Michael S. Moore
The second book of Maccabees covers much the same historical ground as the first, only from a perspective much more intentionally Hellenistic, focused on the life of the guerrilla warrior Judah Maccabaeus and his efforts to save Judea from the colonialist oppressions of Judah’s Greek ruler, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (d. 164 BCE).
THE TEXT IN ITS ANCIENT CONTEXT
Two prefatory letters introduce this document, one addressed to Alexandrian Jews from their cousins in Jerusalem, the other to a Jewish scholar named Aristobulus—a tutor of Egyptian king Ptolemy VII—from Judah Maccabaeus and the Jerusalem Council. The purpose of these letters is to invite Egyptian readers up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festivals of Tabernacles and Hanukkah. Underneath the pleasantries, however, the primary goal of these letters is to encourage Egyptian Jews to come over and participate in a purification ceremony designed to cleanse the Jerusalem temple from years of gentile defilement (1 Macc. 4:41–51), thereby providing for these émigrés the opportunity to either affirm or reaffirm their loyalty to this shrine over all others (Frey).
Fleshing out the rationale for these invitations, the author, who describes himself as the “epitomizer” of a much larger five-volume history (Gk. epitomein; 2 Macc. 2:23), relates two legends to “prove” to his Diaspora cousins that the sacred fire to be used in this purification ritual is not a “strange fire”; that is, it will not have the same deleterious effect on them as does the “strange fire” in Lev. 10:1 on Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu. The first legend claims that this fire comes directly from Solomon’s temple, having been propitiously saved from extinction by their priestly ancestors before the Babylonian invasion and destruction (2 Kgs. 24:1–17). The second legend then claims that Nehemiah rediscovers this sacred fire in a hidden cistern after it has transformed into a thick, oily liquid (2 Macc. 1:20–21; Lange).
THE TEXT IN THE INTERPRETIVE TRADITION
Two socioreligious concerns drive these invitations, each grounded in the ideological world of priestly torah reflection (Knohl, 8–40). First, the Palestinian Jews responsible for issuing the invitations believe that full protection from cultic defilement can only occur at one divinely designated place (Deut. 12:5; Philo, Spec. Laws 1.66–70). Second, they believe the Jerusalem temple to be that place. This view is challenged in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (the Halakic Letter, 4Q394–99) and the Greek New Testament (Matt. 12:6; Luke 21:5–6), but reaffirmed and promoted in one of the longest of the Dead Sea scrolls, the Temple Scroll (11Q19 45:10). The focus of this ideology tends to blur, however, as Jerusalem’s festival celebrations transform the city into an international circus attended by Diaspora Jews eager to replace the rituals of torah with the indigenous ritual traditions of their adopted countries (see John 2:13–21; Acts 2:5–11).
THE TEXT IN CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSION
Similar concerns influence contemporary religious behavior. First, whether or not postmodern Westerners will admit it, “defilement” continues to be a very real problem, whether for believers or nonbelievers, monotheists or polytheists, religionists or secularists, Christians or Jews (Kristeva, 56–89). Anthropologists have long known that unimpeded defilement tends to breed cultures of despair (Douglas) that are myopically focused on death and denial instead of life and renewal (Mjaaland), even when “suffering and evil, on the one hand, and the indelible memory of hope on the other” combine to expose, however faintly, the possibility of an antidote (Moltmann, 141). Engaging the problem of defilement seriously—that is, through healthy ritual (Ramshaw) instead of rhetorical hypocrisy (Molnar), escapist demagoguery (Aslan), or worse, perverse ideology (Heschel)—can be difficult for many Westerners to imagine, much less recognize or embrace. Even when the spiritual survival of a generation is at stake (Solzhenitsyn), Westerners can delude themselves into thinking that purification from defilement is solely a private, individual affair. From a biblical perspective, however, true purification cannot be imagined apart from active participation in the “fellowship of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17–18; Phil. 2:1–6).
A second concern is that in spite of all their good intentions, the Protestant Reformers are largely responsible for fostering a religious legacy more attuned to the polyphonic melodies of sociopolitical pluralism than the concordial harmonies of sacral unity (Littell, 102–28), thereby invalidating for many the possibility “of a religiously pluralistic, yet Christian, confessional political order” (Kozinski, 113–14). Today most “Protestants” (a quaint holdover term) devote little attention to questions of religious unity (Putnam and Campbell, 1–36) or spiritual development (Foster) because many are far more preoccupied with questions of particularized romance and consumptive politics. Paul’s query to the Corinthians has therefore lost none of its sting: “Do you not know that you [plural] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit resides (author trans.) in you [plural]?” (1 Cor. 3:16).
THE TEXT IN ITS ANCIENT CONTEXT
According to the summary prayer in 2 Macc. 8:2–4, colonialist oppression affects Judean life in three areas: the temple, the city, and the people. Since ancient temples served both economic and religious functions, it’s not surprising to find at the beginning of 2 Maccabees a nasty narrative focused on a vicious socioeconomic conflict dividing temple employees. One of the temple captains—a Benjamite named Simon—openly challenges the methods by which his boss, the high priest Onias III, manages “the administration of the city market” (2 Macc. 3:4), basically accusing him of so much corruption. Delighted to learn of this conflict, some Greek bureaucrats quickly manipulate it to their advantage in pursuit of their primary goal: the confiscation of temple funds (Moore 2011, 173–77).
Greek geographer Pausanias (d. 180 CE) observes that every Hellenistic “city” (polis) must have a “municipal office,” a “marketplace,” a “public fountain,” a “theater,” and a “school” (gymnasion; Descr. 10.4.1; see Moore 2013). Thus Jason’s attempt to build a gymnasion in Jerusalem may represent nothing more than a good-faith attempt to integrate Jewish life into Hellenistic culture (Dequeker). Regardless of his motives, however, the author of 2 Maccabees will have none of it, condemning this development in no uncertain terms, labeling it a primary example of foreign “corruption” (2 Macc. 4:7).
Where the Aramaic book of Daniel condemns Babylonian oppressors for their persecution of innocent Hebrews, 2 Maccabees dramatically focuses attention on one particularly violent Greek oppressor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and his penchant for torturing Jewish civilians by the most hideous means imaginable (Shepkaru). The epitomizer gives three examples. In the first example, Antiochus’s henchmen parade two Jewish mothers through the streets of Jerusalem before throwing them to their deaths, along with their nursing infants, from the top of the city wall. Their crime? Circumcising their children in accordance with the Mosaic law (Gen. 17:12–14). The second example addresses an occurrence in which Antiochus’s men try to force an elderly gentleman named Eleazar to violate torah by eating pork (Lev. 11:7–8), only to hear him refuse via a most eloquent testimonial to the many spiritual advantages of submitting to a “noble death” (2 Macc. 6:24–28). In the third example, seven brothers and their mother perish in one of the most drawn-out, grisly scenes in all the Bible, a depiction as horrifying and revolting as the rape-murder-dissection scene that concludes the book of Judges (Judg. 19:1–30).
THE TEXT IN THE INTERPRETIVE TRADITION
Martyr stories like these eventually coalesce into a literary trajectory on which sit the philosophical speeches of 4 Maccabees (deSilva), the Talmud’s account of Rabbi Akiba’s execution (Boustan, 58–61), the Greek account of Polycarp’s execution (McCready), the Latin account of Perpetua’s passion (Heffernan), the Arabic account of the earliest Muslim martyrs (Afsaruddin), and the Gospel accounts of the passion (Boff). Whether the Nazarenes “prolong and supersede” an indigenously Jewish martyr tradition (Frend, 31) or draw from a broader Greco-Roman martyr tradition in their understanding of the passion is difficult to determine, but it is less difficult to see how intentionally all these stories focus on a common desire to bear “witness” (Gk. martyria) to the power of God in the midst of injustice, even when such witness leads to torture and death (Rouwhorst).
THE TEXT IN CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSION
For obvious reasons, martyrdom is never something widely embraced by the majority, whether that majority be Jewish (Sprinzak), Christian (Hefley and Hefley), Muslim (Kurzman), or agnostic (Mitchell). Most difficult today is the problem of definition. What, exactly, is “martyrdom”? How much truth actually adheres to the oft-cited proverb, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s martyr”? Is martyrdom always “religious” in nature? Does it always possess the element of transcendence, or does each act of “martyrdom” depend on the life circumstances of this or that particular “martyr”? If “a poet immortalizes himself through his poetic art, and a moral teacher through his wise sayings,” do martyrs achieve fame by transfusing “invaluable fresh blood” into the groups with which they are most obviously identified (Atkins, 550)? Does martyrdom consist only of self-infliction, or can it also include elements of “collateral damage”? To be specific, does Jesus of Nazareth’s voluntary decision to suffer and die on a Roman cross truly compare to Mohamed Atta’s voluntary decision to pilot American Airlines flight number 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011? If so, how does one explain why Jesus goes so far out of his way to protect everyone around him from bodily harm, both enemies as well as friends?
THE TEXT IN ITS ANCIENT CONTEXT
Responding to the systematic injustices perpetrated by Antiochus and his court, 2 Maccabees claims that God will miraculously intervene to save his people whenever and wherever God sees fit. Three angels miraculously shield the Jerusalem temple from foreign attack (2 Macc. 3:25–28), five angels miraculously protect Judah Maccabaeus from foreign attack (2 Macc. 10:29–31), and an angelic horseman successfully rides with Judah into battle against foreign mercenaries (2 Macc. 11:8). Overt theological commentary sometimes perforates these texts to explain these divine interventions, using statements like “the wrath of the Lord turned to mercy” (2 Macc. 8:5) or “the Lord no longer showed mercy to him” (2 Macc. 9:13). Though never simply relying on the “miracle option,” Judah Maccabaeus often asks the deity for help (2 Macc. 8:16–21; 10:25–27; 12:5, 15, 28, 36; 13:10–12; 15:8–11), especially after “seeing” the prophet Jeremiah giving him a “holy sword” (hagian rhomphaian; 2 Macc. 15:16) in a “waking vision” (hypar; 2 Macc. 15:11; n.b. the same word association in Homer, Od. 19.547).
The epitomizer of 2 Maccabees also wants his readers to know that Judah’s opponents, like foreigners throughout Hebrew history (Moore 1998), can confess the supremacy of Israel’s God and be blessed, especially after being humbled by the terrifying experience of divine intervention. Struck down by such an experience, the taxman Heliodorus immediately vows eternal loyalty to Israel’s deity, addressing him as “Lord” and “Savior” while the Jewish high priest benevolently administers his “atonement” (Gk. hilasmos; 2 Macc. 3:33; see 1 John 2:2). So available is this blessing, even Antiochus IV Epiphanes experiences attitudinal transformation when the Lord “strikes” him (Gk. pattassō; 2 Macc. 9:5) with an “incurable and invisible plague” (cf. the use of pattassō in 1 Macc. 1:1; 2:44). Not only does the king’s “conversion” make it possible for him to realize and experience the torture he previously inflicts on others, but it also destroys his plan to turn Jerusalem into a “cemetery of Jews” (2 Macc. 9:4), replacing it instead with a positive communiqué declaring the city’s inhabitants “equal to the citizens of Athens” (2 Macc. 9:14–15).
THE TEXT IN THE INTERPRETIVE TRADITION
Where 2 Maccabees emphasizes the phenomenon of miraculous intervention, 3 and 4 Maccabees stretch this emphasis to the point of preferential reliance (Eve, 244). The Talmud also weighs in with “miracle stories” of its own. For example, when a pious man considers repairing a breach in his fence but refrains from taking action because the job might carry over to the Sabbath, a “miracle occurs” (Heb nēs na’ăśeh, lit. “is made”) when a caper bush sprouts into existence ex nihilo at the spot of the breach, thereby providing him with enough income to replace that which might otherwise have been lost (b. Shab. 150b). Again, when a widower with an infant child suddenly develops the biological capability to nurse it, one rabbi labels this a “miracle” (Heb nēs), attributing it to the man’s “superiority” (gĕdōl). Another rabbi, however, disagrees, attributing it rather to his “inferiority” (gĕrō’â). Weighing both opinions, still another rabbi states what eventually becomes the rabbinic via media: Miracles can and do “happen” (mitḥārîš), but only rarely do they “produce” (’ăbārû, lit. “thicken into”) any real benefit to their recipients (b. Shab. 53b). Discussions like these illustrate how many pre-Enlightenment Jews try to explain their understanding of the natural-versus-supernatural polarity, championing neither while denying neither (Chajes).
Miracle stories in the Greek New Testament operate more from a desire to affirm God’s interventional power—as in 2 Maccabees—than to explain the natural-supernatural polarity, as in Talmud (Kahl). Where the Fourth Gospel describes Christ’s miracles via the Greek word sēmeia (“signs”; John 2:11; 4:54; 20:30), the Synoptic Gospels avoid this term, preferring instead the Greek word dynameis, or “deeds of power” (Matt. 11:20–23; Mark 6:2; Luke 10:13). Why? Because the Nazarenes believe that Jesus of Nazareth—not this or that angelic figure—is the final, primary conduit of divine power on earth (Schenck).
THE TEXT IN CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSION
Western children of the European Enlightenment tend to bristle at this kind of discussion because many of us suffer deep resistance to the possibility that anything (or Anyone) can be perceived by something other than the five senses (Craig), much less consider the possibility that a supernatural, personal, and loving God can and will visit his creation to protect, rescue, and/or salvage his loved ones from the scourge of defilement. Yet if the force responsible for what physicists call “the big bang” is, in fact, a divine Creator, does it make any sense to imagine this person “running up and down the corridors of the hotel he created like a bewildered bellhop trying to find the right key” (Rogers, 16)? The contents of 2 Macc. 8:1–15:39 give food for thought that might be able to address such skepticism.
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