Two Angels Rescue the Jews
16Just as Eleazar was ending his prayer, the king arrived at the hippodrome with the animals and all the arrogance of his forces. 17And when the Jews observed this they raised great cries to heaven so that even the nearby valleys resounded with them and brought an uncontrollable terror upon the army. 18Then the most glorious, almighty, and true God revealed his holy face and opened the heavenly gates, from which two glorious angels of fearful aspect descended, visible to all but the Jews. 19They opposed the forces of the enemy and filled them with confusion and terror, binding them with immovable shackles. 20Even the king began to shudder bodily, and he forgot his sullen insolence. 21The animals turned back upon the armed forces following them and began trampling and destroying them.
22Then the king’s anger was turned to pity and tears because of the things that he had devised beforehand. 23For when he heard the shouting and saw them all fallen headlong to destruction, he wept and angrily threatened his Friends, saying, 24“You are committing treason and surpassing tyrants in cruelty; and even me, your benefactor, you are now attempting to deprive of dominion and life by secretly devising acts of no advantage to the kingdom. 25Who has driven from their homes those who faithfully kept our country’s fortresses, and foolishly gathered every one of them here? 26Who is it that has so lawlessly encompassed with outrageous treatment those who from the beginning differed fromd all nations in their goodwill toward us and often have accepted willingly the worst of human dangers? 27Loose and untie their unjust bonds! Send them back to their homes in peace, begging pardon for your former actions!e 28Release the children of the almighty and living God of heaven, who from the time of our ancestors until now has granted an unimpeded and notable stability to our government.” 29These then were the things he said; and the Jews, immediately released, praised their holy God and Savior, since they now had escaped death.
The Jews Celebrate Their Deliverance
30Then the king, when he had returned to the city, summoned the official in charge of the revenues and ordered him to provide to the Jews both wines and everything else needed for a festival of seven days, deciding that they should celebrate their rescue with all joyfulness in that same place in which they had expected to meet their destruction. 31Accordingly those disgracefully treated and near to death,f or rather, who stood at its gates, arranged for a banquet of deliverance instead of a bitter and lamentable death, and full of joy they apportioned to celebrants the place that had been prepared for their destruction and burial. 32They stopped their chanting of dirges and took up the song of their ancestors, praising God, their Savior and worker of wonders.g Putting an end to all mourning and wailing, they formed chorusesh as a sign of peaceful joy. 33Likewise also the king, after convening a great banquet to celebrate these events, gave thanks to heaven unceasingly and lavishly for the unexpected rescue that hei had experienced. 34Those who had previously believed that the Jews would be destroyed and become food for birds, and had joyfully registered them, groaned as they themselves were overcome by disgrace, and their fire-breathing boldness was ignominiouslyj quenched.
35The Jews, as we have said before, arranged the aforementioned choral groupk and passed the time in feasting to the accompaniment of joyous thanksgiving and psalms. 36And when they had ordained a public rite for these things in their whole community and for their descendants, they instituted the observance of the aforesaid days as a festival, not for drinking and gluttony, but because of the deliverance that had come to them through God. 37Then they petitioned the king, asking for dismissal to their homes. 38So their registration was carried out from the twenty-fifth of Pachon to the fourth of Epeiph,l for forty days; and their destruction was set for the fifth to the seventh of Epeiph,m the three days 39on which the Lord of all most gloriously revealed his mercy and rescued them all together and unharmed. 40Then they feasted, being provided with everything by the king, until the fourteenth day,n on which also they made the petition for their dismissal. 41The king granted their request at once and wrote the following letter for them to the generals in the cities, magnanimously expressing his concern:
next chapter
* * *
a Other ancient authorities read rescued and restored; others, mercifully restored
b Other ancient authorities read to the saints of Israel
c Or bless their vain gods
d Or excelled above
e Other ancient authorities read revoking your former commands
f Gk Hades
g Other ancient authorities read praising Israel and the wonder-working God; or praising Israel’s Savior, the wonder-working God
h Or dances
i Other ancient authorities read they
j Other ancient authorities read completely
k Or dance
l July 7—August 15
m August 16—18
n August 25
6.1–15 The prayer of Eleazar further delays the climax and builds the suspense. It also balances the prayer of Simon in ch. 2.
6.1 Eleazar, the name of a high priest in Letter of Aristeas 41 and of a martyr in 2 Macc 6.18–31; 4 Macc 5–7. Priests of the country, perhaps the priests of the Jewish temple at Leontopolis. A ripe old age. See 2 Macc 6.18.
6.3 Perishing as foreigners. Cf. the assertion of Philo that Jews “severally hold that land as their fatherland in which they were born and reared” (Flaccus 46).
6.4 By drowning them in the sea. See Ex 14–15.
6.5 Sennacherib. See 2 Kings 18–19; Isa 36–37.
6.6 The three companions. See Dan 3. Moistening the fiery furnace. This detail is found only in the Additions to Daniel (Pr Azar 27).
6.7 Daniel…wild animals. See Dan 6; Bel 31–42.
6.10 Even if our lives…impieties, an even more minimal confession of sin than was found in the prayer of Simon (ch. 2).
6.11 See Ps 115.2.
6.15 Not even…did I neglect them, from Lev 26.44.
6.16–29 The reversal of fortune. The story now moves to its climax.
6.17 An uncontrollable terror. See Ex 15.16.
6.18 Two glorious angels. See 2 Macc 3.26. The fact that the angels are not visible to everyone shows their supernatural character.
6.21 At the battle of Raphia, Philopator’s elephants proved intractable and disrupted their own lines (Polybius, Histories 5.84.7).
6.22 The king’s anger was turned to pity. This is the moment of reversal.
6.23 Philopator blames his Friends (see note on 5.3), though it is he who took the initiative. In Esther and Daniel, the counselors were primarily to blame.
6.25 Those who faithfully kept our country’s fortresses. Jews already kept the fortress at Elephantine in the fifth century BCE.
6.28 The children…heaven. See Wis 18.13.
6.30–41 The celebration.
6.31 A banquet of deliverance instead of…death heavily emphasizes the reversal of fortune.
6.32 The song of their ancestors, perhaps Ps 136 (cf. 1 Chr 16.41; 2 Chr 5.13; 7.3; Ezra 3.11).
6.34 Food for birds. See Ezek 39.4; 2 Macc 9.15.
6.36 Cf. the establishment of Purim in Esth 9. Josephus says that the deliverance from the elephants was “the origin of the well-known feast which the Jews of Alexandria keep, with good reason, on this day” (Against Apion 2.55).
3 MACCABEES 7
Ptolemy’s Letter on Behalf of the Jews
1“King Ptolemy Philopator to the generals in Egypt and all in authority in his government, greetings and good health:
2“We ourselves and our children are faring well, the great God guiding our affairs according to our desire. 3Certain of our friends, frequently urging us with malicious intent, persuaded us to gather together the Jews of the kingdom in a body and to punish them with barbarous penalties as traitors; 4for they declared that our government would never be firmly established until this was accomplished, because of the ill-will that these people had toward all nations. 5They also led them out with harsh treatment as s
laves, or rather as traitors, and, girding themselves with a cruelty more savage than that of Scythian custom, they tried without any inquiry or examination to put them to death. 6But we very severely threatened them for these acts, and in accordance with the clemency that we have toward all people we barely spared their lives. Since we have come to realize that the God of heaven surely defends the Jews, always taking their part as a father does for his children, 7and since we have taken into account the friendly and firm goodwill that they had toward us and our ancestors, we justly have acquitted them of every charge of whatever kind. 8We also have ordered all people to return to their own homes, with no one in any placea doing them harm at all or reproaching them for the irrational things that have happened. 9For you should know that if we devise any evil against them or cause them any grief at all, we always shall have not a mortal but the Ruler over every power, the Most High God, in everything and inescapably as an antagonist to avenge such acts. Farewell.”
The Jews Return Home with Joy
10On receiving this letter the Jewsb did not immediately hurry to make their departure, but they requested of the king that at their own hands those of the Jewish nation who had willfully transgressed against the holy God and the law of God should receive the punishment they deserved. 11They declared that those who for the belly’s sake had transgressed the divine commandments would never be favorably disposed toward the king’s government. 12The kingc then, admitting and approving the truth of what they said, granted them a general license so that freely, and without royal authority or supervision, they might destroy those everywhere in his kingdom who had transgressed the law of God. 13When they had applauded him in fitting manner, their priests and the whole multitude shouted the Hallelujah and joyfully departed. 14And so on their way they punished and put to a public and shameful death any whom they met of their compatriots who had become defiled. 15In that day they put to death more than three hundred men; and they kept the day as a joyful festival, since they had destroyed the profaners. 16But those who had held fast to God even to death and had received the full enjoyment of deliverance began their departure from the city, crowned with all sorts of very fragrant flowers, joyfully and loudly giving thanks to the one God of their ancestors, the eternal Saviord of Israel, in words of praise and all kinds of melodious songs.
17When they had arrived at Ptolemais, called “rose-bearing” because of a characteristic of the place, the fleet waited for them, in accordance with the common desire, for seven days. 18There they celebrated their deliverance,e for the king had generously provided all things to them for their journey until all of them arrived at their own houses. 19And when they had all landed in peace with appropriate thanksgiving, there too in like manner they decided to observe these days as a joyous festival during the time of their stay. 20Then, after inscribing them as holy on a pillar and dedicating a place of prayer at the site of the festival, they departed unharmed, free, and overjoyed, since at the king’s command they had all of them been brought safely by land and sea and river to their own homes. 21They also possessed greater prestige among their enemies, being held in honor and awe; and they were not subject at all to confiscation of their belongings by anyone. 22Besides, they all recovered all of their property, in accordance with the registration, so that those who held any of it restored it to them with extreme fear.f So the supreme God perfectly performed great deeds for their deliverance. 23Blessed be the Deliverer of Israel through all times! Amen.
* * *
a Other ancient authorities read way
b Gk they
c Gk He
d Other ancient authorities read the holy Savior; others, the holy one
e Gk they made a cup of deliverance
f Other ancient authorities read with a very large supplement
7.1-9 Ptolemy’s letter.
7.2 Our children. Philopator had only one legitimate son, who later reigned as Ptolemy V Epiphanes.
7.3 Again the king puts the blame on certain ... friends, in blatant contradiction of the story.
7.5 The Scythians were proverbial for barbarism and cruelty. See 2 Macc 4.47; 4 Macc 10.7.
7.6 Jewish stories of this period often have the pagan king acknowledge the true God (Dan 2.47; 4.2, 37; 6.26;2 Macc 9.12,13). God of heaven, a title that might be used by both Jews and Gentiles. Philopator does not necessarily concede that Judaism is the only true religion, but he does concede that the universal God protects it.
7.10–16 Revenge on apostates. In Esther, the king authorized the Jews to slaughter their gentile enemies (Esth 8.11–13; 9.1 – 17). Here there is no revenge on the Gentiles, but more than three hundred Jewish apostates are killed, even though they acted under duress. This reflects the tensions within the Jewish community in time of crisis. It is ironic that 3 Maccabees began with an exploit of the apostate Dositheus.
7.17-23 The departure.
7.17 Ptolemais, the one at the harbor near Cairo, not the better known Ptolemais in Upper Egypt.
7.20 The king is benevolent in the end. Sea, possibly Lake Moeris, or perhaps by land and sea and river is idiomatic and means “by whatever means necessary.”
7.22 The registration proves to have a providential purpose, as it enables the Jews to recover their possessions.
7.23 Blessed be the Deliverer of Israel. Cf. the closing doxology in 4 Macc 18.24.
(c) The following book is included in the Slavonic Bible as 3 Esdras, but is not found in the Greek. It is included in the Appendix to the Latin Vulgate Bible as 4 Esdras.
2 ESDRAS
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
THE BOOK WE KNOW AS 2 ESDRAS is made up of three works: 4 Ezra, an apocalypse by a Jewish author (chs. 3–14), and two independent Christian supplements, 5 Ezra (chs. 1–2) and 6 Ezra (chs. 15–16). Esdras, the Greek form of the Hebrew name Ezra, is the seer who receives seven visions in the main portion of the book. The pseudepigraphical author writes as if he were the Ezra who figures in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
4 Ezra
FOURTH EZRA WAS WRITTEN in the aftermath of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. On the basis of the identification of the heads in the fifth vision (chs. 11–12), its date can be set more precisely in the last decade of the first century CE. Other indications of date have been sought in the work, but no convincing argument can be made for them.
The original audience of 4 Ezra consisted of Jews, probably living in the land of Israel, who were wrestling with the implications of the destruction of the temple. An indication of the author’s prophetic status within his own community may be found in 12.42, but we have little indication of how 4 Ezra functioned in that community or how it was used.
Scholars today almost universally hold that 4 Ezra was composed in a Semitic language, most probably Hebrew. The original Hebrew text and the Greek primary translation of it have perished except for a few quotations from the Greek text by ancient authors. The text translated here is basically the Latin version, with some account taken of Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, and Georgian versions. Previous theories of the composition of 4 Ezra from five sources are no longer entertained. It is the work of one individual, who draws at points on older material. In 4.35–36a; 6.49–52; 13.1–20; 13.40–47, the author has included what seem to be preexisting blocks of material.
4 Ezra is composed of seven visions separated by fasts. The first three visions are unusual in form, composed of addresses, dialogues, and predictions. In the first two visions (3.1–6.34) the seer’s problems in the addresses are partly answered in the predictive dialogues and direct pre dictions. The third vision (6.35–9.25) is very long and much more complex. The address of the first vision (3.4–36) indicts God the creator for the state of the world and of Israel. Israel’s suffering under Rome raises for the author the question of God’s justice. The angel’s responses in the first three visions gradually lead Ezra from skepticism to acceptance of God’s incomprehensible providence. Indeed, E
zra comes to embrace answers he rejected previously.
This acceptance provides the basis for the fourth vision (9.26–10.59), the seer’s conversion followed by his waking experience of heavenly Jerusalem, after which he becomes a more conventional apocalyptic seer. In the fifth (11.1–12.51) and sixth (13.1–58) visions, we find symbolic dreams interpreted by an angel, as is customary in apocalypses. In the seventh vision (14.1–48), Ezra is granted a revelation of the ninety-four secret and public books of scripture. The visions are set within a narrative framework indicating the progression of the seer’s experience.
4 Ezra was an influential writing, deeply imbued with the Hebrew scriptures and having an explicit relationship to the book of Daniel, which sets it in an apocalyptic tradition. Of ancient Jewish writing, it is extremely closely related to 2 Apocalypse of Baruch, although scholars differ as to which work was written first. A number of later Christian apocalypses are fashioned on the form of 4 Ezra. The chief such writings are 6 Ezra, the Greek Esdras Apocalypse, the Apocalypse of Sedrach (Greek), the Revelation of Ezra (Latin), and the Questions of Ezra (Armenian). 4 Ezra had a deep and broad influence in both Eastern and Western Christianity. No impression on rabbinic or later Judaism has been discerned.
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 416
