Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
AND BRASS, THE MOUNTAINS GLITTERED WITH THEM,—both because this army, distributed into its ranks, the sun being reflected from their shields, gave to those who looked as many mountains shining with brass and gold; and because these ranks were in the valleys, as the Greek has; this glitter from the valleys, roused in the shields by the rays of the sun, was reflected on the neighbouring mountains, so that they appeared all gleaming and shining, LIKE LAMPS OF FIRE,—that is, kindled and fiery, especially because, as follows, part of the army went on the mountains, part through the valleys: Josephus, book 12, chap. 13, relates this of the elephants: “For these, clothed, in the sight of the sun, like mountains of the flashing of arms, shone like burning lamps.”
42. AND THERE FELL OF THE KING’S ARMY SIX HUNDRED MEN.—Judas therefore at the very beginning of the battle laid low six hundred soldiers of Antiochus, and soon four thousand, as is said in book 2, chap. 13, verse 15.
43. AND ELEAZAR THE SON OF SAURA SAW ONE OF THE BEASTS.—This Eleazar was the brother of Judas Maccabeus, says Josephus, chap. 2, verse 5, surnamed Avaron or Abaron, whence for “Saura” Josephus reads Auran, the Codex of Basil Abaran. For in the Greek there is not “son,” but only Eleazar Avaran. Whence Vatablus renders: Eleazar, who is called Avaran, that is, the strong one of them. So also Gorionides, Serarius, Salianus and others. Gorionides adds that he attacked the elephant at the exhortation of his brother Judas. Hence no mention is made of Eleazar the brother of Judas, as there is of Jonathan, and Simon and John, the brothers of Judas. This Eleazar seems therefore to have been the brother of Judas, who here fell under the elephant.
You will say: How then do the Vulgate copies have “son of Saura”? I answer, Eleazar was the son of Mattathias, who was surnamed “Saura,” or, as the Greek has, Avaran, or Abaran, that is, the strong one of them. For he first raised the standard of fortitude against Antiochus. Moreover this surname Abaron Mattathias transferred to his son Eleazar on account of his remarkable fortitude of mind and body. For the Hebrews were polyonymous and received several names, or rather surnames, from various gifts or events: perhaps from seabbiron or seavaran, that is, to whom is strength, by contraction “Saura” was made, as in Genes. 49 for Silo, that is, the Messias, the Septuagint read Selo, that is, to whom are laid up, namely to Christ, the eternal kingdom and eternal glory. In like manner we see many proper names contracted by usage, indeed corrupted and distorted; Sanchez, however, denies that this Eleazar was the brother of Judas.
44. AND HE EXPOSED HIMSELF (to the fight against the elephant, and therefore to certain death, with this as his chief end,) THAT HE MIGHT DELIVER HIS PEOPLE from the invasion of king Antiochus Eupator: secondarily, that he might GET HIMSELF AN EVERLASTING NAME,—both on earth among men, that by his example he might rouse them to like heroic deeds, and rather in heaven with God and the holy Angels. And he obtained both. For as St. Ambrose says in the place about to be cited: “The king, terrified by the courage of one man, asked peace.”
46. AND HE WENT BETWEEN THE FEET OF THE ELEPHANT,—to pierce its belly, and so make it fall, and by its fall crush the king, though he knew that he himself also would be crushed. He directly intended therefore to kill the king, but indirectly he intended to permit himself also to be crushed by the same fall, without which he could not kill the king. So soldiers in the line contend for the first place, to be the first to leap into a city or upon the enemy, even if they know that very many of them will fall and die, and they think this death to be their glory. So Samson, shaking the pillars, overturned the house; and that the house might overwhelm the satraps of the Philistines, even if he knew that he himself would be overwhelmed by the same, Judges 16, 29. See what is said there. Wherefore St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, Serarius, Salianus and others everywhere praise Eleazar for his strength and zeal. Xenophon, book 7 of the Cyropaedia, narrates a like deed of one who, having pierced the belly of Cyrus’s horse, threw Cyrus down. Hear St. Ambrose, book 1 On Offices chap. 40: “How great therefore was the courage of his mind, he says, first that he did not fear death; then that, surrounded by the legions of the enemies, he was borne into the crowded foe, penetrated the midst of the line, and, fiercer by contempt of death, casting away his shield, with both hands wounded, went under and bore up the mass of the beast; then went beneath it, that he might strike with a fuller blow. Enclosed rather than crushed by its fall, he was buried in his own triumph. Nor did the opinion deceive the man, although the royal trappings deceived him. For the enemy, transfixed by so great a spectacle of valour, did not dare to attack the unarmed man, busied as he was, after the fall of the falling beast, but so trembled that all thought themselves unequal to the valour of one.” And soon: “And so Eleazar left peace as the heir of his valour.”
AND IT FELL (the elephant) UPON HIM (Eleazar, who had put himself under it), AND THERE HE DIED.—Eleazar, crushed by the elephant falling upon him. Symbolically St. Gregory, book 19 of the Morals chap. 13: “Eleazar,” he says, “in battle striking an elephant laid it low; but he died under the very one he had killed. Whom then does he signify, whom his own victory crushed, but those who overcome vices, but beneath the very thing which they subdue succumb through pride? For he dies as it were under the enemy whom he lays low, who is lifted up over the fault which he overcomes.”
47. AND THE JEWS SEEING (Judas and the Jews) THE STRENGTH OF THE KING, (that is, the king’s army so strong and numerous that they, few as they were, could not overthrow it, by prudent counsel for a time) TURNED AWAY FROM THEM,—and went on to besiege the citadel on Mount Sion held by the followers of Antiochus. Likewise the king, terrified by so many of his men slain by Judas, did not dare to pursue Judas as he withdrew, but besieged Bethsura. Note: In these books by “strength” (virtus) is understood a strong army; for this the Greek dynamis signifies.
49. AND HE MADE PEACE WITH THEM THAT WERE IN BETHSURA, (on the agreement that he would let them, dying of famine, go out and seek food, while he himself should occupy Bethsura:) BECAUSE IT WAS THE YEAR OF REST TO THE LAND,—that is, because it was the seventh year, or sabbatical, in which it was lawful neither to sow nor to reap, but the land was to be given its rest according to the law of Exodus 23. In a similar way Herod took Jerusalem by famine in a sabbatical year, as Josephus relates, book 14, chap. 28.
51. AND HE TURNED (king Antiochus Eupator) HIS ARMY AGAINST THE SANCTUARY, (to take the temple and the citadel which Judas had built near it for its protection, chap. 4, verse 60:) AND HE SET UP THERE BATTERING SLINGS, etc., AND SCORPIONS, (which were engines, or catapults) TO SHOOT ARROWS, AND SLINGS,—Greek petroboloi, that is, slings, or larger ballistae, which hurled great stones and cast them into the city, on which see Vegetius, Lipsius, Valturius and others.
55. AND LYSIAS HEARD THAT PHILIP, etc.—Lysias, who ruled the king Eupator, as a boy, fearing Philip, lest he should thrust him out of his place and rank, because Philip had been appointed by his dying father Antiochus Epiphanes governor of the kingdom as well as of his son Eupator, persuaded Eupator to make peace with the Jews, and to march against Philip, lest he should seize the kingdom; and so it was done: whence 2 Mach. 13, 22, these things are supplied and added, which greatly commend the fortitude and victory of Judas: “Again the king treated with them that were in Bethsura: he gave his right hand, he took theirs: he went away, he fought with Judas: he was overcome. And when he understood that Philip, who had been left over the affairs, had rebelled at Antioch, he was in consternation of mind, and entreating the Jews, and yielding to them, he swore to all things that seemed just: and being reconciled, he offered sacrifice, honoured the temple, and laid up gifts, embraced Machabeus, and made him chief governor and prince from Ptolemais unto the Gerrenians.”
62. AND HE BROKE THE OATH SOON, (because he caused the citadel built by Judas for the protection of the temple to be overthrown, when, as follows,) HE GAVE ORDERS TO PULL DOWN THE WALL (of the citadel) ROUND ABOUT. But soon the king repented of his perfidy, who, desiring to use the help and strength of Judas and the Jews against Philip, renewed the covenant with him, and embracing Judas made him chief governor and prince, as I have already said from 2 Machabees 13.
63. AND HE FOUGHT AGAINST HIM (Philip rebelling against him, and took and slew him) AND TOOK THE CITY—Antioch, greatly helped by the aid of Judas and the Jews, as Josephus and Gorionides narrate. Moreover Antioch is the metropolis of Syria, a most celebrated city, through which the river Orontes flows, afterwards called by the Emperor Justinian Theopolis, that is, the city of God. In it the Apostle Peter first sat, and there the faithful were first called Christians. It was called Antioch from Antiochus, as Epiphania from Epiphanes, Alexandria from Alexander, Rome from Romulus, Constantinople from its founder Constantine. Moreover Antioch was founded by Seleucus Nicanor, who first after Alexander the Great reigned in Asia and Syria, and named it Antioch from the name of his father Antiochus, and made it the head of Syria, says St. Isidore, book 15 of the Origins chap. 1.