Book of Maccabees 2
This is not a continuation of Maccabees 1, but rather the last remaining book of a five-volume set, summarizing the contents of the previous four volumes (which have never been found). They were written in Greek, in Egypt, during the period 153-133 BCE. The book details the history of what has become the Chanukah story (unlike Maccabees 1 – related in theme, but not in context – but a very different story from the one we were taught). It focuses on religious and supernatural themes (I’m guessing, without having read it yet, that we’re going to get to things like the eight day oil lamp miracle), and apparently martyrdom will play a big part.
- We open in mid-thought, apparently part of a letter written to the powers that be in Rome? Greece? Jerusalem? It recounts the attacks on Judea by Demetrius and Antiochus in particular, and how things are now resolved and peaceful. The letter writers petition the creation of a holiday to commemorate those battles. The supernatural theme starts in with recounting that the Temple priests took the sacred fires from the Temple and hid them in Persia, where they continued to burn in perpetuity – when the king of Persia’s aide, Nehemiah (a Jewish leader) discovered them and tried to quench the fires, they just burned more fiercely, and he relented.
- Well, now it becomes pretty clear why Judaism and Christianity consider this book apocryphal (for different reasons), as the writer first brings in the prophet Jeremiah, who was, apparently, the one who advised the priests to hide the eternal fire from the Romans; and then moves on to he, himself, sealing up the Tent, Ark, and Altar in a cave that only he knows the location of; and finally moving on to a discussion about how he’s in the process of editing a new book, the thoughts of one “Jesus the Cyrenean”, who is not “Jesus the Nazarene”, but rather, the apostle Simon, which might well become a new holy book.
- Peace reigns. Onias is high priest at the Temple. One of his officials, Simon, is jealous, and sneakily reports to the governor of the region, Apollonius, that the Temple is hoarding riches beyond belief. Apollonius sends his chief minister, Heliodorus, to seize the Temple’s hoard. When he arrives, God steps in, sending a golden horse to run him down and then two angels who flog him near to death. Onias, fearing that the governor will think the Jews did this, offers a sacrifice and prayer. God relents and cures Heliodorus, who, now seeing the might of the Temple and its people, returns empty handed, but tells Apollonius not to mess with the Jews, they have God on their side.
- Simon continues his slanders against Onias, and Apollonius continues to abet him. Onias, realizing how serious things have become, goes to the king, Seleucus, for help. While the help is promised, Seleucus dies and is replaced by Antiochus, who has Onias replaced by his own brother, Jason, in exchange for a hefty bribe. Jason declares the Greek way of life better than the Jewish way of life and attempts to force all to comply. Then he, himself, is replaced by Menelaus, who gives Antiochus an even bigger bribe. Menelaus carries out a series of executions, including of Onias, and then with his own family, loots the Temple treasury. The Jews, and even Gentiles, revolt, and kill most of his family, the king takes him into custody, but then grants him a pardon, in exchange for another bribe.
- Oh boy… let’s see… Antiochus attacks Egypt. Jason attacks Jerusalem. Both slaughter lots of people but are repelled in the end, and Jason is sent into exile, where he dies, unmourned. Antiochus turns to Jerusalem and in the course of a few days kills 40,000 Jewish citizens and captures and enslaves another 40,000. Then, with Menelaus’ help, he gets into the Temple treasury and loots it of 62 tons of silver. Antiochus sends Philip and Andronicus to rule over and continue sacking Jerusalem. Their goal is to kill every Jew. Now we get to the Maccabees, as Judah and nine others escape to the hills.
- Antiochus sends an overseer with troops to take over the Temple. The goal is to force all the Jews to convert to the Greek way of life – turning the Temple into the “Temple of Zeus the God of Hospitality”, and using it for feasts and orgies. As well, Jews were brought there and forced to eat non-kosher meat. Those who refused were killed. The balance of the chapter is devoted to the story of one elder, Eleazar, who made a stand against the Greeks, with an impassioned speech about his faith. The writer opines that all of this was a “kindness” on the part of God, who was punishing his chosen people before they descended into sin, like the Greeks and other enemies.
- This is pretty gruesome. Antiochus is trying to force a family of a mother and seven sons to eat pork. They refuse. He has a giant cauldron heated red hot, and then partially dismembers one of the sons and throws the pieces, and finally the barely alive boy into the pot to cook to death. The other sons remain unwavering, and he repeats the process one by one, making the torture crueler each time. They stay faithful to the last, and so does the mother, who endures the most extreme of the tortures atop what she’s witnessed. The writer then opines that this is enough discussion on the topic of Antiochus’ savage cruelty against the Jews.
- Judah and the few men he had go from town to town and gradually build an army of 6000. They pray to God, who decides he’s punished the Jews for straying from the straight and narrow long enough, and jumps in to help. Then they begin attacking and defeating Antiochus’ forces. The governor who was left in place, Philip, requests more troops and Antiochus sends him 20000 more. Bit by bit, Judah and his men defeat them, and go on, continuing to defeat one force after another, with God’s help, of course.
- As Antiochus wages various battles, he loses one after another and is driven back. Then he finds out that the battalion he sent against Jerusalem had been defeated. He decides he will handle things himself and “turn Jerusalem into a Jewish graveyard and feed their bodies to the animals as they’re not worth burying”. Enroute, God strikes him with a severe intestinal infection that keeps getting worse the closer he gets to Jerusalem. When it gets so bad he can’t even rise from the ground, he relents, and sends a letter to Jerusalem claiming that he has converted to Judaism and hopes they will remember all the wonderful things he did for the Jews. Then he dies and Philip takes his body to Ptolemy in Egypt.
- Judah and company rededicate the Temple, offer sacrifices, pray to God, promise they’ll not stray again and ask for his re-promise not to subject them to all this “punishment”. The celebration goes on for eight days (there’s still no mention anywhere of the Chanukah story of oil lamps lasting for an extra week). There are still various enemies around them who continue to attack Judea and Jerusalem. One by one, Judah and his troops defeat them, wiping out tens of thousands of enemy soldiers over several battles.
- The new king, Antiochus Jr., basically, appoints Lysias as governor over the region. Lysias is incensed that the Jews keep winning battles, so he heads to Jerusalem with 80,000 troops, killing as he goes. Judah and his troops pray to God and then head out to battle. Suddenly, a shining white and gold horse and horseman appear and lead the Jews in battle, slaughtering and routing Lysias’ troops. Lysias barely escapes, and realizing what he’s just seen, tells Antiochus Jr. that it’s time to make peace with the Jews. Then he and the king send letters of peace to Judah, basically saying – we get you don’t want to be Greeks, so stay in Judea and we’ll leave you be, peace, out.
- Despite the now official peace treaty that existed between Judea and Greece, many of the local Greek leaders continued to harass and kill Jews at any opportunity, often engaging in deception to lure Jews to their death, terrorist attacks, and sieges. The Greeks also started enlisting local Arab tribes, convincing them that Jews were their true enemies. With the help of God, Judah and his troops take on one after another of these and defeat them, with tens of thousands of Greek soldiers killed. The Arabs, seeing this, decide that at least for now, maybe they should make peace with the Jews. But I find myself wondering if the Greek Empire was the start of the enmity between Jews and Arabs in the first place.
- Antiochus just doesn’t learn. Maybe it was imperial arrogance. But he marches on Judea and Jerusalem with over 100,000 troops, and a whole battalion of war elephants. Judah and his troops spend three days praying to God for assistance, then using guerilla tactics, make a nighttime raid into Antiochus’ encampment, killing around 2000, including some key leaders, and his troops begin to panic. Antiochus decides to, instead, take over some surrounding smaller cities, but is rebuffed there as well, and in the end, despite having overwhelming numbers, ends up retreating.
- Alcimus, a former candidate for High Priest, realizes he’ll never get the job. He goes to King Demetrius, who is the Greek king appointed to rule over Asia, and tells him that Judah and the elders are disloyal to the empire and plotting against it. Demetrius sends Nicanor, the head of his elephant brigade, to kill Judah and scatter his troops. But Nicanor finds that Judah is an honorable man, and instead befriends him – in fact, they become BFFs. Alcimus tells Demetrius, who orders Nicanor to carry out his duties, Judah goes into hiding, Nicanor threatens to raze the Temple unless they turn Judah over to him. Then a whole suicide scene of one of the elders, Razis, who botches both stabbing himself with a sword and jumping out of a tower, only to finally rip his own intestines out with his hands, rather than submit to Nicanor.
- Nicanor continues his campaign against Judah, his now former BFF. It’s interesting how he pivots back, simply because he’s following orders, despite what he knows to be true about both Judah and the Jewish people. He marches on Jerusalem again, Judah and troops pray for heavenly intercession, the prophet Jeremiah appears in a vision to Judah and offers him a golden sword. Nicanor’s forces are slaughtered, he’s captured, and Judah uses the sword to cut off his head and right arm, takes those back to the Temple and basically offers up a sacrifice to God. The author of the book then adds a postscript, hoping that his tale has been entertaining, and apologizing if it hasn’t been, and then concludes the book.
On to Wisdom of Solomon