Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
Moreover, Judas was leader of Israel for only six years, in which he did so many and such great things as scarcely any have done who ruled the commonwealth for 50 years. For he entered on the leadership in the year 146 of the Greeks, in which his father Mathathias died, I Mach. ii, 70; and fell in the year 152 of the Greeks, as is clear in this chapter, which was the second year of Demetrius king of Syria, the twentieth of Ptolemy Philometor king of Egypt, the year 159 before the birth of Christ. So Salianus and others.
22. AND THE REST OF THE WORDS (that is, deeds and acts to be expressed in words and histories) OF THE WARS OF JUDAS, AND OF THE WORTHY DEEDS (in Greek andragathematon, that is, manly works or heroic exploits) WHICH HE DID, AND OF HIS GREATNESS, HAVE NOT BEEN WRITTEN: FOR THEY WERE VERY MANY,—as if to say: I have recounted a few of the many heroic deeds of Judas, that you may know the lion by his claw: for he did far more, which it would be too long to relate. Hence it is clear that Judas was an incomparable leader in war, than whom none was superior and scarcely any equal and like; for none with so few so often overcame and laid low such great forces of the enemy; none for country, for faith, for the temple, for the worship of God, all his life unto death toiled so, so fought, and at last fell fighting, as Judas. Wherefore there is no doubt that he, inscribed by God in the catalogue of holy Leaders (if not of martyrs, as some will have it), is adorned in heaven with crowns for his merits through so many exploits, although we do not read his name inscribed in the martyrologies of Christians. Yet the Scholastic History, and Peter de Natalibus, Bishop of Equilium, call Judas holy, and enter him in the catalogue of Saints in the month of October. See him book IX of the Catalogue of Saints, chap. ii, where he relates at length the life of Judas as of a holy man, and in the following chapter that of his brothers Jonathan and Simon, as well as of his father Mathathias, all of whom he calls saints, and recounts their heroic virtues as of Saints.
23. AFTER THE DEATH OF JUDAS THE WICKED PUT FORTH THEIR HEADS,—as if to say: the apostates, who while he lived dared not open their mouths, after his death raised their horns, to bring into Israel the heathenism and idolatry of King Demetrius.
These therefore pressed the Jews to give themselves up to Bacchides, Demetrius’s general, especially because, as follows:
24. IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS A VERY GREAT FAMINE,—both from the vengeance of God chastising the apostates, and because Bacchides had either consumed or destroyed the corn: for these causes ALL THEIR COUNTRY WENT OVER WITH THEM TO BACCHIDES,—except Jonathan and Simon and their followers, at whose choice and request.
31. JONATHAN TOOK UPON HIM THE GOVERNMENT AT THAT TIME,—both civil and sacred, namely both the Leadership and the Pontificate.
33. AND THEY FLED (because they were few, and could not resist so many enemies and apostates) INTO THE DESERT OF THECUA,—from which came that woman of Thecua who reconciled Absalom to David, II Kings xiv.
35. AND JONATHAN SENT HIS BROTHER (John, ver. 36, of whom chap. ii, 2, made by Jonathan leader of the people, to be his vicar and commander in war,) AND PRAYED THE NABUTHITES (inhabitants of the noble and famous city Nabo, situated in the tribe of Ruben, Numbers xxxii, 38,) HIS FRIENDS, THAT THEY WOULD LEND THEM THEIR BAGGAGE—of arms and war-engines, of which Jonathan and the Jews lacked, who had fled almost unarmed into the desert of Thecua, as has been said, going over to Bacchides rather than to Jonathan. Madaba was in the tribe of Ruben not far from Nabo and the Nabuthites. Hear Adrichomius: “Madaba, or Medeba, is the same as waters of sorrow, or flowing, formerly the chief city of the Ammonites, situated in a plain, to which it afterwards gave its name, having been taken by the Amorrhites by right of war and girt with walls. It has around it mountains, marshes and woods. When its citizens had killed John Maccabeus, many of them were slain by Jonathan in vengeance for him. Hyrcanus afterwards took it, not without toil, in the sixth month; it remained until the age of Jerome, keeping its ancient name.”
THEY TOOK JOHN,—they plundered and killed him; but Jonathan nobly avenged his death, as follows ver. 47.
41. AND THE MARRIAGE WAS TURNED INTO MOURNING,—the bridegroom being slain with his followers, and the others plundered. So often in this world applause is turned into wailing, song into lamentation, and mourning takes hold of the end of joy. Whoever is wise, therefore, let him despise the world and aim at heaven.
43. WITH A GREAT ARMY,—that is, with a great and strong host; for this is what dynamis means, that is, power, strength, might, fortitude.
44. LET US ARISE AND FIGHT AGAINST OUR ENEMIES: FOR IT IS NOT NOW AS YESTERDAY AND THE DAY BEFORE,—so that we could freely depart, or decline the fight, or escape by flight. For we are near numerous enemies, and almost surrounded by them; for on the other side we are shut in on the ways by the Jordan, marshes and woods, so that we cannot escape; wherefore we must needs fight with Bacchides. Let us therefore make a virtue of unavoidable necessity, and fight fiercely not so much for life as for country, temple and God, that we may conquer or die fighting, as Judas my brother did, ver. 10. That this is the sense is clear from what he adds:
45. FOR BEHOLD THE BATTLE IS BEFORE US (from Bacchides pressing upon us it threatens), AND THE WATER OF THE JORDAN ON THIS SIDE AND ON THAT—encloses us and forbids passage. This is a keen spur to the soldier for fighting, which leaders set before him, that he may fight nobly when he must either conquer or die. In like manner Hannibal, as Livy witnesses, book XXI: “On the right and left two seas shut us in, we have no ship even for escape, etc., here you must conquer or die, soldiers.” The same, book XXII, of the Romans reduced to a strait: “On the flanks mountains and lakes; before and behind the enemy’s line shut them in, and it appeared that there was no hope of safety except in right hand and sword.”
47. AND JONATHAN STRETCHED FORTH HIS HAND TO STRIKE BACCHIDES, BUT HE TURNED ASIDE FROM HIM BACKWARDS.—Bacchides, recoiling, turned aside Jonathan’s blow.
48. AND JONATHAN, AND THEY THAT WERE WITH HIM, LEAPED (the Greek and some Latin manuscripts and Hugo have leaped) INTO THE JORDAN, AND SWAM OVER THE JORDAN TO THEM,—as if to say: Jonathan, having repressed the force of the enemy, a thousand men being slain, and Bacchides himself almost, and seeing that with so few ill-armed men he could not long engage so many thousands of most heavily armed enemies, had time to withdraw himself and his men. For he leaped into the Jordan, and swam across it clothed and armed; nor did the enemy, being beaten by him and driven back, dare to pursue him or hinder the passage of the Jordan. And so Jonathan and the Jews swam “to them,” namely to their own, who had crossed the Jordan a little before. “They swam,” I say, “the Jordan”; whence the Greek has more clearly and fully: And Jonathan leaped, and they of the Jews that were with him, and swam across to the farther bank, and they (the enemy, namely Bacchides’ soldiers) did not pass over the Jordan to them. And Josephus: “When, he says, Bacchides had cautiously avoided Jonathan’s blow, Jonathan and his men leaping down committed themselves to the river and swam to the opposite bank, the enemies not daring to cross.” Hence Salianus suspects a mistake in the Vulgate, and that for “swam to them” we should read “swam not to them”; as if to say: The enemy did not dare to swim the Jordan and follow Jonathan and the Jews who had swum it, lest they be killed by them or choked by the waters. But all the Latin copies read affirmatively “swam to them,” according to the sense first given. So Sanchez.
49. AND THERE FELL OF BACCHIDES’ PARTY THAT DAY A THOUSAND MEN.—Josephus, after his manner, enlarges and numbers two thousand.
AND THEY RETURNED TO JERUSALEM,—not Jonathan, but Bacchides with his forces. For he held the city of Jerusalem, indeed the citadel of Sion, and almost the whole of Judea. So Josephus, Salianus, Sanchez and others, and it is clear from what follows.
50. AND THEY BUILT (Bacchides and his associates sent by King Demetrius to occupy Judea) STRONG CITIES IN JUDEA,—that by them they might keep the rest of Judea subject to themselves, lest Jonathan coming upon them should expel them from it.
51. AND HE SET GARRISONS IN THEM.—By garrison understand the guard of soldiers whom Bacchides placed in the cities just mentioned, to guard and defend them against the attacks of Jonathan.
52. AND PUT IN THEM AUXILIARIES (namely the guards of soldiers already mentioned) AND STORES OF VICTUALS,—that is, abundant provision, so that they might long endure a siege by Jonathan in his absence, lest pressed by hunger they should be forced to surrender.
53. AND HE TOOK (Bacchides) THE SONS OF THE CHIEF MEN OF THE COUNTRY FOR HOSTAGES,—lest the Princes, or chief men of Judea, should rebel against him and conspire with Jonathan, and therefore he shut up their sons, as hostages, in the citadel of Sion, to be kept there, that they might not flee to their own.