the festival of hanukkah in cbq 2012.pdf

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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



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-



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-



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,



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,



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



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



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



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



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).



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




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;




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.




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-




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-



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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