The work is largely an elaboration of the stories of martyrdom in the book 2 Maccabees: that of the woman with seven sons and the scribe Eleazar, who are tortured to death by Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in an attempt to make them renounce their adherence to Judaism. What 2 Maccabees covered in one chapter and a half, 4 Maccabees extends to a full 14 chapters of dialogue and philosophical discussion. 4 Maccabees recasts the story as one of reason and logic: the martyrs will be rewarded in the afterlife, so it is rational to continue to obey Jewish law, even at the risk of torture and death.
Synopsis
I could prove to you from many and various examples that reason is dominant over the emotions, but I can demonstrate it best from the noble bravery of those who died for the sake of virtue, Eleazar and the seven brothers and their mother. All of these, by despising sufferings that bring death, demonstrated that reason controls the emotions.
The work consists of a prologue and two main sections. The first advances the philosophical thesis on the basis of examples from the Law of Moses and the biblical tradition while the second illustrates the points made using examples drawn from 2 Maccabees: the martyrdom of Eleazar and the woman with seven sons under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire.[2] The last chapters concern the author's impressions drawn from these martyrdoms. It has been suggested that, while 2 Maccabees was written with appeals to emotion, sentiment, and drama (pathos), 4 Maccabees considerably more intellectual about the matter.[3][4] The martyred woman calmly debates her captors, explaining why her actions are rational given God's promise of rewards in the afterlife, using arguments akin to those favored by Stoic philosophy.[5] The author of 4 Maccabees still appreciates the power of arousing emotions, however. The work goes into more grisly detail concerning the martyrdoms themselves than 2 Maccabees; "even now, we ourselves shudder as we hear of the suffering of these young men" (4 Maccabees 14:9).[6] The author has the clear rhetorical intent of arousing admiration and emulation of these examples of devotion to the Jewish law.
The work is in fluent and complicated Greek using the rhetorical argumentative style of the time.[7][8]Harry Orlinsky describes it as "an elaborate variation, in philosophical and highly dramatic vein, of the theme" of 2 Maccabees 6:18–7:4.[9] The work uses secular allusions to Greek-style athletics and military contests, calling Eleazar a "noble athlete" and the martyred mother of the seven sons a "soldier of God".[5]
The work defends the merits of Judaism in a Hellenized world. According to it, devout practice of Judaism perfects the values held dear in Greek and Roman contexts, with the martyrs presented in terms reminiscent of Greek sages.[10]
Authorship, date, and title
The author of the work is unknown. The book is ascribed to the Jewish historian Josephus by Eusebius and Jerome,[11] and this opinion was accepted for many years, leading to its inclusion in many editions of Josephus' works. Later scholars have rejected this claim of authorship, however. There are differences of language and style; 4 Maccabees makes several historical errors that Josephus's work does not make; and the ideology of the two seems to conflict (Josephus favored accommodation toward Gentile practices, not the uncompromising stance seen in 4 Maccabees).[12][8] The author was probably not from Roman Judea, as the book includes a minor geographical mistake about the layout of Jerusalem, Judea was largely Aramaic-speaking in the era, and the tone of the work suggests the defense of a cultural minority in a Hellenistic environment.[13] As such, he was probably a diaspora Jew, although from where is unclear.[2] Alexandria was the largest site of literary Greek Jewish works in the era, but scholars such as Hans Freudenthal and Eduard Norden think that the religious outlook of the book does not easily match Alexandrian Jewish thought.[14][13]Moses Hadas suggests that Antioch in Roman Syria was a more likely site for composition: a thoroughly Hellenized and Greek-speaking city with a large Jewish minority that revered the martyrs, judging by later Christian churches dedicated to the "Maccabean martyrs" in Antioch, as well as certain word usage that was rare among Alexandrian works such as 3 Maccabees.[14][2]
The original title of the work, if any, is uncertain. The Septuagint is what gave it its modern name of "4 Maccabees" to distinguish it from the other books of Maccabees in it, but it almost certainly was not the original title of the work.[8] Eusebius and Jerome wrote that the work of Josephus on the martyrdoms of the Maccabees – presumably 4 Maccabees – was called "On the Sovereignty of Reason", suggesting that might have been the original title.[15] This title would be consistent with the conventions of Greek philosophical and ethical works of the period (e.g., Seneca's "On Anger", "On Benefits", "On the Constancy of the Wise Person").[12][8][2]
The book is generally dated between 20 and 130 CE. Elias J. Bickerman suggests a composition date somewhere between 20–54 CE; Moses Hadas agrees with that range and further suggests that perhaps around 40 CE during the reign of Roman Emperor Caligula would fit.[16][17] Other scholars such as André Dupont-Sommer support a later date, perhaps during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (118–135 CE).[8][18]
The last chapter differs from the earlier chapters in style, and is a somewhat disorganized summary of what has been stated before.[19] According to some scholars, this might be evidence that the last chapter is a later addition to the work, though this is disputed.[20] The argument in favor of it being an original part of the composition is that the book would have a weak ending without the final chapter, and that the style and vocabulary of the final chapter is not as different as claimed.[21] The change of direction with chapter 17 supports the view of the work as a homily held before a Greek-speaking audience on the feast of Hanukkah, as advanced by Ewald and Freudenthal, where this would be a rhetorical element to draw the listeners into the discourse. Others hold that a homily would have to be based on scriptural texts, which this work is only loosely.[22]
In terms of genre, the book resembles both the panegyric or encomium (speeches in honor of a particular person or subject) as well as the philosophical diatribe.[7][23][2] The work has a clearly Stoic stamp as the thesis it seeks to demonstrate is that "pious reason exercises mastery over the emotions" (4 Maccabees 1:1). The adjective "pious," however, is critically important: the author is altering the common topic ("reason can master the emotions") in order to suggest that it is the mind that has been trained in the piety and exercises in the practices of the Jewish Law that is equipped to exercise the mastery that Greek ethicists praise. The work resonates also with sentiments articulated by other philosophical schools such as Platonism as well.[24][8]
Theology
The writer believes in the immortality of the soul, but never mentions the resurrection of the dead.[25] Good souls are said to live forever in happiness with the patriarchs and God, but even the evil souls are held to be immortal. The suffering and martyrdom of the Maccabees is seen by the author to be vicarious for the Jewish nation, and the author portrays martyrdom in general as bringing atonement for the past sins of the Jews.[26] In this it is similar to the Testament of Moses, which was written or updated around the same time period, and similarly praises the virtues of martyrdom and resistance.[3]
While the setting of the book is during the Seleucid and Maccabee period of Judea, it is generally believed that the author intended to apply the lessons from this era in his current time. The book thus functions as an endorsement of fidelity to Jewish customs and law and against assimilation to Gentile practice where this conflicted with the Torah.[3]
David A. deSilva considers the work's depiction of personal trust and faithfulness toward God as being in line with early Christian theology; notably, he argues that the Jewish ChristianEpistle to the Hebrews has a similar viewpoint on the matter of the meaning of faith.[27] The work also seems to have proto-Christian views on the nature of atonement: that the sacrifice of animals at the Temple (impossible in the Maccabean era, as well as for diaspora Jews in the author's era) could be replaced by a sacrifice of "obedience unto death" by faithful humans.[28] While it is difficult to know for sure, deSilva also hypothesizes that the kind of promotion of the value of the Jewish Law for shaping an ethical life might have been used by the Jewish Christians who sought to persuade Gentile Christians also to adopt a Jewish way of life. [29] These Jewish Christians, however, have not left a written legacy of their own; we have access to their arguments only as reflected in Paul's letters angrily denouncing their understanding of Christianity.[30]
Canonicity
4 Maccabees enjoyed little influence on later Judaism. Hellenistic Judaism waned with time, and the book was not translated to Hebrew in its era. It was not included in the Masoretic canon of Hebrew scriptures, the Tanakh, and thus was not considered canonical by later Jews. Stories of the martyrs did circulate among Jews in rabbinic literature, but likely from independent traditions rather than 4 Maccabees directly.[31][29]
The work was preserved largely among Christians.[12] These early Christians both were interested in stories of martyrdom and generally admired Stoicism. The book seems to have been reasonably esteemed in the early Christian church: sermons and works of John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Ambrose evince familiarity with 4 Maccabees.[31] The work also had a profound impact on Origen.[32] The popular Martyrdom of Polycarp exhibits many similarities with the stories in 4 Maccabees.[31][33] Despite circulating among early Christian communities who used versions of the Septuagint that included 4 Maccabees, church councils were generally more skeptical. In Greek lists, the book appears in the Apostolic Canons, but no others.[32] In Latin lists, it appears in Codex Claromontanus.[32] If the Gelasian Decree is taken as an accurate record of the "Damasine canon" compiled by Pope Damasus I (366–383 CE), then neither 3 Maccabees nor 4 Maccabees was in the Western, Latin church's list of canonical books of the 4th century. The book was not translated by Jerome into the Latin Vulgate. As a result, the work was generally obscure in Latin-reading Western Europe.
In the Greek-reading East, it seems the work was more popular, but still failed to be included in later canon lists. The Eastern Orthodox Canon was laid out in the Quinisext Council in Trullo (692 CE). The Trullo list included the first three books of Maccabees, but did not include 4 Maccabees as canonical. Historically, the Greek Orthodox Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church printed 4 Maccabees in their Bibles together with the rest of the Old Testament, but this did not entail that they officially considered 4 Maccabees "canonical." More recently, the Greek Church moved it to an appendix and a recent Georgian Bible marks it as "noncanonical." It was included in the 1688 Romanian Orthodox and the 18th-century Romanian Catholic Bibles where it was called "Iosip" (Josephus). It is no longer printed in Romanian Bibles today.
The Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic language Oriental Orthodox Churchs do not include the book as canonical either. Some ancient manuscripts of the Syriac Orthodox church include the work, but this trend eventually stopped.
It is generally not in the biblical canon for modern Christians.
Manuscripts and translations
4 Maccabees is in two of the three of the most ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint: the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) and the Codex Alexandrinus (5th century). It is not, however, in the Codex Vaticanus.[34] With the exception of the section 5:12-12:1, it is found also in the eight or ninth-century Codex Venetus.[35] There are over 70 extant Greek manuscripts of 4 Maccabees.[36]
Four pre-modern translations of 4 Maccabees are known. There survives a complete Syriac translation, as well as a Latin adaptation under the title Passio Sanctorum Machabaeorum (Suffering of the Holy Maccabees).[36] One of the Syriac versions was titled The Fourth Book of the Maccabees and Their Mother.[35][37] The Latin text was made around the same time as Ambrose's De Jacob et vita beata (388), which includes an independent partial translation of 4 Maccabees. The Passio was probably completed before the appearance of the Vulgate Bible in 405–406 and was probably produced in Gaul.[9] Fragments of an abridged Sahidic Coptic translation were discovered by Enzo Lucchesi in the 1980s. They have been edited and translated into English. Maximus the Greek produced an abridged Slavonic translation.[38]
Erasmus published at Cologne in 1517,[39] expanded in 1524, a very free Latin paraphrase of 4 Maccabees, possibly based on the Passio.[35] After the invention of the printing press, 4 Maccabees was first mass printed in a 1526 edition of the Septuagint made in Strasbourg, albeit one based on a less reliable manuscript with a number of printer's errors.[34]
↑ Greek: περί αύτοκράτορος λογισμού, romanized:Perí áftokrátoros logismoú
Related Research Articles
The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be canonical books of the Old Testament by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Church of the East. In contrast, modern Rabbinic Judaism and Protestants regard the DC as Apocrypha.
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek.
The Septuagint, sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy, and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus by seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
The Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, were a group of Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 167 BCE to 37 BCE, being a fully independent kingdom from 104 to 63 BCE. They reasserted the Jewish religion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest, and reduced the influence of Hellenism and Hellenistic Judaism.
1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest history of the independent Hasmonean kingdom. It describes the promulgation of decrees forbidding traditional Jewish practices by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the formation of a rebellion against him by Mattathias of the Hasmonean family and his five sons. Mattathias's son Judas Maccabeus takes over the revolt and the rebels as a group are called the Maccabees; the book chronicles in detail the successes and setbacks of the rebellion. While Judas is eventually killed in battle, the Maccabees eventually achieve autonomy and then independence for Judea under the leadership of the Hasmonean family. Judas's brother Simon Thassi is declared High Priest by will of the Jewish people. The time period described is from around 170 BC to 134 BC.
2 Maccabees, also known as the Second Book of Maccabees, Second Maccabees, and abbreviated as 2 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which recounts the persecution of Jews under King Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt against him. It concludes with the defeat of the Seleucid Empire general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the leader of the Maccabees.
3 Maccabees, also called the Third Book of Maccabees, is a book written in Koine Greek, likely in the 1st century BC in either the late Ptolemaic period of Egypt or in early Roman Egypt. Despite the title, the book has nothing to do with the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire described in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Instead it tells the story of a persecution of the Jews under Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator in Ptolemaic Egypt, some decades before the Maccabee uprising in Judea. The story purports to explain the origin of a Purim-like festival celebrated in Egypt. 3 Maccabees is somewhat similar to the Book of Esther, another book which describes how a king is advised to annihilate the Diaspora Jews in his territory, yet is thwarted by God.
1 Esdras, also Esdras A, Greek Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras, is the ancient Greek Septuagint version of the biblical Book of Ezra in use within the early church, and among many modern Christians with varying degrees of canonicity. 1 Esdras is substantially similar to the standard Hebrew version of Ezra–Nehemiah, with the passages specific to the career of Nehemiah removed or re-attributed to Ezra, and some additional material.
The name "Esdras" is found in the title of four texts attributed to, or associated with, the prophet Ezra. The naming convention of the four books of Esdras differs between church traditions, and has changed over time.
The Books of the Maccabees or the Sefer HaMakabim recount the history of the Maccabees, the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid dynasty.
The intertestamental period (Protestant) or deuterocanonical period is the period of time between the events of the protocanonical books and the New Testament. It is considered to cover roughly 400 years, spanning from the ministry of Malachi to the appearance of John the Baptist in the early 1st century AD. It is roughly contiguous with the Second Temple period and encompasses the age of Hellenistic Judaism.
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Meqabyan, also referred to as Ethiopian Maccabees and Ethiopic Maccabees, are three books found only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Old Testament Biblical canon. The language of composition of these books is Geʽez, also called Classical Ethiopic, although they are more commonly found in Amharic today. These books are entirely different in their scope, content and subject from the more well-known books of Maccabees found in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.
The Old Testament is the first section of the two-part Christian biblical canon; the second section is the New Testament. The Old Testament includes the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or protocanon, and in various Christian denominations also includes deuterocanonical books. Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants use different canons, which differ with respect to the texts that are included in the Old Testament.
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The woman with seven sons was a Jewish martyr described in 2 Maccabees 7. She and her seven sons were arrested during the persecution of Judaism initiated by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. They were ordered to consume pork and thus violate Jewish law as part of the campaign. They repeatedly refused, and Antiochus tortured and killed the sons one by one in front of the unflinching and stout-hearted mother before eventually killing her as well.
Eleazar was a Jewish martyr who died during the persecution of Judaism in Judea ordered by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Together with the woman with seven sons, he is one of the "Holy Maccabean Martyrs" celebrated by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. In the Eastern Orthodox calendar their feast day is August 1.
A biblical canon is a set of texts which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible.
6 Maccabees, or the Sixth Book of Maccabees, is an anonymous Classical Syriac narrative poem about the martyrdom of Eleazar and the woman with seven sons under Antiochus IV as described in the prose Greek works 2 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees. 6 Maccabees is a conventional title based on the theory that it is an Old Testament pseudepigraphal work of Jewish origin.
1 2 Cobb, L. Stephanie (2020). "Martyrdom in Roman Context". In Middleton, Paul (ed.). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Martyrdom. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. pp.92–93. ISBN9781119099826.
1 2 Harry M. Orlinsky, "Review of Heinrich Dörrie, Passio SS. Machabaeorum, die antike lateinische Übersetzung des IV. Makkabäerbuches", Journal of Biblical Literature60, 4 (1941):. 440–445. JSTOR3262470
↑ van Henten 1997, pp. 76–78. Note that van Henten supports a wider range than Dupont-Sommer and suggests the final decades of the 1st century are plausible as well.
1 2 3 Gallagher, Edmon L. and Meade, John D. (2018). The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0198792499.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
1 2 3 4 H. Anderson, 4 Maccabees (First Century B.C.). A New Translation and Introduction, in James H. Charlesworth (1985), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company Inc., Volume 2, ISBN0-385-09630-5 (Vol. 1), ISBN0-385-18813-7 (Vol. 2), pp. 531-532
1 2 Robert J. V. Hiebert, "Preparing a Critical Edition of IV Maccabees: The Syriac Translation and the Passio Sanctorum Machabaeorum as Witnesses to the Original Greek", in F. García Martínez and M. Vervenne (eds.), Interpreting Translation: Studies on the LXX and Ezekiel in Honour of Johan Lust (Peeters, 2005), pp. 193–216.
↑ Some comparison of the Syriac with the Greek was undertaken in the joint work of R. L. Bensly and W. E. Barnes, published at Cambridge in 1895, titled The Fourth Book of Maccabees and Kindred Documents in Syriac.
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