Monday, December 03, 2007

Not by Might, nor by Power, but by My Spirit, Says the Lord of Hosts

There are four books that go by the name Macabees. The book 1 Maccabees attribute the retaking of Jerusalem primarily to Judas Maccabeus and his army. However, this is not true of 2 Macabees or 4 Macabees which attribute the retaking of Jerusalem primarily (2 Macabees) or entirely (4 Macabees) to martyrs who suffered nonviolently for their faith. 3 Macabees covers different events entirely and is silent on the retaking of Jerusalem.

In 1 Macabees, Judas Maccabeus and his army violently retake Jerusalem with God’s help (3-4:35). They then rededicate the Temple after which the Hanukkah celebration is held (4:36-4:59). Emperor Antiochus later falls terribly ill as a result of his despondency over Judas’ victory (6:8-6:16).

2 Macabees tells a very different story. 2 Macabees includes the story of the martyrdom of Eleazer and of the seven sons and their mother (6:18-7:42). They accept torture from Antiochus rather than defy Jewish laws. The seventh son predicts that Antiochus will experience worse torture than the martyrs and that God will then free the Jews. “I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our ancestors, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation and by trials and plagues to make you confess that he alone is God, and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation (7:37-38).” The Macabees then take Jerusalem (8:1-36) and when the emperor Antiochus is about to attack, God strikes Antiochus with an illness that causes him to suffer torturous pain worse than those of the Jews he had tortured to death (9:1-10). Antiochus then repents, announces that he wants to become a Jew and decides to let the Jews live in freedom. (9:11-17) Only after this, the Maccabees rededicate the Temple and the Hanukah celebration is held (10:1-9).

4 Macabees is a sermon based on the martyrdom of Eliezer, the seven brothers and their mother described in 2 Macabees. It makes explicit what is implicit in the 2 Macabees account. The author of 4 Macabees tells us that “Through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated (17:22).” Despite its name, 4 Macabees makes no mention of Macabeus or any act of war committed by Jews to win their freedom.