Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
AND THERE IS NO ENVY, NOR JEALOUSY AMONG THEM.—There was no envy among the first Romans, who, content with little, scorned wealth and honours, such as Camillus, Cincinnatus, Curius, Fabius and the like; but their posterity, gaping after the wealth and dignities of the commonwealth, began in the time of Judas Maccabeus to be troubled with ambition and envy, but inward ones: for they did not dare to show it outwardly, lest they be thought proud and greedy and so be driven from the government; wherefore outwardly there did not appear in them envy or jealousy, that is, rivalry and contention, as Judas says here; but soon after the inward ambition and envy broke out into the open, when Marius contended against Sulla in civil war, Julius Caesar against Pompey, Augustus against Antony; and then their commonwealth was ruined, and the aristocracy was succeeded by the monarchy of Augustus and the following emperors. Hear Cato in Sallust, On the Catilinarian War, chap. lii: “Do not think that our ancestors made the commonwealth great from small by arms. If that were so, we should have it far the fairest. For we have a greater abundance of allies and citizens, besides arms and horses, than they; but there were other things which made them great, which we have not: industry at home, just government abroad, a mind free in counsel, subject neither to passion nor to guilt. In place of these we have luxury and avarice, poverty in the state, wealth in private; we praise riches, we follow idleness; between good and bad there is no distinction, ambition possesses all the rewards of virtue. Nor is it wonder, when you each take counsel separately for yourselves, when at home you are slaves to pleasures, here to money or favour. Hence it comes that an attack is made upon the defenceless commonwealth.”
17. AND JUDAS CHOSE EUPOLEMUS, etc., AND JASON,—that is Josue, or Jesus; for so he was called in Hebrew; but because the Hebrews had been subject to the Greeks from the time of Alexander the Great, they likewise took Greek names, so that for “Jesus,” that is “Saviour,” they said Jason, that is, healing. So Eupolemus, Menelaus, Alcimus are Greek names, and the apostates sought such names to gain the favour of Antiochus, Demetrius and the Greeks.
SON OF ELEAZAR.—Some think that this Jason was the son of Eleazar the brother of Judas Maccabeus, of whom chap. ii, 5, others, of Eleazar the aged man of ninety, who died a noble martyrdom for the law of Moses; II Mach. vi; but nothing certain can be determined here.
AND SENT THEM TO ROME TO MAKE FRIENDSHIP WITH THEM.—Judas was pressed on one side by the strong forces of Demetrius, on the other by the wiles of Menelaus, Jason and Alcimus, the false High Priests, and therefore apostates, his rivals and enemies; and he saw that with a few faithful Jews he could not long resist them. Prudently, therefore, he fled to the Romans, then lords of affairs, and implored their help by making a treaty, which succeeded as he wished. For the Romans wrote to Demetrius, and ordered him not to molest Judas and the Jews any further. Nor was there in this treaty any danger of idolatry or other evil, because the Romans allowed all nations their own gods and national religion. For they were politicians, and aimed only to preserve and extend their political rule, for which they knew it would be very useful if they did not change the laws and deities of the nations, but let them live by their own laws and deities. It was otherwise with Josaphat king of Juda, who was reproved by the Prophet, II Paral. xix, because he had made a treaty and marriage-alliance with the idolater Joram king of Israel: for by this idolatry entered and overran the kingdom of Juda. So David, suffering persecution, fled from Saul to Achis king of Geth, an idolater, I Kings xxvii. He likewise made a league with Naas king of Ammon, II Kings x; and with Tholmai king of Gessur, whose daughter he took to wife, II Kings iii, verse 3. So Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made covenants with the idolatrous Palestines and Syrians, Gen. chaps. xiv, xxi and xxvi. Lawfully, then, indeed piously and holily, Judas made a pact with the Romans, that by their help he might protect and defend his country, commonwealth, Church, and the true faith and religion, which Antiochus and the apostates were trying to overthrow; though Rupert of Blois and others think otherwise, as I shall say in the next chapter, ver. 18.
You will say: This treaty with the Romans was the occasion why the Romans soon after subdued Judea, and afterwards overthrew it when it rebelled. I answer. The cause of this subjection was not the treaty, but the contention for the Principate between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, grandsons of Simon Maccabeus. For they chose Pompey as arbiter, who rightly adjudged the Principate to Hyrcanus, as the elder; but when Aristobulus resisted and seized Jerusalem, Pompey stormed him together with the city, and with the consent of Hyrcanus subjected Judea to the Romans, as Josephus relates at length.
22. ON TABLES OF BRASS.—The Romans wrote their treaties as well as laws on waxen tablets, which they hung up publicly for their perpetuity, and lest anyone should be able to tear or destroy them.
23. GOOD SUCCESS TO THE ROMANS AND TO THE NATION OF THE JEWS.—This is the beginning and auspice of the treaty, by which we make the treaty, as if to say: may it be happy and prosperous for the Romans as for the Jews, praying well on both sides that it may be salutary to both against enemies, and perpetual.
25. THE NATION OF THE JEWS SHALL AID (the Romans when attacked in war), AS THE TIME SHALL DIRECT, WITH A FULL HEART,—that is, a sincere, whole, perfect heart; as if to say: The Jews will help the Romans most sincerely, wholly and readily, if war should threaten them; whence for “with a full heart,” in verse 27, it is said “with a willing mind.”
26. AND TO THEM THAT MAKE WAR (the Jews, the Romans) THEY SHALL NOT GIVE, NOR SUPPLY WHEAT, ARMS, MONEY, SHIPS.—But the Jews will provide all these at their own cost, that they may help the Romans freely; for otherwise they would be not so much allies and friends of the Romans as mercenaries hired for a price. For friendship demands that free and generous help be given to a friend in need.
AND THEY SHALL KEEP THEIR ORDERS,—that the Jews fighting for the Romans be in all things subject to the Roman general, just as if he were a Jew, and carry out his orders fully, as the other Roman soldiers do; for otherwise the help of the Jews would be vain, if they wished to follow counsels of their own different from the Romans’, or even contrary. For so they would make a schism in the army, and expose it to yield to the enemy.
27. IN THE SAME MANNER, ETC.—As if to say: The Romans will give the Jews a like help, wholly free, sincere and generous, if they are attacked by anyone in war.
(Romans or Jews) TO ADD OR TAKE AWAY ANYTHING, THEY SHALL DO IT AT THEIR OWN PLEASURE,—that is, by the common will and consent of both parties.
…cease. But before this letter came to Demetrius, he had already sent Bacchides, with whom Judas fought, conquered indeed, but fell, as we shall hear in the next chapter.
30. BUT IF, AFTER THESE WORDS, THESE OR THOSE (Romans or Jews, by the conditions of the treaty already stated)