Maccabees I: Chapters 1 to 5

Last time, the Book of Esther ended.  Now on to the next book.

CHAPTER 1

I remember this.  When I was 10 years old, I first tried to read the entire Bible one summer.  I did most of the reading on a summer trip, where I sat the back of the car for over 2,000 miles.  In the days before most handheld forms of electronic child pacification, even the back half of the Old Testament was a halfway decent way to kill time. 

Back then, I was reading the family’s old Catholic Bible.  And I do mean old – it was pre-Vatican II, written in 1950.  I don’t know if it typical of the times, but Maccabees I and II were the last books in it.  As the vacation was winding down, I started Maccabees I, and liked it.  Finally!  After far too many pages of psalms, proverbs, and prophecies I read over without retaining a whit, I had something with a plot!  About time.

So I read the first few chapters – but then the vacation ended, and I stopped reading the Bible.  Looking back, I find it incredible – I’d read all the boring parts of the Old Testament, only to give up when it got interesting again. 

When I graduated college I read the Bible and this time got all the way through it.  I do remember liking the Maccabees again. 

So now I have a new Catholic Bible, one that places the Maccabees here, in the part it calls “Biblical novellas.”  That’s a weird placement, because it looks pretty clearly to be history.  This is the story of Jews in the second century BC fighting for their identity.  It’s actually the most historical of the historical books, as a lot of this is easily verified with our other sources of the period.

Oh, and the Maccabees are two books not found in the Protestant or Jewish Bibles.  While I didn’t care much for Judith, in this case the Catholics have a good’un.  I find it especially interesting that the Jews wouldn’t include this in their holy book.  I guess it’s too secular for their holy book, as while it’s all done in the name of God, the big man himself is just an inspiration, not an actual actor.

Anyhow, I should get to the point. We’re in the time of the post-Alexander kings, 157 years after Alexander took over, we’re told.  And the Gentile kings are trying to make the Jews fall in line with the same rituals and practices as all other people.  In other words, they want the Jews to abandon their ways.  Some Jews are, which the Bible doesn’t think much of. 

A new leader comes to power: Antiochus, who overthrows the old king and makes himself king.  He’ll be our villain.  He beats up Egypt and then, about six years into his reign (143 years after the Greek conquest, we’re told), he turns against Jerusalem.  He enters it and even enters the Temple’s sanctuary.  Uh-oh, you know he’s the evil villain now.  It’s like he’s intentionally casting himself as stock Hollywood bad guy, with his overdone evilness. 

Two years later, the bad guys come back.  Antiochus doesn’t come himself – he sends in a military commander.  The army whumps on Jerusalem and destroys its walls.  The make the city a citadel for themselves.  Basically, they throw Jews out of the City of David. 

And to solidify their control, they demand that all people adopt Gentile customs.  (Note: you’re not hearing about Antiochus by name here, so I’m not fully sure who the order is coming from – him or his military men in charge).  We’re told that many Children of Israel adopt the evil ways, and you know that’s a no-no. Then again, the bad guys say that all who don’t fall into line will be put to death.  Why, the king (Antiochus, though again not mentioned by name) has a pagan abomination placed on the Temple’s altar, desecrating it.  They burn the scrolls of law. 

And it gets even worse.  They put women to death who have their sons circumcised – and they hang the babies, too!  Man, baby hanging!  That’s new.  This king, he is going all out to crush any/all sense of Jewish identity.  He thinks it’ll solidify his power, but he is badly, badly overreaching himself here.

By the way, the chapters in this book are exceedingly long.  Most are around 60 verses, about double what a normal Bible chapter is.  As a result, this book is 30 pages long, about the length of Samuel I, despite having just half as many chapters. 

CHAPTER 2

Well, Chapter 1 set the stage and got the plot going, so it’s time we meet our heroes.  There is old man Mattathias, and his sons John, Simon, Judas, Eleazer, and Jonathan.  For reasons I don’t get they all have aliases, for example, “Simon, who was called Thassi.”  I don’t get that, but so be it. 

These guys are horrified, utterly horrified at what’s going on.  But more than that, their horror leads to extreme anger and they act on that anger. 

Old man Mattathias is asked to sacrifice to the pagan altar, and he refuses.  He says he’ll never deny the Commandments, and then he takes it a step further.  As soon as he gives his big speech, he sees a fellow Jew head up to sacrifice to the wrong God.  Well  now, that won’t do – and Mattahtias, overcome with righteous anger, kills the man on the spot.  He also kills a messenger for the king who is also there.  There is a bit of irony, as he’s breaking one commandment to defend another, but after Chapter 1, we’ve got a clear sense who the bad guys are.  I’m on Team Mattathias here.

The old man and his sons take to the wilderness, where many other faithful are. The king (again, not mentioned by name) hears about all the wilderness dwellers.  He sends his army out, and they come across a gathering.  The gathering decides that they’d rather die in innocence and don’t fight back.  Thus they are slaughtered.  This section is clearly here to show the limitations of pacifism.  If you’re going to keep the Jewish people around, you need to take action.  Lucky for us, we already know the old man supports that.  And the old man makes this clear when he hears of the massacre. 

And now the family is on the warpath.  They strike down some sinners, and forcibly circumcise some uncircumcised boys.  OUCH! 

Then Mattathias dies.  Well, the good news is I won’t have to try spelling that name anymore.  He dies and tells his sons to carry on the fight.  By now it’s the ninth year of the king’s reign.

CHAPTER 3

With the old man dead, leadership goes to son Judas, which is odd because he’s the third oldest only.  But then again, he’s also the natural leader, as the next several chapters will make clear. Maccabee means “Hammer” and this man really is the hammer in the family of hammers.

He immediately gathers up what forces he has, and wins a few battles against what are apparently much larger foes.  Before one battle, he tries to encourage his army by telling them that they shall win because God is on their side.  Also, he says, “we are fighting for our lives and our laws.”  That’s interesting – fighting for our laws. 

Let’s pause here to reflect just how notably the Jewish community has changed since the days of the historical Bible books earlier.  Then, the Jews kept straying from the faith fairly regularly.  It wouldn’t take much at all for someone to start worshipping a golden calf or Baal.  Hell, even David had an idol in his house.  But now the Jews are risking everything to fight for their laws.

As impressive as it is to have prophets and miracles, to really make a religious effective you need not spectacular events or charismatic religious leaders as much as you need an effective system in place.  The Jews don’t need prophets or miracle anymore because they have their Torah; they have their laws.  And all those earlier written sources have been combined into one; most likely by Ezra.  Things have been really solidified.  And now you have the system in place and you combine it with a charismatic individual like Judas, and you have a people willing to fight back like they never did before.  (Yes, they had other guys fighting for them, from the Judges to David to Jehu, but it seems like earlier the fights were often against Jews internally straying from the faith on their own.  Here, they are punished with death unless they violate their laws, and they’re choosing to fight, even if it means possible death).

King Antiochus – mentioned by name, finally – tries to handle it, sending a general out with half the armies.  The general, Lysias, is his name, gets ready to fight and the two armies move into position against each other. 

CHAPTER 4

Well, they fight – and once again Judas wins.  Man, he’s on a role.  He’s one of the most impressive military leaders in the Bible so far.  He’s defeated at least three armies much larger than him, and without the benefit of any sun stopping in the sky, like it did for Joshua.

And he follows it up with some more wins.  In fact, he’s doing so well militarily that it’s time to purify and rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem. Damn, he’s totally upended the order here.  By now it’s Year 11 of the king’s reign, so about 2-3 years of effective military leading by Judas. 

CHAPTER 5

Judas is on the warpath again.  And being Judas, he’s posting even more victories.  Apparently, all surrounding peoples are enraged at all the success Judas is having.  It’s not really clear why, but I guess they don’t like the peculiar ways of the Jews and see the reopening of the Temple as the return of all those rituals they didn’t care for. 

But Judas is still Judas.  He fights. He wins.  It gets a little ugly at times, too.  On more than one occasion he conquers a town and slays every single male inside. Ugh.  That’s a little too Joshua for me.  OK, at least it’s only adult males, but still – that’s nasty.  He also sets fire to a city.  At one point he asks a city for free passage through their land, saying he won’t harm them if they do.  They refuse, and he destroys the town, killing all males.  I wonder if his offer was true or not.  I don’t blame them for not being sure.  From what we’ve seen of the guy, that’s a legitimate concern. 

As Chapter 5 ends, Judas is a friggin’ military dynamo.  He’s one of the most effective Israeli generals ever, up there with Joshua, Gideon, David, and Jehu.  

Click here for the next part.