The Koine Bible

For a certain Simon, opposing Onias, the man who once had the high priesthood for life, a good and noble man, since in every way slandering him on behalf of the nation he was not able to harm him, went off into exile, intending to betray the homeland.

Therefore, coming to Apollonius, the general of Syria and Phoenicia and Cilicia, he was saying

Being well-disposed toward the king’s affairs, I have come to report that many myriad units of private funds have been stored in the treasuries of Jerusalem, not shared with the sacred things, and that these belong to King Seleucus.

Having learned each of these things, Apollonius praises Simon for his guardianship toward the king, but going up to Seleucus he reported the treasury of the money

And having taken authority over them, quickly into our homeland with the accursed Simon and a very heavy army

coming near, he was saying that he had come at the king’s orders in order that he might receive the private monies of the treasury

And when the nation was complaining against the decree and also contradicting, they thought it utterly dreadful if those who had entrusted the deposits to the sacred treasury would be deprived, so far as it was possible, they were preventing it.

But with threats Apollonius was going away into the temple.

but of the priests, with women and children in the temple, having implored God to defend the temple, a place being despised

And as the armed force of Apollonius was going up toward the plundering of the money, horsemen and angels appeared from heaven, flashing all around with their weapons and putting great fear and trembling into them.

And Apollonius, having fallen half-dead upon the all-tribal enclosure of the temple, stretched out his hands to heaven, and with tears he begged the Hebrews that, having prayed concerning him, they might appease the heavenly army.

For he was saying that, having sinned, he was deserving also to die, and, if saved, to sing of the blessedness of the holy place to all men.

Yielding to these words, Onias the high priest, although otherwise having been cautious lest King Seleucus should think that Apollonius had been killed from a human plot and not by divine justice, prayed concerning him

And the one indeed who had been saved in a strange way went off to report to the king what had happened to him.

But when King Seleucus had died, his son Antiochus Epiphanes succeeds to the rule, a man arrogant and dreadful.

who, having deposed Onias from the high priesthood, appointed Jason his brother high priest

having agreed to give, if he would permit him the rule, yearly three thousand six hundred sixty talents

And he permitted him both to be high priest and to lead the nation

And he set the nation apart and brought it into citizenship for all lawlessness

so that not only on the very summit of our homeland to construct a gymnasium, but also to abolish the guardianship of the sanctuary

At which things divine justice, being indignant, waged war against Antiochus himself with them.

For when there was war in Egypt against Ptolemy, he also heard that, a report having spread about his having died, the people of Jerusalem were rejoicing as much as possible; quickly he marched against them.

And when he had ravaged them, he laid down a decree that if any of them should appear to be living according to the ancestral law, they should die.

And since in no way was he able to overthrow by means of decrees the good order of the nation, but he saw all his own threats and punishments being overthrown

so that even women, because they circumcised the children with the infants, were hurled down, having beforehand known that they would suffer this

Since therefore his decrees were despised by the people, he himself through tortures compelled each one of the nation, after tasting defiled foods, to renounce Judaism by oath