Chapter Four

The further intrigues of Simon and Onias’s opposition to them (2 Macc 4:1-6). Jason, through bribery, seizes the high priesthood and introduces Hellenistic customs in the holy city (2 Macc 4:7-22). Menelaus ousts Jason by offering the king a larger bribe, and squanders the sacred treasury. The murder of Onias for exposing Menelaus’s lawlessness. The people’s mob justice against Onias’s murderers. Menelaus prevails and becomes a bitter enemy of the people (2 Macc 4:23-50).

2 Maccabees 4:1. But the aforementioned Simon, having become a betrayer of the treasury and of his homeland, slandered Onias, claiming that he himself had encouraged Heliodorus and was the instigator of the evils. “The aforementioned Simon...” — III:4 ff.

2 Maccabees 4:2–4. A benefactor of the city, a guardian of his countrymen, and a zealot for the laws — him he dared to call an enemy of the government. And when the hostility had reached the point that murders were being committed through one of Simon’s trusted men, then Onias, seeing that the struggle was dangerous and that Apollonius, as military commander of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, was raging and adding fuel to Simon’s malice, 2 Maccabees 4:5–6. set off to the king, not as an accuser of his fellow citizens, but having in view the welfare of each person and of all the people; for he saw that without the king’s care it was impossible to bring affairs to a peaceful settlement, and that Simon would not abandon his madness. Nothing is known of the outcome of Onias’s journey to the king. From the mention in verse 7 of the death of Seleucus and the retirement of Onias to Daphne, a suburb of Antioch (v. 33), it is generally assumed that he never returned to Jerusalem. But this assumption is quite arbitrary, since the murder of Onias did not occur until four or five years after the death of Seleucus, and likewise his removal from office by Jason can hardly have followed immediately upon the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes.

2 Maccabees 4:7. But when Seleucus died and Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, received the kingdom, Jason, the brother of Onias, sought the high priesthood, On Antiochus Epiphanes — see the note on 1 Macc 1:10. — Jason, Ιάσων, is a Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Yeshua — Ιησούς — Jesus, and this change of name, according to Josephus, Antiquities XII, 5, 1, was entirely Jason’s own doing.

2 Maccabees 4:8. having promised the king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of silver and from certain revenues eighty talents. “Three hundred and sixty talents of silver and from certain revenues eighty talents...” This last addition seems to indicate that Jason apparently intended to give the 360 talents of silver from the temple treasury or temple property. The total bribe, if reckoned in Hebrew talents, amounts to more than 1,000,000 rubles; in Syrian talents, about half that sum. This enormous amount was obviously promised not as an annual tribute but as a one-time, once-and-for-all payment — perhaps only with some deferral, in installments.

2 Maccabees 4:9. In addition to this he promised to write down another hundred and fifty talents, if permission were granted him by the king’s authority to establish a gymnasium for the physical training of youth and to enroll the inhabitants of Jerusalem as Antiochenes. “By the king’s authority...” — that is, by royal authority — διά τής εξουσίας αυτού. — “And to enroll the inhabitants of Jerusalem as Antiochenes” — καί τους έν Ίεροσολύμοις Αντιοχείς αναγράφαι — that is, either: “to register the Antiochenes living in Jerusalem,” emphasizing their distinction by conferring citizenship rights, or: “to enroll all the inhabitants of Jerusalem as Antiochenes,” granting them all the rights of Antiochene citizenship but thereby also obliging them to adopt Antiochene customs. — The second interpretation is supported by verse 19, which mentions these “Antiochenes from Jerusalem,” who were evidently Jews. Like Alexandrian and Roman citizenship, Antiochene citizenship consisted in certain privileges, among which was the right to attend Greek public games and festivities (v. 19). — Jason obviously hoped to make the prerogative of distributing these rights a rich source of income for himself, more than covering the costs of acquiring this prerogative.

2 Maccabees 4:10–11. When the king gave his consent and Jason came to power, he immediately began to draw his countrymen toward Greek customs. He set aside the royal privileges humanely granted to the Jews through the intercession of John, the father of Eupolemus, who had undertaken an embassy to the Romans concerning friendship and alliance; and, violating the lawful ordinances, he introduced customs contrary to the law. “The royal privileges humanely granted to the Jews...” — τα κείμενα τοις Ιουδαίοις φιλάνθρωπα βασιλικά; Slavonic: “the royal humanity established for the Jews...” This refers probably to the rights and privileges granted to the Jews by Antiochus the Great (Josephus, Antiquities XII, 3, 3 ff.), which included: the right to live undisturbed according to ancestral laws, exemption of priests and other temple ministers from taxes, a subsidy for temple expenses and for the requirements of worship, and the like. — “Through the intercession of John, the father of Eupolemus, who (according to 1 Macc 8:17 ff.) undertook (more precisely: who had undertaken — τού ποιησαμένου...) an embassy to the Romans concerning friendship and alliance...”

2 Maccabees 4:12. Deliberately he built a gymnasium for the physical training of youth right below the citadel and, drawing in the finest of the young men, he brought them under a shameful covering. “Under a shameful covering...” — υπό πέτασον — left untranslated in the Slavonic: “under the petasos...” The word πέτασος properly means a broad-brimmed hat worn for protection from the sun and rain, which the epheboi customarily wore over their cloaks and put on during exercise at the palestra. Hence the expression “to bring under the petasos” could mean simply to invite participation in physical exercise or games, and then more broadly — to give a Greek education. But the matter did not, as is clear, stop there. The further meaning of πέτασος is that of a screen or curtain, something like the modern stage wings, behind which indecent acts took place. It was into such “wings” — or, to put it plainly, into houses of ill repute (according to the Vulgate — lupanaria) — that the finest Hebrew youth were led, in deference to Syrian customs.

2 Maccabees 4:13. So there arose a craving for Hellenism and a drawing toward foreign ways, through the excessive impiety of Jason, that ungodly man and no true high priest, “So there arose a craving for Hellenism and a drawing toward foreign ways...” — Ήν δ᾿ ούτως ακμή τις ελληνισμού καί πρόσβασις αλλοφυλισμού; Slavonic more precisely: “and thus there was a certain zeal for Hellenism and success in gentile life...” A more exact rendering of this passage would be: “and to such a degree was there a kind of voluptuousness in Hellenism and fascination with foreign ways..., that even the priests...” and so on in verse 14.

2 Maccabees 4:14. that the priests were no longer zealous for the service of the altar and, despising the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, hastened to take part in the unlawful exercises of the palestra at the call of the thrown discus. “To take part in the unlawful exercises of the palestra...” — μετέχειν τής έν παλαίστρα παρανόμου χορηγίας; Slavonic: “(they hastened) to be partakers of the palestra of unlawful tradition...” — it would be more accurate to render this in Russian as: “they sought to take part in the choral revels of the palestra of lawlessness,” that is, in the palestra games accompanied by choral singing and all manner of merriment. — “At the call of the thrown discus...” — μετά τήν τού δίσκου πρόκλησιν. The discus — ό δίσκος — was a small bronze disc, thicker in the middle and without a handle (like a plate), which made the exercise rather difficult. A throw of this discus customarily opened the games (palestra contests).

2 Maccabees 4:15. They counted as nothing the honors of their fathers; they esteemed only Greek distinctions as the finest. “The honors of their fathers...” — πατρώοι τιμαί; Slavonic: “the paternal honors” — everything that was one’s own, native, and held in honor by the fathers. — “Greek distinctions...” — ελληνικαι δόξαι — everything that among the Greeks was considered glorious and desirable. What is said here — about preferring the latter over the former — applies not only to the priests mentioned in verse 14, but also to all the Jews who sought pleasure in the Greek pagan way of life.

2 Maccabees 4:16–18. For this reason a grievous visitation befell them, and the very people whose way of life they had imitated and whom they had wanted to resemble in everything became their enemies and tormentors; for it is impossible to act impiously against the divine laws and to escape punishment, as the time that followed showed. When the quinquennial games were being celebrated in Tyre and the king was present there, “Quinquennial games” — celebrated every five years.

2 Maccabees 4:19. then the ungodly Jason sent there, as spectators, the Antiochenes from Jerusalem, bringing three hundred silver drachmas for a sacrifice to Hercules; but the bearers themselves asked that the money not be used for a sacrifice, deeming that unseemly, and that it be allocated for other expenses: Games and festivals were customarily combined with solemn, lavish sacrifices to Hercules and with banquets in his honor; it was for these expenses that Jason sent the 300 silver drachmas. — The “Antiochenes from Jerusalem” whom Jason sent as spectators to the Tyrian games were, as emerges from the following, simply freshly minted “Antiochene citizens” drawn from full-blooded Jews — Jerusalem residents (see note on v. 9), who therefore could not bring themselves to carry out Jason’s wishes precisely, and themselves requested that the money sent with them be used, instead of a sacrifice to Hercules, for the construction of warships. — 300 silver drachmas — if the drachmas here are reckoned in the Attic standard, an exceedingly trifling sum relative to the dignity of the Jewish people and to Jason’s intentions (less than 100 rubles), so that certain manuscripts prefer to read 3,300 drachmas (about 1,000 rubles) here. Some commentators, however, leaving the first figure unchanged, consider it likely that the writer of the book here called by the name “drachmas” the common coins of the Seleucid era, equivalent to the Aeginetan didrachm or the Attic tetradrachm and to the Hebrew shekel (specimens surviving to this day in certain European museums), which were then widely circulated in Phoenician and Syrian cities. If so, 300 drachmas would represent a considerably larger sum than the one calculated above — approximately 400 rubles.

2 Maccabees 4:20. So the money sent for a sacrifice to Hercules in the name of the sender was, by those who carried it, applied to the construction of warships. Due to the imprecision of the translation and, perhaps, a scribal error by the author of the book himself, the thought in this verse is devoid of all sense. Instead of έπεμψεν (sent, not “were sent” as the Russian text renders it), certain manuscripts read έπεσεν (from πίπτω), which modifies the entire meaning thus: “So for the sake of the sender, this money went (fell to, was applied) not to a sacrifice to Hercules, but for the sake of the bearers — toward the construction of warships...”

2 Maccabees 4:21. When Apollonius, the son of Menestheus, was then sent to Egypt on the occasion of the accession to the throne of King Ptolemy Philometor, Antiochus suspected him of being hostile to him and began to take measures to secure himself against him; accordingly, after going to Joppa, he came to Jerusalem. “Apollonius son of Menestheus” — to be distinguished from Apollonius son of Thraseas (III:5, 7; IV:4) — may be the very Apollonius who accompanied the embassy dispatched by Antiochus Epiphanes to Rome (Livy XLII, 6). — “On the occasion of the accession to the throne of King Ptolemy Philometor...” — δια τα πρωτοκλήσια; Slavonic: “for the solemnity of receiving the throne...” Ptolemy Philometor had already been king before this, but as a minor he was under the guardianship of his mother Cleopatra, and after her death under the nobles Eulaeus and Lenaeus. The accession to the throne here described was the solemn celebration of his coming of age and his independent assumption of rule (in the 14th year of this king’s life — 173 BC). — “Suspected him of being hostile to him...” — μετελαβών Αντίοχος αλλότριον αυτόν τών αυτού γεγονέναι πραγμάτων; more precisely in the Slavonic: “Antiochus, supposing him to be a stranger to his affairs,” that is, suspecting his hostility to his interests, he took care of his safety — κατ᾿ αυτόν ασφαλείας εφρόντιζεν (the Russian text is crude and awkward: “began to take measures to secure himself against him...”). Ptolemy was indeed dreaming of restoring the province of Coele-Syria, together with Palestine and Phoenicia — wrested from the Ptolemaic monarchy under Antiochus III and once given as a dowry with his mother — and on this account he even started a war (cf. Polybius XXVII, 17). — Having noticed this hostility toward himself, Antiochus undertook his journeys — first to Joppa, an important coastal city, to take measures for its defense there, and then to Jerusalem, to establish the goodwill of this chief Jewish city toward his rule and to secure its loyalty. From there Antiochus went to Phoenicia, obviously with the same aim as when he went to Jerusalem.

2 Maccabees 4:22–23. He was magnificently welcomed by Jason and the city, escorted with torchlight and acclamations, and then went from there with his army to Phoenicia. Three years later Jason sent Menelaus, the brother of the aforementioned Simon, to carry money to the king and to make representations concerning several pressing matters. “Three years later...” — not from the king’s visit to Jerusalem mentioned in verse 21, but from the beginning of Jason’s high priesthood (v. 10). — “Menelaus, the brother of the aforementioned Simon...” (III:4 ff.; IV:1). Josephus (Antiquities XII, 5, 1; cf. XX:10) considers him the brother of the deposed Onias and notes that his Jewish name was also Onias. This seems to be contradicted by the statement in III:4, from which it follows that Menelaus, as a Benjaminite, could not have been invested with the high-priestly dignity, though there is nothing surprising in the fact that with Antiochus money could easily outweigh the ordinances of Moses. Josephus’s statement about the identity and name of Menelaus is in any case quite suspect — given the improbability that Simon had two sons with the same name; on the other hand, the joy of the Jewish loyalists (Chasidim) that Alcimus proved a worthy high priest of the line of Aaron (1 Macc 7:14), would be understandable only if his predecessor Menelaus was not of that lineage and not of high-priestly descent. — The money (τα χρήματα) that Menelaus was to deliver to the king was either the sum promised (v. 8) for the high priesthood, or for the permission to open the Jerusalem gymnasium (v. 9), or it could have been a fixed annual tribute from the temple. — “Representations concerning several pressing matters...” — περί πραγμάτων αναγκαίων υπομνηματισμοί — properly: a reminder to carry out what had until then remained without effect.

2 Maccabees 4:24. He, however, having been received by the king and having flattered his authority, seized the high priesthood for himself by outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver. “Having flattered his authority...” Greek: και δοξασας αυτόν τω προσώπω τής εξουσίας — Slavonic more precisely: “and having glorified him in the face of power...”

2 Maccabees 4:25. Receiving royal orders, he returned, bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood, but only the fury of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a wild beast. “Receiving royal orders” — βασιλικάς εντολάς — by which Jason was declared deposed from the high priesthood and Menelaus was confirmed in his place.

2 Maccabees 4:26. So Jason, who had deceived his own brother, was himself deceived by another and, driven out as an exile, withdrew to the land of the Ammonites. 2 Maccabees 4:27–28. Menelaus, having obtained authority, paid nothing at all of the money he had promised to the king, though Sostratus the commander of the citadel continued to demand it, since the collection of the tributes was his responsibility; for this reason both of them were summoned by the king. Menelaus obtained authority and, along with it, access to the temple treasuries — which was really all he needed. The sum promised to the king he did not pay, apparently because this schemer no longer had any further need to. Even if non-payment of the bribe threatened him with dismissal, he — as the saying goes — would know how to come out on top. After even Sostratus, the commander (ἔπαρχος) of the city fortress (that is, of the Syrian garrison stationed there for order) who also served as tribute collector, could not recover the promised bribe, the king summoned both men — one for non-payment, the other for incompetence and failure to collect the tax. Both leave behind “successors,” that is, properly deputies (διάδοχος) for the duration of their absence, as follows also from the fact that Menelaus subsequently reappears in the role of high priest (vv. 39, 43 ff.; V:5).

2 Maccabees 4:29. Menelaus left his brother Lysimachus as deputy in the high priesthood, and Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cypriots. Menelaus’s deputy, Lysimachus, proved himself fully worthy of his “brother” (vv. 39 ff.). — Of Crates, Sostratus’s deputy, nothing more is mentioned below. The narrator describes him as τόν επί των Κυπρίων — commander of the Cypriots. At that time (173 BC) Cyprus was not under Seleucid rule but belonged to the Ptolemies. In 168, on his last Egyptian campaign, Antiochus seized this island, but was immediately compelled to restore it on the demand of the Romans (cf. Polybius XXIX, 11, 9–11 and Livy 45, 11 ff.). Accordingly, Crates is called ό επί τών Κυπρίων either as a former governor of the island, like Ptolemy Macron, who had gone over to Antiochus’s side, or as commander-in-chief in Cyprus during the Syrian occupation of the island. As to what answer Menelaus and Sostratus gave before the king’s tribunal, nothing is known. Evidently the affair turned out well for Menelaus, thanks to an unexpected complication for the king. The revolt of the Tarsians and Mallotes (vv. 30 ff.) forced him to depart hastily from Antioch, where he left as his viceroy a certain Andronicus, entrusting him with, evidently, also the case of Menelaus. The latter’s generosity ensured that Andronicus not only settled the case in his favor, but even, to please him, committed a further grave crime — murdering Onias, the man who had exposed Menelaus’s lawlessness.

2 Maccabees 4:30. At the time when this was happening, the Tarsians and Mallotes revolted because they had been given as a gift to Antiochus, the king’s concubine. “At the time when this was happening...” — that is, when Menelaus and Sostratus were preparing to appear before the king’s tribunal. — The Tarsians were the inhabitants of Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia. — The Mallotes were the inhabitants of Mallus, also in Cilicia and not far from the sea. The practice of granting provinces and cities — that is, their revenues — as dowry or as “allowance” to royal brides and wives was customary among the ancient Asian sovereigns. Antiochus goes even further in this case, attempting to extend this custom to his concubines as well, which naturally could please no one, as it did not please the Tarsians.

2 Maccabees 4:31–33. The king therefore went hastily to put things in order, leaving in his place Andronicus, one of the honored dignitaries. Then Menelaus, thinking to seize a favorable opportunity, stole some golden vessels from the temple and gave them to Andronicus, and sold others in Tyre and in the surrounding cities. When Onias learned this for certain, he rebuked him and withdrew to a place of safety — Daphne, near Antioch. Daphne was a small town near Antioch, properly a suburb of it, beyond the river Orontes, with a famous grove in which there was a temple of Apollo and Artemis and an ἄσυλον τέμενος (Strabo XVI, 750).

2 Maccabees 4:34–36. Therefore Menelaus, having caught Andronicus alone, urged him to kill Onias; and Andronicus, coming to Onias and craftily reassuring him and giving his hand under oath, despite being under suspicion, persuaded him to leave his sanctuary — and immediately killed him, with no regard for justice. This outraged not only the Jews but also many people of other nations, and they were indignant at the unlawful murder of this man. When the king returned from the regions of Cilicia, the Jews who were in the city, together with the Greeks who shared their indignation, reported to him that Onias had been put to death without cause. “The Jews who were in the city...” — Οί κατά πόλιν Ιουδαίοι — that is, the Jews who lived in Antioch.

2 Maccabees 4:37. Antiochus, grieved in his soul and moved to pity, wept over the virtue and great sobriety of the departed “The virtue and great sobriety of the departed...” — σωφροσύνη καί ευταξία — descriptions of Onias’s character from a pagan point of view, which — from a Jewish perspective — are expressed (III:1) in the concepts ευσέβεια and μισοπονηρία.

2 Maccabees 4:38. and in his anger against Andronicus, he immediately stripped him of his purple robe and tore off his garments, and commanded that he be led through the whole city and that the murderer be executed on that very spot where he had wickedly done Onias to death — whereby the Lord rewarded him with the punishment he deserved. Πορφύρα — the purple robe worn by Andronicus was not a sign of royal dignity but simply a mark of the king’s special favor toward Andronicus. — “Commanded that he be led through the whole city and on that very spot... to be executed...” Greek: περιαγαγών καθόλην τήν πολιν έπ᾿ αυτόν τόν τόπον... απέκτεινε...; Slavonic more precisely: “commanded that he be led throughout the whole city; in that very place... he destroyed him...” Both of these actions served, so to speak, one purpose: Antiochus — to put it more exactly — having ordered Andronicus to be led through the whole city to that same place (επ᾿ αυτόν τον τόπον) where Onias was killed, executed the murderer there.

2 Maccabees 4:39–40. When many acts of sacrilege had been committed in the city by Lysimachus with the connivance of Menelaus, and word of it had spread, the people rose up against Lysimachus, for a great many golden vessels had been stolen. When the crowd had risen up, full of fury, Lysimachus armed up to three thousand men and launched an unjust assault under the leadership of a certain tyrant, a man old in years and no less aged in madness. “Launched an unjust assault...” — κατήρξατο χειρών αδίκων — analogous to ἄρχειν πολέμου, to start a war.

2 Maccabees 4:41–45. When they saw the violence of Lysimachus, some seized stones, others heavy clubs, while still others, snatching up handfuls of dust from the ground, hurled everything together at the men of Lysimachus; and in this way they wounded many of them, struck down others, and put all of them to flight, while the sacrilegist himself they killed near the treasury. A judicial inquiry into this matter was held against Menelaus. When the king came to Tyre, three men sent by the council of elders presented him with a complaint. Menelaus, already under arrest, promised Ptolemy son of Dorymenes large sums of money if he would intercede with the king on his behalf. On Ptolemy son of Dorymenes — see the note on 1 Macc 3:38.

2 Maccabees 4:46. And Ptolemy, drawing the king aside into a colonnade on the pretext of taking a rest, turned the affair around. “Into a colonnade...” — εἴς τι περίστυλον; Slavonic: “into a certain vestibule.” This was probably a gallery or colonnade adjoining the palace or the hall of justice.

2 Maccabees 4:47. He freed Menelaus, the guilty party in everything, from the charges, and sentenced to death the unfortunate men who, had they pleaded their case even before Scythians, would have been acquitted. The “unfortunate men” sentenced to death were those three men who had been sent by the Sanhedrin as defenders of the city, the people, and the temple in this trial. — The Scythians were regarded by the Greeks and Romans as the most barbarous of peoples. Hence the expression “had they pleaded their case even before Scythians, they would have been acquitted” denotes the highest degree of injustice and barbarity. The expression itself strongly recalls the well-known saying of Cicero (In Verr. II, 5, 58): si haec apud Scythas dicerem, tamen animos etiam barbarorum hominum permoverem.

2 Maccabees 4:48–50. So swiftly did those who had spoken in defense of the city, the people, and the sacred vessels suffer an unjust punishment. The Tyrians, indignant at this, supplied generously what was needed for their burial. But Menelaus, through the greed of those in authority, remained in power and, growing in wickedness, became a bitter enemy of his fellow citizens. “Of his fellow citizens...” — that is, of the city of Jerusalem.