When
we think about Hanukkah, we see it as a conflict between the Hellenists and the
traditionalists. The Hellenists sympathized with the Seleucids, exercised in
the nude in their gymnasia, and followed their culture and language to qualify
as young Greek ephebes, or soldier-
gentlemen. The young priests neglected their Temple duties and went off to the
gymnasium and some even reversed their circumcision so as not to appear too
Jewish. The Second Book of Maccabees
is horrified at this (4:14 ff), and we do not sympathize with the youngsters,
because the Seleucids also introduced pagan sacrifices into the Temple and
tried to make the Jews adopt these practices. Matityahu was the first to refuse
openly to do so, and when the Greek officer came to Modi’in and ordered
Matityahu, as the local leader, to make the sacrifice and eat the entrails, he
refused and, when another Jew rushed forward to carry out the order, Matityahu
killed him and the officer and fled into the countryside with his five sons.
Thus started the revolt of the Maccabees as recorded in the first book of that
name. Matityahu and his sons are the heroes of Hanukkah. But the Hellenists were also Jews.
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The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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