1. Not long after that, the king sent an elderly Athenian to force the Jews to abandon their religion and the customs of their ancestors.
2. He was also to defile their Temple by dedicating it to the Olympian god Zeus. The temple on Mount Gerizim was to be officially named “Temple of Zeus the God of Hospitality,” as the people who lived there had requested.
3. The oppression was harsh and almost intolerable.
4. Gentiles filled the Temple with drinking parties and all sorts of immorality. They even had intercourse with prostitutes there. Forbidden objects were brought into the Temple,
5. and the altar was covered with detestable sacrifices prohibited by our Law.
6. It was impossible to observe the Sabbath, to celebrate any of the traditional festivals, or even so much as to admit to being a Jew.
7. Each month when the king's birthday was celebrated, the Jews were compelled by brute force to eat the intestines of sacrificial animals. Then, during the festival in honour of the wine god Dionysus, they were required to wear ivy wreaths on their heads and march in procession.
19-20. But he preferred an honourable death rather than a life of disgrace. So he spat out the meat and went willingly to the place of torture, showing how people should have courage to refuse unclean food, even if it costs them their lives.
21-22. Those in charge of the sacrifice had been friends of Eleazar for a long time, and because of this friendship they told him privately to bring meat that was lawful for him to eat. He need only pretend to eat the pork, they said, and in this way he would not be put to death.