Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
1. IN THE YEAR 151 (of the Greeks) DEMETRIUS THE SON OF SELEUCUS DEPARTED FROM THE CITY OF ROME.—To understand this history from its beginning, note from Appian, Justin and others that Antiochus the Great, conquered with Hannibal by L. Scipio, and made peace with the Romans, and sent to Rome as a hostage of peace his son, the younger Antiochus Epiphanes, chap. 1, 11. Antiochus the Great being dead, his elder son Seleucus Philopator succeeded, who recalled his brother Antiochus Epiphanes from Rome to himself, that by his aid he might recover Syria and seize Egypt, and gave in his place to the Romans as hostage his son Demetrius, ten years old, of whom it is treated here. Seleucus being dead a little after, his brother Antiochus Epiphanes succeeded, who reigned 12 years: at the end of which, dying, he put in his place his son Antiochus Eupator, a boy of nine. Demetrius at Rome hearing this asked leave of the Romans to go to his father’s kingdom, which was due to him by right as son of the elder Seleucus, brother of Epiphanes, Eupator, his cousin, a boy, being shut out. The Romans refused, and favoured Eupator, from whom as a boy they feared nothing. Seeing this Demetrius secretly fled from Rome to Syria: the Syrians hearing this flocked to him in troops, as to the lawful successor of the kingdom; indeed the soldiers of Eupator went over from him to Demetrius, as king, and at his command killed Eupator with his guardian Lysias: Demetrius therefore occupying Antioch began to reign in it, being in his 23rd year; for in his tenth year he was sent by his father Seleucus as hostage to Rome, and remained there the whole life of Antiochus Epiphanes his uncle for three years; and after his death, in the 23rd year of his age, he returned to Syria, and received the ancestral kingdom. Hear Appian in the Syriac history: “The Senate heard with joy that Antiochus (Epiphanes), who had reigned nobly a few years, had so quickly died. Yet Demetrius, son of Seleucus, grandson of Antiochus the Great, cousin of this boy (Eupator), still a hostage in the city, who had now entered his 23rd year, though he asked, and said that he was the nearer heir, it would not bring him into the kingdom, judging it more advantageous to itself that Syria should be ruled by a boy than by a man.”
And at once: “Demetrius again approached the fathers asking that at least he should cease to be a hostage, since he had been exchanged for Antiochus, who was then dead. And when he did not obtain even this, he fled secretly by ship, and being received by the Syrians with great rejoicing obtained the kingdom, having first killed Lysias, soon also the boy, and cast out Heraclides, and put to death Timarchus as a rebel, who besides had badly administered the prefecture of Babylon. For which reason he was called Soter, the beginning being made by the Babylonians.” For this reason therefore Demetrius here was surnamed Soter, that is, saviour, says Eusebius in the Chronicle and Appian in the Syriac history.
AND CAME UP WITH A FEW MEN INTO A CITY OF THE SEA COAST,—namely Tripolis, as is said in 2 Mach. 14, 4, and there, acknowledged by his Syrians as lawful king, began to reign, until the Syrian army of Eupator, hearing of his coming, invited him to Antioch to take possession of the metropolis of the kingdom of Syria. Whence it follows:
2. AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS HE ENTERED INTO THE HOUSE OF THE KINGDOM OF HIS FATHERS (that is, the royal city, and metropolis of the kingdom, namely Antioch), THAT THE ARMY (Syrian, of Eupator, favouring Demetrius, and going over to him as lawful king) SEIZED UPON ANTIOCHUS (Eupator) AND LYSIAS (his guardian), TO BRING THEM TO HIM—Demetrius.
3. AND HE SAID: LET ME NOT SEE THEIR FACE,—as if to say: I do not wish to see them, lest by the sight of Eupator, my cousin, a boy, I be bent to mercy and to spare his life, as if to say: I would rather see them dead than alive, lest if I kill them myself I be held cruel and savage: do you therefore kill them, as if without my knowledge, that I alone may reign securely without a rival; whence it follows:
4. AND THE ARMY SLEW THEM.—Hence it is plain that Eupator scarcely reigned two years; for he began to reign after the death of his father Antiochus Epiphanes, which happened in the year 149 of the Greeks, as was said, and ceased in the year 151 of the Greeks, in which Demetrius entered upon the kingdom, and killed Eupator, then 11 years old, as is plain from verse 1.
Moreover Eupator was so quickly deprived of kingdom and life by the avenging God; both for the crimes of his father Antiochus Epiphanes; and for his own, especially for the perjury by which he violated the faith given to Judas and the Jews, as was said in the preceding chapter, verse 62.
5. AND ALCIMUS WAS THEIR LEADER, WHO DESIRED TO BE MADE HIGH PRIEST—that is, Pontiff. The impious and ambitious Alcimus, envying Judas the Pontificate and Principate, obtained it from Antiochus Eupator, and he being slain, asked of Demetrius that the same be given to him, or rather that it be confirmed to him as given, and obtained it. He was therefore a False Pontiff, indeed an Apostate and traitor of Israel: for all true Israelites held Judas Maccabeus for the true Pontiff and Prince.
6. JUDAS AND HIS BRETHREN HAVE DESTROYED ALL THY FRIENDS,—namely the Syrian leaders and soldiers, whom Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator sent against them, of whom the former was thy uncle, the latter thy cousin, as if to say: Send therefore, O Demetrius, a leader with forces with me, who shall deprive Judas thy enemy of the Pontificate and Principate, and put me as thy friend and faithful in his place. Demetrius believed the wicked Alcimus, the calumniator, and sent with him Bacchides against Judas.
8. AND THE KING CHOSE (Demetrius) OF HIS FRIENDS (courtiers) BACCHIDES, WHO RULED (as prefect and viceroy) BEYOND THE GREAT RIVER—the Euphrates in Mesopotamia: for this lies between the Tigris and Euphrates, and is surrounded and enclosed on every side by them, and hence is called Mesopotamia, as if to say situated in the midst of two rivers.
13. AND THE ASSIDEANS WERE THE FIRST,—of whom chap. 2, verse 42, who were pious, religious and zealous men, and therefore fought most bravely with Judas for Israel, who were too much deceived by Alcimus as an Aaronic priest, and captured and slain by him,
16. ACCORDING TO THE WORD WHICH IS WRITTEN,—Psalm 78,
17. THE FLESH OF THY SAINTS.—In Hebrew chasidecha; whence the name Assides, that is, holy, pious and merciful. Literally therefore concerning the Assideans here slain by Alcimus David prophesied in that Psalm so many hundreds of years before.