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The Festival of Hanukkah in
2 Maccabees: Its Meaning
and Function
GERRY WHEATON
Seminario ESEPA
San José Costa R ica
2 MACCABEES gives evidence of an interesting tum in the early developm ent
of the traditions surrounding the festival of Hanukkah . Perhaps owing to a comm on
bias against the historical value of 2 Maccabees as compared with 1 M accabees,
this evidence has not been given due considera tion.' An earlier generation of schol-
ars viewed the historical va lue of 2 M accabees as inferior to that of Maccabees.^
M ore recent appraisals of the two w orks, however, regard their historical value to
be comparable.^ The neglect of 2 Maccabees as evidence for Hanukkah, then, is
a mistake, for it overlooks the rich historical and narrative context with which
2 Maccabees clothes the festival. In what follows, I will argue that the fmal editors
' Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees (Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature; Berlin/New
York: de Gruyter, 2008) 3 8-44 (but see his qualifications on pp.
5
-56 in regard to the work's Dias-
pora nature).
^ Rep resentative is the comparison of the chrono logies of
and 2 Maccabees in M. B. Dagut,
II Maccabees and the Death of Antiochus IV Epiphan es, JBL (1953) 149-57.
' See the recent review of the evidence for the historical reliability of both wo rks in Dav id S.
W illiams, Recent Research in 2 Ma ccabe es,
Currents in Biblical Research
2 (2003) 69-83 (and
the literature there cited), as well as the study of the accounts of the military campaigns of Judas
M accabe us in 1 and 2 M accabe es by Victor L. Parker, Judas Ma cca bae us' Cam paigns against
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248 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 74 ,201 2
of 2 Maccabees have imbued Hanukkah with meaning drawn ft-om a theological
reading ofthe historical events leading up to Judas's cleansing ofthe temple and
inauguration ofthe festival.
I . Introduction
2 Maccabees is a composite work made up of a pair of introductory letters
(1:1-9; 1:10-2:18 , a prologue to the narrative proper (2:19-32), and an epitome
of a now-lost history by Jason of Cyrene (chaps. 3-15 ). The epitome can be broadly
divided between 4:7-1 0:9 and 10:10-15 :39, the history of Jewish encounters with
An tiochus IV Epiphan es and his son, Antiochus V E upator, respectively (with
3:1-4:6 forming an introduction to what follows).'' Even a cursory reading reveals
that each of these sections culminates in the inauguration of a new festival cele-
brating the military victories ofthe Jewish forces against their Seleucid oppressors.
The account of Antiochus IV Epiphanes ends with the institution of H anukkah fol-
lowing the king 's death and restoration of temple worship, while the second section
ends with the institution of Nica nor's Day following the death ofth e Seleucid m il-
itary leader Nicanor. It is likely that an earlier form of the epitome was directed
solely to advocating the latter holiday and that the brief word about Hanukkah
(10:1-8) w as worked into the text at a later stage. Moreover,
10:1-8,
though sitting
rather awkwardly in its present context (on which see ftirther below), may well
have derived from the same hand as was responsible for the second epistle in
1:10-2:18 (if not both epistles). This is important for my reading of Hanukkah
because, although chaps. 3-15 continue to bear the earlier compositional shape w ith
its emphasis on Nicanor's D ay, the final form ofthe work gives prominence also to
Hanukkah. M oreover, it does this by bringing H anukkah into close association with
the events narrated in 4:7-10 :9. In this way, the final form of 2 Maccabees becomes
valuable evidence for the meaning of Hanukkah between the mid-second and mid-
first century
B.C.E.,
w hen the final redaction o fth e work m ost likely took place.*
IL Th e Func tion of Han uk kah in the Final Fo rm of 2 JVIaccabees
Against this context, it is important to consider the function of the opening
letters (1:1-9 and
1:10-2:18
in the final form of the work as a whole. In his mono-
•
For more detailed analysis of the structural arrangement of 2 Maccabees, see Jan Willem
van Henten, The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours ofthe Jewish People: A Study of 2 and 4 Mac-
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THE FESTIVAL OF HANUKKAH IN 2 MACCABEES 249
graph on 2 and 4 Maccabees, Jan Willem van Henten examines the Hellenistic
background of festal letter writing to shed light on the purpose of the combination
of festal letters and history, such as 2 Maccabees displays. He argues that the
form of
2
Maccabees as a whole should be understood against the backgroimd of
non-Jewish traditions concerning the rescue of
an
important sanctuary and the ori-
gin of non-Jewish festivals of deliverance, the so-called Zwxripia-feasts. Non-
Jewish festal letters were commonly connected to an account of the history (oral
or written) from which the festival had its origin. Public documents containing the
history may be merely referred to in the letter, or, alternately, the history could be
recounted in writing or orally by the envoy who brought the letter.
This Greek background clarifies the relationship between the opening letters
and the epitome of 2 Maccabees (chaps. 3-15). Van Henten concludes.
The function
of
the history
in the
context
of
the festal letters
is
that
of a
historical
report which attempts
to
explain
the
invitation to join
the
new feast
of
booths
or the
feast of purification. Within the context of the history contained
in
chs 3-15, this link
allows us to interpret the feast to which the festal letters refer as a feast of commem-
oration of
the
liberation and restoration of
the
Jewish state.'
In fact, the evidence of the second letter (1:10-2:18) seems to lead a step
beyond van Henten's conclusion. The document orients Hanukkah not only back-
ward in time as an expression of thanksgiving for God's deliverance from the
pagan king (a commemoration ), but also forward in time
as a petition for od
' Van Hen ten, Maccabean Martyrs, 46-50; quotation fi-om 46. The influence of a Hellenistic
tradition
of
this sort
is
wholly plausible
in a
work that show s familiarity
at
many points with
Hellenistic literary conventions
and
its wo rld
of
thought. See Goldstein,
II
Maccabees, 20-22;
and
esp. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, 59-66, for the pervasive prese nce of both biblical and Greek ele me nts.
Note also
the
Greek
motif,
evident throughout
2
Maccabees,
of
an attack
on
a temple
by
a foreign
aggressor followed by deliverance by the patron deity, as discussed in van H enten,
Maccabean Mar-
tyrs,
244-54, and Robert Doran,
Temple Propaganda: The Purpose and Character of 2 Maccabees
(CBQ MS 12; Washington, DC : Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1981) 25-36.
* Van Henten, Maccabean Martyrs, 53 ; see the discussion
of
evidence
on
pp. 47-50. O n
the
early-third-century
B.C.E.
H ellenistic origin of Ziotripia-feasts, see pp. 247-49. See also van H enten 's
summary comments
in
The Ancestral Language
of
the Jew s
in 2
M accabees ,
in
Hebrew Study
from Ezra to Ben-Yehuda
(ed. William Horbury; Edinburgh: Clark, 1999) 53-68, esp. 54-55.
' Note the references
in 2
Mace 2:1 , 13,
14,
15
to
the public records containing the account
of
Maccabees 3-15.
' Van Henten,
Maccabean Martyrs,
50;
cf.
also 252. Elsewhere
he
says that the letters call
for
a
celebration
of
the restoration
of
the ideal theocratic order described
in the
history
of
2 Mac-
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250 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 74,2 01 2
to gather the Jews dispersed among the gentiles.^^ The author evinces the belief
that, although the Babylonian exile has ended and many Jew s have retum ed to the
land, exile continues inasm uch as many Jews remain scattered among the gentiles,
even in a state of slavery.'^ It is with a view toward full national restoration that
the authors urge the Jews in Egyp t to celebrate the festival of Hanukkah in sol-
idarity with those of Jerusalem and Judea.
This view finds support in the insertion of the story of Nehem iah's retum to
Judea and the first sacrifices offered at the temple (1:19-36). Revealing for my
purposes is the prayer, offered by the whole com munity of people (o i TE iepeîc; Kai
návTEc;, the priests and every one [v. 23]), that stands at the center of the accoun t:
O Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, you are awe-inspiring and strong and just
and merciful, you alone are king and are kind, you alone are bountiful, you alone are
jus t and almighty and etem al. You rescue Israel from every evil; you chose the ances-
tors and consecrated them.
Accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel
and preserve your portion and m ake it holy.
G ather together our scattered people, set
free those who are slaves am ong the gentiles,
look on those who are rejected and
despised, and let the gentiles know that you are our God. Punish those who oppress
and are insolent with pride. Plant your people in your holy place, as Moses promised.
(2 Mace 1:25-29
Notably, this prayer for God to plant your people in your holy pla ce is
offered by the very people who have^'w.?; returned from exile and gathered at the
temple. Consistent with the view of exile noted above, the people expect a fuller
realization of national restoration than merely the retum of a portion of their kin
to the land.'^ The logic is that God has begun bring ing the people back to the land,
yet many remain scattered and even enslaved among the gentiles. The people,
therefore, petition God by sacrifice and prayer to bring to consummation God's
work of restoration.
'
Goldstein
{IIMaccabees,
187) com es close to this conclusion, though without further elab-
oration or substantiation, when he says , a result of the observance of the Day s of Purification may
be that God will ñilfill his promises, including the ingathering of the dispersed exiles.
'^ Goldstein, II Maccabees, 179. On the question of ongo ing exile in the self-understanding
of Palestinian Jews of the first-century c.E., see, e.g.. Exile: Old Testament, Jewish and Christian
Conceptions (ed. James M. Scott; JSJSup 56; Leiden: Brill, 1997); and Craig
A.
Evans, Jesus and
the Continuing Exile of Israel, in Jesus an d the Restoration of Israel: A Critical Assessment of
N. T. Wright s Jesus and the Victory of God
(ed. Carey C. New man ; Carlisle: Patemoster, 1999) 77-
100. For more recent surveys of the question, with an important critique of older influential views,
see John A. Dennis, Jesus Death and the Gathering of True Israel: The Johannine Appropriation
of Restoration Theology in the Light of John 11:47-52 (WUNT 2/217; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
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T H E F E ST IV A L O F H A N U K K A H IN 2 M A C C A B E E S 2 51
The same logic is evident in the concluding exhortation of the second letter
(2 Mace 2:16-18):
Since, therefore, we are about to celebrate the purification, we write to you. Will you
therefore please keep the days
It is God who has saved all his people, and has retum ed
the inheritance to all, and the kingship and the priesthood and the consecration, as he
promised through the law.
For^ we have hope in God that he will soon have merc
on us and will gather us from everywhere under heaven into his holy place for he
rescued us from great evils and has purified the place.
The Jews in Egy pt are urged to join those of Jerusalem and Judea to keep
the days with a view toward the final fulfillment of the gathering of all dispersed
Jews to Judea. This exhortation shares features w ith the prayer jus t examined from
1:23-29. In the first place, the logic of the request for Diaspora participation m ay
best be understood on analogy with the specification in 1:23 that
everyone
(navTEç,
not merely the priests) prays to God for restoration. The Jerusalem leadership is
motivated less by a desire to promote Jewish identify in a context of geographic
dispersion than by the need to petition God
as a whole people.
Not ethnic solidarify
before a watching world but spiritual solidarify before God motivates the leader-
ship.'^
A second shared feature between the prayer of
1:23-29
and the request of
2:16-18 is the orientation toward a future hope. Both passages base this hope on
the twin pillars of God's election of the nation and Go d's saving the nation from
past ev ils. In 1:25 God is described as the one wh o delivers Israel from every
evil, who chose [our] fathers and consecrated them , wh ile in 2:17-18 the author
declares, God has saved all his people, and has retumed the inheritance to all,
and the kingship and priesthood and consecration, as he promised through the law
. . . he has rescued us from great evils and has purified the pl ac e .
These blessings fumish the grounds for hope that God will gather our scat-
tered peop le from among the gentiles. Acco rdingly, in 1:27 the priests pray,
Gather together (éntauváyaYe) our scattered peop le, set free those who are slaves
amo ng the gentiles , and in 2:18 the author assures, Go d . . . will gather
Et] us from everywhere under heaven into his holy place. In 1:27, the
•*
The NRSV om its the Greek causal particle fo r The Greek reads èXrtiionev ya p èni
In fact, the two passages posse ss many m ore points of contact than I will discuss hère, since
the author evidently sought to legitimize Judas by casting him in the mold of Nehem iah. See Bergren,
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252 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 7 4,201 2
juxtaposition of past election and hope of future ingathering implies their logical
connection. The yap of 2:18 renders this connection explicit.
Thus , in 2 Macca bees, the celebration of Hanukkah represents an expression
of hope for future gathering back to the land because the people remain G od 's elect
and God is the one who saves them. Moreover, God's recent deliverance of the
people of Jemsalem and Judea (under Judas) suggests to the author that the full-
ness of this restoration may be imm inent.'^
The purpose of Maccabees in the form in which we have it, then, was to
urge a group of Diaspora Jew s to participate in the celebration of Hanukkah. The
historical portion of the book (chaps. 3-15) does not merely
inform
the readers
about the background out of which the festival arose for commem orative purposes
(as do the Hellenistic festal letters noted above). Rather, the historical account is
intended to m otivate the readers to celebrate the festival
with a view toward uture
deliverance.
The rescue from Seleucid oppression, in other words, is celebrated
not merely for its own sake but as evidence that God is finally tuming from
centuries-old wrath to mercy. In this way, Hanu kkah functions as an annual
renewal of
th
plea that God would bring to completion the restorational mercy
set in mo tion in the deliverance from Antiochus.
I have argued that the epistolary introduction to the historical epitome of
chaps. 3-15 binds the festival of Hanukkah to the events recounted therein, or
more specifically to the events of 4:7 -10 :9. The events in these chapters are nar-
rated in such a way as to clarify their theological signific anc e. In the remainder
of this article, I will elaborate the meaning with wh ich H anukkah is imbued by the
theological historiography of 2 Maccabees. In a word, the festival assum es m ean-
ing for
monotheistic worship
as it becomes linked directly with the resolution of
the conflict between Jew ish worship of God and the divine self-conception of the
Seleucid king.
'* This seem s to be the force of the final stateme nt, for he has rescued us from great evils
and has purified the place. The logic mirrors that in 8:27-29, where the victories of Judas are not
full deliveranc e but me rely the beginning of me rcy, following which they ma de com mon sup-
plication and implored the Lord to be wholly reconciled with his servants.
I commented above on the growing appreciation of 2 Maccabees as a reliable historical
source in its own right. At the same time, scholars increasingly note the strongly refiective and
didactic character of the work (Harold Attridge, 2 M acc abe es, in
Jewish Writings of the Second
Temple Period Apocrypha Pseudepigrapha Qum ran Sectarian Writings Philo Josephus
[ed.
Michael E. Stone; CRINT, Section 2, Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second
Temple and the Talmud 2; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984] 176-83, here 181-82). Such an outlook is
well represented in the work of van Henten ( The Tradition-Historical Background of Rom 3,25: A
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THE FESTIVAL OF HANUK KAH IN 2 MAC CABEES 253
i n . Th e ]V[eaning of H anu kk ah in 2 M acc ab ees
An important dimension of the origin of Hanukkah in 2 Maccabees is the
Jewish perception of the divine self-view of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV
Epiphanes and the challenge this posed to Judaism. Ancient sources attest the
divine pretensions o f Antiochus in several ways. Most immediately, the king 's title
gives evidence of this pretense. In
his
ntiquities ofthe Jews (12.5.5
§258),
Josephus
reports that the Samaritans addressed Antiochus as King Antiochus the god,
Ep iphanes. Seleucid coins ftom the period of An tiochus's reign corroborate this
formula of address. Coins, for instance, with the inscription BAZIAEOZ ANTIOXOY
0EOY EniOANOYE
( King
Antiochus, God E piphanes ) have been dated to ca.
173-164 B.C.E. ° Echoes of this divine conceit (at least in Jewish persp ective) can
be discemed in Daniel, especially 11:36-37: the king shall do as he wills. He shall
exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing
things against the God of gods . . . for he shall magnify h imself above all. ^'
to have aimed for a history which entertained and uplifted the reader by means of anecdotal and
didactic historiography. He did not focus on an accurate reproduction ofthe events, but on the sig-
nificance of these crucial events ofth e past for contem porary Jew ish politics, religion, mo rality and
self-understanding. Along similar lines, see Tobias Nicklas, Der Historiker als Erzähler: Zur Zeich-
nung des S eleukidenkönigs Antiochus in 2 Makk IX, VT 52 (2002) 80-92, here 8 0; Elias Bickem:iann,
The God ofthe Maccabee s: Studies on the Meaning and Origin ofthe Maccabe an Revolt (SJLA 32;
Leiden: Brill, 1979) 95-96. Mathias Delcor ( The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha ofthe Hellenistic
Period, in The Cambridge History of Judaism vol. 2, The Hellenistic Age [ed. W. D. Davies and
Louis Finkelstein; Ca mbridge: Cam bridge University Press, 1989] 409-503 , here 465-66) describes
the style ofth e epitom ist as history with feeling. I wou ld suggest, modifying the statemen t of van
Henten above, that the epitomist d id focus on an accurate reproduction ofth e eve nts but exercised
such freedom in the ordering and shaping ofthe account as the epitomist thought necessary to bring
out the significance of these crucial events oft he past for contem porary Jew ish politics, religion,
morality and self-understanding.
^^ See Martin H enge l, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine during
the Early Hellenistic Period (London: SCM Press, 1974) 285. Otto Merkholm {Early Hellenistic
Coinage: From the Accession of Alexander to the Peace ofA pamea [336—188 B.c.] [ed. Philip
Grierson and Ulla W estermark; Camb ridge: Camb ridge University Press, 1991] 30) states that the
fashion of adding cult epithets to the name of the king beco me s establishe d during the reign of
Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In an earlier work on Antiochus IV, Morkholm {Antiochus IV of Syria
[Cope nhage n: Nord isk, 1966] 113, 130-32) argues that the arrogation of th e title God ma nifest
was perfunctory at best and was intended to promote certain political, rather than purely religious,
goals. Use ofth e title seems to have been confined to a small area of his kingdom (inc luding Judea)
and to only a decade or so of
his
reign (ca. 173/2-164 B.C.E.). Nevertheless, whatever Antiochus's
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254 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 74 ,201 2
Undoubtedly, the high-water m ark of An tiochus 's blasphemy, from the Jewish
perspective, was his replacement of the Jewish cultic calendar and system of wor-
ship with the Seleucid system involving worship of his own person. 2 M accabees
6:1-7 reports the radical and thoroughgoing persecution under Antiochus directed
against the central Jewish religious customs. The king appointed an Athenian sen-
ator to put an end to Jewish observance of their ancestral customs, to defile the
temple in Jerusalem and rededicate it to Zeus, thereby bringing to a halt all temp le-
related festivities. Verse 7 goes on to report that on the monthly celebration of
the king 's birthday, the Jew s w ere taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the
sacrifices. ^^ Jam es C. VanderKam has argued thorough ly that the sacrifices m en-
tioned in 2 Mace 6:7 should be identified with those mentioned in 1 M ace 1:59
( On the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the altar that was
on top of the altar of burnt offering ).^^ Together, these two passages reveal that
Antiochus did not simply halt Jewish temple worship but replaced it with a new
system of worship that included worship of himself
as
a god. This worship was to
take place every m onth on the occasion of
his
birthday. By participating in these
rituals, Hellenized Jerusalem, perhaps now renamed Antiochia, took its place in
the lists of Greek cities which, as theoretically independent entities within the
Seleucid realm, offered worship to the deified king in the manner chosen by
Antiochus's oppression of Judaism, then, was bound up with his claim to
deity and worthiness of worship. From a Jewish perspective, the pagan king did
gests that the Dan ielic statem ent 'h e spea ks great thing s' could refer to the divine epithets which
distinguish his coins completely fl-om those of his predece ssors. Helpful discussions of the Daniel
material can be found in John J. Collins, Daniel: A Com mentary on the Book of Daniel (Hermeneia;
Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993) 331-34, 386-87; Louis
F.
Hartman,
Th e Book of Daniel: A New Trans-
lation with Notes and Commentary on Chapters 1-9
(AB 23; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978)
301;
Andreas Blasius, Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Ptolemaic Triad: The Three Uprooted H orns
in Dan 7:8, 20 and 24 Reconsidered, JSJ il (2006)
52 -47;
and Jürgen-Christian Lebram, König
Antiochus im Buch Daniel, F7'25 (1975) 1711-12, esp.
754-61,
wh o traces the tradition represented
in Dan 11:36-37 to an earlier non-Jewish tradition of Antioc hus's sacrilegious activity vis-à-vis the
gods of conquered p eoples.
^^ For a survey of
the
turn of events under this Athenian senator, see Me rkholm , Antiochus
IV , 146-48.
James C. VanderKam ( 2 Maccabees 6,7a and Calendrical Cha nge,
JSJ
12 [1981] 61-68,
esp. 63) points to the common context of the passages, the mention of a monthly ritual, and the
involvement of sacrifice in support of the identification of the festival offerings in the two passages.
^'' VanderKam, 2 M accab ees, 63. For the probable renaming of Jerusalem Antiochia, see
Morkholm, Antiochus IV, 145. VanderKam goes on to adduce four inscriptions ranging ñ-om the
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THE FESTIVAL OF HANUK KAH IN 2 MA CCAB EES 255
not merely repress Jewish religious expression, he blasphemously reoriented it
toward himself.
He replaced the true God as the object of the people's worship.
Against this backdrop, the celebration of Hanukkah had the potential from the
beginning to becom e a celebration not merely of the renewal of stalled temple w or-
ship but of the reorientation of worsh ip/r aw
the pagan
oppressor
Antiochus back
to the one true God of
Israel.
Thou gh absent from 1 M accabe es, such an interpretation receives s triking
narrative presentation in 2 Maccabees, as the author uses this historical background
to unfold a lengthy polemic against Antiochus. The importance of this polemic for
Hanukkah lies in the resolution it receives and the way it is brought into association
with the festival.
The epitomist of Maccabees characterizes Antiochus as a divine pretender
of titanic proportions by repeatedly coupling reports of the king's actions w ith edi-
torial insertions about the king's psychology meant to evoke deity. For example,
following Antiochus's initial plundering of the Jerusalem temple, the epitomist
says,
Antiochus carded off eighteen hundred talents from the temple, and hurried away to
Antioch, thinking in his rrog nce th t he could s il on the l nd nd w lk on the
[TO TtéXayoí;
nopivrôv oéoBai], because his mind was elated. (2 Mace 5:21)
Though the precise phraseology is not drawn irom any single source, the LXX
repeatedly uses the imagery of walking on the sea to set God apart from human
creatures. For example. Job 9:8 declares of God, He alone stretches out the heav-
ens and treads on the waves of the sea (7iepinaT(I)v
tbc; in
èôacpouc; énl oaXaaar^c;).
Later, in a rebuke to Job , God asks rhetorically, Have you entered into the springs
of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the de ep? (38:16).^^
Hellenistic tradition may also have played a role in the shaping of the imagery
of Mace 5:21. The Greek tragedian Aeschylus recounts the god-defying hubris
of the Persian king Xerxes in his construction of a bridge across the Hellespont.
Aesch ylus describes the youthful recklessness by which Xerxe s incurred the
wrath of the gods:
for he conceived the hope that he could by shackles, as if it were a slave, restrain the
current of the sacred Hellespont the
Bosporus
a stream divine; he set himself to
fashion a roadway of a new type, and, by casting upon it hammer-wrought fetters,
made a spacious causeway for his mighty host. Mortal though he was, he thought in
^' Job 38:16 LXX:
i Xöet
èni nriYriv 9a \á aa r|( ; èv ôè ïxveoiv aßu aa ou Ttepienaxrioac. C f Ha b
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256 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 7 4,2 01 2
his folly that he would gain the mastery of all the gods, yes, even over Poseidon.
Pers. 745-50)2*
The likelihood of dual biblical and Hellenistic infiuence on 2 Mace 5:21 is
high, given the tendency throughout the book to draw upon both trad itions.^' It is
best, then, to conclude that the epitomist used stock imagery for designating the
uniquely divine power and prerogative over the creation to depict the extreme arro-
gance of
the
Seleucid king.
Later, when God afflicts Antiochus with a wasting disease, the epitomist
delights in highlighting the irony:
Thus he who only
a
little while before had thought in his superhum n rrog nce th
he could comm nd the w ves of the sea, nd h d im gined th t he could pl ce
high mount ins in
balance,
was
brought down
to
earth and carried in
a
litter, makin
the power of
God
manifest to all. (2 Mace 9:8)
The imagery of comm anding the sea is associated w ith the primeval work of
creation in which God established the boundaries of the seas as well as with the
parting of the Red Sea.^* The image can also be used in general terms for the sov-
ereign dominion of God over creation, often carrying the implication of God's
abilify to save the people.^' The image of weighing mountains in scales occurs in
the LXX only in Isa 40:12 and Wis 11:22,^° though the depiction of God com-
manding and overwhelming the mountains is more common.- Finally, here, as in
2 Mace 5:21 , the H ellenistic tradition of the hubristic behavior of the Persian king
Xerxes is probably discemible.-'^ Thus, once more, though evidently not appropri-
^' Aeschylus,
Persians
(trans. Herbert Weir Smyth; LCL; Cam bridge, MA : Harvard University
Press, 1926). Cf
65 71 :
The royal a r m y .. . cross[ed] the
Hellespont
... on a bridge of boats ma de
fast with cables, thereby casting a tightly constructed roadway as a yoke upon the neck of the sea.
The historical basis of this event is treated in detail in N. G. L. Ham mo nd, Th e Construction of
X erx es' Bridge over the Hellespo nt, y/ /S 116 (1996) 88-107. In a similar display of hubristic behav-
ior, Xerxes dug a canal across the Athos peninsula on his way to invade Greece. See Herodotus
Hist.
7.21-24,36-37, 117.
' ' Goldstein,
II Maccabees, 260 61 ;
and see further n. 7 above.
28
For creation, see Job 38:8-11; Prov 8:29; Pr Man 1:3; 4 Esdr 6:42; cf Jer 5:22; Job 9:7-8.
For the Red Sea, see Ps 106:9.
2» See Pss 8 9:9; 93:4; 95: 5; 107:25, 29; Isa 50 :2; 51:15 ; Am os 5:8; Jonah 1:4; Nah 1:4; Job
26:12.
• ' Isaiah 40:12: W ho has put the mountain s in scales, and the forests in the balan ce? (tic;
eoTqaev rà öpri ataO^iu) Kai
ràc,
vOTtaç (uycp); W is 11:22: Be cau se the w hole w orld before thee is
like a speck tha t tips the sca le s (TiXaaTÍYyiov).
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THE FESTIVAL OF HANU KKAH IN 2 MA CCAB EES 257
ating any particular source, the author evokes deity by depicting Antiochus (as
though) in supreme command and mastery over some of the greatest elements of
nature : the sea and the mountains.^^
Finally, the motif of Antiochu s's divine prétentions reaches its climax in the
words spoken by the king from his deathbed: And when he could not endure his
own stench, he uttered these words,
It
is
right
to
be subject
to
God
mort ls
should
not think that they are equal to G od
(2 Mace 9:12).^'*
In a manner rem iniscent of both biblical and H ellenistic fraditions, then, the
epitomist characterizes Antiochus as a divine pretender. Indeed, this m otif of the
king who opposes God (the
theomachos)
shapes the presentation of Antiochus
throughout chaps. 5-10. In his effort to reorient Jewish worship toward himself
he is guilty of nothing short of fighting against God (ôeoiiaxeîv; 2 M ace 7:19).
Given the conflict between the pagan king and God, the real import of this
polemic for 2 Macc abees, how ever, lies in the resolution. The author resolves the
stmggle with reference to the works that distinguish who is tmly God. The message
of the author, supplied in narrative form, is that the tme God is the one who dis-
plays the power to give life and to judge.
The polemic com es to the fore in the trial scene of
chap.
7, where the seven
brothers are arrested and brought before the king.^^ The frial revolves around the
question of whose command it is right to honor: that of Antiochus, an imposter
and adversary of God (7:19), or that of the Lord.^* As the narrative imfolds, the
9:7)? in Heavenly Tablets: Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism (ed. Lynn
LiDonnici and Andrea Lieber; JSJSup 119; Leiden: Brill, 2007) 257-66, esp. 262-65.
^ C f N icklas, Historiker, 85: So macht der Erzähler, ohne es direkt aussprechen zu
müssen, deutlich, worin die àXaÇoveia des Königs besteht: in der Anmaßung grenzenloser Macht
und dam it letztlich der Vorstellung, Gott gleich zu sein. Similarly, Solomon Zeitlin, The Second
Book of Maccabees (Jewish Apocryphal Literature; New York: Dropsie College, 1954) 149.
' For present purposes , It is obviously not necessa ry to think that 2 Ma ccabe es provides a
historically reliable account of the king's last words; the anguished speech is blatantly fictitious.
The important point is that this fanciful report became part of the Jewish literary heritage about
King An tiochus (James C. VanderKam, John 10 and the Feast of Dedication, in Of Scribes and
Scrolls: Studies on the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental Judaism, and Christian Origins, Presented
to John Strugnell on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday [ed. Harold W. Attridge, John J. Collins,
and Thomas H. Tobin; College Theology Society Resources in Religion 5; Lanham, MD: University
Press of America, 1990] 203-14, here 213). Along similar lines. Doran
(Temple Propaganda,
61)
conclude s that the letter highlights the hubritic beha vior of the king that led to his punishm ent by
God.
For a helpful introduction to the com plex issues of tradition and redaction in this important
passage, see George W. E. Nickelsburg,
Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah: A
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258 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 7 4,201 2
author uses the speeches of the brothers and their m other to indicate that the God
of Israel, not Antiochus, is the tme God
because God has the power to give life
and to judge
(cf 7:9, 11, 14,
22-23,
35-36).
God's power to give life is evoked in twofold fashion: God is the one who
created the world and the one who will raise the dead—most immediately, the
mother and brothe rs.^' In addition to resurrection, national restoration ft om foreign
oppression constitutes another facet of G od 's life-giving work. The narrative con-
text of chap. 7 indicates this by linking the m artyrdoms of chap. 7 to the m ilitary
victories of chap. 8. Following the appeal ofthe seventh and final brother for God
to tum
ft om
wrath to mercy (7:37-3 8), the imm ediately ensuing narrative reports
the fulfillment of this appeal in the victory of Judas Maccabeus and his forces
against the Seleucids (see 8:5, 12, 27). Thus, the life-giving work of God entails
both resurrection and national restoration ftom foreign oppression.
If God's power to give life is one w ork that sets the deity apart ftom Antiochus
as the tme God, the other work is judgm ent. Throughout the account of the m ar-
tyred brothers, the pagan king is wam ed of his impending punishm ent at the hands
of God. After expressing his hope in the ftiture resurrection, the fourth brother
w am s the king but for you there will be no resurrection to life (7:14). Similarly,
the fifth brother taunts, keep on and see how [God's] mighty power will torture
you and your descendants (7:17). The sixth brother, too, avers, Do not think that
you will go unpun ished for having tried to fight against God (7:19). At the climax
ofth e story, the seventh brother delivers the most forceflil and extended pronounce-
ment oft he certainty of judgment by the almighty, all-seeing Go d (7:3 1,3 4-3 7).
Thus, in artftal, ironic fashion the king who renders unjust judgment against the
children of heav en will shortly come under the just pun ishm ent of God, the
tmejudge.^^
• In the appeal of the mo ther to her seventh son to acce pt death, she twice reminds him
that God is the One who created the world, and all humanity, in the first place
(7:23,
28). What is
mo re, Go d did not ma ke them out of things that existed (7:28). Therefore, she reasons, her son
should trust that God also has the pow er to give life and breath to you aga in after the son has been
martyred by the king (7:23 ,29). B esides the mother, three ofth e brothers invoke God's authority to
raise the dead (7:9, 11, 14). See also George W. E. Nickelsburg, Resurrection Immortality and
Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism and Early Christianity (HTS 56; Cam bridge, MA : Harvard
University Press, 2006)
120-21;
Schwartz,
2 Maccabees
312-13 and the literature there cited;
Richard Bauckh am , Life, Dea th, and the Afterlife in Second Tem ple Juda ism , in
Life in the Face
of Death: T he Resurrection M essage ofthe New Testament (ed. Richard
N .
Longenecker; McMaster
New Testament Studies; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 80-98, esp. 85.
^* See the treatmen t of this motif in Schwartz, W hy Did An tiochus Have to Fa ll? 257- 66;
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THE FESTIVAL OF HANUK KAH IN 2 MAC CABEES 259
A crucial com ponent of understanding this theological resolution to the con-
fiict between Antiochus and God is the recognition of the OT background. The
concept of G od's un iqueness as displayed in giving life and judg ing is indebted to
Deuteronom y 32, as is evident from the citation of v. 36 early in the scene when
the mother and remaining brothers encourage one another to die nob ly : The
LORD
w ill vindicate his people and have com passion on his servants, when he sees
that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free (2 Mace 7:6).
In the Song of M oses, this declaration represents a key turning point in Israel's
plight under divine judgment. The moment of passage from wrath to mercy turns
on the recognition by God that the people's strength has reached a low ebb
( when
he sees their strength is gone ). It is at the nadir of their suffering that God inter-
venes to bring restoration for the nation and judgment on their oppressors. This
redemptive-historical context forms the occasion for the declaration of God's
unique deity in v. 39: I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I
mak e alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
Importantly, the preroga tive to kill and mak e alive, which sets God apart as
unique, is not in context a mere abstract principle. Rather, God
enacts
this prerog-
ative before the nations in turning from wrath to mercy toward the people and in
bringing judgmen t upon their enem ies. In this way the deliverance of G od's people
and the display of Go d's uniqueness are two sides of the same coin.
The invocation of Deut 32:36 at the outset of the trial before Antiochus in
2 Maccabees 7 becomes programmatic for the rest of the chapter.^' s in D euteron-
omy 32, the resolution of the conflict between Antiochus and the God of Israel
does not merely establish the abstract principle of Jewish monotheism (the God
of Israel is the only true God). Rather, the resolution contributes to the transfor-
mation of divine wrath into mercy, thereby bringing the liberation of the
Hebrews' * (or at least of Jerusalem ) from foreign dom ination. Put succinctly,
God demonstrates uniqueness as the true God in acting in history to deliver the
people from bondage and to judge the Seleucids especially Antiochus).
It may be fairly asked how this all bears on the meaning of Hanukkah in
2 M accabees. In the first place , as already pointed out, the final editors of the work
forged a link between the celebration of the festival and the history reported in
chaps.
3 -15, and particularly 4:7-1 0:9. The celebration of Hanukkah not only com-
memorates the events of these chapters but also ñinctions as an enacted petition
2000] 139) shows the common background of giving of life to the righteous and judgment of the
wicked in Deuteronomy 32.
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260 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 7 4,201 2
for God to bring to consum mation the deliverance inaugurated in
the
judgm ent of
Antiochus and the defeat of
his
forces under Judas. Inasmuch as the confiict with
Antiochus and its resolution are fundamental to this section of
the
book, the reso-
lution given contributes to the thematic shape of
the
festival, whose inauguration
caps off the section. In the second place, the description of the festival's inaugu-
ration (10:1-8) has been situated in the wider narrative in a way that suggests a
thematic connection with the resolution of the polemic against Antiochus. The
position of 10:1-8 therefore requires comment.
When compared with the account of
Mace 6:1-16, the account of Antiochus's
demise in 2 Maccabees 9 appears to have been relocated from after the purification
of the temple and later military victories of Judas (as in Maccabees) to immedi-
ately
before
the temple cleansing and institution of Hanukkah. Jonathan Goldstein
believes that, in the original work of Jason of Cyrene, 10:1-8 followed 8:36 directly
and the account of
the
death of Antiochus (chap. 9) followed thereafter. The epit-
omist, then, as part of the editorial activity, departed from the original chronology
by repositioning chap. 9 between 8:36 and 10:1-8.'
Altematively, Daniel R. Schwartz argues not only that 10:1-8 interrupts the
narrative flow from 9:29 to 10:9 (as recognized by Goldstein and other scholars)
but that both the content and the grammatical style of 10:1-8 stand apart from the
rest of the epitome (and notably overlap with the opening letters). From this he
concludes that the present ordering of chaps. 8-10 constitutes not a rearrangement
of
an
original ordering but the alien insertion of 10:1-8 into the narrative in a way
that dismpts the narrative fiow but succeeds in tying Hanukkah to the historical
events reported in the previous chapters.
Among the explanations offered by scholars today for the rearrangement of
chaps. 8-10 is the editorial activity of the epitomist and of the Jerusalem leaders
responsible for the opening letters. *^ Given the secondary nature of the Hanukkah
material relative to the orientation of the epitome as a whole, the attribution of the
position of 10:1-8 to the same hand(s) responsible for the opening letters enjoining
observance of Hanukkah seems more likely than attribution to the epitomist.**^
The question then arises as to the
purpose
of this reworking of the original
narrative in 10:1-8. One key to this question m ay be found in the commen t of 10:9
following the establishment of the festival of
Hanukkah:
Such then was the end
' Goldstein , / /Maccaèee^, 345-48.
•• Schwartz (2 Maccabees 8-9) argues for the insertion of 10:1-8 by the Jerusalem leaders.
Argum ents against any such alteration to the original narrative of Jason in 10:1-8 (e.g.. Doran,
Tem-
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THE FESTIVAL OF HANUK KAH IN 2 MAC CABEES 261
of An tiochus, who was called Ep iphan es. Working on the assumption that the
verse should m ore naturally have followed 9:29, scholars have struggled to explain
the anom alous position of the eomment.'** It may be , however, that the present
position of 10:9 is best explained in terms of the thematic purposes I have described
above. The epitomist created a literary frame around 10:1-8 by twin references to
the demise of the king (9:28/10:9) in order more fully to enfold the festival of
Hanukkah into the thematic context and so foster a correlation with the death of
the king and the restoration of temple worsh ip.'''
2 Mace 9:28-29: So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the more
intense suffering, such as he had inflicted on others, came to the end of his
life by a most pitiable fate, among the mountains in a strange land. And Philip,
one of his courtiers, took his body home . . . .
2 Mace 10:1-8: Now Maccabeus and his followers, the Lord leading them
on, recovered the temple and the ci fy .. . [account of the temple's purification
and the institution of
Hanukkah].
2 Mace 10:9: Such then was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes.
Both of these references to Antiochus's death recall his claim to deify. The
label the blasphem er (9:28) refers to his arrog ance in thinking himself to be
equal with God. The second reference to his death (10:9) closes with express ref-
erence to the blasphem ous title Ep iphanes ringing in the ears of the reader. The
king who represented himself s the manifestation of god died under judgm ent
by the true God. Earlier in the story, An tiochus confessed, It is right to be subject
to God; mortals should not think that they are equal to God (9:12). The conclusion
of this portion of the epitome (4:7-1 0:9) drives home that Antiochus is not equal
to God, for God alone gives life and judges and is therefore worthy of worship.
This correlation of
the
judgm ent of God upon the divine pretender suits well
the characterization of the festival of Hanukkah as an enacted petition for God to
continue the deliverance of the nation begun in the days of An tiochus. In 2 Macca-
bees, the festival is not simply about the recovery of the temple but about
the wider
national restoration first set in motion by the seven rothers and of which the judg-
ment ofAntiochus and recovery of the temple were but early tokens.
In the Hanukkah fradition represented by 2 M accabees, the uniquely divine
works of giving life and judg ing set God apart from A ntiochus as the one true God.
Antiochus cast himself s god manifest and so required that sacrifices be made
to him on his birthday every month. Yet the author pronoimces the verdict in nar-
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262 THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 7 4,2 01 2
rative form against the pretensions of Antiochus. Ultimately G od, not Antiochus,
gives life to the people by delivering them from the foreign armies and thereby
showing the beginning of mercy (2 Maccabees 8), the eschatological deliverance
of Deut
32:36.
Furthermore, God, not An tiochus, displays divine pow er in render-
ing judg ment by afflicting the king with a fatal disease (2 M accabees 9), the escha-
tological judgment of Deut
32:39-41.
It is these works of national redemption
performed by God that form the basis of the celebration that would becom e known
as Hanukkah (2 Maccabees 10). In the end, therefore, 2 Maccabees imbues the
festival of Hanukkah with a deeper meaning than merely the recommencing of
temple worship after a period of cessation. By a creative and artful presentation of
the narrative, the author invests the celebration w ith significance for m onotheistic
worship. In a sense, Hanukkah becomes a celebration of the Shem a in eschatolog-
ical perspective: the universal recognition that the God of Israel is uniquely worthy
of worship.
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