An Atheist Explores the Apocrypha Part 35: War Elephants, A Bit of Light Slaughter, Too Many Antiochuses, and a Massive Plot Twist (1 Maccabees 6-10)

 1 Maccabees  6-10

War Elephants, A Bit of Light Slaughter, Too Many Antiochuses, and a Massive Plot Twist.

 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

 And now:

 1 Maccabees  6

“And upon the beasts were there strong towers of wood, which covered every one of them, and were girt fast unto them with devices: there were also upon every one two and thirty strong men, that fought upon them, beside the Indian that ruled him”

 There’s some very different fighting on show here, and it all feels a lot more advanced that when Saul and David were riding around on chariots. And on top of that we get some courtly intrigue among the Persians as well. It’s all going on!

 King Antiochus hears that the armour of Alexander is kept in the city of Elymais, so decide to attack the city and take the relics for himself. However, he gets defeated and on his return empty-handed he also hears how Lysias has been losing to Judas and how the Israelites are now well-armed and armoured thanks to all the Persian spoils they’ve captured.

 This causes him to fall ill, and eventually die, but before he does he appoints one Philip as the regent for his son, also called Antiochus (when, oh when, have regents ever been trustworthy?) Antiochus’ dying words suggest that he thinks his bad luck is due to having plundered the sanctuary of the Jews.

 Meanwhile, back in Judea, Lysias hears of Antiochus’ death and sets up his own son, also called Antiochus and leading to some confusion for a while in reading this, as king. Luckily this Antiochus is named Eupater.  So it looks to me that there’s young Antiochus II as legitimate king overseen by Philip, and Antiochus Eupater as a usurper king in Persia. It’s been a long time since Kings and Chronicles when it all felt like Game of Thrones.

 Lysias continues his campaign against the Jews, taking Bethshura by siege and winning handily because the Jews are following their Jubilee Year rule and haven’t done any harvesting this year (it being the seventh), and so have no stores. Great idea, folks.

 Rather excitingly, Lysias has thirty two war elephants in his party, which he divides up to be accompanied by a thousand footmen each, and then sets his cavalry on the flanks. “And to the end they might provoke the elephants to fight, they shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries”. I wonder why grape and mulberry juice gets elephants in the mood for fighting?  Perhaps they mean wine and gin? There’s some exciting stuff though, with the descriptions of the elephants with war towers atop them, and how “the sun shone upon the shields of gold and brass, the mountains glistered therewith, and shined like lamps of fire”, and how the heroic Jewish fighter Eleazer Salazan attacks the largest elephant assuming that it carries Lysias. “Wherefore he ran upon him courageously through the midst of the battle, slaying on the right hand and on the left, so that they were divided from him on both sides. Which done, he crept under the elephant, and thrust him under, and slew him: whereupon the elephant fell down upon him, and there he died.”

 The Jews fall back, those of Bethshura surrender and appear to be treated fairly, whilst Lysias lays siege to Jerusalem. “As for the sanctuary, he besieged it many days: and set there artillery with engines and instruments to cast fire and stones, and pieces to cast darts and slings.” The Jews make counter-engines to destroy the Persian’s siege engines, it’s all very dramatic. But they, too, have little in the way of stores, thanks again to the laws in Leviticus, but just as they are on the brink of surrender Lysias hears news that Philip and Antiochus were returning from Media to take up rule, and so decides that his domestic power struggle is more important than defeating Judas and the Jews.

 He offers them peace terms, and allows them to practice their own laws, realising that “they are therefore displeased, and have done all these things, because we abolished their laws”. Despite a covenant not to harm them he still demolishes the defences before he goes.

 So, somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory and a lucky escape for the forces of Judas on this occasion.

 

1 Maccabees 7

“There came unto him all the wicked and ungodly men of Israel, having Alcimus, who was desirous to be high priest, for their captain”

On the Seleucid side, a man named Demetrius becomes the next king, and he is petitioned by Alcimus, an ambitious Israelites who, it would appear, desires the power of the high priesthood above any kind of patriotic loyalty to Israel.

Alcimus asks for Demetrius’ aid in defeating Judas, and the king sends his friend Bacchides, “who ruled beyond the flood” (which I assume means somewhere across the Mediterranean) as a general. Alcimus and Bacchides make peaceful overtures to the Judean rebels, and the Assideans agree to meet them on the basis that “One that is a priest of the seed of Aaron is come with this army, and he will do us no wrong”. Of course, Alcimus and Bacchides were faking it and kill sixty Assideans whereupon the rebels realise that “There is neither truth nor righteousness in them; for they have broken the covenant and oath that they made”.

Bacchides does a bit of light massacring, mainly it would seem among his own people (“many of the men that had forsaken him, and certain of the people also, and when he had slain them, he cast them into the great pit”) before leaving Alcimus in charge and going back to Demetrius.

Alcimus doesn’t do very well at stopping Judas take vengeance and so he goes back to the king to ask for more help; this time the king sends Nicanor. Nicanor tries exactly the same tactics as Bacchides, offering to meet Judas under a truce that he has no intention of honouring. Judas isn’t going to be caught the same way twice, battle is joined and Nicanor comes off worse. Nicanor retreats within the walls of Jerusalem and mocks the priests when they try to present with offerings, instead threatening to burn down the temple if Judas isn’t handed over to him. I don’t think that’s going to go well with him.

And so it goes. Nicanor meets reinforcements from Syria but is met in the field by Judas’ men and defeated. As Nicanor runs away his troops are harried by Israelites with a grudge and wiped out. Nicanor loses his head and his right hand which are hung outside the walls of Jerusalem and the day this happens, the thirteenth of Adar, becomes a holiday (The Day of Nicanor, apparently).

 

1 Maccabees 8

“Now Judas had heard of the Romans, that they were mighty and valiant men, and such as would lovingly accept all that joined themselves unto them, and make a league of amity with all that came unto them”

The chapter opens with lengthy praise of the Romans, how they command land from Spain to India, always defeating those who oppose them (including Antiochus with an army of elephants) but help those who support them, “Yet for all this none of them wore a crown or was clothed in purple”. It even praises the senate system; “Moreover how they had made for themselves a senate house, wherein three hundred and twenty men sat in council daily, consulting alway for the people, to the end they might be well ordered: And that they committed their government to one man every year, who ruled over all their country, and that all were obedient to that one, and that there was neither envy nor emmulation among them”. Leaving aside the rather rosy view that the Roman Senators had no envy amongst them, I have to wonder how the Jews would see this. On the one hand it must be strange compared to the many years of sacred kings that they themselves had, and the succession of foreign rulers. A land without a king? How strange. And yet also they come from a tradition without kings. The Jews would have been bought up on stories of the Judges, and of the Patriarchs; leaders when needed but ultimately under the same Law of God as everyone else. And the Maccabees themselves seem like a fairly egalitarian merit-based group. So possibly the apparent equality of the Romans as much as their military might appealed to them. I can’t help but think, though, that the idea of bringing in gentiles to protect people covenanted with God must have had its detractors.

Anyway, after singing the praises of the Romans, Judas chooses Eupolemus the son of John, the son of Accos, and Jason the son of Eleazar to send as envoys to Rome, and the Romans are very supportive, making a treaty on brass plaques declaring “Good success be to the Romans, and to the people of the Jews, by sea and by land for ever: the sword also and enemy be far from them”. The treaty says that if either party is attacked, the other will provide military aid and also refuse any kind of assistance to the enemy – “Neither shall victuals be given to them that take part against them, or weapons, or money, or ships, as it hath seemed good to the Romans; but they shall keep their covenants, and that without deceit”. Also they have sent word to Demetrius already telling him to leave the Jews alone – “Wherefore thou made thy yoke heavy upon our friends and confederates the Jews? If therefore they complain any more against thee, we will do them justice, and fight with thee by sea and by land.”

Now, knowing what comes in future with the Roman occupation of Jerusalem and later the Jewish Wars under Vespasian, I wonder if this wasn’t in the end a bit like inviting a vampire into your house. It’s going to be interesting how this alliance with the Romans pans out.

 

1 Maccabees 9

“Then Judas said, God forbid that I should do this thing, and flee away from them: if our time be come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and let us not stain our honour.”

Holy Ned Stark! We’re 9 chapters into the 16-chapter First Book of Maccabees, and Judas Maccabee has snuffed it!

I’m guessing that perhaps Second Maccabees is going to be a retelling rather than an extension, but I can’t be sure.

So, Judas goes into battle against Bacchides, but most of his men desert him and he’s left with 800 against 22,000, so it’s no wonder that he loses. The Judean rebels choose his brother Jonathon to lead them instead, and the rest of this chapter covers a variety of incidents under his leadership.

For starters, Bacchides is rooting out the rebels, and “using them despitefully”, which sounds like a euphemism for torture to me. Another of Judas’ brothers, John, is sent to try and get help from the Nabathites (whoever they are), but is killed by the children of Jambri (whoever they are). Jonathon takes vengeance by slaughtering people at a wedding (and this is… a good thing?) – “Thus was the marriage turned into mourning, and the noise of their melody into lamentation”.

Jonathon and Bacchides fight a battle on the banks of the Jordan, but the text suggests that it’s indecisive. Jonathon has to swim across the river to escape, but not before inflicting heavy losses on Bacchides. Meanwhile a man called Alcimus tries to pull down part of the Temple, the “wall of the inner sanctuary” but evidently has a stroke, when “his mouth was stopped and he was taken with a palsy”.

 Meanwhile, Bacchides retreats for a while, having left behind fortifications, but is called back by people complaining about Jonathon (and if he goes around killing wedding guests who can blame them?). Jonathon and his rebels fortify a place called Bethbasi. Bacchides besieges it, Jonathon makes a foray and attacks Bacchides’ camp while his brother Simon sets fire to the siege engines. Bacchides retreats again, feeling like he’s been given bad advice, and by the end of this chapter he and Jonathon have made peace.

 

1 Maccabees 10

“So in the seventh month of the hundred and sixtieth year, at the feast of the tabernacles, Jonathan put on the holy robe, and gathered together forces, and provided much armour.”

 This lengthy chapter deals with two main incidents in the leadership of Jonathon.

Firstly, he gets caught in what seems to me a power struggle within the Seleucids, with Alexander son of Antiochus Epiphanes on one side, and Demetrius on the other.

 Both men offer Jonathon gifts; Alexander Epiphanes offers him a purple (royal) robe and some gold, whereas Demetrius offers an extravagant array of promises including freedom from taxation for the Jews, expanded land, gold, silver and loads more. Perhaps too good to be true, because “when Jonathan and the people heard these words, they gave no credit unto them, nor received them, because they remembered the great evil that he had done in Israel; for he had afflicted them very sore”.

 And so they ally with Alexander Epiphanes because they trust his peace overtures more. Considering what his father did, I’m surprised, but there we go. Turns out that they chose the right side, because “Then gathered king Alexander great forces, and camped over against Demetrius. And after the two kings had joined battle, Demetrius' host fled: but Alexander followed after him, and prevailed against them. And he continued the battle very sore until the sun went down: and that day was Demetrius slain.”

 Having gained control of the Seleucids, Alexander Epiphanes makes overtures to the Ptolemys, and asks for the hand in marriage of the Ptolemaic princess Cleopatra (not that one; pretty much all of the women of the Ptolemys were called Cleopatra). Thus the two Hellenic dynasties are reconciled. For now at least. I doubt it will last.

 Meanwhile, Demetrius son of Demetrius (I’m going to call him DJ, for “Demetrius Junior”) decides to avenge his father, and mocks Jonathon for fighting in the mountains. “Come and fight me on the plains,” he taunts. I won’t go into the back and forth of battle that incur; safe to say Jonathon wins and, the most fun part, burns down the Temple of Dagon (Bethdagon) at the city of Azotus. Not, though, the fish-god Great Old One of HP Lovecraft fame, I think.