Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
17. AND WE HOPE THAT GOD, WHO HATH DELIVERED HIS PEOPLE,—(from Antiochus Epiphanes, Eupator, Sidetes, Demetrius, and the other enemies, AND HATH RENDERED TO ALL THE INHERITANCE AND THE KINGDOM, as if to say: God brought it about that all the Jews should possess the kingdom of Judah, not by the title of a kingdom, as before, but as a province given to them by God, as an inheritance, and that each should again quietly obtain in it his hereditary portion, taken from him by the Antiochi); AND THE PRIESTHOOD, (that is, that he should restore at Jerusalem their high priest and priests); AND THE SANCTUARY,—that is, the holy temple with the holy worship of God. For the temple polluted by Antiochus, Judas Maccabeus, expiating it, restored to its former purity and holiness, and to the holy worship of the one true God, Book 1, chapter 4, verse 52.
20. NOW AS CONCERNING JUDAS MACCABEUS AND HIS BRETHREN,—The sense of this verse and the four following depends on and is completed by verse 24: “We have attempted to abridge in one volume,” as if to say: What Jason and others have said and written at length in many volumes of the deeds and battles of Judas Maccabeus and his brethren, these we shall briefly relate in this Book 2 of Maccabees.
The letter, then, ending at verse 19, Judas the Essene here begins the history of the 2nd book of Maccabees, and prefixes to it this title and a preface on the argument, method, style, etc., of the book: wherefore the argument of the second book is the same as that of the first, namely the deeds of Judas Maccabeus and his brethren: what was written in Book 1 is here related more fully: many things are also added which were omitted in the first book.
21. ANTIOCHUS THE ILLUSTRIOUS,—that is, Antiochus Epiphanes: for epiphanes in Greek is the same as illustrious, noble; he was so called by the Gentiles for his illustrious deeds, although more truly he is surnamed by Polybius and others epimanes, that is foolish and mad, as I said in Book 1,
22. AND THE MANIFESTATIONS THAT CAME FROM HEAVEN TO THOSE WHO BEHAVED THEMSELVES MANFULLY ON THE BEHALF OF THE JEWS.—By manifestations from heaven he means the signs given from heaven for Judas and his companions, who, aided by the help of the angels, fighting manfully for the Jews, laid low the great armies of Antiochus. Whence angels appeared to Judas, and went before his camp as leaders of the war, as we shall hear in what follows.
23. THE LORD WITH ALL CLEMENCY SHEWING MERCY TO THEM, who gave back the former peace after the troubles, tumults and wars brought by Antiochus against the Jews: “For the tranquil God makes all things tranquil, and to look upon things tranquilly is to be at rest,” says one of the Saints.
24. WE, I SAY, HAVE ATTEMPTED TO ABRIDGE IN ONE VOLUME WHAT JASON OF CYRENE HATH COMPRISED IN FIVE BOOKS,—that is, to reduce into a short volume. Calvin and the Innovators object that this Jason was a Cyrenean, and therefore a Gentile, and so that this book, which is an epitome of Jason, is not sacred and canonical. I answer that this Jason was a Jew, not a Gentile: for the Jews were scattered through the whole world; and therefore lived also in Cyrene, as is clear from Acts 2 and 6. For the Gentiles were enemies of the Jews, and ridiculed, belittled and depraved their law, rites and deeds. But this Jason extols and celebrates all these, as is clear from what follows. Wherefore he was himself a true worshipper of God, an upright and pious man, and a zealot for the worship of God. But suppose Jason had been a Gentile: Judas, however, who selected, digested, arranged and put together the writings of Jason, and made them his own, and reduced them into this book, the Holy Spirit always assisting him lest he err anywhere, made this book canonical. Wherefore the same brought it about that, if anything false, impious or obscene were in the books of Jason, Judas would omit or correct it. Where note a Canon: When a canonical author cites and approves the sayings of some profane author, by that very fact he makes them canonical. So St. Paul to Titus 1:12, citing that of Epimenides: “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slothful bellies,” and adding: “This testimony is true,” by that very fact attributes to it canonical and infallible authority. So that of Job 5:13: “Who catcheth the wise in their own craftiness,” as spoken by Eliphaz the Gentile, has not canonical authority; yet it has obtained it, when cited and praised by Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:19. In like manner Judas here, a canonical author, citing and praising the sayings of Jason, made them canonical. So again Paul, Acts 17:28, citing and approving those of Aratus: “For we are also his offspring,” gives them canonical authority. So Sanchez, Serarius, Bellarmine and others.
27. A BUSINESS FULL OF WATCHING AND SWEAT WE HAVE TAKEN IN HAND.—For it is a matter of great labour and industry to read very many things, and to compress and embrace them all methodically, neatly, clearly and fully in few words. So laboured he who wrote the Iliad of Homer in such small letters as to enclose the whole in the shell of a nut, as Pliny testifies, Book VII, chapter 21, and Archimedes, who, as Cicero says, Tusculan Disputations I: “bound the motions of the moon, sun and five wandering stars into a sphere, and that by divine genius.” And because few know how to do this, hence often compendia and dispendia. To embrace many things in few is therefore the mark of a great man, and of profound genius, who with one stroke of the mind discerns and grasps the point of manifold truth. This laconism, that is, brevity of speech, is the sign of a silent, meditative and wise mind, and therefore the seven Sages of Greece used it, whose sayings are these: “Know thyself. Nothing too much. Give a pledge, harm is at hand,” etc. Hear Plutarch in the treatise On Talkativeness: “The praises of taciturnity and silence are always to be heard, and their majesty, sanctity, and likeness to sacred mysteries, and that those who are rounded, and brief of speech, and in whose small speech there is much sense, are in greater admiration, and held dearer and wiser, than those headlong and excited talkers. For Plato also praises these, teaching that they are like skilled javelin-throwers, when they send forth words close-packed and densely rolled together. And Lycurgus, restraining his citizens by silence from boyhood, taught them the skill of such contracted and compressed speaking. For just as the Celtiberians prepare edge and solidity of iron by burying it in the earth, purging away its coarse and earthy parts: so Laconic speech was without rind, and by the removal of superfluities was sharpened to efficacy: for that skilful brevity of speech, and versatile acuteness in replies, was the fruit of much silence.”
29. LEAVING TO THE AUTHORS (in Greek author, namely Jason of Cyrene) THE EXACT HANDLING OF EVERY PARTICULAR, AND OURSELVES, ACCORDING TO THE PLAN (already stated) PROPOSED, STUDYING TO BE BRIEF,—as if to say: I, Judas, the writer of this book, have done this only, that I might abridge the writings of Jason; wherefore I did not wish curiously to examine the truth of every single matter, even the smallest, written by him, but I ascribe the praise of this truth to Jason, as an approved, truthful and exact writer, who diligently investigated all these things beforehand, and wrote nothing but what was certainly ascertained. Thus modestly Judas thinks and speaks of himself, but the Holy Spirit, who used him as an organ and pen, so directed him that he wrote nothing but what was true, pious and holy, and, if he found anything otherwise in Jason, either omitted or changed it.
30. FOR AS THE MASTER BUILDER OF A NEW HOUSE.—With the same modesty Judas here compares Jason to the architect of a great building, on whom lies the arrangement and construction of the whole building: and himself to the painter who adorns the finished building with his painting, as if to say: It is for the historian to construct the building of history; for me to adorn it with my brief and neat style.
31. FOR TO COLLECT ALL THAT IS KNOWN.—By “what is known” (intellectum) he means the argument, or matter, which the historian collects, and sets before the reader to be read and understood.
32. TO AVOID NICE DECLARATIONS OF THINGS IS TO BE GRANTED TO HIM THAT MAKETH AN ABRIDGMENT.—In Greek: To omit the curiosity of the business is to be granted to him who makes an abridgment. As if to say: It is for the historical author curiously to investigate and narrate each thing minutely; but it is for the abridger to cut off many of these and embrace much in few. For the Greek ekpoion signifies a work done with great diligence and care, that is, which is handled curiously, exactly, fully and perfectly. And this our text calls “executions”: nor think this word un-Latin, for exsequi signifies to complete and perfect something, and therefore to do it accurately; whence that of Tully in the Orator: “How divinely he carries out all things.” And that of the same, De Universo: “It is not doubtful, then, that he preferred to carry out eternity, since nothing is more beautiful than the world, nor more excellent than its builder.” And that of the same in the book De Senectute: “To carry out all the offices and duties of a king.” Again, and more to the matter proposed, exsequi signifies to expound a matter minutely and amply and follow it through by narrating. So Livy, Book V: “He then went on to relate,” he says, “what the solemn derivation was.” And Cicero, Marius, Book 27: “I have,” he says, “many things more hidden which I can hardly carry out in words.” And Pliny, Book XXXV, chapter 8: “Now the celebrated in that art I shall run over; for such a detailed treatment is not of the work undertaken,” that is, a more prolix and fuller narration. So here executions are opposed to what our author here proposed to pursue.