Antiochus III The Great - Antiochus and The Jews

Antiochus and The Jews

Antiochus III resettled 2000 Jewish families from Babylonia into the Hellenistic Anatolian regions of Lydia and Phrygia. He is not the king who oppressed Judea and was resisted by the Maccabees in the Jewish story of Hanukkah; rather, that was his son, Antiochus IV. On the contrary, Josephus portrays him as friendly towards the Jews and cognizant of their loyalty to him (see Antiquities, chapter 3, sections 3-4), in stark contrast to the attitude of his son. In fact, Antiochus III lowered taxes and let the Jews live, as Josephus puts it, "according to the law of their forefathers."

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