c. Alexander

In 332 BC Alexander The Great conquered Jerusalem. The Jews kept the rights they had, because Alexander considered himself as the lawful successor of the Persian kings. In 323 BC he died, and his empire was divided among four of his generals. These generals are called the Diadochi.Daniel sees a vision of this: (Daniel 8:5-8): And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.

Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

This is explained in Daniel 8:20-22:

The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.

And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.”.

See also Daniel 11:3-4.

So the king of Grecia is Alexander the Great. Two of the mentioned kingdoms were Egypt, which Ptolemaeus got, and much of the eastern parts of the empire of Alexander the Great, which Seleucus got. After him this kingdom is also called Seleucia. Judea became a part of Egypte. Ptolemaeus and Seleucus made many wars, as did their successors, but the mountainous Judea was for a long time not involved.

These wars are described in detail in Daniel 11. The content of each verse can be coupled to an event from that time.

I give one example: in vs 6 it is said: “ for the king's daughter of the South shall come to the king of the north“.

The king of the South is evidently the king of Egypt, in this case Ptolemaeus II, who married his daughter Berenice off to Antiochus II of Seleucia.

In 198 BC the Seleucidians conquered Jerusalem and Judea.

Or as Daniel says (11:16b): “and he shall stand in the glorious land”

In a manifest was recorded that the Jewish laws would remain in use in Judea, and that was what happened. But the Seleucians did promote the adaption of the Jews tot the Helleninistic culture: theatre, sport etc. and many Jews joined these activities.

But afterwards Menelaus bribed the king, and was appointed High-priest.

Pious High-Priests did not exist in those days.

The pious Jews, the Chasidiem, detested things like this. This became even worse in 168 BC when the king plundered the treasures of the Temple, with the High-priest's consent!

The king needed the money for a war against Egypt, but when he won the Romans prevented him to occupy it. They sent Laenas as an ambassador, according to Daniel 11:30 on “ships of Chittim”.

Laenas came ashore, and Antiochus had to promise immediately not to occupy Egypte. When he had done that they had a good time together, because Laenas and Antiochus had become friends in the time Antiochus was a hostage in Rome.

The army of his father was crushed by the Romans, and he had to pay a tremendous compensation. For certainty Antiochus was brought as a hostage to Rome. Hostages in Rome had generally a good live, but they got impressed by the power of Rome, and so was Antiochus.

The Romans wanted Egypt to be independent, because they preferred in the Middle-East a number of small countries to one big one.

Jason, the previous High-priest, tried to reconquer Jerusalem, but failed. This prompted Antiochus to end the special positions of Jews and Judea.

Or as Daniel states it: (11:30):”therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do”.