Antiochus entered Jerusalem. He looted the temple, enslaved women and children, and set about destroying the Jewish religion to impose the Greek one instead. The first book of Maccabees describes Jewish despair when he introduced idols of the heathen gods, ordered the sacrifice of pigs, and banned the Sabbath. The circumcision of baby boys was outlawed, and the threatened penalty was death. The reaction of the heroic Jewish resistance army, led by the family of the Maccabees, was to expel the Seleucids and establish Jewish self-rule under the Hasmonean dynasty.
