2 Maccabees — Chapter 5

Per idem tempus Antiochus

At the same time Antiochus prepared his second expedition into Egypt. This second expedition leads to the terrible consequences for Jerusalem that immediately follow. The chronological connection is important: the events that destroy Jerusalem flow directly from Antiochus's imperial ambitions, which in turn flow from the simony and apostasy of Jason and Menelaus.

Contigit autem per universum

Throughout the city of Jerusalem, for the space of forty days, there appeared in the air horsemen running, in gilded raiment, and companies of spearmen armed with lances, and arrays of shields, and multitudes of men in helmets, with drawn swords. This aerial vision of armies is a prodigious heavenly sign of the imminent calamities about to fall through Antiochus. Such aerial prodigies are frequently mentioned by ancient historians (Josephus, Jewish War VI, v; Dio Cassius; Tacitus) as preceding great disasters. God sometimes permits such images — by natural causes (vapours, clouds, optical effects) or supernaturally — to warn people and move them to repentance.

Omnes itaque rogabant

Wherefore every man prayed that the apparition might turn to good. Note the instinctive piety of the people: when faced with an ominous sign, they turned immediately to prayer. So the Christian threatened by signs of coming evils must run to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — the three weapons with which Nineveh turned away divine wrath.

Pervulgato autem falso rumore

When a false rumour was spread that Antiochus was dead…Jason took no less than a thousand men and by surprise attacked the city. Jason's opportunistic return shows his character: a traitor who had betrayed his country for the high priesthood now tried to reclaim it by violence. The bitter irony: Jason who had opened Jerusalem to Greek impiety now attacked it with Greek mercenaries in the name of recovering his own position.

Non tamen habebat

But he did not gain the mastery of the government; the end of his treachery was disgrace, and he was again forced to flee. Jason's life ends in ignominy: he fled from country to country, died in exile without burial, \"unlamented, unburied, and without a country\" (v. 9–10). The universal moral: ambition and treachery destroy those who practise them.

Hac de causa Antiochus

For this cause Antiochus moved out of Egypt in a rage, and took the city by force of arms. Antiochus interpreted Jason's brief seizure of Jerusalem as a revolt and used it as a pretext to attack. Thus the sins of individuals — the ambition of Jason, the treachery of Menelaus — brought catastrophe upon the whole people. This is a perpetual principle of divine providence: the sins of leaders and priests bring God's punishment upon the nation.

Antiochus ergo inflatus mente

But Antiochus was puffed up in mind. He thought himself victorious by his own power, not recognising that God permitted the Jews to be punished through him on account of their sins. Scripture teaches throughout: when God's people are punished by foreign enemies, it is God who wills it as a chastisement, while the enemy is merely his instrument. This does not excuse Antiochus from guilt, since he acted out of malice and impiety.

Non propter locum gentem

But the Lord had not chosen the people for the sake of the place; but the place for the sake of the people. Places are holy because of the people who worship God there and the divine mysteries celebrated in them; if the people sin, the holiness of the place does not protect them and may even aggravate their guilt, since they sin against greater light and more abundant grace.

Linquebat autem et Philarchos

He left also governors to afflict the people. Philip the Phrygian, more barbarous by nature than his appointer, and Andronicus, were left in charge of Jerusalem to oppress the people; Gorgias was made governor of Idumaea. Note the ironical justice: a barbarian appointed to rule a people who had chosen barbarous customs over their own divine law; they received in their governor what they had chosen in their manner of life.

Misit autem et Apollonium

He sent also Apollonius the captain of the Mysians with an army of two and twenty thousand men. Apollonius came to Jerusalem feigning peace, then waited until the Sabbath when the Jews were at rest and suddenly attacked and massacred great numbers. Lapide notes the particular wickedness of attacking on the Sabbath, when the Jews were defenceless by reason of religious observance.

Consecravitque templum

He dedicated the temple in Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius, and that in Garizim to Jupiter Hospitis. The dedication of the Jerusalem temple to Zeus/Jupiter Olympius — placing a Greek idol in the holy place — is the \"abomination of desolation\" foretold by Daniel (9:27; 11:31; 12:11) and referred to by Christ (Matthew 24:15). Jupiter Olympius was the chief deity of Greece, enthroned on Olympus, whose great gold-and-ivory statue by Pheidias at Elis was counted one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

Judas vero Machabaeus

But Judas Maccabeus, the tenth of the number, and the rest of his company, withdrew into the deserts, and lived in the mountains after the manner of wild beasts. This is the providential beginning of the Maccabean revolt — Judas with nine companions withdrew to the mountains rather than defile themselves with the king's impurity. From this small band of ten faithful men, God would raise up the great Maccabean army. Application: the saints, when the world is corrupted around them, withdraw into their interior desert of prayer and mortification, from which they emerge as instruments of God's justice.