eagerly seek to slaughter the holy preachers, to whom the treasure of the testaments of God has been entrusted, with the sword of their wickedness.

What is signified by the number twenty and five, except those who, entangled by the five senses of the body in carnal desires, act and think contrary to the law of God, which consists in the two Testaments and in the two commandments, namely, the love of God and of neighbor.

Therefore, twenty-five is produced by multiplying five by itself, and rightly this number is compared to the deserters of the law, who, through each sense of the body, that is, through sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, oppose the divine precepts written in the Pentateuch. And therefore it is said that they sacrificed on the altar which was against the altar, because on the altar of wickedness, which pride had erected against the altar of the Catholic faith, all the wicked offer to the Devil the ill-fated sacrifices of their actions and words.

The meaning of the story is clear, which explains the torments that wicked persecutors inflicted upon worshippers, both then in the Old Testament and now similarly in the New. Nor is it easy for anyone to name all the kinds of punishments which the most evil torturers inflicted upon the martyrs of Christ.

But according to the allegorical sense, what is shown by the women who were circumcising their sons, if not the honorable persons of the faithful, who, examining their actions, words, and thoughts with the utmost discernment, hurry to cut off with the sword of the spirit whatever they find unnecessary in them? This spiritual Antiochus desires to slaughter them, because he strives either to strike them physically through torture or to kill them spiritually in the soul through denial. Antiochus is interpreted as 'the silence of poverty', and he is rightly called by this name, who, lacking spiritual knowledge and deprived of sacred virtues, persecutes in others through envy that which he himself does not at all possess.

Because those who are children not by understanding but by evil and humble in spirit, they do not delay to kill on account of the confession of faith. Similarly, those who had circumcised them were slaughtered, because they especially harass the holy preachers, who, by the knife of holiness and the word of evangelical doctrine, restrain and discipline their subjects, with the troubles of persecutions.

No persecution nor any tribulation could ever tear the saints of God, who are predestined and called according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, from the faith of Christ: but persevering in truth, they neither ate food sacrificed to idols, nor consented to be defiled by the uncleanness of sins, nor did they allow the holy law of God to be broken and corrupted by heretical corruption, but rather chose to die for the name of Christ than to consent to wickedness. Therefore one of them, relying on this confidence, writing to the disciples, therefore testified, saying: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).