Seleucus was the commander who took control of the Syrian region of Alexander's empire, thereby establishing the Seleucid dynasty. Antiochus IV was the eighth of the Seleucid kings, ruling from about 174-164 BC. Antiochus certainly had a very high opinion of himself; he took the name of "Epiphanes," which presumed to have meant "Select of God." Many of the people of his kingdom had a different name for him however - they called him "the madman."

Once again, because of its position at the Crossroads Of The Earth, the land of Israel had been contested between two branches of the former Greek kingdom - the Ptolemies to the south in Egypt (Queen Cleopatra was in later years one of its most famous members), and the Seleucids to the north in Syria. Earlier, Israel was included in the Ptolemaic kingdom. During the reign of King Philadelphus of Egypt, the Jews of Jerusalem provided a translation of the Torah from Hebrew into Greek for the royal library in Alexandria. We know it today as the Septuagint. This benign attitude toward the Jews changed dramatically after the Seleucids took over Israel in 198 B.C.

When he came to power, Antiochus IV soon proved himself to be no friend of the Jews. He mounted an effort to destroy them and all worship of the true God. He had any Jew who would not worship the Greek idols put to death. Praying to God, or observing the Sabbath according to The Fourth of The Ten Commandments were also capital offenses. Mothers found with circumcised infants, according to Jewish law, were killed along with the child. He had many scrolls of the Holy Scriptures burned, although many were very likely saved by being hidden out in the wilderness in a manner similar to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The greatest outrage committed by Antiochus IV occurred in 167 B.C. when he entered the Temple (see Temples) in Jerusalem, erected an altar to the pagan god Zeus, and sacrificed a pig on it. That desecration, dated as the 25th of Kislev according to the Bible Calendar, triggered the Maccabean Revolt by the Hasmoneans (see The Maccabees). Their eventual victory and cleansing of the Temple is still commemorated by Jews today by the annual Festival of Hanukkah.

According to Jewish tradition, at the time of that rededication there was not enough undefiled oil available for the Menorah in the Temple, which was supposed to burn continuously each night. Nevertheless, the single day's supply of oil that remained burned miraculously for eight days, until a fresh supply became available. The eight-day festival was begun in commemoration of the miracle, and has continued right to the present time.

Fact Finder: Why did Jesus Christ call the Temple in Jerusalem "My Father's House"?
See "My Father's House"

Plus much, much more on the same CD! Bible Maps Over 70 detailed full-color Bible study maps. Christian Music Enjoy the magnificent sound of over 1,900 hymns (midi computer format) Biblical Clipart Over 200 beautiful Biblical graphics (.jpg and .gif) Classic Works of Biblical History The Works of Philo, Complete and Unabridged (.txt format) The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged (.txt format) Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (.txt format) Hebrew and Greek Alphabets The Hebrew alphabet of the Old Testament, and the Greek alphabet of the New Testament, with equivalent sounds in English.

How To Receive Your Daily Bible Study CD
(Please read carefully to understand how and why the CDs are available)

This ministry web site, with thousands of Bible studies (including a new study added every day, 365 days a year) is always freely available for everyone. As such, this Daily Bible Study has become a very expensive time and financial commitment for the author and the publisher. Every study, that takes you only minutes to read, takes many hours of work to write, format and technically make available and maintain on the web server. Without help, it would be impossible for this Daily Bible Study web site to continue. That is the simple reality of the situation.

We are not "selling" CDs. The CD is our humble thank you gift to the faithful who realize the importance of making Bible-based Christian teaching available to "all the world" as Christ commanded His servants to do. The map is an actual Daily Bible Study server statistics "snap shot" of visitors to Daily Bible Study at 7 am local time recently. The green bars represent the percentage of visitors to the web site (where on the planet requested pages were being sent to) at that moment in the entire time zone directly above the green bar. The graphic constantly changes through the day like a rolling wave across the world's time zones.

The Daily Bible Study Library CD is not for sale. The Daily Bible Study Library CD is produced as our thank-you gift to each person who actually makes a minimum $10 donation (in US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars, or 5 UK Pounds, or 5 Euros) to help this ministry to survive. The $10 / 5 Pound / 5 Euro minimum is required because it is the "break-even" cost of producing, handling and mailing the CD - amounts less than $10 / 5 Pounds / 5 Euros are therefore not a donation to this ministry but actually cause an unaffordable financial loss to the author.

The Daily Bible Study CD functions with Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP. The directly-readable CD is designed to be easily and instantly portable from computer to computer. The contents are formatted to appear the same as the online Daily Bible Study web site and will automatically open by means of your computer's standard browser. Complete instructions are included with the CD.

Making a donation to Daily Bible Study is simple and easy
Donations are accepted in US, Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars, or British Pounds, or Euros, payable by personal check from your local bank - the easiest and preferred method of most people. We are able to accept regular personal checks payable from any bank in the US (in US dollars), Canada (in Canadian dollars), the United Kingdom (in Pounds or Euros), Australia (in Australian dollars), New Zealand (in New Zealand dollars) or Europe (in Euros) - write the check exactly same as if it were to someone local.
Donations may also be made by means of an International postal money order (e.g. US domestic postal money orders marked "Negotiable Only In The US and Possessions" are void in Canada).

Send your donation payable to "Key-Way Publishing" (not Daily Bible Study):

Key-Way Publishing
PO Box 520
Burford, Ontario N0E1A0
Canada

Your thank you CD will be mailed in the very next day's mail after your donation arrives. The CDs are packaged in paper CD sleeves and mailed by regular First Class Mail in order to keep the minimum donation affordable for everyone.

Your CD should arrive in about 2 weeks after the day that you mailed your donation i.e. 1 week for your donation to arrive after you mailed it, then 1 week for your thank you CD to travel to you.

If you wish to receive a confirmation email that your donation has arrived and that your CD has been sent, simply indicate a contact email address with your donation. If you have any questions, write to Donor Inquiry (pathfinder@keyway2.ca) and your email will be answered immediately.

God bless you!