I Maccabees (The Anchor Bible, Vol. 41)

613 Pages·1976·43.63 MB·English

by  Jonathan A. Goldstein

THE ANCHOR BIBLE
I MACCABEES
A New Translation
with
Introduction and Commentary
by
Jonathan A. Goldstein
DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
1976
"Die Hellenistische Welt urn 185 vor Chr." from GROSSER HISTOR-
ISCHER WELTATLAS I edited by Herman Bengton and Vladimir Milojcic,
5th edition. Reprinted by permission of Bayerischer Schulbuch Verlag.
"The Temple and Its Courts as Envisioned by Ezekiel" from S. Yeivin,
"Miqdas," Enc. Bib., V (1968). Reprinted by permission of Bialik Institute,
Israel.
CARTA'S ATLAS OF THE PERIOD OF THE SECOND TEMPLE, THE
MISHNAH AND THE TALMUD by Michael Avi-Yonah. Copyright ©
Carta, Jerusalem 1966. Reprinted by permission of Carta Publishing Com­
pany, Ltd.
"The Second Temple" from Sepher Yerushalayim, ed. M. Avi-Yonah (Jeru­
salem and Tel Aviv: The Bialik Institute and Dvir, 1956). Reprinted by
permission of Dvir Publications.
Qadmoniot V, 1972. Map from "Jerusalem Revealed" p. 43 reprinted by per­
mission of the Israel Exploration Society.
Revue Biblique, XXXIII (1924), 381, Fig. 3 "Topographie des Campagnes
Machabeennes" by F. M. Abel. Reprinted by permission of Librairie Lecoffre,
France.
THE MACMILLAN BIBLE ATLAS by Yohanan Aharoni and Michael Avi-
Yonah. Copyright <g) Carta, Jerusalem 1964, 1966, 1968. Redrawn with per­
mission from Macmillan Publishing Company.
THE WESTMINSTER HISTORICAL ATLAS TO THE BIBLE, Revised
Edition, edited by George Ernest Wright and Floyd Vivian Filson. Copyright
1956 by W. L. Jenkins. Redrawn with permission of the Westminster Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bible. O.T. Apocrypha. 1 Maccabees. English. Goldstein. 1976.
I Maccabees.
(The Anchor Bible vol. 41)
Selected Bibliography: p. 180
Includes index.
1. Bible. O.T. Apocrypha 1 Maccabees—Commentaries.
I. Goldstein, Jonathan A., 1929-
II. Title. III. Series.
BS192.2.A11964.G3 vol. 41 [BS1823] 229\73'07
ISBN 0-385-08533-8
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-32719
Copyright © 1976 by Doubleday & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
To my parents and my teachers

THE APOCRYPHA
The term Apocrypha (or "Deuterocanonical Books" in Roman Catholic
usage) is popularly understood to describe the fifteen books or parts of
books from the pre-Christian period that Catholics accept as canonical
Scripture but Protestants and Jews do not. This designation and definition
are inaccurate on many counts. An apocryphon is literally a hidden writ­
ing, kept secret for the initiate and too exalted for the general public;
virtually none of these books makes such a pretense. Not only Roman
Catholics but also Orthodox and Eastern Christians accept these books,
wholly or partially, as canonical Scripture. Roman Catholics do not accept
all of them as Scripture, for I and II Esdras and the Prayer of Manas-
seh are not included in the official Catholic canon drawn up at the Council
of Trent. Many Protestant churches have no official decision declaring
these books to be non-canonical; and, in fact, up to the last century they
were included in most English Protestant Bibles. What is certain is
that these books did not find their way into the final Jewish Palestinian
canon of Scripture. Thus, despite their Jewish origins (parts of II Esdras
are Christian and Latin in origin), they were preserved for the most part
in Greek by Christians as a heritage from the Alexandrian Jewish com­
munity and their basic text is found in the codices of the Septuagint.
However, recent discoveries, especially that of the Dead Sea scrolls, have
brought to light the original Hebrew or Aramaic text of some of these
books. Leaving aside the question of canonicity, Christians and Jews now
unite in recognizing the importance of these books for tracing the history
of Judaism and Jewish thought in the centuries between the last of the
Hebrew Scriptures and the advent of Christianity.

PREFACE
This book contains my own efforts to solve the problems of the First
Book of Maccabees. Although there is merit in presenting a synthesis of
the prevailing views in recent and earlier scholarship, the brevity of life
forces decisions upon us: I prefer to use my time in studying the prob­
lems themselves, rather than how others have tried to solve them. If
others have come upon my solutions before me and wish that I had
acknowledged the fact, I apologize to them and concede them their
claims to priority. In particular I have found many times that a dis­
covery of mine had already been made by Menahem Stern. Wherever
I have made use of another scholar's discoveries, I have tried to acknowl­
edge my debt. At the very outset, I wish to acknowledge my debts, too
numerous to be itemized, to the giants in the field, Carl Grimm, F.-M.
Abel, and especially my teacher, Elias Bickerman. I have also learned
much from the studies of my teacher, H. L. Ginsberg. Where I believe my
own views to be solidly based, I have presented the evidence for them and
have avoided presenting and refuting opposing views, including those of
Jochen G. Bunge, whose work, Untersuchungen zum zweiten Makka-
bderbuch (Diss. Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat zu Bonn;
Bonn: Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, 1971), came to my at­
tention when this volume was in press. Otherwise my task would have
been endless. A commentary, especially one for the Anchor Bible, should
not look like a debate.
I am grateful to the publishers for allowing this book to be a com­
promise. Originally the First and Second Books of Maccabees were to ap­
pear in one volume. The Introduction is still an introduction to both. The
size of the present work made it desirable to devote a separate volume
to Second Maccabees.
In writing my commentary I faced the problem of how best to arrange
comments on longer and shorter passages. A comment on an entire sec­
tion is called on "introductory NOTE." Comments on passages are ar­
ranged in the order of the initial verses. A NOTE on 1:1-5 will appear
before a NOTE on 1:2-5. Where two passages have the same initial verse,
I comment on the longer one first. A NOTE on 1:1-7 will appear before a
NOTE on 1:1-6.
In this volume II Esdras is the Greek translation of the Hebrew books
xn PREFACE
of Ezra and Nehemiah, not the apocalyptic work called "II Esdras" in AB
vol. 42.
The reader may find that unfamiliar names and words make my book
difficult. I hope that any such problems will be solvable through the use
of a collegiate dictionary and the indexes to this book.
I have been unable to find a consistent way to transliterate Hebrew.
Ancient Hebrew can be rendered by the standard scholarly system, but
that system becomes awkward when used for medieval or modern He
brew. I do try to spell the author and title of each work always in the
same way. Where an author provides a transliteration or translation of a
title, I use that.
I am grateful to the University of Iowa for facilitating my research,
especially through generous grants and leave from teaching. I am grateful
to my parents, Rabbi and Mrs. David A. Goldstein, for unfailing en­
couragement. My scholarly wife, Helen, made herself available for con­
sultation, and my daughter, Rise, typed parts of the manuscript. I record
my thanks here to my two research assistants, Walter Conlon and Ber­
nard Black. I have learned much from conversations with my colleague,
George Nickelsburg.
Working with the editors of the Anchor Bible has been a rewarding ex­
perience. David Noel Freedman made many valuable suggestions, and
Robert Hewetson and Ann Mokrauer prepared the work for publication
with intelligence and efficiency.
JONATHAN A. GOLDSTEIN
July 1975
CONTENTS
The Apocrypha ix
Preface xi
List of Illustrations xvn
Principal Abbreviations xix
I MACCABEES
INTRODUCTION 1
I. The Content and Character of Our Two Books 3
The First Book of Maccabees 4
The Second Book of Maccabees 27
II. The Extant Sources of First and Second Maccabees 37
1. The Testament of Moses 39
2. Enoch Ixxxv-xc 40
3. Daniel 7-12 42
III. Josephus and the Work of Onias IV 55
IV. The Date and Setting of First and Second Maccabees
in the Polemics of the Hasmonaean Period 62
Jewish Opposition to the Hasmonaeans 64
V. Sources of First and Second Maccabees No Longer
Extant 90
VI. What Really Happened: the Civic and Religious
Policies of Antiochus IV 104
VII. What Really Happened: Chronological Table 161
VIII. The Witnesses to the Text 175
Signs and Abbreviations Used in Giving the Witnesses
to the Text of First Maccabees 179
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 180
XIV CONTENTS
TRANSLATION AND NOTES 187
I. The Hellenistic Empire from Alexander to
Antiochus IV (1:1-10) 189
II. The Jewish Hellenizers (1:11-15) 199
III. The Victories of Antiochus IV in Egypt
(169 B.C.E.) (1:16-19) 202
IV. Antiochus IV Punishes the Jews (1:20-64) 205
V. Mattathias' Act of Zeal (2:1-26) 229
VI. Mattathias' Guerrilla Campaign (2:27-48) 234
VII. Mattathias' Last Words (2:49-70) 238
VIII. Judas' Early Victories (3:1-26) 243
IX. The King Marches Eastward (3:27-37) 249
X. Judas Defeats Nicanor and Gorgias
(3:38-4:25) 256
XI. Lysias Fails to Crush Judas' Band (4:26-35) 267
XII. The Restoration of the Temple (4:36-61) 272
XIII. Wars with Hostile Neighbors (5:1-68) 289
XIV. The Death of Antiochus IV (6:1-17) 306
XV. The Expedition of Antiochus V and Lysias
(6:18-63) 312
XVI. The High Priest Alcimus and the Campaign of
Nicanor (7:1-50) 326
XVII. The Alliance with Rome (8:1-32) 344
XVIII. The Death of Judas (9:1-22) 370
XIX. Jonathan Succeeds Judas (9:23-31) 376
XX. Jonathan as Guerrilla Chieftain (9:32-73) 378
XXI. Alexander Balas Makes Jonathan High Priest
(10:1-21) 396
XXII. Jonathan Grows in Power (10:22-66) 402
XXIII. Jonathan Defeats Apollonius (10:67-89) 418
XXIV. The Fall of Alexander Balas (11:1-19) 423
XXV. Demetrius II Honors Jonathan and the Jews
(11:20-37) 429
XXVI. Jonathan Breaks with Demetrius II (11:3 8-59 ) 434
XXVII. Victories under Antiochus VI (11:60-74) 441
XXVIII. Diplomacy with Rome and Sparta (12:1-23 ) 444
XXLX. Further Gains under Antiochus VI (12:24-38 ) 463