Show arf v A TV w T the ine GRAPHIC BIBLE by LEWIS 0 mcclure newspaper sandica 1 sek 0 i go ILP A 6 0 aw 4 ZA W 6 40 7 MI r A aa 0 0 ma 11 kv w THE RULE BULK OV OF THE OIL all that the jews were foil 11 their religion was wai hardly so vital so simple at as it had been in the days of micah or jeremiah it laid stress or on showy externals on essentially un important things not eating tain foods bringing regular gifts to the priest observing certain festivals and the exile wa very largely to blamo blame tor for this change even before tho the destruction of tho the old temple tho the seeds moods of it a religion of had taken root in palestine but it had been unable to flourish then because tho the greater prophets had been most strenuously opposed to it and the tha people themselves had been only feebly attracted by it now how over that tho the jews had seep seen the great temples and had witnessed tho gor gorgeous gous ceremonies of priest ridden peoples alko tho Baloy babylonians lont they eagerly took to imitating tating I 1 that sort of thing and gono gone were tho the rebels tho the truo prop heta who might have decried the tha trend f year by year the power of the priests grow mightier among the jews wealth rapidly accumulated in their hands for each leaion season tho the plain people had to take them the choicest portions of their flocks and harvests forgotten was waa tho the old demo democratic democrats cratl a ideal of the prophets that all jews jewa were priests now only those who were supposed to como come from the tha tribe of levi ware were allowed to minister in the temple and furthermore only thoice alo were supposed to come from the tribe of levi were allowed to minister in the tha temple and furthermore only those of the family of aaron of the tribe of 0 Levi were considered holy enough actually to perform the tha sacrifices and still further farther only one directly descended from solomons solomoni favorite priest zadok could possibly become the high i priest tho the high priest was virtually the king ot of the land and tho the lesser priests wore were the princes they were no batter of course than la lay kings and princes they were forever conspiring among themselves cheating end and murdering their way from one to ario another but for oil all tholar corruption they did 8 succeed in doing one thing they kept the jews alive as a sepa separate fate people they walled them in with their little rules and regulations keeping them rigorously segregated from nil all the other tribes and peoples E even von tho halt half jewish samaritans samaritana Samar itans wore were cut oi off completely and had to start n temple of their own in northern palestine but despite the he efforts of tho tha priests foreign influences did seep into 0 the life of the people gradually their language changed from hebrew to aramaic so that after a few generations ebey could not understand even their own scriptures in their synagogues each sabbath for those meeting houses they had created in tho the exile had become common now throughout judea they had to read their holy writings through an aramaic translation called the and many of their religious ideas changed too outwardly no sign of this change in thought was evident none was there to hall hail it and to so none could rise to decry it but then came alexander and nil all was made mada open in III the fateful year B C alexander of ivin macedon fedon became master of tho the persian empire and a year later on his march jow toward ard egypt ho he took possession of palestine the tha little land was still the one bridge used by the empire builders but this alexander a mere boy in years was quite unlike the ordinary world conqueror ills aim seems to have been not to BO much the gaining of power as the spreading of culture ile he dreamed of scattering throughout the world the seeds of greek civill ration and so energetically did he try to realize his dream that though he died at the age of thir ty three hla his greek colonies dotted all of the then known world alexanders effect on the jews jew and their religion was greater than that of any other non jew in history ha ivas was generous to them and gave gava them every liberty but at the same time he located peaceful of his own people throughout palestine palestina the result I 1 was a growing familiarity with all things greek jews began to at af feet the tha use of greek words la their conversation send nd began to give their children greek names GREECE NOW OVERLORD HELLENISM the word comes hellas meaning greece began to make itself felt in every walk of jewish life especially in the many jewish settlements menti outside of palestine unfortunately it was not the hellenism of classic greece the hellenism that flowered in the flie genius of socrates plato sophocles and Ph phidias idlas rather it was as the tha hellenism debased and sullied through long handling by bf macedonians Macedon ians lans and other lesser tribes but debased as it was it never attractive even the tha priests in jerusalem began to take to it indeed they were attracted to it even more than the plain people the tha story goes that they actually left the sacrifices on ba the altars in the temple and hurried off to the arenas to watch the tha greek athletes there greek manners and vices became the great fashion of the day for or the tha more mora a jow jew aped the them m the better seemed his chance of growing browin g in power and station of course this change did not lot come about overnight but bat took three or tour four generations after alexander died his empire was divided into three kingdoms and palestine being abe bridge between two of them chent naturally become became the tha scene scena of constant war tare fard first it belonged belongea to the tha ptole mies who wed ruled i over egypt but before long the who ruled over syria and mesopotamia tried to annex it the attempt i failed but it wa was s nevertheless repeated several times for syria greatly coveted the bridge so for fully a century the little land was torn this way and that armies tramped up and down its highways continually ani and there thera was war and confusion without rest but finally the bloody contest was brought to end when in the year B C the syrians drove the egyptian army back to tho the nile country and formally annexed palestine hellenism had been seeping 9 steadily into palestine during all that troublous century indeed had nothing occurred to stem the tide it might have so go flooded the land that jewish life and thought would in time have boon been drowned out completely but one day there arose in syria a king named an EpI phanes who by his headstrong impatience spoiled everything ery thing it Is difficult to understand just what was wrong with this king icing lie ho seems to have been learned and markedly clever but also at moments quite insane he ha took great dalight in poking fun at the whole matter of religion and yet at the same time he tried to build a religion around himself that Is why ho he called himself theos Epi phanes which means the evident ged judea at the time was seething with unrest because the corni corrupt pt priests wore were at last being brought to book by a few of the pious jews it looked somewhat like a political uprising to Antt Anti ochus and on hla his way home from a campaign in egypt he stopped in the middle of the bridge to attend to tho the trouble ile he looted the comple and then simply ordered judaism to cease just thail evidently lie ha thought it would be quite easy for him to stamp out tills this obscure and as he ha thought very odd little religion ills his orders were that never more should the sabbath or the rite of circumcision or the difference lc be tween clean and unclean food bo be observed an any r person found W with ith a hebrew book in ills his possession was immediately to be put to death henceforth if there was to be any sacrificing it must be of ewines flesh and to Ant or zeus as god for a while starkest horror wept the land as aa the army of Ant Anti ochus began to put those orders into effect there were looting and murder wailing and shame as the n minions ol of ahe he syrian tyrant tried to carry out his orders an then like the breaking out ct at a road mad fire the nation blazed into rebellion |