1) The
Simon mentioned above as the informer about the funds against his own country
slandered Onias as the one who incited Heliodorus and instigated the whole
miserable affair. 2) He dared to brand
as a schemer against the government the man who was the benefactor of the city,
the protector of his compatriots, and a zealous defender of the laws.
COMMENTARY: This is a very popular dodge
today—to accuse the innocent of one’s own crimes or failings, which makes any
accusation of their own incredible, because how could the first accuser be
guilty of something he’s so vehemently against?
3) When Simon’s hostility reached such a
pitch that murders were being committed by one of his henchmen,
COMMENTARY: Plausible deniability. “He did what?
Oh, I didn’t authorize that!” And
maybe sometimes the one in charge really didn’t authorize murder, but one still
bears responsibility for creating a climate where one’s followers would believe
that murder is acceptable.
4) Onias saw that the opposition was
serious and that Apollonius, son of Menestheus, the governor of Coelesyria and
Phoenicia, was abetting Simon’s wickedness.
COMMENTARY: The murders must have been
blatant, then, and yet unpunished by the authorities. One might get away with a sneaky murder on
one’s own, but to be open about it one must have powerful backing. Which is why so many die of pollution-caused
diseases today: the poisoners pay extravagant campaign contributions for anyone
who will let them get away with murder.
5) So he had recourse to the king, not as
an accuser of his compatriots, but as one looking to the general and particular
good of all the people. 6) He saw that without
royal attention it would be impossible to have a peaceful government, and that Simon
would not desist from his folly.
COMMENTARY: Having branded Simon as a
treacherous snitch against his own people, the author must take pains to
distinguish Onias from the same charges.
A populace living in fear of assassination qualifies as a legitimate
excuse to ask help from the conqueror.
7) But Seleucus died, and when Antiochus surnamed Epiphanes succeeded him
on the throne, Onias’ brother Jason obtained the high priesthood by corrupt
means:a
COMMENTARY: Seleucus died because
Heliodorus assassinated him. (You will
remember Heliodorus as the would-be temple robber thrashed by angels.) And so the way clears for the antisemitic Antiochus Epiphanes.
Jason, being Onias’ brother, had the prescribed bloodline for the job, but not
the proper character. There’s some irony
in his name, though not apparent to the writer at the time. You see, being enamored of all things Greek
and holding his own culture in contempt, he had his name changed to the Greek
Jason from its embarrassingly Jewish original: Jesus.
8) in an interview, he promised the king
three hundred and sixty talents of silver, as well as eighty talents from
another source of income.
COMMENTARY: You could call that a
bribe. Today we would call it a campaign
contribution. And indeed, it did
contribute to King Antiochus’ military campaigns to try and restore the
Seleucid Empire to its former glory. You
may remember, from our studies of 1 Maccabees, that Antiochus was seriously
strapped for cash.
9) Besides this he would undertake to pay
a hundred and fifty more, if he was given authority to establish a gymnasium
and a youth center for it and to
enroll Jerusalemites as citizens of Antioch.
COMMENTARY: Interesting, that this
version shows the gymnasium coming to Jerusalem under Antiochus, not Ptolemy,
Greek Pharaoh of Egypt. Perhaps the
author wanted to spare the Egyptian Jews ,for whom he wrote, this embarrassing
detail.
As mentioned in our study of 1 Maccabees, this gymnasium and youth center would
train youth both intellectually and athletically in the Greek way of doing
things, as well as provide a pick-up parlor for those who wished to follow the
Greek custom of matching up teenage boys with adult men for lovers in the
interest of furthering their education.
The fact that Jason would not merely be okay with this, but pay to set
it up, shows just how much he wanted to be Greek.
(And this really isn’t too surprising. Conquered people throughout history often
come to believe—with the encouragement of their oppressors—that they are
culturally inferior, and that their only salvation lies in assimilation. Yet rejection of one’s heritage often leads
to self-loathing, alcoholism and addictions, domestic abuse and similar
problems that reinforce even more the message of inferiority.)
Wanting to enroll Jerusalem Jews as Antioch citizens
shows another layer to Jason’s move, absent in 1 Maccabees. Legal citizenship in the empire’s capitol
conveyed additional powers and privileges to whoever could secure it.
10) When Jason received the king’s
approval and came into office, he immediately initiated his compatriots into
the Greek way of life.
COMMENTARY: This would have far more
impact coming from the High Priest. His
job included teaching them the proper way to be Jewish. This might be why the people later felt okay
with appointing a priest of the wrong lineage as High Priest—because they were
so badly led astray by a priest of the right lineage.
11) He set aside the royal concessions
granted to the Jews through the mediation of John, father of Eupolemus (that Eupolemus who would later go on an embassy to
the Romans to establish friendship and alliance with them); he set aside the
lawful practices and introduced customs contrary to the law.
COMMENTARY: I couldn’t find out what
concessions, specifically John won for Judea from the Seleucids. However, this does set an interesting
precedent for the concessions later won by the Maccabees. It makes a lot more sense if they were
restoring rights lost under Antiochus, although that would be less glorious
than seizing brand new privileges.
Interestingly, John gave his son a Greek name, but not
one drawn from Greek mythology like “Jason”.
Eupolemus means “Good Warrior” or possibly “Fights for Good”. He’s probably the same Eupolemus who became
the first significant Greco-Jewish historian.
Sadly, only fragments of his works remain.
12) With
perverse delight he established a gymnasium at the very foot of the citadel,
where he induced the noblest young men to wear the Greek hat.
COMMENTARY: And often nothing else. “Gymnasium” means “Naked Place”, because the
Greeks exercised in the buff. The
position of the gymnasium put it smack dab next to the temple. Mind you, I’m not personally alarmed by
nudity, but putting it there amounted to mooning God. Context is everything.
The Greeks modeled this wide-brimmed hat on that worn
by Hermes, Greek God of, among other things, athletic contests. Greeks showed off their enrollment in a
gymnasium by wearing such hats, which marked the rigors of their exertions as
an offering to the god; since Hermes also ruled commerce (and thievery!) they
considered this good for business, and conducted many business deals while
cleaning up after games in the gymnasium.
So this meant more than a fashion-statement. It meant a slide into apostasy—encouraged by
the High Priest! Right next door to the
Jewish temple.
13) The craze for Hellenism and the
adoption of foreign customs reached such a pitch, through the outrageous
wickedness of Jason, the renegade and would-be high priest, 14) that the priests no longer cared about
the service of the altar. Disdaining the temple and neglecting the sacrifices,
they hastened, at the signal for the games, to take part in the unlawful exercises
at the arena.
COMMENTARY: I’m sure many of us, of all
faiths (at least in the USA) have at some time encountered a minister who
rushed through services during Football Season to catch the big Sunday
Game. As iffy as that might be, imagine
if everyone in town perceived the game as consecrated to a competing deity! One can debate whether or not the priests
intended it as such, or whether they just got caught up in the sports craze,
but it’s still putting something ahead of their God.
15) What their ancestors had regarded as
honors they despised; what the Greeks esteemed as glory they prized highly.
COMMENTARY: “Despised” in the Bible
usually doesn’t mean “Hated in extremity” as we often say now, but rather,
“Counted of little or no value in comparison to some alternative.”
16) For this reason they found themselves
in serious trouble: the very people whose manner of life they emulated, and
whom they desired to imitate in everything, became their enemies and
oppressors.
COMMENTARY: Especially with Jason
funding Antiochus’s war chest! It has
been my personal experience, as well as my observation of the fortunes of
others, that whenever we discard our own values or identity in order to please
someone else, we don’t just suffer for it, we often suffer at the very hands of
those for whom we made this sacrifice in the first place.
17) It is no light matter to flout the laws of God, as
subsequent events will show.
COMMENTARY: A warning to the Hellenized
Jews of Alexandria.
18) When the quinquennial games were held
at Tyre in the presence of the king,
COMMENTARY: The Quinquennial Games were
Tyre’s imitation of the Olympics, held in tribute to the patron deity of their
city. Their name reflects that these
games came around every five years.
19) the vile Jason sent representatives of
the Antiochians of Jerusalem, to bring three hundred silver drachmas for the
sacrifice to Hercules. But the bearers themselves decided that the money should
not be spent on a sacrifice, as that was not right, but should be used for some
other purpose.
COMMENTARY: The author wrote “Hercules”,
because the Greeks loved to match the names familiar to them to deities of
other nations who reflected the same or
similar archetype, and those who wrote in Greek followed suit, considering it a
part of translation. But in fact the
Quinquenniel Games were sacred to Melcarthus, patron deity of Tyre. So you’ve got a Jewish High Priest making an
overt offering to a rival to the deity he’s pledged to serve. Apparently even his followers found this a
bit much.
20) So the contribution meant for the
sacrifice to Hercules by the sender, was in fact applied to the construction of
triremes by those who brought it.
COMMENTARY: Triremes are war-ships with
three rows of oars for speed. Thus they
also helped to arm those who would soon turn against them.
21) When Apollonius,
son of Menestheus, was sent to Egypt for the coronation of King Philometor, Antiochus learned from him that the king was opposed
to his policies. He took measures for his own security; so after going to
Joppa, he proceeded to Jerusalem.
COMMENTARY: We will hear more about
Apollonius, as you might remember from the last book. “King Philometor” was in fact Pharaoh Ptolemy
VI, called Ptolemy Philometor, which means that he loved his mother.
This matters because his
mother, Cleopatra, was the sister of Seleucus and Antiochus. Since he inherited the kingdom in his
infancy, she had been the de facto ruler of Egypt. The Seleucid Empire and Egypt had long
disputed over who owned Palestine and Coele-Syria, but with the marriage it had
gone to the Seleucids as a dowry payment.
But then she died when her
son reached fourteen, and in the ancient world that was old enough for him to rule
in his own name. With dear ol’ Mom out
of the way, he wanted to press his claim to that territory! So now Antiochus feels a pressing need to
reroute his travels by way of Jerusalem, to make sure the territory’s secure.
22) There he was received with great pomp by Jason and the
people of the city, who escorted him with torchlights and acclamations;
following this, he led his army into Phoenicia.
COMMENTARY: Jason had some territory
securing of his own to do: namely the backing provided by King Antiochus for
his assimilation efforts.
23) Three years later Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the aforementioned Simon, to deliver the
money to the king, and to complete negotiations on urgent matters.
COMMENTARY: Another Jew with a Greek
name. This one took the name of the cuckolded
brother of Agamemnon who went to war to get back his wayward wife, Helen of
Troy. Menelaus means “Wrath of the
People”.
Josephus disputes that his father was the same Simon
mentioned earlier, which would have made him of the wrong house for the role,
and instead says that he was the son of another Simon—the father of Onias and
Jason. By this account, Menelaus
originally had the same name as his eldest brother: Onias (how that worked I
don’t know) but changed it for love of all things Greek. My own speculation is that maybe Onias
changed his own name to take on the name abandoned by his brother, but if so no
record confirms this.
24) But after his introduction to the
king, he flattered him with such an air of authority that he secured the high
priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.
COMMENTARY: That’s the problem with
bribery—sooner or later somebody comes along who can pay more than you can.
25) He returned with the royal commission,
but with nothing that made him worthy of the high priesthood; he had the temper
of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a wild beast.
COMMENTARY: This lays the groundwork for
assimilation to go from seduction to brute force.
26) So Jason, who had
cheated his own brother and now saw himself cheated by another man, was driven
out as a fugitive to the country of the Ammonites.
COMMENTARY: He who lives by the bribe
will die by the bribe, apparently. The
penalties we pay for our sins often display such irony, I’ve noticed.
27) But Menelaus, who obtained the office,
paid nothing of the money he had promised to the king,
COMMENTARY: And that’s still another
problem with bribery. You’re making a
deal with someone dishonest to begin with.
28) in spite of the demand of Sostratus,
the commandant of the citadel, whose duty it was to collect the taxes. For this
reason, both were summoned before the king.
COMMENTARY: Still, one should think
twice before trying to cheat someone with an army.
29) Menelaus left his brother Lysimachus
as his deputy in the high priesthood, while Sostratus left Crates, commander of
the Cypriots.
COMMENTARY: Yet another Greek-named Jew
takes over the priesthood. Lysimachus
means “Scattering the Battle”, and does not come from mythology.
30) While these things were taking place,
the people of Tarsus and Mallus
rose in revolt, because their cities had been given as a gift to Antiochis, the
king’s concubine.
COMMENTARY: Mallus is about thirty miles
east of Tarsus, a city of Cilicia.
Apparently people didn’t trust Antiochis’s credentials to rule them.
31) So the king hastened off to settle the
affair, leaving Andronicus, one of his nobles, as his deputy.
COMMENTARY: So now everybody has left
deputies in charge of everywhere pertinent to the story.
32) Menelaus, for his part, thinking this
a good opportunity, stole some gold vessels from the temple and presented them
to Andronicus; he had already sold other vessels in Tyre and in the neighboring
cities.
COMMENTARY: I guess he figured that it
was good insurance to bribe the guy left in charge in the King’s absence, in
case the power shifts yet again. And
apparently the Guardian Angels of the Temple don’t beat up high priests.
33) When Onias had clear evidence, he
accused Menelaus publicly, after withdrawing to the inviolable sanctuary at
Daphne, near Antioch.
COMMENTARY: The Sanctuary of Daphne was
a grove of bay trees next to the Temple of Apollo. Because the nereid, Daphne, had turned into a
bay tree to escape being raped by Apollo, anyone who could escape to this
refuge was considered safe from gods and men alike. It shows how much the situation has
deteriorated that Onias does not feel safe going to one of the closer Jewish
sanctuary cities, but must flee all the way to Antioch. Perhaps he hopes that the Hellenized Menelaus
will respect a Pagan sanctuary more than a Jewish one.
34) Thereupon Menelaus approached Andronicus privately and
urged him to seize Onias. So Andronicus went to Onias, treacherously reassuring
him by offering his right hand in oath, and persuaded him, in spite of his
suspicions, to leave the sanctuary. Then, with no regard for justice, he
immediately put him to death.
COMMENTARY: Sadly, money speaks louder
than faith in any culture, when dealing with base men. Even so, Andronicus didn’t dare murder Onias
in the grove itself, though he didn’t flinch from making a false oath there.
35) As a result, not only the Jews, but
many people of other nations as well, were indignant and angry over the unjust
murder of the man.
COMMENTARY: Menelaus and Andronicus
managed to simultaneously blaspheme both faiths at once, plus murder a man for
being a whistleblower. That takes some
special skill at villainy!
36When the king returned from the region of Cilicia, the
Jews of the city, together with
the Greeks who detested the crime, went to see him about the murder of Onias.
COMMENTARY: Some say that “the city”
referred to Antioch, while others maintain that the translation should be “each
city”, meaning that Jews from both Antioch and Jerusalem objected.
37) Antiochus was deeply grieved and full
of pity; he wept as he recalled the prudence and noble conduct of the deceased.
COMMENTARY: 2 Maccabees is much more
nuanced than 1 Maccabees, which portrayed Antiochus simply as a sadistic monster
until his deathbed repentance. But even
if he did sell Onias out for cash, he could still respect the former priest. It is one thing to dispossess a man; another
entirely to kill him.
38) Inflamed with anger, he immediately stripped
Andronicus of his purple robe, tore off his garments, and had him led through
the whole city to the very place where he had committed the outrage against
Onias; and there he put the murderer to death. Thus the Lord rendered him the
punishment he deserved.
COMMENTARY: The purple robe would have
indicated that Andronicus acted on behalf of the King. Stripping him naked showed that even in Antioch
Greek custom sat uneasily on an Asian throne, for in this part of the world,
before the Greeks conquered it, parading criminals naked through the streets
was the final humiliation before execution of the worst of the worst. A respected foe could expect to at least keep
his clothing when he lost his head. So
you can see how even in Eastern lands where Greek ways had become the official
norm, gymnasiums would make the local people uneasy.
To execute him right outside the Sanctuary of Daphne
also had its nuances. Not only did it
expiate with blood the blood of the fallen, it also showed the demigoddess
Daphne that the king had avenged the violation of her grove.
39) Many acts of sacrilege had been committed by
Lysimachus in the city with the
connivance of Menelaus. When word spread, the people assembled in protest
against Lysimachus, because a large number of gold vessels had been stolen.
COMMENTARY: Onias did at least succeed
in stirring up the ant’s nest before he died and nobody could unstir it. Apparently Menelaus, still out of town, left
an even worse thief in charge than himself.
I can see a growing disgust with the hereditary priesthood paving the
way for the Maccabees to take over.
40) As the crowds, now thoroughly enraged,
began to riot, Lysimachus launched an unjustified attack against them with
about three thousand armed men under the leadership of a certain Auranus, a man
as advanced in folly as he was in years.
COMMENTARY: Truly the victors write the
histories. No one currently in power
would use the word “unjustified” on the use of force to quell a riot. But one could argue that the riot itself was
justified.
As for the dig against Auranus, one could either see
it as a rebuke for one who had spent his life accruing experience in folly
instead of in wisdom as one should, or one could see it as saying he was
senile. The outcome seems to go with the
latter.
41) Seeing Lysimachus’ attack, people
picked up stones, pieces of wood or handfuls of the ashes lying there and threw
them in wild confusion at Lysimachus and his men.
COMMENTARY: Typical rioter’s weaponry,
and normally ineffective against an armed response. However...
42) As a result, they wounded many of them and even killed
a few, while they put all to flight. The temple robber himself they killed near
the treasury.
COMMENTARY: Auranus does not seem to
have known how to lead an army against an informally-armed mob. Most likely he did once know, but forgot; a
bumbler wouldn’t have made it to such a high position, but a senile man could
have made it there on past merits and then overstayed his position.
43) Charges about this
affair were brought against Menelaus.
COMMENTARY: Instead of indicting the rioters
who killed Lysimachus, they’re placing the blame firmly on the one who provoked
the riot. Now that’s refreshing!
44) When the king came to Tyre, three men
sent by the senate pleaded the case before him.
COMMENTARY: “Senate” being the
Sanhedrin, but the writer puts it in terms that his Alexandrian audience would
understand.
45) But Menelaus, seeing himself on the
losing side, promised Ptolemy, son of Dorymenes, a substantial sum of money if
he would win the king over.
COMMENTARY: And where does he get the
money to finance yet another bribe? By
selling stolen Temple property, of course!
46) So Ptolemy took the king aside into a
colonnade, as if to get some fresh air, and persuaded him to change his mind.
COMMENTARY: Then, as now, it always pays
to have a good lobbyist in your hire.
47) Menelaus, who was the cause of all the
trouble, the king acquitted of the charges, while he condemned to death those
poor men who would have been declared innocent even if they had pleaded their
case before Scythians. 48)
Thus, those who had prosecuted the case on behalf of the city, the
people, and the sacred vessels, quickly suffered unjust punishment.
COMMENTARY: Scythians, from a vast and
wild realm to the north, covering Eastern Iran, Central Asia and parts of
Eastern Europe, were considered the ultimate barbarians of that time and
region. But in fact they had quite a
sophisticated culture and left behind intricate works of art. But in Judea, if you wanted to brand somebody
as a slobbering brute, you called him a Scythian.
Anyway, the king has apparently decided to kill the messengers, literally. Perhaps he assumes that because they plead
for the same cause as the rioters, they must have been the ringleaders and
possibly the murderers. Kings in those
days were rather careless about executing the precise person responsible for an
undesired deed.
49) For this reason, even Tyrians, detesting the crime,
provided sumptuously for their burial.
COMMENTARY: The King’s own people,
however, were not in agreement with him.
Elaborate funerals and tombs for the executed were a way to protest an
unjust death that those in power dared not object to.
A similar case involved the final Cleopatra’s little sister, Arsinoe, dragged
out of the sanctuary of Artemis at Ephesus on the orders of Julius Caesar
(under pressure from Cleopatra) and murdered on the steps. She had taken refuge
there after having won a brief victory against Caesar by seizing the Lighthouse
of Alexandria in her teens. The people of
Ephesus, outraged at the violation of their sacred space, built her a tomb in a
cemetery reserved for great warriors, and shaped it as a miniature of the
lighthouse.
50) But Menelaus, thanks to the greed of
those in power, remained in office, where he grew in wickedness, scheming
greatly against his fellow citizens.
COMMENTARY:
Considering that all Jews paid a tithe to the temple, he had a steady
stream of income with which to maintain his power—all he had to do was spend
the money on bribes instead of sacrifices, incense, paupers and temple
maintenance. |