Bible Word of the Day

Antiochus (Antiochus IV Epiphanes)

Meaning
Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the king of the Seleucid Empire from 175-164 BC. He was a cruel and vicious ruler who hated the Jewish people and wanted to Hellenize Jewish culture. The name “Epiphanes” meant “manifestation” and the implication was that the king as a physical manifestation of god or to put it another way god in the flesh. Daniel begins his prophecy of the real Antichrist in chapters eight through twelve with a prophecy of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his desecration of the Jewish Temple. However, we know that the prophecy in its entirety is not about Antiochus, but about the future Antichrist to come because Antiochus IV Epiphanes never fulfilled all of the prophecies stated in the passages of Daniel’s prophecy.

Antiochus had desecrated the Jewish Temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar of the true and living God of Israel. Pigs were regarded as unclean animals in the Jewish Law and forbidden by God to eat. Antiochus also placed a statue of Zeus on the Temple grounds. However the Maccabean revolt in 164 BC reversed all of this and restored the Temple and the sacrifices. The goal which Antiochus was trying to achieve was to bring Hellenization to Palestine and as part of his effort to seize control of Egypt. But more important for our purposes Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a picture of the Antichrist to come who will sign the seven year peace treaty with Israel and her neighbors and thereby usher in the seven year Tribulation Period.