CHAPTER 12
Rome and Sparta both send their greetings and reaffirm their
alliances with Judea under the Maccabees.
Wait – when did Sparta become an ally?
No matter, they are now.
Jonathan sends a statement back to them saying, “the Spartans and the
Jews are brothers and that they are of the family of Abraham.” I guess he means the metaphorically.
They engage in some more campaigning, this time against a
double dealer named Trypho. Actually,
Trypho convinces Jonathan he means no harm, so Jonathan sends almost all his
troops home in order to start properly negotiating. Sucker. Trypho
immediately takes him prisoner. Because
he’s evil like that.
CHAPTER 13
Yeah, but Simon is still lurking out there, and now brother
Simon because the leader of Judah. He
takes the reigns of power, noting how all of his brothers have perished. Well, I guess we’re counting the captures
Jonathan as dead. Wait, doesn’t he have
one brother left even aside from Jonathan? Judas died, Elisher died, and
Jonathan has been captured, but Simon was one of five brothers. Who was the other one? (Checks)
Oh wow, the other brother’s name was John.
Really? There is a
John and a Jonathan? Who was their
father – George Foreman? No wonder I missed
the other guy dying. I confused him for
someone else.
So, OK – only Simon is left. He says he’ll avenge the capture of Jonathan, but before he does
that, he has to let himself be hoodwinked by Trypho. Bad old Trypho sends a message: I only took Jonathan prisoner
because he owed some back taxes. So
give me some money and Jonathan’s two sons and I’ll let him go. Simon isn’t dumb, he knows this is a con. But he is also new to power and can’t afford
to pass up a chance to free his brother.
If he blew this off, what would people say? So he delivers the loot and kids – and naturally Trypho blows him
off.
Instead, Trypho kills Jonathan. Simon recovers the body and makes some swank tombs. He makes tombs for all his dead brothers,
their father and mother. He puts up
seven pyramids – the seventh I guess is for Simon himself, when his time
comes.
He makes an alliance with Demetrius II, who had previously
double dealed the Jews. Like all
alliances in this book, it’s just a marriage of convenience. Simon has success in battle, even capturing
the Gentile citadel in Jerusalem.
Hasn’t that been captured before?
It’s hard to follow all the ins and outs of battle so far.
Finally, you see the torch get past, as Simon makes his
fully-grown son John commander of the army.
CHAPTER 14
Demetrius II is captured by the Persians, who don’t like
that he entered their land. So he is no
longer a factor anywhere.
Then we get a strangely placed song praising Simon. The song itself is standard stuff, but it’s
out of nowhere. Normally these songs
will mesh with the main narrative, but this one doesn’t. We just heard about Demetrius II getting
captured, not about the deeds of Simon.
It’s just oddly done.
The heart of this chapter is a series of correspondence
between the Jews and Rome and Sparta.
They are all kissy-face nice to each other and allies. Some of the letters recount much of what has
already happened.
This chapter is pretty much a waste of space. It’s an addendum or appendix on the main story
– except that the main story isn’t over yet.
CHAPTER 15
More letters.
Antiochus VII sends a letter of friendship. The Roman alliance is renewed (again).
Then Antiochus VII flips and becomes evil. I assume his earlier statements of
friendship were just strategy and nothing deeply felt. At this point, that’s hardly
surprising. However, Simon does seem
surprised. Has he been reading the same
book I’ve been reading? Antiochus
accuses the Jews of taking too much land and Simon says, look – we’ve only
taken our ancestral land.
They fight a battle, and Simon wins.
CHAPTER 16
The story has a sad ending. Simon gets double crossed and
killed, along with most of his sons.
Ptolemy, who I can only assume is the Egyptian ruler, is the double
crosser. Simon’s son John still lives,
and he becomes the new high priest. So
though the great generation is gone, an independent kingdom goes on.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
It’s a good book and an interesting one, though it is
wearying as it keeps going on with all of these hard to follow twists and
turns. The most interesting parts are
the earlier parts, when it’s easy to tell because there is just one bad guy.
Also, the Jews really improve here. Early on they are on the
margins, barely fighting for survival, but midway through they become heads of
their own kingdom and a force to be reckoned with on their own. Arguably the climax of the book is Simon
taking the citadel in Jerusalem near the end.
That’s the last big success.
This book also shows a clear theme in the Bible. Early on, God was heavily involved in
people’s day-to-day affairs. I don’t
just mean him walking in the Garden of Eden in the early, purely mythic period
of Biblical history. I mean he had
miracles occur up through the time of Isaiah.
Now? God is just something far
away to be worshipped. He doesn’t
really act at all here.
This is just a history book of a people and a kingdom. Of all the histories in the Old Testament,
it’s the one that does the purest job telling what happened. It’s on the border from religion to history,
which I guess makes it appropriate that it’s in some Bibles but not
others.
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