“From them came forth a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus. He had been a hostage in Rome. He began to reign in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks.”

Now we have a particular king, King Antiochus Epiphanes IV (215-164 BCE), the son of King Antiochus III the Great (223-187 BCE). He was a Syrian king of the Seleucid dynasty. There never were good relations between Syria and Judah. He came to rule in the 137^th year of the Greeks. All the dating in this book is based on year 1 of the Greeks as 312 BCE. This then puts the rule of King Antiochus IV about 175 BCE. His father had taken Palestine from the Egyptians, but lost Asia Minor to the Romans, so that the son, Antiochus IV had been a prisoner in Rome.