2 Maccabees — Chapter 1

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[OCR-FAIL] Commentary on vv. 1–11 is unrecoverable. Only two garbled lines precede verse 12; Lapide's exposition on the two letters (vv. 1–9 and 10–11) has not survived legibly in this OCR transcription. The file begins directly at the commentary on verse 12.

Ipse enim ebullire fecit

God made those who fought against us and the holy city to boil forth from Persia. This verse is difficult; the words \"from Persia\" do not appear at this point in the Greek but at the end: \"He made those who fought against us boil forth into Persia.\" Salianus proposes reading \"into Persia,\" meaning God caused Sidetes to rush into Persia with vast armies — but this does not fit well with what follows. Lapide therefore explains \"ebullire\" (Greek ekballein) with three meanings: (1) the vast numbers and ardour of Sidetes' troops who boiled forth like mushrooms from the waters of Syria and Persia; (2) that they were killed in Persia in great numbers, like flies and frogs born from water and drowned in the same; (3) that Persia expelled their corpses as the sea spews cadavers upon the shore.

Nam cum in Perside esset

For when the leader himself was in Persia, and with him an immense army, they fell in the temple of Nanea. Secular historians disagree about the death of Antiochus Sidetes: Josephus and Justin say he was killed in battle by the Parthians; Appian says he killed himself after defeat; Aelian says he threw himself headlong; Eusebius says Arsaces the Parthian killed him; others say his brother Demetrius did it. Their very disagreement shows they had no certain knowledge and trusted false rumours. We must believe Holy Scripture, which here asserts that Sidetes, wishing to plunder the temple of Nanea, was stoned by the priests and killed. Scaliger's claim that Antiochus escaped and returned safely to Antioch must be rejected.

Etenim cum ea habitaturus

Antiochus came to the place of Nanea, as if to dwell with her, and with his companions, in order to receive a great sum of money as a dowry. He feigned to contract a marriage with the goddess Nanea to plunder her temple under the pretext of receiving a dowry. But the priests, scenting the fraud, gave him a dowry not of money but of stones — that is, they stoned and killed him. Certain ancient kings boasted of contracting marriages with goddesses: Antony was said to have betrothed Minerva; Antiochus Gryphus called himself husband of the moon; Numa claimed Egeria; Anchises Venus; Heliogabalus Urania; Peleus Thetis (Seneca, Justin, Plutarch, Suetonius).

Cumque proposuissent sacerdotes

When the priests of Nanea had offered to give him the money as a dowry, and he himself with a few had entered within the precinct of the temple — as though to celebrate the sacred nuptial rites — they shut the temple. The priests lured Antiochus inside, then locked the doors and took their vengeance from a hidden opening.

Cum intrasset Antiochus

When Antiochus had entered, and a secret opening of the temple had been opened, they cast stones and struck down the leader, cut him limb from limb, and having cut off his head, threw him outside. The hidden opening was in the upper panelled ceiling or in the temple walls. The priests scattered Sidetes' body parts among his soldiers, claiming that some rival god had struck him down, so that they themselves would not be slain by his troops as the authors of his death — which also explains why so many varying accounts of his death circulated in the world.

Facturi igitur quinta et

As we are about to celebrate the purification of the temple on the twenty-fifth day of Casleu, we thought it necessary to inform you, that you too may celebrate the feast of Scenopegia, and of the fire given by God. The feast of Encaenia (Hanukkah) on 25 Casleu was in memory of the purification and new dedication of the temple by Judas Maccabeus (1 Maccabees 4:52). On that same day, when sacrifices were offered, a sacred fire was sent by God from heaven to consume them; so a feast of the \"given fire\" was established, celebrated either on 25 Casleu or the following day. Without this fire, Judas could not sacrifice, since the Law forbade common fire (Leviticus 6:12); God therefore had to restore it.

Ut mitteretur Nehemias

When Nehemiah was sent by the king of Persia. Nehemiah was sent three times to Judea: first by Cyrus, with Zerubbabel (1 Esdras 2:2); second by Artaxerxes Longimanus in his twentieth year (Nehemiah 2:1); third by the same Artaxerxes in his thirty-second year (Nehemiah, last chapter). Ribera (De Templo V, xvii) plausibly applies the fire to the second mission; but more probably it occurred at the first mission, in the sixth year of Darius Hystaspis on the third of Adar (Esdras 6:15–16), when the new temple was completed and solemnly dedicated with many victims. At that time the heavenly sacred fire was given to consume the victims, as commanded by Leviticus 6:12. Nehemiah rather than Zerubbabel or Ezra is credited with this on account of his pre-eminent religious zeal, his nobility as leader of the returning exiles, and his great honour before Artaxerxes.

Et sacrificia quae imposita

Nehemiah commanded the sacrifices placed on them to be sprinkled with the same water — the aqua crassa, the thick condensed liquid found in the pit where the priests had hidden the sacred fire during the Babylonian captivity. He had it sprinkled over the sacrifices, partly to kindle them, and partly to ignite the stones for future use. Thus Sanchez.

Tempus affuit quo sol

When the sun, which had been clouded, shone out, a great fire was kindled. God appears to have used the sun's rays to draw vapours from the aqua crassa, inflaming them continuously to produce fire — just as comets, wandering stars, will-o'-the-wisps, halos, and fiery dragons are produced in the air by the sun. Tropologically, this fire represents the Holy Spirit, who descended in fire upon the Apostles at Pentecost and inflamed them to set the world ablaze with divine love. St. Ambrose (De Officiis I, xiv): \"That fire was a type of the Holy Spirit, who was to descend after the Lord's Ascension and remit sins, who as fire inflames the faithful soul.\" St. Chrysostom (Hom. 14 in Hebr.): \"Does not fire descend now, far more wonderful than that, raising to heaven what is offered?\"

Jonatha inchoante

Jonathan began — this Jonathan was not the high priest, as some suppose, but a Levite and cantor, the prefect of the choirs, whose turn it then was. So Lyranus and Serarius.

Cum autem consumptum esset

When the sacrifice was consumed — cremated by the fire that flashed from the water in the stones — \"Nehemiah commanded the remaining water to be poured upon the larger stones.\" This was done to ignite those larger stones and infuse them with the power of kindling for later use, as indeed they were used by Judas Maccabeus at the purification of the temple (2 Maccabees 10:3). Thus Sanchez.

Quod ut factum est

When this was done, a flame was kindled from the stones; but it was consumed by the light that shone from the altar. The bright flame that had cremated the victims on the altar, leaping from it, absorbed the flame kindled from the water in the larger stones. Four reasons: (1) a greater light extinguishes and absorbs a lesser; (2) by Leviticus 6:12 the sacred fire must remain on the altar alone; (3) to signify that the fire came forth not by the sun alone but by God, whose symbol was the altar, using the sun as instrument; (4) to infuse in the stones not physical but moral power to produce fire in time of need — which they did at the purification of the temple under Judas Maccabeus. Thus Sanchez.

Renuntiatum est regi Persarum

This was reported to the king of Persia — namely Darius Hystaspis, in whose sixth year these events occurred; or as others hold, Artaxerxes Longimanus, whose cupbearer Nehemiah was.

Considerans autem rex

The king, taking note... Serarius proposes reading \"enclosing\" or \"surrounding\" (conserans); for the Greek is \"surrounding it, he built a temple for it.\" Four interpretations: (1) St. Ambrose: the king built a temple at the spot where the thick water was found and turned to fire, since the Persians worshipped fire as God (Brisson, De regno Persarum II); (2) Genebrard and Bede: the king made some sacred structure, making the formerly profane site sacred; (3) Lyranus: Darius ordered the reconstruction of the Jerusalem temple; (4) Artaxerxes adorned the temple already built by Darius. Lapide favours Ambrose's reading as most natural, since the Persians built fire-temples, and fire as the noblest element is an apt symbol of God: \"Our God is a consuming fire\" (Hebrews 12:29).

Appellavit autem Nehemias

Nehemiah called this place Nephtar, which is interpreted 'purification.' The name derives from the Hebrew/Chaldee/Syriac root pathar = to free, emit, dismiss. Nephtar alludes to naphtha, a kind of bitumen (Pliny, NH II, ccv) which has great kinship with fire and ignites spontaneously on contact — just as the fires leapt into the thick water here for the purification of the temple. Among the ancients, lustration was performed through sulphur and fire. The Syriac text reads \"Genephar, which means cleanliness\"; the Arabic has \"Techeptha, which means purity.\"