2 Maccabees — Chapter 11

Sed parvo post tempore Lysias

Not long after, Lysias the regent of the king, and his kinsman and manager of affairs, greatly displeased with what had happened. Lysias, hearing of the defeats of Gorgias and Timothy, raised a new army of eighty thousand infantry with full cavalry and eighty elephants, hoping to devour Judas and Judea. He planned to impose a great tax on the temple, divert votive offerings to the royal treasury, and sell the pontificate annually for a large price.

Templum vero in pecuniae

And to set the high priesthood to sale every year. He intended to impose a great tax on the temple and divert the votive offerings to the royal treasury and his own uses — as tyrants habitually do with pagan temples — and to sell the pontificate annually for a large price.

Cum fletu et lacrimis rogabant

Besought the Lord with weeping and fasting that he would send a good angel for the salvation of Israel. As he had sent one to Moses, Gideon, and the father of Samson. God had promised this to Moses (Exodus 23:20): \"Behold I send my angel who shall go before you and keep you.\" Lapide cites all the angelic appearances and aids rendered to the Hebrews catalogued in his commentary on Exodus.

Apparuit praecedente eos eques

There appeared before them a horseman in white clothing, with golden armour, brandishing a lance. This was St. Michael, protector of Israel, or certainly an angel of inferior order sent by Michael — who preceded their camp as commander, adding courage to the Jews while striking the enemies with fear and terror. He appeared in the form of an armoured horseman in white with golden arms brandishing a lance. White signifies the purity, splendour, joy, immortality, victory, and glory of the angels, as Lapide explained at Ecclesiastes 9:8 on \"Let thy garments always be white.\"

Convaluerunt animis

They gained strength of spirit — not men only, but also the fiercest beasts (elephants) and walls of iron they were ready to penetrate. For to an angel nothing is impenetrable, nothing invincible, nothing impossible; nothing even difficult or hard. The angel therefore instilled these spirits and ardours in Judas and the Jews, inflamed by which they instantly scattered the numberless and most powerful camp of Lysias like chaff. Lapide cites Vegetius (De Re Militari III, xii) at length on the importance of generals exciting and kindling ardour in soldiers: \"From this springs the certain hope and omen of victory.\"

Leonum autem more

Rushing on the enemy like lions, they slew eleven thousand of them on foot, and sixteen hundred horsemen; and put all the rest to flight. They were like lions — fearless and terrible; Pliny testifies that lions with eyes closed rush upon spears and rout everything. Such here were Judas and the Jews, according to Jacob's prophecy (Genesis 49:9): \"Juda is a lion's whelp; to the prey, my son, thou art gone up.\" Tropologically: when the devil as Lysias invades you and suggests movements of anger, pride, lust, resist and encounter him like a lion, and you will instantly put him to flight. St. Gregory (Moralia IV, xvii), explaining Job 4 in the Septuagint's \"myrmeco-lion\": \"The ancient enemy is a lion to those who consent, an ant to those who resist.\"

Et quia non insensatus erat

Because he was not unwise, reflecting on the loss that had been sustained, and considering that the Hebrews could not be overcome because the almighty God assisted them, he sent to them and promised all just conditions. The sensible and prudent Lysias, recognising from so great a defeat that God was fighting for the Jews through his angel, and therefore that they were invincible, sought peace from them and obtained it.

Si fidem conservaveritis

If you observe the conditions of what has been agreed, and in future I will endeavour to be a means of your good. That is: I will similarly advance your interests and procure many benefits and favours for you through my recommendation to King Eupator.

De caeteris autem per singula

As for the other things, I have given order both to these that were sent from me, and to those that were sent from you, to confer with you. That is: I have commissioned both your envoys (John and Abesalom) and my own representatives to treat with you on each matter and satisfy you fully on all points.

Anno centesimo quadragesimo octavo

In the year one hundred and forty-eight. One will ask: in year 148 of the Greeks, Antiochus Epiphanes was still alive and reigning; how then are these letters written by Eupator his son as if already reigning? Lapide's answer: the years of the Greeks are computed in two ways — the Jewish/Alexandrian computation (from the twelfth year after Alexander's death, beginning in March) and the Syrian/Antiochene computation (beginning one and a half years later). By the Antiochene reckoning, what the Jewish computation calls 149 is their 148. Hence what Book I (Maccabees) calls year 149 for Epiphanes' death, Book II calls year 148 — the same year in different reckonings.

Rex Antiochus Lysiae fratri

King Antiochus to Lysias his brother, greeting. Lysias was the king's guardian. Surprisingly, the king (a boy of nine, as Appian says) does not call him \"father\" rather than \"brother\" — but this was deliberate, to conceal the king's minority before the Jews lest they despise him on account of it. He also does not call Lysias \"father\" because he has just called Antiochus Epiphanes \"our father\" (verse 23), so \"brother\" avoids confusing the paternal title.

Patre nostro inter deos translato

Our father having been translated among the gods. The pagan flatterers of kings pretended that after death the kings were numbered among the gods. Herodian (beginning of bk. IV) describes elegantly the Roman apotheosis ceremonies, including the eagle released from the funeral pyre said to carry the emperor's soul to the gods. But the impious Antiochus Epiphanes, for his crimes and sacrileges, was translated not among the gods but among the demons of hell.

Judaeos postulare a nobis

That the Jews beg us to allow them to use their own laws and customs. That it be permitted them to live by their own laws and rites in their own faith and worship of the one God, and not be compelled to live after the manner of the pagans and worship their gods and idols.

Judicavimus templum restitui

We have decreed that the temple shall be restored to them. Judas and the Jews had already recovered and purified the temple. The king here arrogates this to himself to show his power and liberality; in reality he does not restore the temple but approves and confirms the restoration already effected.

Dexteram dederis

Therefore do thou give them the right hand. That is, conclude with them a formal pact of peace, giving them your right hand as a pledge of faith (the Roman and Greek custom for sealing a formal treaty); make a free public passage for those going up to the temple, as they request; and permit them to use their own laws as before Antiochus Epiphanes changed them. Let them be left in peace to observe these laws.

Joannes et Abesalom

John and Absalom, who were sent from you, having delivered the signed articles, requested me to ratify the terms of the schedule. These were the envoys sent by Judas and the high council to negotiate with the king through Lysias and with Antiochus directly. Their mission was successful: Eupator granted the Jews peace and freedom to observe their ancestral laws.

Volo itaque vos valere

I will therefore that you be in good health. Here the king speaks directly to the Jews in the first person, having referred to them in the third person in the previous letter to Lysias.

Ad ipsos autem Judaeos

But to the Jews thus: King Antiochus wishes health to the Jewish people. The letter concedes: (1) use of their own meats (foods) and laws; (2) amnesty for sins committed \"up to the thirtieth day of Xanthicus\" — i.e., March 30; (3) freedom for those who fled to return to their homes. Lapide notes that these concessions confirm that Judas's military victories — not mere petitions — were what forced the king to grant these terms.

Romani autem quoque

The Romans also sent them a letter. This letter from the Romans — Q. Memmius and T. Manius, Roman legates — was carried to Judas along with the king's letters, urging him to accept the peace terms offered and pledging Roman support for the Jews' cause before the king. Lapide notes: the Romans here appear as patrons of the Jews, since both peoples were at this time bound by a treaty of friendship, as narrated in 1 Maccabees 8. This treaty was the foundation of Jewish-Roman relations until the fall of Jerusalem.