The Antichrist

Cf. Daniel 1, 21 | Daniel 7, 2-14 | Daniel 9, 24-27 | Daniel 12, 5-12.

Dan 1, 21 : Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Dan 7, 2-14 : Daniel spoke and said: "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were melting on the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, different from each other. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. And I beheld, until his wings were plucked, and he was lifted up from the earth, and set upon his feet like a man, and a man's heart was given unto him. And behold another beast, a second, like a bear; it drew up one of its sides, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth, and they said to it, "Arise, eat much flesh! After this I looked, and behold another beast like a leopard; it had on its back four wings of a bird, and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I looked in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, terrible, fearful and extraordinarily strong; it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke, and the rest it trampled underfoot; it was different from all the beasts that had gone before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold another horn, small, arose in the midst of them, and three of the first horns were torn off by it; and behold this horn had eyes like man's eyes, and a mouth that spoke great things.

I watched, until thrones were placed, and an old man sat down. His garment was white as snow, and the hair on his head was like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire; the wheels, blazing fire. A river of fire flowed out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and a myriad of myriads stood before him. The Judge sat down, and books were opened. I watched then, because of the noise of the great words that the horn uttered; I watched, until the moment when the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and delivered to the flame of fire. To the rest of the beasts, too, their dominion had been taken away, and the duration of their lives had been fixed until a time and a moment.

I looked into the visions of the night, and behold, there came on the clouds as it were a Son of Man; and he came up to the old man, and they brought him near before him. And to him was given dominion, glory and reign, and all peoples, nations and languages served him. His dominion is an eternal dominion that will not pass away, and his reign will never be destroyed.

Dn 9, 24-27 : Seventy weeks have been determined upon your people and upon your holy city to shut up prevarication, to seal up sins and to atone for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophet and to anoint the Holy of Holies. Know therefore and understand: from the going forth of a word commanding Jerusalem to be rebuilt until an anointed one, a leader, there are seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks; she will be rebuilt, places and pregnant, in the distress of times. And after sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off, and no one for him. And the people of a ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will be in the flood, and to the end there will be war, which is decreed touching the devastation. He will make a firm covenant with a great number for a week; and in the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and on the wing of abominations will come a destroyer, and that until destruction and what has been decreed are poured out on the devastated.

Dan 12:5-12: I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two other men were standing, one on one bank of the river, the other on the other bank of the river. 6One of them spoke to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river: "How long will the end of these wonderful things be? "And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters; he raised his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and he swore by him who lives forever that it would be in a time, times and half a time, and that, when they had finished breaking the strength of the holy people, then all these things would be fulfilled. And I heard, but did not understand, and said, "My lord, what will be the end of these things? "He said, 'Go, Daniel, for the words are tightened and sealed until the time of the end. There will be many who will be purified, made white and tested; and the wicked will do evil, and no wicked will understand; but the intelligent will understand. From the time when the continual sacrifice is interrupted, and the abomination of the destroyer is set up, there will be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits and comes to one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days!"

Second book of the Maccabees, 4

2 M 4 : Simon, this informer of the treasury and of his country, spoke ill of Onias: it was he, he said, who had stirred up Heliodorus and who was the author of all the evil. The city's benefactor, the defender of his fellow citizens and the faithful observer of the laws, he dared to pass him off as an adversary of the state. This hatred went so far that murders were committed by one of Simon's affianced. Then Onias, considering the danger of these divisions and the outbursts of Apollonius, the military governor of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, who was encouraging Simon's wickedness, went to see the king, not to accuse his fellow citizens, but having in mind the general and particular interest of all his people. For he could see that, without the king's intervention, it would be impossible to pacify the situation, and that Simon would not give up his criminal ventures.

But after the death of Seleucus, Antiochus nicknamed Epiphanes succeeded him, and Jason, brother of Onias, set out to usurp the pontificate. In a meeting with the king, he promised him three hundred and sixty talents of silver and eighty talents from other revenues. In addition, he promised to commit himself in writing to a further 150 talents, if he were allowed to establish, on his own authority and according to his own views, a gymnasium with an epebeum, and to register the inhabitants of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch. The king agreed to everything. As soon as Jason had obtained power, he set about introducing Greek customs among his fellow citizens. He abolished the franchises which the kings, out of humanity, had granted to the Jews thanks to the enterprise of John, father of Eupolemus, who had been sent on an embassy to conclude a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Romans, and, destroying legitimate institutions, he established customs contrary to the law. He took pleasure in founding a gymnasium at the very foot of the Acropolis, and raised the noblest children by putting them under the hat. Hellenism then grew to such an extent, and the excessive perversity of Jason, a godless man and by no means a high priest, led to such an inclination towards foreign customs, that the priests no longer showed any zeal for the service of the altar and, despising the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, rushed to take part, in the palaestra, in the exercises proscribed by the law, as soon as the call to throw the discus was heard. Paying no heed to the honorific functions of their country, they held in high esteem the distinctions of the Greeks. That's why serious calamities befell them, and in the very people whose way of life they imitated and to whom they wanted to resemble in everything, they found enemies and oppressors. For one does not violate divine laws with impunity; but this is what subsequent events will demonstrate.

While the five-yearly games were being celebrated in Tyre, which the king was attending, the criminal Jason sent spectators from Jerusalem, who were citizens of Antioch, bearing three hundred drachmas of silver for the sacrifice of Hercules; but the same people who were carrying them asked that this money be used, not for sacrifices, which was not appropriate, but to cover other expenses. Thus the three hundred drachmas were indeed intended by the one who sent them for the sacrifice in honor of Hercules; but they were used, according to the desire of those who brought them, for the construction of triremes.

Apollonius, son of Menestheus, having been sent to Egypt, on the occasion of the enthronement of King Ptolemy Philometor, Antiochus learned that this king was ill-disposed towards him and, wishing to be safe from him, he went to Joppa, then to Jerusalem. Received magnificently by Jason and the whole city, he made his entry by torchlight and amidst acclamations; then he led his army to Phoenicia in the same way.

Three years later, Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the aforementioned Simon, to bring the money to the king and pay the registration fees for important business. But Menelaus recommended himself to the king, honored him with the outward appearance of a man in high place, and had the sovereign pontificate awarded to himself, offering three hundred talents of silver more than Jason had done. Having received his letters of investiture from the king, he returned to Jerusalem, having nothing worthy of the priesthood and bringing only the instincts of a cruel tyrant and the fury of a wild beast. Thus Jason, who had deceived his own brother, deceived in turn by another, had to flee to the land of the Ammonites. As for Menelaus, he obtained power; but, as he did not comply with the sum promised to the king, despite the complaints of Sostratus, commander of the Acropolis, who was responsible for collecting taxes, both were summoned to the king.

Menelaus left his brother Lysimachus to replace him as high priest, and Sostratus left Cratès, governor of Cyprus, to replace him. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Tarsus and Mallas revolted, because these two cities had been given as presents to Antiochides, the king's concubine. The king therefore left in haste to quell the sedition, having left as his lieutenant Andronicus, one of the great dignitaries. Menelaus, judging the circumstances favorable, took some gold vessels from the temple and gave them to Andronicus, and managed to sell others to Tyre and the neighboring cities.

When Onias became aware of Menelaus' new crime, he reproached him for it, after retiring to a safe haven at Daphne, near Antioch. Menelaus therefore took Andronicus aside and urged him to put Onias to death. Andronic therefore came to Onias and, using cunning, swore an oath on his right hand; then, although suspicious, he persuaded him to leave his asylum and immediately put him to death, without regard for justice. And so, not only the Jews, but many of the other nations were outraged and grieved at this man's unjust murder.

And when the king had returned from Cilicia, the Jews of Antioch, together with Greeks who were also enemies of violence, came to him about the unjust murder of Onias. Antiochus was deeply saddened and, moved by compassion for Onias, shed tears at the memory of the deceased's moderation and wise conduct. Red with anger, he immediately had Andronicus stripped of his purple, tore off his clothes and, having had him led through the whole city, he degraded this scoundrel in the very place where he had carried out his impious attack on Onias, the Lord thus striking him with just punishment.

Now, a great number of sacrilegious thefts having been committed in the city by Lysimachus, in agreement with Menelaus, and word of them having spread, the people rose up against Lysimachus, when already many golden vessels had been scattered. Seeing the multitude stirred up and their spirits inflamed with anger, Lysimachus armed some three thousand men and began to commit acts of violence, under the command of a certain Tyrant, a man advanced in age and no less in perversity. But when they heard of Lysimachus' attack, some seized stones, others large sticks, and some gathered ashes from the ground, and hurled them tumultuously at Lysimachus' followers. In this way, they wounded many of his men, killed several of them, put all the others to flight and massacred the sacrilegious man himself near the temple treasury.

An investigation against Menelaus then began. When the king came to Tyre, the three men sent by the elders explained the justice of their case. Seeing himself convinced, Menelaus promised Ptolemy, son of Dorymene, a large sum of money to make the king favorable to him. Ptolemy then took the king under the peristyle, as if to cool off, and made him change his mind. The king declared Menelaus innocent of the charges brought against him, though guilty of all crimes, and condemned to death unfortunate men who, had they pleaded their case even before Scythians, would have been returned innocent; and men who had defended the city, the people and sacred objects, suffered this unjust punishment without delay. The Tyrians themselves were outraged, and gave the victims a magnificent funeral. As for Menelaus, thanks to the greed of the powerful, he maintained his dignity, growing in malice and cruel scourge of his fellow citizens.