I do not know much about the Maccabees may have been Jews but they were not the ones taken into captivity who are part of Daniel's prophesy system; they may be counted with the lost sheep.
Did the Maccabees come to the Jerusalem Temple to cleanse it; was it before the temple was destroyed or was it after it was rebuilt? And by cleansing the temple do you mean they removed trash or performed the annual sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat for the remission of Israel's sins?
How far do you think Jesus went; Jesus said he would be with us always especially when we meet on a Holly day; a Sabbath, the Sabbath or a feast day etc.; heaven is traditionally were the clouds are and is the hemisphere they can be seen to form; unless one follows the Talmud or Babylonian astrology.
I had assumed you were a Futurist, Antiochus Epiphanes IV would make you a preterits.
The prophecies of Daniel have to do with the Jews from their captivity on - before and after Christ and the destruction of the temple, and to the second coming. I am not a preterist by any means. But I do apply prophecies where they belong.
Antiochus Epiphanes IV defiled the temple by slaughtering a pig on the altar on December 25, Zeus' birthday. You may have heard of Hanukkah when the little bit of oil in their lamps burned for 8 nights. God did that for the Maccabees. This all had to do with the cleansing of the temple - B.C. Chapter 9 and the 70 weeks prophecy has to do with Jesus, and the temple being destroyed in 70 A.D. The last verse of the prophecy has to do with national Jews and the last 7 years of the world.
Antiochus Epiphanes IV is a foreshadow of the future Antichrist. But the 2,300 evening and morning prophecy equalling 1,150 full days was the length of his reign. Because the days are specified as evenings and mornings, we can determine this to be actual time, not prophetic day/year or day/1000 year as in other prophecies. He was the little horn that grew out of the four generals. Read it:
Chapter 8
8 Therefore the male goat
(Greece) grew very great
(Alexander the Great); but when he became strong, the large horn was broken
(he died), and in place of it four notable ones
(his four generals) came up toward the four winds of heaven. 9 And out of one of them came a little horn
(Antiochus Epiphanes IV) which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious
Land (Jerusalem and the temple). 10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down
some of the host and
some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. 11 He even exalted
himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily
sacrifices were taken away
(Antiochus defiled the altar), and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. 12 Because of transgression, an army was given over
to the horn to oppose the daily
sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did
all this and prospered.
13 Then I heard a holy one speaking; and
another holy one said to that certain
one who was speaking, “How long
will the vision
be, concerning the daily
sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?”
14 And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days
(the length of his reign); then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
(by Maccabees)