Why is Antiochus Epiphanes significant in Scripture?

Antiochus Epiphanes is significant in Scripture as a type of the Antichrist. He overran Israel around 200–300 B.C. and defiled the temple by sacrificing a hog on the altar, horrifying the Jews. This prefigures the Antichrist’s future desecration of the Jerusalem temple.

Les explains that Antiochus was not a great man so far as world history was concerned, but he was great in Scripture because he, like the man Antichrist, overran the little nation of Israel around 200–300 B.C. He decimated and defiled the temple by sacrificing a sow, a hog, on the altar, which was horror to the Jew. Les sees this as a picture of what the Antichrist will do as well: when he comes into the temple, he will defile it, desecrate it, and perform acts of abomination, epitomized by the offering of a hog on the altar at the temple in Jerusalem.

Daniel 11:31

And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

What did Antiochus Epiphanes do to the temple that made him important in Scripture?

Antiochus Epiphanes defiled and decimated the temple by sacrificing a sow, a hog, on the altar, an act of horror to the Jews. He is important in Scripture because, like the coming Antichrist, he overran Israel and desecrated the temple, prefiguring the abomination that will occur at the midpoint.