Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
8. THOU ART OUR LEADER IN THE PLACE OF JUDAS AND JONATHAN THY BROTHER.—Here the people create Simon leader and Pontiff in the year 170 of the Greeks, as is said ver. 41 and 42. Simon therefore exercised the leadership and Pontificate for seven years, namely to the year 177 of the Greeks, in which he was perfidiously slain by his son-in-law, as is said chap. xvi, 14.
10. HE MADE HASTE TO FINISH ALL THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM,—lest the Demetrians from the citadel of Sion should invade and plunder it in his absence while he went against Tryphon.
13. BUT SIMON PITCHED IN ADDUS (which he himself had fortified, chap. xii, 38, where however Addus is called Adiada, in Greek Adida. It is situated in the Palmyrene region of Phoenicia. Here Simon pitched his camp) OVER AGAINST THE PLAIN,—that is, opposite the great and spacious plain, thereby inviting and provoking Tryphon to engage with him.
…beholding the forces of Simon, changed the lion’s skin for the fox’s, and craftily feigned himself a friend, and so fraudulently extorted from Simon a hundred talents and two sons of Jonathan as his ransom.
…or in the books of accounts we find that Jonathan owes the king a hundred talents: send therefore them with his two sons as hostages, and I will send back Jonathan to you. A hundred talents of gold, if Attic, make six hundred thousand gold pieces; if Hebrew, more than double, namely a million and two hundred thousand gold pieces; so great a quantity of gold Simon sent to Tryphon for the redeeming of his brother Jonathan.
17. AND SIMON KNEW THAT HE SPOKE DECEITFULLY TO HIM (“Knew,” that is, scented out and probably suspected that Tryphon was dealing with him not sincerely but deceitfully, from the fact that he had experienced his crafty and perfidious character, especially since he had seized Jonathan by fraud and slain a thousand of his companions; yet because he was not certain that he was dealing deceitfully, and because he loved Jonathan intimately and desired in every way to have him restored to himself and Israel, and lest he should give the people occasion to murmur and rebel against him, as one who from ambition to reign and from avarice had neglected to free Jonathan that he himself might rule in his place, which rebellion would plainly have overturned the commonwealth of Israel, since Tryphon was invading it with great forces; for these reasons Simon prudently) ORDERED THE MONEY AND THE CHILDREN TO BE SENT,—especially because, as St. Thomas says, he did not think Tryphon would be so cruel as to kill them.
20. AND HE WENT ABOUT BY THE WAY THAT LEADETH TO ADOR,—which is a city of Phoenicia lying on the sea near Ptolemais, and by Ptolemy is called Dor or Dora (whence some think the Dorians, Greeks, arose and were named). Josephus, however, book XIII, chap. xiii, calls it a city of Idumea, perhaps because it was occupied by the Idumeans and subject to them.
AND SIMON AND HIS ARMY MARCHED AGAINST HIM IN EVERY PLACE WHITHERSOEVER HE WENT—Tryphon and his soldiers, as if to say: Simon everywhere opposed himself to Tryphon, lest he break into the borders of Juda anywhere; around them Tryphon went about and wandered.
21. NOW THEY THAT WERE IN THE CASTLE (of Sion),—the Tryphonian garrison, pressed by hunger, sent to Tryphon that he should send them provisions by horsemen by way of the desert.
22. BUT THERE FELL A VERY GREAT SNOW, (which hindered Tryphon from being able to enter and bring provisions into the citadel of Sion): AND HE CAME NOT INTO GALAAD.—Some words seem wanting here, which the Greek has thus: And there was very great snow, he came not on account of the snow: And he moved the camp, and came into Galaaditis; as Josephus also has. And how did he not come into Galaaditis, when he came to its town called Bascama, at which he slew Jonathan and his sons, as is immediately added:
Emmanuel Sa and Salianus think the sacred writer prudently passed over it. Yet the Latin text can be reconciled with the Greek thus: Tryphon did not come into Galaaditis, as the Latin has, namely on the same day as he had intended, and that because of the snow which hindered the way, as went before: wherefore on the next or third day he came into Galaaditis, as the Greek has, so as to return into Syria and Antioch whence he had come.
23. AND WHEN HE CAME NEAR TO BASCAMA, HE SLEW JONATHAN AND HIS SONS THERE.—When Tryphon could not go forward because of the snow, but was forced to return, in anger he slew Jonathan with his sons, to vent his hatred of him, and to harm the Jews as much as he could. Josephus adds that he engaged in battle with Simon, and being beaten slew Jonathan from indignation and revenge. But Scripture makes no mention of this battle, and the deep snow hindered it. Moreover Jonathan was slain in the 19th year of his principate and Pontificate (not the seventh, as Josephus says, nor the 14th of the Pontificate and 18th of the leadership, as Scaliger will have it); for so many years he ruled Israel as leader and Pontiff, namely from the beginning of the year 152 of the Greeks, in which Jonathan succeeded the slain Judas in the battle, to the year 170 of the Greeks, in which Jonathan was killed by Tryphon; which was the year 141 before the birth of Christ. So Salianus and others.
27. AND SIMON BUILT OVER THE SEPULCHRE OF HIS FATHER, etc., OF POLISHED STONE.—Josephus: “Of white and polished marble,”
28. AND HE SET UP SEVEN PYRAMIDS, ONE AGAINST ANOTHER,—that is, one opposite another, or one over against another, as if to say: He set up columns in pairs. There were seven, because he erected two to his father and mother, four to as many brothers, namely Judas, Jonathan, John and Eleazar, I Mach. ii, 2; and the seventh he reserved for himself.
29. AND BY THE ARMS SHIPS CARVED,—that by the ships he might show that they were powerful by sea as by land, and obtained illustrious victories in both, although of the naval wars waged by them no mention is made in this book.
30. THIS IS THE SEPULCHRE THAT HE MADE IN MODIN, EVEN UNTO THIS DAY.—This sepulchre lasted to the times of Josephus, as he himself testifies; indeed to the times of St. Jerome, for 500 years. For in the Hebrew places St. Jerome writes thus: “Modin, a village near Diospolis whence were the Maccabees, whose tombs are shown there to this day.”