Chapter 7
Demetrius, after killing Antiochus and Lysias, obtained the kingdom. About Alcimus and Bacchides and their wickedness; about the blood shed around Jerusalem. Demetrius sent Nicanor against Israel; Judas prayed and prevailed.
7:1 In the one hundred and fifty-first year Demetrius, son of Seleucus, departed from the city of Rome, etc.
Concerning this Demetrius, Pompeius Trogus recounts in his History as follows, saying: When Antiochus withdrew [died], having left a very young son, to whom guardians had been appointed by the people, his uncle Demetrius, who was a hostage at Rome, having learned of the death of his brother Antiochus, went to the Senate, saying that he had come as a hostage while his brother was alive, and now that he was dead, he did not know whose hostage he was; therefore it was just that he be released to pursue the kingdom, because by the law of nations it had passed to his elder brother, and should now, for the same reason, belong to him, who was older in years than the region. When he perceived that he was not being released by the Senate, which, by a silent judgment, considered the kingdom safer with the region than with him, he left the City under the ploy of going hunting, and at Ostia quietly boarded a ship with his companions in flight. Carried to Syria with favorable winds, he is welcomed with universal approval, and the kingdom is handed over to him by the guardians, after the ward has been killed. (Justin, The Epitome, 34.3)
7:5 And wicked and sinful men from Israel came to him, and Alcimus their leader, etc.
By King Demetrius are signified nothing other than the princes of the nations who stir up persecution against the Church of Christ. This is well explained by the interpretation of his name; for it is interpreted “binding violently” or “excessively persecuting.” To this ruler, therefore, there come wicked and sinful men from Israel, and Alcimus their leader, when those who, after receiving faith in Christ, have returned to apostasy, blaspheme the Christian religion and mock the worship of the Church; whose leaders are the heretics, who, through ambition for exaltation, wish to be regarded as great by all. But when deceitfulness of this kind has been undertaken, Demetrius, in a figurative sense, sends Bacchides, who ruled beyond the river in the kingdom, in order to appoint the wicked Alcimus as priest, and to exact vengeance on the sons of Israel: that is, when pagans of whatever sort, powerful in this world, who have not yet merited to be washed in the baptism of Christ and to be numbered among the faithful, lend the support of their pride to the heretics, and inflict the torment of punishments upon the true confessors of Christ; yet although such persons speak peaceful words deceitfully to Judas and his brothers, they do not accept their words, because in no way do they trust in their deceit.
7:23 And Judas saw all the evils that Alcimus had done, and those who were with him, etc.
What does it mean that Judas demands vengeance on the transgressors, if not that our Redeemer justifies his elect and does not allow any of his own to perish in vain? But he exercises vengeance on those who deserve it in two ways: for some, by calling them from the fountain of his great mercy to repentance for their error, he causes them to rise up against themselves, so that with weeping they punish what they formerly did by their misdeeds; but others, by a just judgment, after they have committed crimes, he allows to persist uncorrected in their hardness, so that afterwards he may inflict on them fitting punishments for what they have deserved by their unjust works.
7:26 And the king sent Nicanor, one of his more noble princes, who was exercising hostilities against Israel, etc.
By this Nicanor, whom we read in another place to have been set over the elephants, we can understand the false apostles or false prophets, who, proceeding from the Jews in the service of their pride, came to the Church of the Gentiles. These, attempting by disguise to introduce error into the Church of Christ, pretended to be peaceable, but, as will appear in the end, were most savage enemies. Concerning them the apostle John, writing in his Apocalypse (Rev. 2:9), says: Those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan; whom the teacher of the Gentiles, in his Epistle (2 Cor. 11), calls false apostles, deceitful workers, who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ; and no wonder, since Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light; therefore it is no great thing if his ministers are disguised as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. These therefore, like Nicanor, stretching forth their hand against the temple of the Lord, blaspheme; because they reduce from the power of Christ, who is in the Church, as though it were less strong, saying to the brethren: Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved, for therefore it is read in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:1) that they taught them; but when victory has been won through our Judas and his companions, the blasphemous head of this error, together with Nicanor and the right hand of evil action, is cut off, lest any longer an injury of such blasphemy be inflicted upon the divine majesty. For the apostle Paul says to us (Eph. 2:8-10): By His grace you are saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not from works, so that no one may glory. For we are His workmanship in Christ Jesus, created for good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them.