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Maccabees 1-5
The Sons of Mattathias (Yay!) vs. Antiochus Epiphanes (Boo!)
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts
(Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old
Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as
literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
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Maccabees 1
“And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the
Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of
the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece”
There’s some vivid (not to mention lurid) history in
this chapter. Alexander the Great defeats Darius of Persia and establishes his
empire, only to die twelve years later and divides it between his heirs, who
then end up fighting over it.
Jerusalem falls under the jurisdiction of Antiochus
Epiphanes, and after Antiochus defeats the Ptolemys of Egypt, he turns to
Judah. The foray into Egypt seems like an irrelevant historical detail to the
rest of the tale, but I think it serves to establish the ambition of Antiochus
and his desire for conquest. Because afterwards he goes to Jerusalem “And entered proudly into the sanctuary, and
took away the golden altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels
thereof, And the table of the shewbread, and the pouring vessels, and the
vials. and the censers of gold, and the veil, and the crown, and the golden
ornaments that were before the temple, all which he pulled off”.
Having plundered the temple, Antiochus leaves for a
while, and in Jerusalem “the princes and
elders mourned, the virgins and young men were made feeble, and the beauty of
women was changed” from the shock. Two years later Antiochus returns to
collect taxes and ends up burning the city and carrying away women, children
and cattle. He then decrees what is evidently a call to a unified Greek
civilisation, that “every one should
leave his laws: so all the heathen agreed according to the commandment of the
king”.
Throughout there’s a tension between those who
accommodate Antiochus, and those who, as with the author of this piece, are
adamantly set on the traditional ways – “Then
many of the people were gathered unto them, to wit every one that forsook the
law; and so they committed evils in the land”. Given the partisanship of
the author, I have my doubts as to how widespread and violent a lot of the
things described actually were, of books of the law being destroyed, killing
anyone found with a copy of the law, killing women who circumcise their sons –
“And they hanged the infants about their
necks, and rifled their houses, and slew them that had circumcised them”,
that kind of thing. The pro-Greek party set up the “abomination of desolation” on the altar of the temple, and idols
throughout the city. I wonder what the “abomination
of desolation” is? Evidently some kind of idol, most likely either a statue
of Zeus or maybe of Antiochus, I would have thought. You see once again the
slightly histrionic style of the author of Maccabees which makes me doubt that
the persecution of the orthodox was as bad as it’s made out to be. Then again,
it’s not like this kind of thing doesn’t happen all the time.
The chapter ends on a note that there were many who
were prepared to die for their faith rather than, specifically, eat any unclean
thing.
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Maccabees 2
“In
those days arose Mattathias the son of John, the son of Simeon, a priest of the
sons of Joarib, from Jerusalem, and dwelt in Modin”
We are introduced to Mattathias and his sons who all
have two names; Joannon Caddis, Simon Thassi, Judas Maccabeus (hm, you think he
might be important given the title of the book?), Eleazar Avaran and Jonathan
Apphus.
Mattathias grieves for the sack of Jerusalem and the
Temple – “All her ornaments are taken
away; of a free woman she is become a bondslave”, and he and his sons take
on the aspect of mourning. Some officers of the king come to get people to
sacrifice to the pagan gods of Antiochus, and it’s evident that Mattathias is a
man of some authority because the try to get him to tell the people of Modin to
sacrifice and promise him riches in return.
Mattathias rebuts them in no uncertain terms – “Though all the nations that are under the
king's dominion obey him, and fall away every one from the religion of their
fathers, and give consent to his commandments: Yet will I and my sons and my
brethren walk in the covenant of our fathers. God forbid that we should forsake
the law and the ordinances. We will not hearken to the king's words, to go from
our religion, either on the right hand, or the left”. When a Jew comes to
make sacrifice at the altar, Mattathias kills him, kills the officer of
Antiochus and pulls down the altar (which I can’t help but think is probably as
much sacrilege as it would be to sacrifice to the Greek Gods), then he and his
sons run away to become rebels. As it says “Thus
dealt he zealously for the law of God like as Phinees did unto Zambri the son
of Salom”. No, me neither.
Meanwhile a load of other people including women,
children and livestock also flee the city and go “down into the secret places in the wilderness”. Antiochus’ men
pursue them and when they find them order them to surrender. The refugees reply
“We will not come forth, neither will we
do the king's commandment, to profane the sabbath day” so the Greeks
attack. It being Sabbath, the Jews “neither
cast they a stone at them, nor stopped the places where they lay hid” and
so get slaughtered.
When Mattathias hears of this he decides that from now
on that “Whosoever shall come to make
battle with us on the sabbath day, we will fight against him; neither will we
die all, as our brethren that were murdered in the secret places”. He
gathers other rebels to him, including a company of Assideans “who were mighty men of Israel, even all such
as were voluntarily devoted unto the law”. This band of roving fanatics
tear down profaned altars and forcibly circumcise boys, and “they recovered the law out of the hand of
the Gentiles, and out of the hand of kings, neither suffered they the sinner to
triumph”. I can’t help but feel that probably a lot of innocent people that
only went along with the Greeks for a safe and quiet life probably got punished
as well.
Eventually Mattathias is dying, presumably of old age,
and reminds his sons of the various Biblical figures that were rewarded by God
for various types of devotion (“Was not
Abraham found faithful in temptation”, “David
for being merciful possessed the throne of an everlasting kingdom”, “Daniel for his innocency was delivered from
the mouth of lions” and so on). Note that Joshua here is translated as
“Jesus”, showing how relatively common the name was. Also mentioned are Caleb
and Phinees, neither of whom I remember.
After this he sets Simon as “a man of counsel, give ear unto him alway: he shall be a father unto
you” and Judas Maccabeus (see, knew it) as the war leader since “he hath been mighty and strong, even from
his youth up”.
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Maccabees 3
“So
he gat his people great honour, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt
his warlike harness about him, and he made battles, protecting the host with
his sword.”
We follow the fortunes of Judas Maccabeus in war, as
he fights battles and “pursued the
wicked, and sought them out, and burnt up those that vexed his people”. A
Greek leader Apollonius opposes him from Samaria and is dealt with in short
order – “when Judas perceived, he went
forth to meet him, and so he smote him, and slew him: many also fell down
slain, but the rest fled”. Judas takes and uses Apollonius’ sword from then
on.
Next a Persian princeling Seron marches out to fight
him, and Judas’ men are dismayed by the size of Seron’s army. Judas tells them
that “the victory of battle standeth not
in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven”, which isn’t
entirely true, but he also points out that the Persians fight only for conquest
whereas the Jews are fighting for their lives, families and way of life, and so
they have a lot more to fight for. Sure enough, once again the forces of Judas
win the day (although they might technically be “the Maccabees”, the text hasn’t
called them this yet, so neither will I). The battle, by the way, is dealt with
in a mot perfunctory fashion – “he leapt
suddenly upon them, and so Seron and his host was overthrown before him”. That’s
all you get.
Judas finally comes to the attention of King
Antiochus, who realises that his funds are running low “because of the dissension and plague, which he had brought upon the
land in taking away the laws which had been of old time”. Dissension, yes,
I can see that. Plagues? Well, anyway the point of irony that it’s his own
misrule causing the problems is not lost either way.
Antiochus decides to visit his Persian provinces for a
bit of good old tax-collecting, leaving a factotum Lysias in charge “to oversee the affairs of the king from the
river Euphrates unto the borders of Egypt”. Also to destroy Judas Maccabeus
and to bring up the prince, also confusingly called Antiochus (whom I will call
Antiochus Jr. from now on). Also, given that he needs the funds to raise more
of a fighting force to take on Judas, Antiochus rather bizarrely decides to
take half of his forces with him leaving Lysias with seven thousand horsemen
and forty thousand footmen (and possibly some war elephants). Which, to be
honest, still seems like a lot and implies that Antiochus had eighty thousand
foot soldiers and fourteen thousand cavalry at his command and still didn’t
think it enough. Or maybe he just couldn’t pay all that lot.
The Israelites decide to fight, taking on mourning
sackcloth and ashes and going to the old sanctuary of Maspha to pray and to try
to reclaim their laws (Jerusalem being “void
as a wilderness, there was none of her children that went in or out: the
sanctuary also was trodden down, and aliens kept the strong hold”). They
bring out the old book of laws and ask God for guidance (none is given in this
chapter), Judas organises his forces but anyone “such as were building houses, or had betrothed wives, or were planting
vineyards, or were fearful” is given permission to leave. After a bit of an
inspiring speech, Judas’ forces are waiting to face the enemy in the morning,
and we leave the chapter on a cliffhanger.
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Maccabees 4
“Now
when Judas heard thereof he himself removed, and the valiant men with him, that
he might smite the king's army which was at Emmaus”
Briefly, we get some military victories of Judas
Maccabeus after which he drives away the forces of Lysias long enough to be
able to recapture the temple, which is tidied up and re-consecrated. And that’s
about it for this chapter.
In more detail, first of all Judas learns that the
general Gorgias is leading his troops to attack his camp, so he returns the
favour, leading his men to attack
the camp of Gorgias that has now been depleted of troops.
They do this, then wait for Gorgias to come back from
his sortie empty-handed, whereupon they ambush him and defeat him. Despite
Judas having “three thousand men, who
nevertheless had neither armour nor swords to their minds” the Israelites
still win, probably due to them having religious zeal on their side; as Judas
says to them “Now therefore let us cry
unto heaven, if peradventure the Lord will have mercy upon us, and remember the
covenant of our fathers, and destroy this host before our face this day”.
After this they plunder the enemy camp “where
they got much gold, and silver, and blue silk, and purple of the sea, and great
riches”.
The following year Lysias musters and army of 60,000
footmen and 5,000 cavalry yet still manages to be defeated by Judas’ army of
10,000 men; mainly due to morale it would seem. He heads back to gather another
army for another try – “he went into
Antiochia, and gathered together a company of strangers, and having made his
army greater than it was, he purposed to come again into Judea”. But we
don’t hear about this yet.
Meanwhile, Judas says “Behold, our enemies are discomfited: let us go up to cleanse and
dedicate the sanctuary” and they find “the
sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burned up, and shrubs
growing in the courts as in a forest”, but after a bit of a show of grief
they get on with the repairs. The altar they decide to tear down and rebuild,
but intriguingly the stones of the old altar are stored “in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, until there should
come a prophet to shew what should be done with them”. Which I don’t think
anybody does, and this would have been a convenient thing for Jesus to have
done at some point to demonstrate His credentials. Odd that He should not.
The only other thought I have concerns the
rededication of the altar involving making burnt offerings to God. Considering
the profanation of the old altar involved… making burnt offerings, it’s
evidently not so much what was done
but to which deity of was directed that made the difference.
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Maccabees 5
“Then Judas fought against the
children of Esau in Idumea at Arabattine, because they besieged Gael: and he
gave them a great overthrow, and abated their courage, and took their spoils”
This chapter is basically just a lot of fighting.
Judas goes and defeats a few nearby cities, including the “children of Bean”, until word reaches him that the people of Galaad
(wherever that is) have decided to take revenge on all the Israelites living
among them, and that these Israelites have fled and been besieged in the
fortress of Dathoma. At the same time, he learns that something similar is
happening in Galilee.
He gives three thousand men to his brother Simon to
rescue the Jews of Galilee (which he largely does off-screen) while he and his
brother Jonathon go to Galaad with eight thousand men, leaving Azarias and
Joseph son of Zecharias in charge of Jerusalem with the express instructions
that they must not, under any
circumstances, make any attacks on the Gentiles until Judas returns to lead. “Take ye the charge of this people, and see
that ye make not war against the heathen until the time that we come again”.
Got that, Joseph and Azarias? No attacking the
heathens until Judas gets back.
“Now what time
as Judas and Jonathan were in the land of Galaad, and Simon his brother in
Galilee before Ptolemais, Joseph the son of Zacharias, and Azarias, captains of
the garrisons, heard of the valiant acts and warlike deeds which they had done.
Wherefore they said, Let us also get us a name, and go fight against the
heathen that are round about us”.
You had one
job.
Now, of course, they get defeated as an object lesson
in what happens if you disobey orders, losing two thousand men in a fight
against Gorgias.
Meanwhile, Judas goes from city to city, it’s all a
bit repetitive where he takes cities, burns them, kills all the men, rinse and
repeat. In the end he has a large group if Israelite refugees with him to come
back to Jerusalem, and after a bit of argy-bargy with the city of Ephron,
through which they need to pass for some unstated geographic reason, but the
people of Ephron (perhaps understandably) are loth to allow a massive group of
armed foreigners through their city, and so Judas attacks it and, as has become
formulaic by this point of the chapter, “slew
all the males with the edge of the sword, and rased the city, and took the
spoils thereof, and passed through the city over them that were slain”.
In the end, Team Simon and Team Judas bring loads of
rescued Israelites back to Jerusalem where everyone rejoices and then goes out
to trash some more heathen cities in Hebron and Samaria.
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