For me, as a student of the Greco-Roman era, the word Epiphany has certain connotations attached to it which are hard to shake and they all revolve around one man: Antiochus IV Epiphanes. As told in 1 Maccabees 1-2 and 2 Maccabees 5-7, Antiochus attempted to annihilate Judaism, which initially he presented as a desire that “his whole kingdom…should be one people, and that all should give up their particular customs” (1 Macc. 1:41-42). This desire devolved into a ferocious attempt to destroy Judaism and the Jewish people, which was ultimately repulsed by Mattathias and his sons, preeminent amongst them, Judas Maccabeus. Modern scholars are divided as to whether Antiochus Epiphanes actually wanted to create “one people” and “one religion,” or whether he simply wanted to make manifest his power over others and satisfy a lust for wealth. What is not disputed, though, is that Antiochus saw himself as a manifestation of the divine Zeus, and his appellation Epiphanes refers to his understanding of himself as an incarnation of the god. How different the account of the true King made manifest in the flesh. He did not come to force people to become “one people” and “one religion.” He did not exact tribute from his subject peoples. He did not destroy them with bloody might if they dared to oppose him. His Epiphany is truly seen in his incarnation, true God born as a vulnerable infant, but also in what he achieved for humankind. Many since Antiochus Epiphanes have tried to create by various forms of force a “one world order,” but only through Christ is the goal possible. As Paul writes in Ephesians, the mystery, or secret, of the revelation of Christ at least in part contains the mystery that Gentiles, those who are not Jews, also “have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Eph. 3:6). For us, so long removed from the understanding that the Gentiles were beyond the covenant promises of God, it is difficult to (re)imagine the “mystery” of this revelation: Gentiles are invited through Christ to share in salvation, now offered to all people. This is a true joy, that all people are a part of the same household of God, “one new humanity, in place of the two, thus making peace” (Eph. 2:15). No violent force could create one world and one people, only the son of God made manifest in the flesh. John W. Martens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.