Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
27. AND THE BEAUTY OF THE WOMEN WAS CHANGED,—both because they themselves, laying aside their beautiful garments in the common mourning, put on mourning, that is, black and squalid ones; and because fear, grief and anguish made them pale and wan. So in the slaughter of the Chaldeans Jeremias says, Lament. 1, of the virgins: “From the daughter of Sion all her beauty is departed;” of the young men, chap. 4, 2: “The noble sons of Sion, and they that were clothed with the best gold: how are they esteemed as earthen vessels;” and verse 7 of the Nazarites: “Her Nazarites were whiter than snow, purer than milk, more ruddy than old ivory, more beautiful than sapphire. Their face is now made blacker than coals, and they are not known in the streets.”
29. AND THE LAND WAS MOVED, Judea was struck and shaken with immense terror, grief and anguish, FOR THE INHABITANTS THEREOF,—namely on account of the Jewish inhabitants slain, captured and sold by Antiochus.
30. AND AFTER TWO YEARS OF DAYS, that is, after two whole years, all their days plainly completed, so that some days besides ran over, Antiochus Epiphanes SENT THE CHIEF COLLECTOR OF TRIBUTES,—whom he had put over the collecting of tributes, by name Apollonius, to the Jews, not only to plunder them, but also to slay them, as is said in 2 Machab. 5, 24, who moreover.
33. AND HE BURNT IT (Jerusalem, already plundered by him) WITH FIRE, AND THREW DOWN THE HOUSES AND WALLS THEREOF ROUND ABOUT,—lest it should be able to rebel against Antiochus.
35. AND THEY BUILT THE CITY OF DAVID,—namely the citadel of Sion, which like a rock or tower commanded the whole city lying beneath, WITH A GREAT (high) AND STRONG WALL. 36. AND THEY PLACED THERE A SINFUL NATION,—namely rapacious soldiers, murderers and wicked men, who should plunder, bind and slay the Jews.
38. AND THIS WAS A PLACE TO LIE IN WAIT AGAINST THE SANCTUARY,—that is, the sanctuary or temple, namely that they might lie in wait for the Jews going to the temple for sacrifice or prayer, and, sallying out from the citadel, fall upon them, and plunder, capture and wound them. For Antiochus wished to abolish the worship of the true God and to compel the Jews to adore his idols, and therefore had set the image of Olympian Jove in the temple.
AND AN EVIL DEVIL IN ISRAEL,—both because these soldiers were devils, that is, slanderers; for they slandered those going to the temple, as if they wished to fortify it against Antiochus; and because like demons they plundered, beat and tore them, so that they filled the temple itself with the blood of the slain and polluted it; and finally because they compelled them from the worship of God to the worship of Jove, that is, of the devil, and at the same time invited them to fornication in the brothels added to the temple; which was a plainly diabolical work.
43. AND KING ANTIOCHUS WROTE a decree, by which he ordered THAT ALL THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE ONE, that is, uniform in faith and religion, namely that all subject to him should be united to him in the same superstition and idolatry, as they were united in the same kingdom, and therefore THAT EVERY ONE SHOULD LEAVE HIS OWN LAW,—namely that the Jews should leave the law and worship of their God given through Moses, and take up the law and worship of Antiochus.
It is expedient that in one kingdom there be one religion, but a true and orthodox one. For if it be false, it is expedient that there be several, that the true may shine forth and be recognised from the variety of the false, as Cardinal Hosius said.
45. AND MANY OF ISRAEL CONSENTED TO HIS SERVICE,—in Greek latreia, that is, the service of worship, or sacred service, his cult and adoration, namely that they should worship with latria no other God, nor serve any other God, than the God of their king Antiochus, namely Olympian Jove, and Antiochus himself. For he wished to be worshipped as a God together with Jove.
46. AND THE KING SENT LETTERS,—literally “books,” that is, letters and epistles. For the Hebrew sepher, that is, book, signifies these.
49. AND HE SENT decrees, in which he commanded THE HOLY PLACES TO BE DEFILED, that is, the holy temple and its holy sacrifices, rites, sabbaths, festivals, etc., to be violated and profaned. AND THE HOLY PEOPLE OF ISRAEL,—that, casting away the holy faith and law of God, they should pollute themselves with the sacrilegious victims and superstitions of the Gentiles and of idols; whence, explaining, he adds:
50. SWINE’S FLESH TO BE IMMOLATED, that is, swine and pigs, unclean by the law of Moses, and therefore forbidden to be eaten and immolated; AND UNCLEAN BEASTS, literally “common” beasts, that is, unclean; for what is unclean was common to the Gentiles; but what is clean was peculiar and proper to the Jews, Levit. 11. Hence God, wishing to convert St. Peter to Cornelius and the unclean Gentiles to Christ, commanded him in a vision to eat unclean animals, saying: “That which God hath cleansed, do not thou call common,” that is, unclean. Acts
51. AND SHOULD CHANGE ALL THE JUSTIFICATIONS OF GOD,—that is, should violate all the ordinances and laws of God: for these are called justices and justifications, because they prescribe what is equitable and just.
55. THEN MANY OF THE PEOPLE WERE GATHERED TO THEM THAT HAD FORSAKEN THE LAW OF THE LORD,—to the apostates, apostatizing with them from the law of God, namely to Jason, Alcimus, Menelaus, and the other leaders of the Apostasy.
56. AND THEY DROVE AWAY THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL—those who would not apostatize, but constantly persevered in the true law and worship of God, so that they were forced to flee to caves and dens, and hide themselves there.
57. ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH CASLEU (which corresponds to our November) HE BUILT (and set) UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD in the temple of Jerusalem, THE ABOMINABLE IDOL OF DESOLATION—of Olympian Jove, which was to be the cause of all calamity and desolation, as Daniel had foretold, chap. 9, 14.
61. BY THIS THEIR POWER (Greek en ischyi, that is, by force and strength, that is, violently) THE officers of Antiochus DEALT WITH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL THAT WERE FOUND IN THE CITIES, MONTH AFTER MONTH, that is, every month,—by month understand the New Moon, or the first day of the month, which was solemn to the Jews and as it were sacred; whence then they flocked together from the villages and farms into the city to hear the law of God, as the inhabitants round about Rome flocked to Rome on the same day, whence the Calends are so called, as Levit. 28, 11 shows. The sense is, as if to say: Antiochus’s soldiers watched those who kept the New Moon according to the law of Moses, and cruelly punished them, indeed slew them. And in order to abolish the New Moon, that is, the solemnity of the first day of the month, they themselves.
62. AND ON THE FIVE AND TWENTIETH DAY OF THE MONTH THEY SACRIFICED UPON THE ALTAR, erected by them to Olympian Jove, WHICH WAS OVER AGAINST THE ALTAR—of holocausts, dedicated to God in the temple of Jerusalem. On this altar therefore they sacrificed not only to Jove, but also to Antiochus himself, as to a God. For he wished to be worshipped as a God, as Daniel foretold, chap. 11, 36; and therefore he was a type of Antichrist. The idolaters did not wish to sacrifice on the altar of God, lest they should seem to sacrifice to the God of the Hebrews; and to make it as it were profane and abominable to the people, whence also they placed upon it a statue of Olympian Jove, before which they sacrificed on the neighbouring altar erected by them to Jove.
65. AND THEY CHOSE RATHER TO DIE, and to be variously tortured, THAN TO BE DEFILED WITH UNCLEAN MEATS,—than to eat swine’s flesh and the like forbidden by Levit. 11, as on that account Eleazar and the seven Maccabee brothers were tortured, 2 Machab. 6 and 7. All these therefore were glorious martyrs in that ancient and rude age. Hear Josephus, book 12, chap. 7: “Wherefore every day they were put to death, tortured with most cruel torments, scourged also and their bodies torn, while still living and breathing they were fastened to crosses; and their wives and their circumcised children they strangled according to the royal command, and hung them from the necks of their crucified parents.” This is what Daniel foretold, 11, 33 and 35: “And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white, even to the appointed time.”
67. AND THERE WAS GREAT WRATH OF GOD UPON THE PEOPLE,—as if to say: God, being angry with the Jews on account of their crimes, permitted them to be so atrociously afflicted by Antiochus.