2 Maccabees

In The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period, Jonathan Trotter shows how different diaspora Jews’ perspectives on the distant city of Jerusalem and the temple took shape while living in the diaspora, an experience which often is characterized by complicated senses of alienation from and belonging to an ancestral homeland and one’s current home. This book investigates not only the perspectives of the individual diaspora Jews whose writings mention the Jerusalem temple (Letter of Aristeas, Philo of Alexandria, 2 Maccabees, and 3 Maccabees) but also the customs of diaspora Jewish communities linking them to the temple, such as their financial contributions and pilgrimages there.

This article examines the dual tenet generally upheld by scholars of Second Temple Judaism that a single concept of impurity existed in that period, and that purity and impurity formed a coherent, unified system of meaning. Herein I will contend that we should turn our focus on the phenomenological aspect of a specific source of impurity, and study this in its broader cultural contexts. Centering on corpse impurity as it appears in a selection of narrative, halachic, and archaeological sources, this article treats purity and impurity as an order of meaning inherently interconnected with that of honor and shame – which was equally dominant in the thought and practices of ancient Judeans – and identifies three modes of relationship between these two orders of meaning: 1) impurity as attached to shame, 2) impurity as attached to honor, and 3) corpse impurity as symbolizing the contrast between human and divine honor. Finally, I argue that the different functions and meanings of impurity, honor, and shame in each of these modes of interrelationship may be explained by the two networks of social relations to which all Judeans in Second Temple times belonged – the kinship one and the cultic one – and which, albeit partly overlapping, need to be distinguished for analytical purposes. The approach proposed here enables us to establish a link between God and the system of ancient Judean ritual purity in a way that suits the preeminence of metonymy as a strategy of representing entities that stands at the core of this order of meaning – especially when the dead are concerned – rather than the metaphoric and symbolic explanations which currently prevail.

RESUMO: O presente artigo visa apresentar como o livro de 2 Macabeus se constrói a partir de uma teologia do martírio, vinculada à crença na ressurreição, e uma ideologia da resistência, a qual busca enfatizar a bravura de Judas Macabeu e seus soldados no enfrentamento das tropas selêucidas. Objetiva-se explicitar o caráter judaico do livro, que recorre a elementos próprios da Bíblia Hebraica e da tradição judaica, a despeito de seu caráter literário ser próprio do estilo helenístico.

Palavras-chave: Martírio. Judaísmo. Revolta dos Macabeus. Período helenístico.

ABSTRACT: The present article aims to present how the book of 2 Maccabees are built on a theology of martyrdom, linked to the belief in resurrection, and on an ideology of resistance, which seeks to emphasize the bravery of Judas Macabeu and his soldiers in confronting the Seleucid troops. It aims to make explicit the Jewish character of the book, which uses elements of the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish tradition, despite its literary character in Hellenistic style.

Keywords: Martyrdom. Judaism. Revolt of Maccabees. Hellenistic period.

This book offers a historical reconstruction of the causes of the Judean revolt against Antiochos IV based on a revised literary analysis of 1 and 2 Maccabees. When these ancient works are read with proper attention being paid to their narrative and cultural codes it appears that they point at political and economic issues as key factors in the crisis that led to the revolt: the political destabilization that entailed from Antiochos IV's deposition of Onias III, the last high priest of the Oniad dynasty in 175 BCE, and the Seleukid pretention, starting from Antiochos IV, to control the appointment of the Jerusalem high priests; this ruthlessly implemented reform was narrowly connected to fiscal reforms that were successively enforced by Seleukos IV in 178 BCE and Antiochos IV in 175 BCE.  A historical analysis using comparative data from Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleukid Babylonia confirms that these two issues, which are explicitly pointed out in 1 and 2 Maccabees, indeed were major causes of the Judean revolt against Antiochos IV.

This brief essay will discuss ancient anti-Semitism, the mental state of Antiochus IV Epiphanies, the spread of Hellenism by both Greek and Jew, financial pressures, and the religious zeal of the Hasmonean dynasty in relation to the Maccabean Revolt. It is likely that all the above reasons played a role and it is the intention of this essay to show that this clash was more than a conflict between the religions of ancient Greece and Israel.

The article challenges the consensus that τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ (Phil. 2:6c) means ‘equality with God’ and denotes a status. Linguistic analysis, contextual considerations and a thorough investigation of an inventory of one hundred and forty-two extant Greek references to divine equality (ἴσος /ἴσα + θεός) all show that Phil. 2:6c means ‘being (that is) in a manner equal with God’. Although it evokes well known language for the status of rulers who received ‘honours equal to the gods’, it has a distinct, rarely attested, but Homeric, syntax (cf. Iliad 5:441–2; 21:315), for which the closest parallel is Homeric Hymns 5, line 214. As such, it denotes a dynamic ontology, a mode of being expressed, or actualised, in Christ’s incarnational self-transformation (vv. 7–8). The words also serve a creative affirmation and subversion of the middle Platonic distinction between ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ (as that was expressed in Plutarch and Philo): Christ exists and acts from ‘being’ (ὑπάρχων ... τὸ εἶναι v. 6) and is misperceived in the realm of ‘becoming’ (γενόμενος ... γενόμενος vv. 7–8). But, against the Platonists, he has a divine ‘being’ that ‘becomes’.

The author shows how the Jewish community in Jerusalem is scrupulous about their own religion and their allegiance to God and His Temple. On the other hand, 2 Macc reveals a Hellenistic orientation by viewing the Temple as that of the city, as is shown by the progression city-place-Temple (cf. 3:1-3) and by reference to the high priest of the city (cf. 3:9). Our section (3:14-22) focuses on the author’s intention to involve the auditorium in the action, as he highlights the tragic emotion experienced. The classification of roles in the description of the population of the city is interesting. The priests in their formal attire form a distinct group with the greatest attention (two verses) given to describing the grief of the high priest. The males participate in the public supplication (3:18), while the married women express their grief with bared breasts and sackcloth around their waists, symbolising their role as child-bearers. The unified narrative conforms to the general pattern of a deity’s defence of his temple: attackers approach, the defenders ask the deity for help and the deity responds. There are many examples of this type of narrative such as the defence of Delphi by Apollo against marauding Persians in 480 B.C.E., the story told by Herodotus (8:35-39).

Cet article fait suite à un premier travail, épistémologique et historiographique (PEBARTHE C., « Édouard Will, l'anthropologie coloniale et le judaïsme hellénistique », in S. CAPANEMA, Q. DELUERMOZ, M. MOLIN, REDON M. [dir.], Du transfert culturel au métissage. Concepts, acteurs, pratiques, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2015, p. 93-113, sp. 112). J'y proposais la conclusion suivante : Si « “l'État est l'instance légitimatrice par excellence, qui ratifie, solennise, enregistre les actes ou les personnes, en faisant apparaître comme allant de soi les divisions ou les classification qu'il institue ” (BOURDIEU P., Sur l'État. Cours au Collège de France [1989-1992], Paris, Points, 2012, p. 232), alors la révolte des Maccabées, loin d'être un affrontement religieux, fut avant tout une affaire d'État » (PEBARTHE C., « Édouard Will, l'anthropologie coloniale et le judaïsme hellénistique », art. cit., p. 112). L'affirmation valait surtout comme programme de recherche en devenir, plutôt que comme conclusion définitive.

CAC-SCEC, Annual Meeting May 12-15, 2022 at the University of Western Ontario

Title: Arms and the God I Sing: Judas Maccabeus as Epic Hero

Abstract:
The Second Book of Maccabees is a Hellenistic Jewish history which recounts the Maccabees’ resistance against the Seleucid Empire (167–160 BCE). Written in Greek between 150 and 120 BCE, this version of events amplifies human history by focusing on “the epiphanies which appeared from Heaven” (τὰς ἐξ οὐρανοῦ γενομένας ἐπιφανείας (2:21)). The Jewish military leader Judas Maccabeus with the help of angels (10:29-31) defeats the larger Seleucid army (i.e. 8:5-7; 8:24-25), retakes Jerusalem and rededicates God’s Temple (10:1-8), demonstrating his piety (i.e. chs. 8 & 13). This stylised account of the Maccabean Revolt portrays Judas Maccabeus as nothing less than an ideal Jewish leader and epic hero.

This idealised depiction of Judas Maccabeus relies upon the incorporation of Hellenic motifs. In this paper, I argue that the author of 2 Maccabees deliberately drew on imagery from the Iliad in order to simultaneously create a heroic history for the Hasmonean dynasty’s founder and to glorify the contemporary political structure. This epic history shows that the Judaean kings were every bit as worthy of kingship as their polytheist peers. By including narrative elements from Hellenic literature, the past became present and the present became past in 2 Maccabees (Bacchi 2020), providing the Judaean kingdom with mythic legitimacy on the Hellenistic Mediterranean stage. The incorporation of Homeric elements weaves the heroic age of the Iliad into the recent Maccabean Revolt. The temporal mixing transforms Maccabeus into an epic hero and legendary founding figure, like Achilles or Herakles. Just like the Greek heroes who founded cities and fathered kings, Maccabeus reclaimed the City of God and established the Hasmonean dynasty. When read as Homeric reception and a competitive expropriation of Hellenistic kingship models, 2 Maccabees becomes a Hellenistic history, whose hero is cast as the greatest of the period’s leaders (Niehoff 2011; Honigman 2013).

Works Mentioned:
Bacchi, Ashley L., Uncovering Jewish Creativity in Book III of the Sibylline Oracles. Gender, Intertextuality, and Politics, vol. 194 of Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (Leiden: Boston: Brill, 2020).
Sylvie Honigman, “‘Jews as the Best of All Greeks’: Cultural Competition in the Literary Works of Alexandrian Judaeans of the Hellenistic Period” in: Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period. Narrations, Practices, and Images, vol. 363 of Mnemosyne Supplements (Brill, 2013), 207–32.
Niehoff, Maren, Jewish Exegesis and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria (Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

The narrative of the martyrdom of a mother and seven brothers has had an enormous impact on the history of both Church and Synagogue. The cult of the Macca-bean martyrs began to develop very early, so that in the fourth century at the latest, they were celebrated among the Christians. The story about them is to be found in the seventh chapter of the Second Book of Maccabees. Its canonical status has become the subject of debate in the last few centuries, both among the Orthodox and other Christians. The Synagogue rejected this book in its entirety, although it contains the oldest recorded testimony about the celebration of Hanukkah, one of the most important Jewish holidays today. However, the story of the mother and brothers remained preserved in Talmud in a certain form. Apart from the story of martyrdom, the seventh chapter hides one of the oldest, and certainly one of the most vivid descriptions of the early faith in the resurrection from the dead. In addition, the seventh chapter reveals the oldest explicitly expressed faith in God, who is the absolute Creator and who creates the world out of nothing. This idea will later become one of the central motives of Christian and Jewish cosmology.

In this book Kenneth Atkinson adds to his already impressive body of work on the Hasmoneans, proposing that the history and theological beliefs of Jews during the period of the Hasmonean state cannot be understood without a close investigation of the histories of the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid Empires, as well as the Roman Republic. By bringing together evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and classical sources, Atkinson offers a new reconstruction of this vital historical period, from the 2nd to the 1st centuries B.C.E., when the Hasmonean family changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith.

The book also contains many new reconstructions of events in classical history, including the most detailed examination of Pompey the Great's assassination in light of Jewish sources. This section on his death uncovers new information that explains the discrepancies in the classical accounts of this pivotal event that shaped Middle Eastern and Roman history, and which helped end the Republic.

Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. Introduction: The Sources and their Limitations
2. The Early Hasmonean Period: New Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls
3. Prophetic Messianism and Hasmonean State Expansion: Dangers from the Seleucid Empire
4. The Creation of the Hasmonean Monarchy: Apocalyptic Expectations and the Dead Sea Scrolls
5. Religious Strife in the Hasmonean State: Foreign Threats, Ptolemaic Messianism, and the True Prophet
6. Military Deterrence and the Hasmonean Golden Age: The End of Days in the Dead Sea Scrolls
7. After the Loss of Sovereignty: New Light on Hasmonean and Roman History from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Classical Texts
8. A Dream Shattered: the End of the Hasmonean State and the Demise of its Neighbors
Bibliography
Index

Preview of Chapter One is available at:  https://bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/viewer/5ba504de713c090001a40662

Interview: If you would like to learn more about this book's background as well as my background before academia, please click on the "Interview" link at the top of the page (next to  "Books" and "Papers") for T and T Clark's recent profile of my on their blog.

The substantial corpus of Jewish literature surviving in Greek shows that some Jews appropriated Greek literature and philosophy in highly sophisticated ways. This article argues that Letter of Aristeas and 2 Maccabees are examples of a Jewish paideia, a Jewish cultural literacy in Greek. This Jewish paideia was indebted to the language, literary forms, and philosophy of Hellas, but was set apart by endorsing the Torah as its foundation text. The difference between Letter of Aristeas and 2 Maccabees is not in their appropriation of Greek paideia but rather in how they endorse the Greek Torah in relation to the ideals of Greek paideia. The Letter of Aristeas invokes the ideals of Greek paideia to substantiate a Jewish paideia while 2 Maccabees places Jewish ideals in competition with those of Athens. Both works, however, articulate a Jewish paideia.

RESUMO: O presente artigo visa apresentar os principais aspectos literários do livro de 2 Macabeus através do estudo de seu prefácio (2 Mac 2.19-32), analisando o mesmo a partir das tradições literárias da Antiguidade, estabelecendo sua forma, estilo e propósito. Como o prefácio deixa claro, o livro de 2 Macabeus é um resumo adaptado da obra em cinco volumes de Jasão de Cirene, de modo a tornar o relato mais fácil, curto e memorizável. O resultado de tal escrita foi a inclusão da mesma na Septuaginta, tornando-a em um dos principais relatos sobre a Revolta dos Macabeus (junto a 1 Macabeus), tanto na Antiguidade, como hoje, sendo uma fonte fundamental no estudo da história do judaísmo helenístico.

ABSTRACT: This article aims to present the main literary
1 Mestrando em História na UFPR. Graduado em História na UFPR e Bacharel em Teologia pelas FABAPAR. Membro discente do NEMED/UFPR. Bolsista CNPq. E-mail: willibaldoneto@hotmail.com
aspects of the Second Book of Maccabees through a study of its preface (2 Macc 2:19-32), analyzing it from the Ancient literary traditions, stablishing its form, style, and purpose. As the preface makes clear, the Second Book of Maccabees is an adapted summary of Jason of Cyrene’s five-volume work to make the account easier, shorter, and memorable. The result was that such writing was included in the Septuagint, making it one of the principal accounts about the Revolt of the Maccabees (with 1 Maccabees), both in Antiquity and today, being a fundamental source for the study of the history of Hellenistic Judaism.

In research on ethical questions, the book of second Maccabees and other apocryphal writings are mostly ignored. In this paper I want to illustrate how the book adopts scripture, which ethical implications can be found and how the book communicates them. In a second step I sharpen the ethical dimension of the book by comparing it with the ethical orientation in the final vision of the book of Daniel.

This paper argues that the periodisation of history associated with Second Temple apocalypses illuminates the portrayal of martyrdom in two key (historiographical) texts: 2 Maccabees 6-7 and Acts 7.  It explores these texts alongside 4 Ezra, with special attention to the vision of the mourning woman and the eagle vision in 4 Ezra’s fourth and fifth episodes (4 Ezra 9:26-10:59; 11:1-12:39).  In recent studies, a focus on genre and rhetoric has limited attention to these kinds of cross-genre comparisons.  This is particularly evident in Acts scholarship (Sterling 1991; Rothschild 2004; Adams 2013; Uytanlet 2014; Shauf 2015), despite Todd Penner’s identification of the need for comparisons beyond historiographical texts in 2004.  Indeed, when it comes to treatments of history in Acts, the enduring influence of Hans Conzelmann’s (1954) hypothesis that Luke’s account reflects a separation of history from eschatology in light of concerns about the delay of the parousia imposes a further impediment for considering insights from apocalypses to illuminate Luke’s understanding of history.  However, I argue that not only those features which hint at motifs shared with apocalypses, such as Judas Maccabeus’s vision of the golden sword (2 Macc 15:15-16) and Stephen’s angelic appearance (Acts 6:15) and vision of the heavens opened (7:55-56), but elements of a view of history as periodised in both 2 Maccabees and Acts serve an important function in the texts’ martyrdom scenes.  This paper begins with a treatment of 4 Ezra 9-12, highlighting the ways in which periodisation and the concept of “the end” shapes the text’s treatment of both the woman’s mourning and Ezra’s own despair.  Turning to 2 Maccabees, I consider the ways in which the text extends a Deuteronomistic view of suffering to provide solace that suffering constitutes benevolent discipline before God’s people’s sins reach their “telos” (2 Macc 6:12-17), and the frame this provides for the promise of post-mortem reward asserted in the scene of the martyrdom of seven sons and another grieving mother (2 Macc 7).  Finally, my analysis of Acts 7 argues that the periodisation of history in 4 Ezra also illuminates Luke’s schema of history, but in this martyrdom context a new element is introduced: Stephen’s vision confirms that Jesus is already in place at the right of God (Acts 7:55-56; cf. Lk 22:69).  I suggest that for Luke, although suffering still continues (Acts 14:22), the final period at the end of history has already arrived, which grounds his portrayal of hope (cf. Acts 17:31).  Thus, for both 2 Maccabees 6-7 and Acts 7, elements of a periodised view of history, shared with apocalypses such as 4 Ezra, shape both their portrayals of martyrdom and the assurance provided for their readers.