Changes

== The story ==

== The story ==

Around 200 BC Jews lived as an autonomous people in the Land of [[Israel]], which at that time was controlled by the Seleucid Empire, one of the Empires that formed after the death of [[Alexander the Greek]]. The Jewish people paid taxes to [[Syria]] and accepted its legal authority, and they were free to follow their own faith, maintain their own jobs, and engage in trade.  

Around 200 BC Jews lived as an autonomous people in the Land of [[Israel]], which at that time was controlled by the Seleucid Empire, one of the Empires that formed after the death of [[Alexander the Great]]. The Jewish people paid taxes to [[Syria]] and accepted its legal authority, and they were free to follow their own faith, maintain their own jobs, and engage in trade.  

By 175 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the Seleucid throne. At first little changed, but under his reign the practice of Judaism was oppressed in an effort to remove it entirely.  In 167 BC Antiochus ordered an altar to [[Zeus]] erected in the Temple and a pig sacrificed on the altar.  This is referred to in the [[Book of Daniel]] in a future prophecy as the 'Abomination of Desecration'

By 175 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended to the Seleucid throne. At first little changed, but under his reign the practice of Judaism was oppressed in an effort to remove it entirely.  In 167 BC Antiochus ordered an altar to [[Zeus]] erected in the Temple and a pig sacrificed on the altar.  This is referred to in the [[Book of Daniel]] in a future prophecy as the 'Abomination of Desecration'