2 Maccabees 6:1-3

Common English Bible

Judaism is outlawed

6 Shortly afterward the king sent out an Athenian elder^[a] to force the Jews to turn away from their ancestral laws and stop living according to God’s laws. ² He was also ordered to defile the temple in Jerusalem and to rename it for Zeus Olympus, and to rename the temple in Mount Gerizim for Zeus, Friend of Strangers,^[b] just as the people living there requested. ³ The onslaught of this evil was severe and hard for all to bear.