Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
Finally Olympias, the mother of Alexander, groaned: “O son,” she said, “who were eager to be a sharer of heaven, you cannot even possess those things that are common to all mortals, earth and burial.” For the corpse of Alexander remained unburied for thirty days because of the dissensions of the princes. Go now, sons of Adam, and like moles gape after the earth; heap field upon field, city upon city, kingdom upon kingdom, you who shall die tomorrow.
O the cares of men! O how much emptiness there is in things!
Alexander was beautiful; now he is a putrid corpse: there was a Cyrus, now there is an Irus: there was an oarsman of the cups, now he is food of worms; he was the terror of nations, now he is the prey of demons: he was a renowned king of glory, now he is a bellows and fuel of hell, and will be so forever, for all eternity. Look into this mirror, O Reader, and say to yourself: “Today Alexander, tomorrow I.”
THE ILLUSTRIOUS,—as if to say: from one of Alexander’s generals, and after his death kings, was born Antiochus Epiphanes, namely from Seleucus, who, Antigonus being conquered, put on the diadem of Asia in the 12th year after the death of Alexander; for from Seleucus in the sixth generation descended Epiphanes, that is, the illustrious. More truly he is called by others Epimanes, that is, the mad; both because he did many foolish and insane things, which I have recounted from Leonicus on Daniel 11, 21; and because, as if driven by infernal furies, he raved and raged most cruelly against the Jews. Polybius gives another cause, that he was poisoned by the Magi through magic, and driven to delirium and madness of mind.
Epiphanes is called “a sinful root,” because just as from a root spring apples and fruits, so from Epiphanes sprang all sins, of pride, avarice, lust, cruelty, impiety, sacrileges, etc., as we shall hear in this whole chapter and the following. Hence he was an express type and precursor of Antichrist, who in 2 Thessal. 2 is called by Paul “the man of sin,” because he will be most impious and most wicked.
THE SON OF KING ANTIOCHUS (surnamed the Great), WHO HAD BEEN A HOSTAGE AT ROME.—For Antiochus the Great, when he had been conquered with Hannibal by Scipio Asiaticus, the brother of Scipio Africanus, because he had neglected Hannibal’s counsels, gave to Scipio and the Romans as hostage of peace and treaty his younger son Antiochus Epiphanes. But Epiphanes, after the death of his father and of his elder brother Seleucus Philopator, who was killed by the treachery of Heliodorus, secretly escaped from Rome to Syria, and there began to reign in the year 137 OF THE KINGDOM OF THE GREEKS, that is, in the 145th year after the death of Alexander the Great. For the years of the Greeks begin from Seleucus, who in the 12th year from the death of Alexander made himself king of Asia, and handed the kingdom on to his descendants, as I said in the Preface, Question 3.
12. IN THOSE DAYS THERE WENT OUT OF ISRAEL WICKED MEN,—whose leader was Jesus, brother of the Pontiff Onias, who, becoming a Gentile and a Greek, called himself Jason, and seized the Pontificate, his brother Onias having been cast out, concerning which, book 2, chap. 4, verse 7. Likewise Menelaus, Simon and the like, of whom book 2, chap. 5. These, seeing the iniquity and power of Antiochus Epiphanes, who ruled Syria and Judea, and his impiety, [wished by imitating him] to obtain [his favour], and to be set over the rest of the Jews, and to become Pontiffs and governors, indeed Lords of the Jews, namely:
The whole world is shaped after the example of the king.
As therefore the pious king David made the Jews pious, so the impious Epiphanes made them impious.
14. HE GAVE THEM LICENCE (Epiphanes) TO DO AFTER THE ORDINANCES OF THE GENTILES,—that is, that they should follow the rites and customs of the Gentiles, and especially their false religion and idolatry, and free licentiousness, and bring them into Judea; whence it follows:
15. AND THEY BUILT A PLACE OF EXERCISE IN JERUSALEM, ACCORDING TO THE LAWS OF THE NATIONS,—in which, namely, young men were to learn not only the fables and letters of the Gentiles, as St. Thomas and Lyranus judge, but also to fence, shoot with the bow, contend in running, leaping, the discus, and wrestle in the palaestra, etc., but were also taught every luxury, even unnatural pederasty and sodomy, whence to these gymnasia are added ephebias, or brothels, book 2, chap. 4, verse 12. And such places the impious kings once set up in Juda, which are called places of the effeminate, over which presided as a kind of priestess and princess the mother of Asa king of Juda, 3 Kings 15, 12; but Asa and other pious kings removed them, while Herod restored them, as Josephus testifies, book 14, chap. 9 and book 15, chap. 11. Learn here that as the companion of true religion is purity and chastity, so the companion of false religion and heresy is impurity and lust: certainly the troops of virgins, of men as well as of women, who religiously keep through their whole life the chastity vowed to God, you will find only in the orthodox faith.
16. AND THEY MADE THEMSELVES FORESKINS,—that is, they drew over themselves the foreskins cut away in circumcision by certain instruments and medicines, and made them grow again, so that by this act they might avoid circumcision and Judaism and profess Gentilism; for the symbol of this was the drawing forward of the foreskin. See what I said on 1 Corinth. 7, 18, on the words: “Let him not procure uncircumcision.”
17. AND THE KINGDOM WAS ESTABLISHED (of Asia and Syria) BEFORE THE FACE OF ANTIOCHUS (Epiphanes);—for Seleucus Philopator, the elder brother of Epiphanes, was slain by the treachery of Heliodorus; wherefore Epiphanes, helped by the neighbouring kings Eumenes and Attalus, easily seized alone his father’s kingdom. Nor content with this: HE HAD A MIND TO REIGN OVER THE LAND OF EGYPT,—for, as follows:
GREAT,—that is, copious, namely a numerous and large army. It is an enallage; for continuous quantity is put for discrete, namely heavy or great for many. So “a most grievous fly” is called a very great number, Exodus 8, 24. See what is said there. Moreover Antiochus Epiphanes entered Egypt twice, pretending that he wished to help Ptolemy Philometor, his nephew by his sister Cleopatra, then a boy, but in truth with the intention that, the nephew being shut out, he might add the kingdom of Egypt to his own kingdom of Asia. First, he entered in the second year of his reign, of which 2 Machab. 4, 21 treats. Second, in the sixth year of his reign, which was the 142nd of the Greeks, of which it is treated here; for in the year ... it is said, verse 24.
23. AND HE ENTERED INTO THE SANCTUARY,—that is, the holy place, namely the temple, most holy to the Jews, and thence sacrilegiously took away THE GOLDEN ALTAR, that is, the altar of incense; AND THE GOLDEN TABLE, on which the 12 tribes offered to God 12 LOAVES OF PROPOSITION, AND THE POURING VESSELS,—that is, cups, bowls, and other vessels with which wine, oil, and the blood of victims were poured out to God, that is, poured at the horn of the altar.
25. AND HE MADE A GREAT MASSACRE OF MEN, namely,—as is said in 2 Mach. 5, 12–14: “There was killing of young and old, and destruction of women and children, and slaughter of virgins and infants. And there were destroyed in the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, forty thousand were made prisoners, and no fewer sold.” The cause was that the Romans ordered Antiochus Epiphanes to depart from Egypt, and to leave it free to Ptolemy Philometor, a friendly king; for Publius Popilius Laenas, a Roman Legate who had been familiar with Antiochus Epiphanes at Rome, landing at Alexandria with ships, drawing a circle round Antiochus in the sand with a rod, said to him: “The Senate and Roman people command that you depart from Egypt, and not fight against the Ptolemies, and answer in this place what counsel you take: whether you desire peace or war.” Terrified, he said: “If this pleases the Romans, I must depart.” And so he at once moved his army. So Josephus, book 12 of the Antiquities, chap. 6. Livy, book 45, decad 5. Appian in the Syriac history, Justin and others. Wherefore Antiochus then, gnashing his teeth, moved his camp against his neighbours the Jews, and poured out upon them his indignation and fury.
AND SPOKE VERY PROUDLY,—boasting himself as if he were some earthly god, whom all ought to obey, and whom no one could resist, as his antitype Antichrist will do. See what is said on Da-