2 Maccabees 4 - New Catholic Bible (NCB)

Liberation of the Temple

Persecution of Antiochus IV and Success of Hellenism

Chapter 4

The Superintendent of the Temple Disturbs the Public Order.^{[a] 1} The aforementioned Simon, who had served as an informer about the money against his country, began to make slanderous accusations against Onias, claiming that it was he who had incited Heliodorus and thus had instigated these wretched disorders. ² He even had the effrontery to accuse of conspiracy against the government this man who was a benefactor of the city, the protector of his compatriots, and a zealous defender of the laws. ³ When Simon’s hostility reached such proportions that murders were actually committed by one of his agents, ⁴ Onias realized how dangerous the situation had become and that Apollonius, the son of Menestheus, the governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, was encouraging Simon in his evil ways. ⁵ Therefore, he appealed to the king, not to accuse his compatriots but rather as one who had at heart the best interests, both public and private, of all the people. ⁶ He saw that, unless the king intervened, public order could not exist and that Simon would persist in his madness.

Hellenism in Jerusalem.^{[b] 7} When Seleucus^[c] died and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded him on the throne, Jason, the brother of Onias, obtained the high priesthood by corrupt means. ^{8 [d]}In a petition he promised the king three hundred and sixty talents of silver, with eighty talents from another source of revenue. ⁹ In addition, he committed himself to a payment of a further one hundred and fifty talents if he was given the authority to establish a gymnasium and a youth club to be affiliated with it, and to enroll the people of Jerusalem as Antiochians.

¹⁰ When the king gave his assent and Jason succeeded to the office, he immediately imposed the Greek way of life on his fellow Jews. ¹¹ He set aside the royal concessions that had been granted to the Jews through the efforts of John—the father of that Eupolemus who later was sent on an embassy to negotiate a treaty of friendship and alliance with the Romans—and, abolishing the institutions founded on the law, he introduced customs that ran contrary to it.^{[e] 12} He quickly established a gymnasium^[f] at the very foot of the citadel itself, and he convinced the most noble of the young men to wear the Greek hat.

¹³ As a result of the introduction of foreign customs, the craze for Hellenism became so intense because of the unrestricted wickedness of the ungodly bogus high priest^[g] Jason ¹⁴ that the priests no longer bothered to fulfill their duties at the altar. Disdaining the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they would hasten to participate in the unlawful exercises as soon as they heard the signal for the discus-throwing. ¹⁵ They showed no respect for what their ancestors had regarded as honorable and placed the greatest value on what the Greeks honored above all else. ^{16 [h]}As a result, they ended up suffering great affliction, for the very people whose way of life they sought to emulate and whom they wished to imitate in every respect became their enemies and oppressors. ¹⁷ It is no light matter to violate the laws of God, as will become clear in due course.

¹⁸ When the quinquennial games were being held at Tyre in the presence of the king, ¹⁹ the villainous Jason sent envoys chosen from among the Antiochian citizens from Jerusalem to bring there three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. However, those who were designated to carry the money considered it improper for this money to be used as a sacrifice, and they decided to expend it for some other purpose. ²⁰ And so, the money intended by the sender to be used for the sacrifice to Hercules was in fact applied, at the suggestion of those who brought it, to the construction of triremes.^[i]

²¹ When Apollonius, the son of Menestheus, was sent to Egypt for the coronation of King Philometor,^[j] Antiochus learned that Philometor had become hostile to his reign. Concerned about his own security, after arriving at Joppa he moved on to Jerusalem, ²² where he was given a lavish welcome by Jason and the people of the city, who escorted him in with a torchlight procession and acclamations. After this, he led his army into Phoenicia.

²³ Jason Supplanted by Menelaus. Three years later,^[k] Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the previously mentioned Simon, to deliver money to the king and to complete the negotiations on some important matters. ²⁴ But when Menelaus was presented to the king, he flattered him with an air of authority and thereby secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.^{[l] 25} He returned with the royal appointment, despite the fact that he possessed no qualification that made him worthy of the high priesthood. He had the temper of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage beast. ²⁶ Then Jason, who had supplanted his own brother, was now himself supplanted by another man and driven out as a fugitive into the land of the Ammonites.

²⁷ Although Menelaus continued to hold the office of high priest, he failed to make any payments of the money he had promised to the king, despite the insistent demands for payment by Sostratus, the captain of the citadel, ²⁸ who had the responsibility for the collection of revenues. As a result, both men were summoned to appear before the king. ²⁹ Menelaus left his own brother Lysimachus as his deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus designated Crates, the commander of the Cypriots,^[m] to act in his place.

³⁰ Murder of the Saintly Onias.^[n] While these events were taking place, the people of Tarsus and Mallus rose in revolt because their cities had been given as a present to Antiochis, the king’s concubine.^{[o] 31} Therefore, the king hurriedly departed to resolve the problem, leaving Andronicus, one of his ministers, to act as his deputy. ³² Menelaus, believing that he had been presented with a favorable opportunity, stole some of the gold vessels from the temple and gave them to Andronicus. Some other vessels he had already previously sold to Tyre and the neighboring cities.

³³ When Onias received irrefutable evidence of these facts, he publicly denounced him, after having first withdrawn to a place of sanctuary at Daphne,^[p] near Antioch. ³⁴ Thereupon, Menelaus approached Andronicus privately and urged him to arrange for the death of Onias. Andronicus came to Onias and treacherously offered him sworn pledges with right hands joined. Despite his suspicions, Onias was persuaded to leave the place of sanctuary, whereupon Andronicus, without any regard for justice, immediately put him to death.

³⁵ The unjust murder of this man resulted in an outpouring of grief and outrage not only among the Jews but among people from many other nations as well. ³⁶ When the king returned from the region of Cilicia, the Jews of the city protested to him about the indefensible killing of Onias, and in this they were joined by Greeks who shared their anger about this criminal act.^{[q] 37} Antiochus was deeply grieved and filled with pity, and he wept as he recalled the prudence and exemplary conduct of the dead man. ³⁸ Inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped Andronicus of his purple robe, tore off his other garments, and then paraded him throughout the city to that very place where he had committed the outrageous deed against Onias. At that spot he put the murderer to death, and thus the Lord repaid him with the punishment he deserved.

³⁹ Disorders at Jerusalem. Lysimachus, with the connivance of Menelaus, had committed many sacrilegious thefts in the city. When this became common knowledge, and the people heard that many gold vessels had already been disposed of, they rose up in protest against him. ⁴⁰ When the crowds became even more enraged and menacing, Lysimachus armed about three thousand men and launched an unjustified attack. The troops were commanded by Auranus, a man advanced in years and no less in folly. ⁴¹ When the people realized that Lysimachus was the instigator of this attack, some picked up stones, others blocks of wood, still others handfuls of ashes lying around, and they flung them indiscriminately at Lysimachus and his men. ⁴² As a result, they wounded many of them, even killing a few, and put all the rest to flight. The temple plunderer himself they put to death near the treasury.

⁴³ Menelaus Maintains His Power. Charges were brought against Menelaus as a result of this incident. ⁴⁴ When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the senate pleaded their case before him. ⁴⁵ Menelaus, realizing that the verdict would go against him, promised Ptolemy, the son of Dorymenes,^[r] a substantial sum of money if he would win over the king. ⁴⁶ Ptolemy therefore took the king aside into a colonnade, as though for a breath of air, and persuaded him to change his mind. ⁴⁷ Menelaus, the cause of all the trouble, the king acquitted of all the charges against him. But he condemned to death those unfortunate men who had brought forward the accusations and who would have been adjudged as innocent and set free even if they had pleaded their case before the Scythians.^{[s] 48} Therefore, those who had pleaded the cause of the city, the people, and the sacred vessels quickly incurred an unjust punishment. ⁴⁹ Some Tyrians were actually so enraged by this crime that they provided sumptuously for their funerals. ⁵⁰ However, Menelaus, because of the greed of those who held power, remained in office, where he grew in wickedness and established himself as the chief plotter against his compatriots.

Footnotes

1. 2 Maccabees 4:1 Profiting from the rise of Hellenism and political instability, several plotters seek to further their careers.
2. 2 Maccabees 4:7 Joshua, who writes his name according to the Greek, Jason, gathers around him the partisans of Hellenism and encourages and favors pagan ways, in particular, games with nude athletes. The author describes some aspects of these new ways of life: the gymnasium, center of physical as well as cultural education, ensures the athletic and military formation of youth; those who are most outstanding also wear the Greek hat, the wide-brimmed hat of Hermes, the pagan god of athletic events.
3. 2 Maccabees 4:7 Seleucus IV Philopator was killed in 175 B.C. by his minister Heliodorus, the same person who had been sent to confiscate the goods of the temple. Antiochus IV, Seleucus’s younger brother, heard of it while he was in Athens and returned to his country. With the aid of the Romans, he eliminated Heliodorus and took control of the government, trampling on the rights of his brother Demetrius, who was then being held at Rome as a hostage in the wake of the Battle of Magnesia in which Antiochus III the Great had been defeated by the Romans (see 1 Mac 7:1).
4. 2 Maccabees 4:8 Jason promised an increased tribute; the usual amount seems to have been around 300 talents. He expected to recover the sum from the usual entries of his little administrative region (Judea) and from eventual taxes that he could impose once he became high priest. Antiochians: honorary citizens of Antioch, a Hellenistic city of the Seleucid Kingdom that had a corporation of such people who enjoyed political and commercial privileges.
5. 2 Maccabees 4:11 Antiochus III had granted the Jews the right to govern themselves according to the law of Moses. Concerning Eupolemus’s mission to Rome, see 1 Mac 8:17.
6. 2 Maccabees 4:12 The gymnasium where the youth exercised in the nude was located in the Tyropoeon Valley to the east of the citadel—right next to the eastern side of the temple.
7. 2 Maccabees 4:13 Jason is called a bogus high priest because he obtained the high priesthood by bribery and did not keep the Mosaic Law.
8. 2 Maccabees 4:16 Forsaking the Torah only leads to disaster: see also 1 Ki 17:5-18; 2 Chr 36:11-21; Neh 9.
9. 2 Maccabees 4:20 Triremes: vessels of war with three sections of oars.
10. 2 Maccabees 4:21 Philometor: Ptolemy VI, in 172 B.C.
11. 2 Maccabees 4:23 Three years later: not after the last event narrated (which represents an insertion) but three years after the naming of Jason as high priest. The Simon spoken of is the one who had provoked the intervention of Heliodorus to confiscate the treasury of the temple (see vv. 1, 4; 3:14).
12. 2 Maccabees 4:24 Taking account of verse 8, the conclusion is that Menelaus obligated himself to send 740 talents.
13. 2 Maccabees 4:29 The mercenaries who formed the garrison of Jerusalem were Cypriots.
14. 2 Maccabees 4:30 This vile murder of 171 B.C. is an important date in the Jewish history of the second century.
15. 2 Maccabees 4:30 The Seleucids gifted cities or provinces to members of their family as personal fiefs.
16. 2 Maccabees 4:33 Daphne: located some five miles from Antioch, had a place of sanctuary dedicated to Apollo and Artemis.
17. 2 Maccabees 4:36 In Antioch, from its very foundation, there existed a Jewish colony with special rights and privileges.
18. 2 Maccabees 4:45 Dorymenes: fought for Ptolemy IV against Antiochus III. His son Ptolemy had been governor of Cyprus and deserted to Antiochus IV (see 2 Mac 10:12f).
19. 2 Maccabees 4:47 Scythians: people who lived in present-day southern Russia and were known for their brutality.