Antiochos IV Epiphanes. 175-164 BCE tetradrachm
"This week’s portentous events in Iceland — the Parliamentary bill which, if passed, would ban male circumcision and lead to up to six years’ imprisonment for those carrying it out — could not help but remind me of one of the darker periods in the history of Israel, when a Seleucid king, in his hatred of Judaism, outlawed the ancient custom.
When I first heard about Gunnarsdóttir’s bill on Monday, I couldn’t help but be reminded of events in Israel in the second century B.C.
The Jewish inter-testamental book known as 1 Maccabees tells how in the year 169 B.C. and the years following, one of the Seleucid kings who was then ruling over Israel, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, motivated by a fervent desire to stamp out the Jewish faith completely, forbade the Jews living in Israel from observing the Law of Moses, and ordered them not to circumcise their children:—
"Then the king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that all should give up their particular customs. All the Gentiles accepted the command of the king. Many even from Israel gladly adopted his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath. And the king sent letters by messengers to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land, to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and festivals, to defile the sanctuary and the priests, to build altars and sacred precincts and shrines for idols, to sacrifice swine and other unclean animals, and to leave their sons uncircumcised. They were to make themselves abominable by everything unclean and profane, so that they would forget the law and change all the ordinances. He added, “And whoever does not obey the command of the king shall die.”
1 Maccabees 1:41-50
-Graham Harter, "When a Seleucid king outlawed circumcision"
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| Coin depicting Antiochus IV, Greek inscription reads ΘΕΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ (King Antiochus, God manifest, bearer of victory). SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Antiochos IV Epiphanes. 175-164 BCE. AR Tetradrachm (31mm, 16.81 g, 1h). Antioch mint. Diademed head right / Zeus Nikephoros seated left; monogram to outer left. Cf. SNG Spaer 1004; Le Rider, Antioche 449-457 (A37/P274); Houghton 104; SNG Newham Davis 393 (same dies). Good VF, toned. |
Source:
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=105470
Quote:
https://etimasthe.com/2018/02/22/when-a-seleucid-king-outlawed-circumcision/
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