1. The Maccabean kingdom of Levite rulers (104-63 and 40-37 B.C.E.) did not alter that fact.

2. Notes The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible: “A Maccabean dating for Daniel has now to be abandoned, if only because there could not possibly be a sufficient interval between the composition of Daniel and its appearance in the form of copies in the library of a Maccabean religious sect.”

3. They prefer the so-called late-date, or Maccabean-date, theory, originally advanced by a third-century C.E. anti-Christian philosopher named Porphyry.

4. He is famous for almost conquering Egypt and for his brutal persecution of the Jews, which precipitated the Maccabean revolt. Antiochus Epiphanes was a ruthless and often capricious ruler.