HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

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  a Gk and

  b Vg Compare verse 21: Meaning of Gk uncertain

  c Or by a petition

  d Gk he

  e Gk lacks true

  f Meaning of Gk uncertain

  g Gk he

  h Gk He

  i Or in each city

  j Gk they

  k Other ancient authorities read the people

  4.1–6 The internal Jewish struggle between Simon and Onias III is intertwined with Seleucid affairs.

  4.1 Simon was previously mentioned in 3.4–6. His slander may have been due to Onias’s pro-Ptolemaic stance.

  4.2 Laws, not only the Jewish Torah but also the Seleucid laws.

  4.4 Apollonius was also Simon’s collaborator in 3.7.

  4.7–17 The new high priest Jason introduces Greek institutions and customs to Jerusalem. See 1 Macc 1.11–15, where Jason is not named.

  4.7 After Seleucus IV was killed in 175 BCE, he was succeeded (after a political struggle) by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BCE), who appointed Jason the Jewish high priest in place of Onias III.

  4.9 Gymnasium, a Greek institution concerned not only with physical exercise but also with education and general culture. Some Jews may have become honorary citizens of Antioch in Syria; or perhaps Jerusalem had been renamed Antioch and made a Greek city-state.

  4.10 The Greek way of life contrasts with Judaism (2.21). Far more than 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees interprets the Jewish “reformers” as supporting a foreign culture and religion.

  4.11 The royal concessions to the Jews included the right to be governed by their Torah rather than by Seleucid law. For Eupolemus’s mission to Rome, see 1 Macc 8.17.

  4.12 Citadel, the fort overlooking the temple area. Greek hat (Greek petasos), the wide-brimmed hat worn by Hermes, god of athletic skill.

  4.13 As a brother of Onias III, Jason was from a proper priestly family. In the writer’s eyes he was no true high priest because he obtained the office by corruption and carried out a program hostile to Judaism.

  4.16–17 According to 2 Maccabees the evils that befell the Jewish people and the temple were the result of following the Greek way of life (see 6.12–17).

  4.18–22 Participation in the games at Tyre and Jason’s welcome of Antiochus IV to Jerusalem illustrate the bad results of the hellenization program.

  4.18–19 Games were held at Tyre in honor of the god Hercules (Heracles, Melqart) every four years. Antiochian citizens from Jerusalem. See note on 4.9.

  4.20 Rather than allow the money to be used for sacrifices to a pagan god, the Jews had it applied to the construction of triremes, Greek ships with three rows of oars on each side.

  4.21 Through Apollonius (3.7; 4.4) Antiochus IV learned that his nephew Ptolemy VI Philometor had designs against his Seleucid kingdom. On his way down the coast to Egypt Antiochus went east to Jerusalem, where he was welcomed by Jason.

  4.23–29 The vile Jason (v. 19) is replaced by the even worse Menelaus, the brother of Simon (3.4).

  4.23–24 In 172 BCE Menelaus outbid Jason for the high priesthood, just as Jason had outbid Onias III (vv. 7–8).

  4.26 Jason fled to Ammon in Transjordan, perhaps to the Nabateans (5.8) or to Hyrcanus (3.11).

  4.28 Sostratus (a non-Jew) was in charge of the citadel (v. 12), which was held mainly by mercenaries from Cyprus (v. 29).

  4.29 Lysimachus. See 4.39–42.

  4.30–34 The evil character of Menelaus and Andronicus is made manifest in their treatment of the temple vessels and the murder of the rightful high priest, Onias III.

  4.30 Tarsus and Mallus, cities in Cilicia, across the Syrian border to the northwest.

  4.31–32 Andronicus had the young son of Seleucus IV murdered in 175 BCE. He was being bribed by Menelaus, who was plundering the Jerusalem temple.

  4.33 Onias III denounced both Menelaus and Andronicus. Place of sanctuary, the temple of Apollo at Daphne, five miles from Antioch.

  4.35–38 The revulsion of both Jews and non-Jews leads Antiochus IV to punish Andronicus.

  4.36 There was a growing Jewish community in the city of Antioch, as the presence of Onias III indicates.

  4.38 The purple robe was worn by Friends of the king (see 1 Macc 10.20). Antiochus IV may well have recognized the bloodthirsty Andronicus as a threat to his own rule.

  4.39–50 A riot in Jerusalem leads to the death of Lysimachus, and Menelaus escapes by bribery.

  4.39 Lysimachus, Menelaus’s brother and assistant (v. 29), had joined in plundering the temple vessels at Jerusalem.

  4.42 That the temple robber Lysimachus died at the place he was robbing was a sign to the writer of divine intervention.

  4.45 Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, later governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia (8.8; 1 Macc 3.38), sided with Menelaus against the delegates sent by the senate (Greek gerousia), the council of Jewish elders.

  4.47 Scythians, people north of the Black Sea notorious for their cruelty and regarded as barbarians.

  2 MACCABEES 5

  Jason Tries to Regain Control

  1About this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt.2And it happened that, for almost forty days, there appeared over all the city golden-clad cavalry charging through the air, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn swords—3troops of cavalry drawn up, attacks and counterattacks made on this side and on that, brandishing of shields, massing of spears, hurling of missiles, the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all kinds. 4Therefore everyone prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen.

  5When a false rumor arose that Antiochus was dead, Jason took no fewer than a thousand men and suddenly made an assault on the city. When the troops on the wall had been forced back and at last the city was being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the citadel. 6But Jason kept relentlessly slaughtering his compatriots, not realizing that success at the cost of one’s kindred is the greatest misfortune, but imagining that he was setting up trophies of victory over enemies and not over compatriots. 7He did not, however, gain control of the government; in the end he got only disgrace from his conspiracy, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites. 8Finally he met a miserable end. Accuseda before Aretas the ruler of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, pursued by everyone, hated as a rebel against the laws, and abhorred as the executioner of his country and his compatriots, he was cast ashore in Egypt. 9There he who had driven many from their own country into exile died in exile, having embarked to go to the Lacedaemonians in hope of finding protection because of their kinship. 10He who had cast out many to lie unburied had no one to mourn for him; he had no funeral of any sort and no place in the tomb of his ancestors.

  11When news of what had happened reached the king, he took it to mean that Judea was in revolt. So, raging inwardly, he left Egypt and took the city by storm. 12He commanded his soldiers to cut down relentlessly everyone they met and to kill those who went into their houses. 13Then there was massacre of young and old, destruction of boys, women, and children, and slaughter of young girls and infants. 14Within the total of three days eighty thousand were destroyed, forty thousand in hand-to-hand fighting, and as many were sold into slavery as were killed.

  Pillage of the Temple

  15Not content with this, Antiochusb dared to enter the most holy temple in all the world, guided by Menelaus, who had become a traitor both to the laws and to his country. 16He took the holy vessels with his polluted hands, and swept away with profane hands the votive offerings that other kings had made to enhance the glory and honor of the place. 17Antiochus was elated in spirit, and did not perceive that the Lord was angered for a little while because of the sins of those who lived in the city, and that this was the reason he was disregarding the holy place. 18But if it had not happened that they were involved in many sins, this man would have been flogged and turned back from his rash act as soon as he came forward, just as Heliodorus had been, whom King Seleucus sent to inspect the treasury. 19But the Lord did not
choose the nation for the sake of the holy place, but the place for the sake of the nation. 20Therefore the place itself shared in the misfortunes that befell the nation and afterward participated in its benefits; and what was forsaken in the wrath of the Almighty was restored again in all its glory when the great Lord became reconciled.

  21So Antiochus carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple, and hurried away to Antioch, thinking in his arrogance that he could sail on the land and walk on the sea, because his mind was elated. 22He left governors to oppress the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, by birth a Phrygian and in character more barbarous than the man who appointed him; 23and at Gerizim, Andronicus; and besides these Menelaus, who lorded it over his compatriots worse than the others did. In his malice toward the Jewish citizens,c 24Antiochusd sent Apollonius, the captain of the Mysians, with an army of twenty-two thousand, and commanded him to kill all the grown men and to sell the women and boys as slaves. 25When this man arrived in Jerusalem, he pretended to be peaceably disposed and waited until the holy sabbath day; then, finding the Jews not at work, he ordered his troops to parade under arms. 26He put to the sword all those who came out to see them, then rushed into the city with his armed warriors and killed great numbers of people.

  27But Judas Maccabeus, with about nine others, got away to the wilderness, and kept himself and his companions alive in the mountains as wild animals do; they continued to live on what grew wild, so that they might not share in the defilement.

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  a Cn: Gk Imprisoned

  b Gk he

  c Or worse than the others did in his malice toward the Jewish citizens

  d Gk he

  5.1–14 Jason’s abortive coup results in a brutal attack on Jerusalem by a frustrated Antiochus IV.

  5.1 Antiochus’s second invasion of Egypt took place in 168 BCE (see Dan 11.29–30). Forced by the Romans to retreat, Antiochus vented his anger on Jerusalem.

  5.2–4 In view of what follows in chs. 5–7, the apparition does not seem to have been a good omen.

  5.5–6 Jason apparently took the report about the Romans’ stopping of Antiochus in Egypt as including his death (see 5.11). His rival Menelaus joined the Cyprian mercenaries in the citadel.

  5.7 For Jason’s earlier flight to the Ammonites, see 4.26.

  5.8 Aretas, Harith I, king of the Nabateans. As a rebel against the Seleucids Jason found refuge in Egypt.

  5.9 Lacedaemonians, Spartans, in Greece. For their alleged kinship with the Jews, see 1 Macc 12.2–23.

  5.10 The villain Jason suffers an appropriate punishment (see 4.16, 38, 42).

  5.14 As usual in 1–2 Maccabees, the numbers are inflated. Antiochus probably viewed events in Jerusalem as a full-scale rebellion that needed to be controlled.

  5.15–27 The robbery by Antiochus with the help of Menelaus and the attack by Apollonius are softened only by the introduction of Judas Maccabeus in v. 27. See 1 Macc 1.21–40.

  5.15–16 Non-Jews were forbidden to enter the most sacred parts of the temple complex and handle the sacred vessels. That Menelaus (the high priest!) served as Antiochus’s guide outraged the writer.

  5.17–18 According to 2 Maccabees God allowed the profanation because of the people’s sins (see 6.12–17). But Antiochus’s arrogance will eventually be punished (see 9.1–29).

  5.21 Eighteen hundred talents, a very large sum, perhaps an exaggeration. For the “elation” of Antiochus, see Dan 11.36.

  5.22–23 Philip the Phrygian (from western Asia Minor) appears again in 6.11; 8.8. This Andronicus is not the same as the one in 4.31–38.

  5.24–26 For another account of Apollonius, see 1 Macc 1.29–32. 2 Maccabees places the attack on the sabbath when Jews would not be prepared for warfare (see 1 Macc 2.29–38).

  5.27 Judas Maccabeus and his nine companions observe the Jewish food laws by eating vegetation and refusing unclean animals. No mention is made of Judas’s father or brothers (see 1 Macc 2.1–5). Judas reappears in 2 Macc 8.

  2 MACCABEES 6

  The Suppression of Judaism

  1Not long after this, the king sent an Atheniana senatorb to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God; 2also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and to call it the temple of Olympian Zeus, and to call the one in Gerizim the temple of Zeus-the-Friend-of-Strangers, as did the people who lived in that place.

  3Harsh and utterly grievous was the onslaught of evil. 4For the temple was filled with debauchery and reveling by the Gentiles, who dallied with prostitutes and had intercourse with women within the sacred precincts, and besides brought in things for sacrifice that were unfit. 5The altar was covered with abominable offerings that were forbidden by the laws. 6People could neither keep the sabbath, nor observe the festivals of their ancestors, nor so much as confess themselves to be Jews.

  7On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jewsc were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices; and when a festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were compelled to wear wreaths of ivy and to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus. 8At the suggestion of the people of Ptolemaisd a decree was issued to the neighboring Greek cities that they should adopt the same policy toward the Jews and make them partake of the sacrifices, 9and should kill those who did not choose to change over to Greek customs. One could see, therefore, the misery that had come upon them. 10For example, two women were brought in for having circumcised their children. They publicly paraded them around the city, with their babies hanging at their breasts, and then hurled them down headlong from the wall. 11Others who had assembled in the caves nearby, in order to observe the seventh day secretly, were betrayed to Philip and were all burned together, because their piety kept them from defending themselves, in view of their regard for that most holy day.

  Providential Significance of the Persecution

  12Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people. 13In fact, it is a sign of great kindness not to let the impious alone for long, but to punish them immediately. 14For in the case of the other nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but he does not deal in this way with us, 15in order that he may not take vengeance on us afterward when our sins have reached their height. 16Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Although he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people. 17Let what we have said serve as a reminder; we must go on briefly with the story.

  The Martyrdom of Eleazar

  18Eleazar, one of the scribes in high position, a man now advanced in age and of noble presence, was being forced to open his mouth to eat swine’s flesh. 19But he, welcoming death with honor rather than life with pollution, went up to the rack of his own accord, spitting out the flesh, 20as all ought to go who have the courage to refuse things that it is not right to taste, even for the natural love of life.

  21Those who were in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring meat of his own providing, proper for him to use, and to pretend that he was eating the flesh of the sacrificial meal that had been commanded by the king, 22so that by doing this he might be saved from death, and be treated kindly on account of his old friendship with them. 23But making a high resolve, worthy of his years and the dignity of his old age and the gray hairs that he had reached with distinction and his excellent life even from childhood, and moreover according to the holy God-given law, he declared himself quickly, telling them to send him to Hades.

  24“Such pretense is not worthy of our time of life,” he said, “for many of the young might suppose that Eleazar in his ninetieth year had gone over to an alien religion, 25and through my pretense, for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray because of me, while I defile and disgrace my old a
ge. 26Even if for the present I would avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die I will not escape the hands of the Almighty. 27Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age 28and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.”

  When he had said this, he wente at once to the rack. 29Those who a little before had acted toward him with goodwill now changed to ill will, because the words he had uttered were in their opinion sheer madness.f 30When he was about to die under the blows, he groaned aloud and said: “It is clear to the Lord in his holy knowledge that, though I might have been saved from death, I am enduring terrible sufferings in my body under this beating, but in my soul I am glad to suffer these things because I fear him.”

  31So in this way he died, leaving in his death an example of nobility and a memorial of courage, not only to the young but to the great body of his nation.

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  a Other ancient authorities read Antiochian

  b Or Geron an Athenian

  c Gk they

  d Cn: Gk suggestion of the Ptolemies (or of Ptolemy)

  e Other ancient authorities read was dragged

  f Meaning of Gk uncertain

  6.1–11 The assimilation to Greek religion and customs is interpreted as a direct attack on Judaism. See 1 Macc 1.41–64.