supremacy, and many more succumbed under the concentrated propaganda of the Seleucids. The First Book of Maccabees throws light on the situation at that time in these words, ‘In those days there came forth out of Israel transgressors of the law, and persuaded many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles that are around us; for since we parted from them many evils have befallen us. And the saying was good in their eyes. And certain of the people were forward herein, and went to the
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