Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
Chapter 6. Synopsis of the Chapter
Antiochus Epiphanes sends a senator to compel the Jews to Gentilism, and to consecrate the temple of Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius, and that of Garizim to Jupiter the Hospitable. Wherefore those who resist are slain, hurled down, burned. Among whom, verse 18, the glorious death and martyrdom of Eleazar is recounted, who preferred to be tortured rather than to eat swine’s flesh against the law.
1. But not long after this, the king sent an old man of Antioch to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their fathers, and of God: 2. And to defile the temple that was in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius; and that in Garizim, of Jupiter the Hospitable, as they were who inhabited that place. 3. And the access to the evils was hard and grievous to all. 4. For the temple was full of the riot and revellings of the Gentiles: and of men lying with lewd women. And women thrust themselves of their accord into the holy places, and brought in things that were not lawful. 5. The altar also was filled with unlawful things, which the laws forbade. 6. And neither were the sabbaths kept, nor the solemn days of the fathers observed, neither did any man plainly profess himself to be a Jew. 7. But they were led by bitter constraint on the king’s birthday to the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, they were compelled to go about crowned with ivy in honour of Bacchus. 8. And there went out a decree into the neighbouring cities of the Gentiles, by the suggestion of the Ptolemeans, that they also should act in the same manner against the Jews, and oblige them to sacrifice:
9. And whosoever would not conform to the manners of the Gentiles should be put to death: then might one have seen misery. 10. For two women were accused to have circumcised their children: whom, when they had openly led about through the city, with the infants hanging at their breasts, they cast down headlong from the walls. 11. And others that had met together in caves that were near, and were keeping the sabbath day privately, being discovered by Philip, were burnt with fire, because they made a conscience to help themselves with their hands, by reason of the religious observance of the day. 12. Now I beseech those that shall read this book, that they be not shocked at these calamities, but that they consider the things that happened, not as being for the destruction, but for the correction of our nation. 13. For it is a token of great goodness when sinners are not suffered to go on in their ways for a long time, but are presently punished. 14. For not as with other nations, whom the Lord patiently expecteth, that when the day of judgment shall come, he may then punish them in the fulness of their sins, 15. Doth he also deal with us, so as to suffer our sins to come to their height, and then take vengeance on us. 16. And therefore he never withdraweth his mercy from us: but though he chastise his people with adversity, he forsaketh them not. 17. But let this suffice in a few words for a warning to the readers. Now we must come to the narration. 18. Eleazar, one of the chief of the scribes, a man advanced in years, and of a comely countenance, was compelled to open his mouth, and to eat swine’s flesh. 19. But he, choosing rather a most glorious death than a hateful life, went forward voluntarily to the torment. 20. And considering in what manner he was come to it, patiently suffering, he determined not to do any unlawful things for the love of life. 21. But they that stood by, being moved with wicked pity, for the old friendship they had with the man, taking him aside, besought him to bring flesh, such as it was lawful for him to eat, that he might make as if he had eaten, as the king had commanded, of the flesh of the sacrifice: 22. That by so doing he might be delivered from death: and for the sake of their old friendship with the man they did him this courtesy. 23. But he began to consider the dignity of his age, and his ancient years, and the inbred honour of his grey head, and his good life and conversation from a child: and he answered without delay, according to the ordinances of the holy law made by God, saying, that he would rather be sent into the other world. 24. For it doth not become our age, said he, to dissemble: whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar, at the age of fourscore and ten years, was gone over to the life of the heathens: 25. And so they, through my dissimulation, and for a little time of a corruptible life, should be deceived, and hereby I should bring a stain and a curse upon my old age. 26. For though, for the present time, I should be delivered from the punishments of men, yet should I not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead. 27. Wherefore by departing manfully out of this life, I shall shew myself worthy of my old age: 28. And I shall leave an example of fortitude to young men, if with a ready mind and constancy I suffer an honourable death, for the most venerable and most holy laws.
So saying, he was forthwith carried to execution. 29. And they that led him, and had been a little before more mild, were changed to wrath for the words he had spoken, which they thought were uttered out of arrogancy. 30. But when he was now ready to die with the stripes, he groaned, and said: O Lord, who hast the holy knowledge, thou knowest manifestly that whereas I might be delivered from death, I suffer grievous pains in body: but in soul am well content to suffer these things because I fear thee. 31. Thus this man died, leaving not only to young men, but also to the whole nation, the memory of his death for an example of virtue and fortitude.
1. THE KING (Antiochus Epiphanes) SENT AN OLD MAN (a senator; for the senate was a council of old men; for wisdom and prudence belong to old men) OF ANTIOCH.—In Greek, Athenian, perhaps because he was born at Athens, but became a citizen of Antioch and dwelt there; or because that is his proper name. Athenaeus. Our Mariana thinks he was Bacchides, whom, compelling the Jews to sacrifice to idols, Mathathias in zeal slew, as was said
2. AND TO DEFILE THE TEMPLE, AND TO CALL IT THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS.—Antiochus therefore ordered an idol of Jupiter to be set up in the temple and adored, and the temple to be dedicated with solemn rite, and thence the temple of Jupiter to be named. Behold this is “the abomination of desolation,” that is, the abominable idol desolating all things, foretold three hundred years before by Daniel, AND THAT IN GARIZIM, OF JUPITER THE HOSPITABLE, AS THEY WERE WHO INHABITED THAT PLACE,—as if to say: the temple of Garizim Antiochus ordered to be dedicated to Jupiter the Hospitable, because the inhabitants of Garizim and Samaritans were guests and strangers. For they had been transferred from Assyria into Samaria as guests and foreigners by Salmanasar, 4 Kings 17. Whence the Samaritans also in the letter written to Antiochus which Josephus recounts, Book XII, chapter 7, call themselves “guests,” that is strangers and foreigners. For Jupiter was called Hospitable, because to him as a god belonged the care and protection of guests, lest anyone should defraud or injure them with impunity. Whence Aeneas, going abroad to Italy, invokes him. For so he says, Aeneid 1: