Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
is on mount Sion, on which the house of God, or temple, had been built) TILL THERE SHOULD COME A PROPHET—some one, especially the Messias; for him the Jews had eagerly awaited for many centuries, and his coming was now at hand. For from the year 148 of the Greeks, in which these things were done, to the birth of Christ only 159 years passed. Hence learn that in this time of the Maccabees there was no prophet in Israel; for the last prophets were Zacharias and Malachias. You will say: Why did Judas, since he was Pontiff, not consult God by the oracle of the Ephod, or by Urim and Thummim? Josephus answers that this oracle was silent and had ceased two hundred years before Christ. So he himself, book 3, chap. 8. Abulensis and others think the same. Or certainly this Ephod giving oracles had already been taken away by the ministers of Antiochus, and especially by the false pontiff Jason, Menelaus, Alcimus, apostates and traitors, so that Judas could not use it, and by it consult God. So Sanchez.
48. AND THEY BUILT UP (restored what had been pulled down or broken by the idolaters) THE HOLY PLACES, that is, the front part of the temple, which was called the Holy, and in the plural the Holy places; as it is here called, AND THE THINGS THAT WERE WITHIN THE TEMPLE,—that is, also those things which were in the hinder and inner part of the temple which was called the Holy of Holies, that is, the most holy. In the Holy was the table of the loaves of proposition, the golden candlestick and the altar of incense, which had been taken away by the followers of Antiochus; whence Judas made new ones, as is said in verse 49. In the Holy of Holies there was only the Ark with the Cherubim and the Propitiatory; but this Jeremias a little before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans carried out of the temple and hid. Whence the Hebrews assert that in the second temple, rebuilt after the return from Babylon by Zorobabel, there was no Ark. Others say there was an Ark, not the one made by Moses, for this Jeremias carried away, but another similar to the Mosaic one made by the Jews after the return, of which on 2 Machab. 2.
AND THEY SANCTIFIED THE TEMPLE AND THE COURTS.—The temple is the Holy of Holies, which went before; whence the word “temple” is not in the Greek: the “courts” were the places near the temple round about, in which the people stayed and watched the sacrifices; all these, contaminated and polluted by the idolaters, Judas sanctified, that is, purged from idols and superstition, expiated with lustral water, and again dedicated to God with solemn blessing.
52. ON THE FIVE AND TWENTIETH DAY OF THE NINTH MONTH (WHICH IS THE MONTH OF CASLEU),—which corresponds partly to our November, partly to December. For the Hebrews used lunar months, whereas we use solar ones. Wherefore on this same day, the 25th of Casleu, the Jews celebrate every year the feast of the Encaenia, or of the dedication of the temple, made on the same day in this place by Judas. The cause of the feast was the benefit, and thence the greatness of the joy, and therefore it was celebrated for eight days. Hear 2 Machab. 10, 5: “Now on the same day that the temple had been polluted by the strangers, on that very day it was cleansed, even on the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is Casleu. And they kept eight days with gladness after the manner of the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long before, they had kept the feast of the tabernacles when they were in the mountains and in the dens like beasts. Therefore they now carried boughs and green branches, and palms for him that had given them good success in cleansing his place, etc.” And Josephus, book 12: “So great was the joy that seized the minds of the nation at the restoration of their ancestral rites and of the ancient religion, especially because that good fortune had come to them unexpectedly, that a law was passed for posterity, commanding this feast of the restoration to be celebrated every year for eight days with the ceremonies of the temple; and from that time this custom has prevailed among us, and we call this the feast of lights, I suppose for this reason, that such good fortune dawned upon us unexpectedly,” etc.
Tropologically, by the feast of the Encaenia is signified the feast which the Angels and Saints keep over a sinner doing penance, when he purges by contrition the temple of his soul, which he had profaned by sin, and dedicates it again to God. See Ribera, book 5 On the Temple, chap. 18.
54. ACCORDING TO THE TIME, AND ACCORDING TO THE DAY, (that is, on exactly the same day, namely the 25th of Casleu,) WHEREIN THE GENTILES HAD DEFILED IT,—three years before, in the month of Casleu, Antiochus profaned the temple, as was said chap. 1, 62. So Judas after three years, namely in the year 148 of the Greeks, on the same day the 25th of the month Casleu, openly cleansed the temple, and again dedicated it to God, as is said in book 2, chap. 10, 5. The same day therefore was the day of profanation and of dedication, of desolation and of consolation, of mourning and of joy. Moreover Judas dedicated the temple in the year 148 of the Greeks, Antiochus still living; for he died in the following year, 149 of the Greeks, as is said chap. 6, 16.
AND HARPS AND LUTES.—These two musical instruments were akin and differed only in size, and perhaps in the number of strings, as among the Italians are the viol and the violin. Whence our version in 2 Paralipomenon renders “harps,” for in Hebrew the harp is called kinnor, that is, cinyra.
59. AND JUDAS DECREED, etc.—as if to say: Judas as Pontiff instituted the feast of the Encaenia every year on the 25th of Casleu in memory of the cleansing and dedication of the temple, made on that same day. Of this feast St. John makes mention in the Gospel chap. 10, 22. See on this feast Ribera, book 5 On the Temple, chap. 17. Hence the solemnity of the dedication was always observed in the Church; the day of the dedication of the Church was a feast, as is plain from the homilies which St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Chrysostom, Bede, Bernard and others delivered on it. Certainly Constantine the Great summoned all the Bishops to the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem. Indeed the Archangel Michael also dedicated a Church on Mount Gargano; the memory of which we celebrate every year on the 29th of September. St. Peter dedicated a Church to himself at London in England, as the life of King Edward of England has it in Surius. Finally Christ himself dedicated the Church of St. Denis at Paris. Robert Gaguin narrates the matter, book 3 On the deeds of the Franks.
61. TO SECURE BETHSURA.—Bethsura was another fortification built by Judas against the Idumeans, distant five stadia from the citadel of Sion and from Jerusalem (a stadium contains 125 paces), within the passes of the mountains, like Thermopylae, says Josephus: whence “Bethsura” in Hebrew is the same as house of rock. Hear Adrichomius in the Description of the tribe of Juda, num. 64: “Bethsur, or Bethsura, in the age of St. Jerome was a town, or, as others say, a garrison and castle, the strongest of all Judea; and because it was surrounded on every side by mountains, it took its name from this. For Bethsur is interpreted house of rock, of stone, or of strength. It was set at the barriers of the mountains at the valley of Raphaim, distant one mile from Jerusalem, situated on the public road which leads from Jerusalem to Gaza, as some will have it. Roboam king of Juda fortified this place with buildings, and again Judas Maccabeus; Lysias attacked it; Antiochus Eupator took it by surrender through fraud, Jonathan Maccabeus recovered it. Near this castle the kings of Syria, when they threatened violence to the Jews, were often routed and defeated. Simon Maccabeus last of all, having occupied it, most strongly fortified it with garrisons against all incursions of the enemy. In the time of Jerome there was a fountain at the foot of Bethsur, which was swallowed up by the same ground from which it was born, in which fountain some think the Eunuch of queen Candace was baptized by Philip, and thence it took the name Fountain of the Ethiopian