When
Seleucus
died and Antiochus
who was called Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom, Jason
the brother of Onias
obtained the high priesthood by corruption, promising the
king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of
silver and, from another source of revenue, eighty talents.
In addition to this he promised to pay one hundred and fifty
more if permission were given to establish by his authority
a
gymnasium and a body of youth for it, and to enroll
the people of Jerusalem as citizens
of Antioch. When the king assented and Jason came to
office, he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek
way of life.
He set aside the existing royal concessions to the Jews,
secured through John the father of Eupolemus, who went on
the mission to establish friendship and alliance with the
Romans; and he destroyed the lawful ways of living and introduced
new customs contrary to the law. He took delight in establishing
a gymnasium right under the citadel, and he induced the
noblest of the young men to wear the Greek hat.
There was such an extreme of Hellenization and increase
in the adoption of foreign ways because of the surpassing
wickedness of Jason, who was ungodly and no true high priest,
that the priests were no longer intent upon their service
at the altar. Despising the sanctuary and neglecting the
sacrifices, they
hurried to take part in the unlawful proceedings in
the wrestling arena after the signal for the discus-throwing,
disdaining the honors prized by their ancestors and putting
the highest value upon Greek forms of prestige. For this
reason heavy disaster overtook them, and those whose ways
of living they admired and wished to imitate completely
became their enemies and punished them. For it is no light
thing to show irreverence to the divine laws....
