First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics

• He wanted the Jews to stop worshipping the God of heaven, the God of the Bible. He wanted them to abandon the worship of God at the Temple in Jerusalem, and to stop Jewish customs such as circumcision and eating foods that were clean under the Law. Instead, he wanted the false gods of Greece to be worshipped, Greek language and customs to be adopted, and for all Jews to abandon their religion. In short, he gave the Jews in Israel a stark choice between worshipping God, and worshipping devils, between their Bible-based culture, or Greek culture.
• These events are so fascinating, and so important to our understanding of how Aramaic and Greek fit together in the language puzzle of the centuries before and after Christ, that we will explore the history of the period further in this lesson.