Antiochus IV Epiphanes seizes the Seleucid throne
Daniel 11:21–24; 8:9–12, 23–25
Antiochus IV, a younger son of Antiochus the Great, took the throne ahead of the rightful heir and set out to make his kingdom Greek in religion and culture, while Jerusalem's own priests competed for his favor.
“In his place a contemptible person will stand up, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom; but he will come in a time of security, and will obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”
Daniel 11:21 (World English Bible)
Antiochus called himself Epiphanes, “God made manifest”; his critics punned on it and called him Epimanes, “the madman.” Daniel had described him as “a contemptible person” who would “obtain the kingdom by flatteries” (Daniel 11:21).
In Jerusalem a party of Jews eager for Greek ways had already grown up. Jason, brother of the faithful high priest Onias III, bought the high priesthood from Antiochus and built a Greek gymnasium near the temple, where young priests hurried from the altar to the games. A few years later Menelaus outbid Jason, and the priesthood itself was up for sale.
Places
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
Dating notes
Ussher: 175 BC, the conventional date as well. The rightful heir, his nephew Demetrius, was a hostage in Rome. Most interpreters identify Antiochus IV with the “little horn” of Daniel 8 and the king of Daniel 11:21–35; many Christian interpreters also see him as a foreshadowing of a final enemy of God's people (Daniel 11:36–45).