Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
15. THE GRECIAN GLORIES.—So he calls the Greek games—the Olympic and Isthmian games, which were celebrated at Corinth, and other like rites of the Gentiles, of which the Greeks, that is the Gentiles, boasted, especially those who in them had borne the palm and prize as victors.
16. FOR WHICH CAUSE A GRIEVOUS DANGER CAME UPON THEM,—that is, they contended dangerously to emulate the games and rites of the Greeks and Gentiles, and each strove to surpass the other in them, and gloried in it. Note the word “grievous”; for there was danger both of quarrels and fights, lest they should attack and destroy one another in them; and lest by the Greeks, namely the Antiochi, kings of Asia, they should be wholly subjugated as Greeks; and above all there was danger from God, lest he should sharply punish their apostasy from himself and Judaism to Gentilism and the demons.
THEY HAD THOSE FOR ENEMIES AND AVENGERS,—both before, under Ptolemy Philopator, who sharply persecuted the Jews, as is clear from the 3rd book of Maccabees, and a little after under this Antiochus Epiphanes, and that in punishment of their apostasy; whence follows:
17. FOR IT IS NOT A LIGHT THING TO ACT WICKEDLY AGAINST THE DIVINE LAWS WITHOUT PUNISHMENT.—For God punishes his injuries slowly but sharply. For as one says: “The gods have feet of wool, but hands of iron”; and as Valerius Maximus says, Book I, chapter 1: “With slow step divine wrath advances to its vengeance, and compensates the slowness of punishment by its weight.”
18. NOW WHEN THE GAME THAT WAS KEPT EVERY FIVE YEARS WAS CELEBRATED AT TYRE.—Agon signifies the agonistic games already mentioned, like the Olympic games and contests, which were celebrated after every fourth year, and therefore is called “the quinquennial contest.” Wherefore this contest was different from the Olympic contest, which was celebrated every fourth year, nor did it fall on the present year, as Salianus shows.
19. THE WICKED JASON (the simoniacal false pontiff) SENT FROM JERUSALEM SINFUL MEN,—as ministers, officials and executors of the impiety and idolatry of Jason. Serarius thinks that for “sinful” we should read theoroi, spectators: for this the Greek theoroi signifies, which however the Complutensian renders procurators of sacred things, others raisers of oracles; Vatablus, spectators, and so Salianus thinks that for “sinful” we should read. Of whom Suidas and Sigonius, De Rep. Athen. They were, he says, those who were sent to spectacles, feasts, oracles, and the care of divine things. So Diodorus Siculus calls those whom the tyrant Dionysius had sent to the Olympic games with his poems. Hence Stratocles the flatterer at Athens proposed a bill that those who by the decree of the people were publicly sent to Antigonus and Demetrius should be called not ambassadors but theori, like those who at Delphi and Olympia, at the solemn assemblies of the Greeks, perform sacrifices on behalf of the cities, as Plutarch says in Demetrius. The Greek adds: that they should be Antiochians, that is, endowed by Antiochus with the right of Antiochians.
TO CARRY THREE HUNDRED DIDRACHMAS OF SILVER (the Greek has drachmas) FOR THE SACRIFICE OF HERCULES.—A drachma of silver is a Spanish Julius or real; a didrachma, therefore, is two Julii, or two reals: wherefore three hundred didrachmas make six hundred Julii or reals, that is, sixty Roman gold pieces, with which many victims, as sheep and goats, could be bought for the sacrifice of Hercules. Some, however, thinking this sum too mean and small for a pontiff to win the favour of king Antiochus, think these didrachmas were of gold; yet they are called “of silver,” that is of money, as if to say: Jason sent three hundred golden didrachmas of silver, that is of money, which make six hundred Roman gold pieces. So Sanchez; for a drachma of gold is one gold piece: a didrachma, then, is two gold pieces; wherefore three hundred didrachmas of gold are six hundred gold pieces.
FOR THE SACRIFICE OF HERCULES,—who, as a god of strength, and of wars and contests, is celebrated in Syria and at Tyre, and was the proper god of the Tyrians, and therefore was called the Tyrian Hercules; see Gyraldus, De diis gentium, on Hercules. Whence many think that Hercules was no other than Samson, who near Tyre in Palestine gave examples of his rare strength, as I said in the book of Judges. Hence there a quinquennial contest was celebrated in honour of Hercules, in which the athletes professed to imitate Hercules, and therefore there in the gymnasia statues and shrines of Hercules were set up, as Serarius teaches from Galen, Pausanias, Athenaeus and others.
Jason sent three hundred didrachmas for the sacrifice of Hercules; but his ambassadors, though impious, yet less wicked than Jason, bearing them, since they were Jews, and worshipped the true God, and detested idols, asked that they should not be spent on the sacrifices of Hercules, a god of the Gentiles, but on other uses. Wherefore Antiochus Epiphanes spent the same on the building of triremes, which he himself was preparing for his first expedition into Egypt, of which follows.
21. FOR THE NOBLES OF KING PTOLEMEE PHILOMETOR, (who had revolted from their king Philometor, and wished to make his younger brother Ptolemy Euergetes, who was also called Physcon, king for themselves. Antiochus Epiphanes, therefore, seeing the dissension of the two brothers, namely Philometor and Physcon, contending about the kingdom of Egypt, himself as uncle of both (for Cleopatra, sister of Epiphanes, was the mother of both) pretended that he wished to be arbiter and mediator of the quarrel, and to settle the matter between the brothers; but in truth he intended to snatch the kingdom from both nephews, and arrogate it to himself. The nobles of Egypt, scenting this, and the guardians of the king, did not wish him to meddle in the affairs of Egypt. And this is what is said here:) AND ANTIOCHUS UNDERSTOOD THAT HE WAS SHUT OUT FROM THE MANAGEMENT OF AFFAIRS, CONSULTING HIS OWN SAFETY (of his kingdom in Syria), HE DEPARTED THENCE (namely from Tyre), AND CAME TO JOPPE, AND FROM THENCE TO JERUSALEM,—where Jason received him as a king, nay as an earthly god (for such Antiochus wished to be held and adored): “with torches and with praises,” as follows. For “safety” (utilitatibus) our text read in the Greek sumpheron; now they read asphaleias, that is “securities,” but the sense comes to the same.
23. AND AFTER THE SPACE OF THREE YEARS, JASON SENT MENELAUS, THE BROTHER OF THE AFORESAID SIMON (the traitor and betrayer of the money, of whom verse 1), TO CARRY MONEY TO THE KING—Antiochus Epiphanes, as a tribute in token of subjection.
24. BUT HE BEING RECOMMENDED (by Jason) TO THE KING, WHEN HE HAD MAGNIFIED THE APPEARANCE OF HIS POWER,—that is, when with ample words he had exalted the royal power, majesty and splendour of Antiochus, that, namely, by it he could do anything in Syria, not only in profane and political matters, but also in ecclesiastical and sacred, and therefore could appoint at Jerusalem as pontiff whom he would, and so transfer the pontificate from Jason to himself: by which art and fraud Menelaus from Jason) GOT THE HIGH PRIESTHOOD (pontificate) FOR HIMSELF, OFFERING MORE THAN JASON BY THREE HUNDRED TALENTS OF SILVER,—offering, that is, so much more to Antiochus than Jason had offered. As Jason, therefore, by offering 360 talents to Antiochus Epiphanes, bought the pontificate, and thereby thrust out his brother Onias the Holy: so likewise Menelaus, sent by Jason, craftily supplanted and thrust out Jason himself, promising the king another three hundred talents besides the 360 promised by Jason. Whence the Greek is: surpassing Jason by three hundred talents, as if to say: Jason had promised the king 360 talents for the pontificate; but Menelaus increased this sum, and almost doubled it: for as when a thing is sold at auction, each raises the price, and the thing falls to him who offers the highest price: so here Menelaus, adding three hundred, and promising the king in all 660 talents, obtained the pontificate, and craftily shut out his master Jason.