Tuesday, November 11, 2014
A New Bible Museum To Open in 2017
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Postlogue - Revisiting 1, 2 Maccabees
Lectionary readings from back in November of 2013, not so very long ago, have occasioned another look at Maccabees, books interesting for their historical context, but books which I found to be heavy, turgid texts filled with events that I had difficulty sorting out.
Basically, if one remembers that the post-Alexandrian world of the Maccabees was divided up between Alexander the Great's generals--for our purposes, Ptolemy in Egypt and Seleucus in Babylonia--and that they and their descendants were constantly in a battle for securing the territory around Judea for themselves, it becomes easier to follow the actions of the books of Maccabees. Inter-laced with this over-arching conflict between Ptolemies and Seleucids is the intrigues of the Jewish priesthood which has its own power grab going on. There are those Jews who valorously remain true to their God, while others cash out and go over to the Greek side in order to enjoy a moment of earthly wealth and power as they kow-tow to their Hellenizing oppressors.
It's good guys versus bad guys with the proviso that while most every Greek ruler is a bad guy, not all the Jews are good guys. Here is a partial list of players. The Jews are: Menelaus (bad), Lysimachus (bad), Jason (bad), Onias (good), Simon (bad), Hyrcanus (not sure), Judas Maccabeus (good), Eleazar (good). The Greeks are: King Seleucus, Heliodorus, Apollonius, Andronicus and Antiochus IV Epiphanes as well as Antiochus V Eupator.
This second reading of 2 Maccabees makes clear that this book recounts three assaults on the temple by the Greek oppressors. Second Maccabees takes a religious perspective, attending more to the temple, its defense, its desecration by foreigners and its subsequent purification (most notably described in Chapter 10 as the eight days of the feast of the booths in the month of Chislev now known as Hanukkah). First Maccabees is considered more of a historical chronicle and perhaps more historically accurate and far less interesting to read.
Second Maccabees gives a vivid picture of the struggle of pious Jews to maintain their religion and culture in the face of all sorts of injustices and temptations visited upon them by their Greek overlords. One such example is the well-known account of the mother and her seven sons who suffer dismemberment and frying for refusing to eat pork.
Equally powerful is the courage of the Maccabean martyr Eleazar who is also put to the test by the despicable decrees of Antiochus Epiphanes and who is also ordered to violate his faith and eat pork. Eleazar refuses, but then he's offered an out.
Obtain a piece of the sort of meat you can eat, suggest his wily friends, and consume that meat in front of your persecutors. In such a way, you will save yourself. Eleazar basically says to them, Get behind me, Satan. He refuses to indulge in this deception not only because it is a deception, but because of the harm it will do to the community of believers, especially those who are younger. If such impressionable ones see Eleazar, apparently a man of standing in the community, betray his faith at the ripe old age of 90, what was his faith worth in the first place? Not only will he endure torture for the sake of honoring God, but he will endure it so as not to endanger the beliefs of others who will, by Eleazar's example, see that God's word is true and that it is worth dying for.
The reaction of Eleazar's wily "friends" is a reminder of human pride and the inclination to make ourselves into gods. The friends are angry at Eleazar who has brushed aside their power, their ability to pull strings, their ability to save him. Eleazar lives as we know from the book of Maccabees, at a point in time when there was forming an emergent notion of life after death. At great cost to his physical body, Eleazar demonstrates a secure knowledge that heavenly paradise is the end game, not a few more years on earth because he's entered into a Faustian bargain with some devilish friends. His refusal exposes the friends for what they are---charlatans with swelled heads who think they can offer up a prize that surpasses the one that God offers. It's a powerful reading and humbling.
For a discussion of why 1,2 Maccabees are considered non-canonical by Jews and Protestants see a discussion of requirements for the canon that is forthcoming.
It's good guys versus bad guys with the proviso that while most every Greek ruler is a bad guy, not all the Jews are good guys. Here is a partial list of players. The Jews are: Menelaus (bad), Lysimachus (bad), Jason (bad), Onias (good), Simon (bad), Hyrcanus (not sure), Judas Maccabeus (good), Eleazar (good). The Greeks are: King Seleucus, Heliodorus, Apollonius, Andronicus and Antiochus IV Epiphanes as well as Antiochus V Eupator.
This second reading of 2 Maccabees makes clear that this book recounts three assaults on the temple by the Greek oppressors. Second Maccabees takes a religious perspective, attending more to the temple, its defense, its desecration by foreigners and its subsequent purification (most notably described in Chapter 10 as the eight days of the feast of the booths in the month of Chislev now known as Hanukkah). First Maccabees is considered more of a historical chronicle and perhaps more historically accurate and far less interesting to read.
Second Maccabees gives a vivid picture of the struggle of pious Jews to maintain their religion and culture in the face of all sorts of injustices and temptations visited upon them by their Greek overlords. One such example is the well-known account of the mother and her seven sons who suffer dismemberment and frying for refusing to eat pork.
Obtain a piece of the sort of meat you can eat, suggest his wily friends, and consume that meat in front of your persecutors. In such a way, you will save yourself. Eleazar basically says to them, Get behind me, Satan. He refuses to indulge in this deception not only because it is a deception, but because of the harm it will do to the community of believers, especially those who are younger. If such impressionable ones see Eleazar, apparently a man of standing in the community, betray his faith at the ripe old age of 90, what was his faith worth in the first place? Not only will he endure torture for the sake of honoring God, but he will endure it so as not to endanger the beliefs of others who will, by Eleazar's example, see that God's word is true and that it is worth dying for.
The reaction of Eleazar's wily "friends" is a reminder of human pride and the inclination to make ourselves into gods. The friends are angry at Eleazar who has brushed aside their power, their ability to pull strings, their ability to save him. Eleazar lives as we know from the book of Maccabees, at a point in time when there was forming an emergent notion of life after death. At great cost to his physical body, Eleazar demonstrates a secure knowledge that heavenly paradise is the end game, not a few more years on earth because he's entered into a Faustian bargain with some devilish friends. His refusal exposes the friends for what they are---charlatans with swelled heads who think they can offer up a prize that surpasses the one that God offers. It's a powerful reading and humbling.
For a discussion of why 1,2 Maccabees are considered non-canonical by Jews and Protestants see a discussion of requirements for the canon that is forthcoming.
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