Chapter 8
About Judas Maccabeus. The wicked Nicanor is sent into Judea; Judas urges his men to devotion, etc.
8:1 But Judas Maccabeus, and those who were with him, went secretly into the strongholds, etc.
And the things which the history of the former book relates about Mattathias, the father of Maccabeus, and his brothers, the writer of this present book, striving also for brevity, has omitted, and turned himself to recounting the deeds of Judas and his battles, narrating some of them but, according to his manner, omitting very many. But because we have already, for the most part, set out the allegory of this above, we do not think it necessary to repeat what has been said once. If anyone should ask what the six thousand men, who were joined to Judas at the beginning, signify, let him recognize that, through the perfection of the numbers six and one thousand, the perfect sincerity of the soldiers of Christ in faith is indicated, their devotion being complete. Therefore, in the Acts of the Apostles, it is written to the Jews about the primitive Church: “Now the multitude of believers were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:32–33).
8:8 However, when Philip saw that the man was gradually making progress, etc.
In the previous book it is written that Antiochus, when about to set out for Persia, left within the kingdom Lysias, a noble man of royal lineage, in charge of the royal affairs and to bring up Antiochus his son; and that this same Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, and Nicanor, and Gorgias, powerful men from among the king’s friends, and sent them with forty thousand men to destroy the Jews according to the king’s command. Now, however, it is reported that Philip wrote to Ptolemy the general that he should bring assistance to the king’s affairs, and that he sent Nicanor for this purpose, giving him twenty thousand armed men, and appointing Gorgias, a military man, to join him. For this Philip, on his return from Persia to Babylon, the aforesaid King Antiochus set over his whole kingdom and gave him the crown, and the robe, and the ring, so that he should bring up Antiochus his son, and nurture him, and reign; but this same Philip, when the aforementioned Lysias together with the younger Antiochus was returning to Antioch, they found ruling over the city and attacked him. Therefore the question arises, how Philip can be said to arrange through Ptolemy the march of Nicanor and Gorgias to Judea, whereas the earlier narrative relates that, while the elder Antiochus was staying in Persia, that same Nicanor together with Gorgias as general, and Lysias as organizer, were overcome and put to flight by the Jews, and that this became known to Antiochus on his return, and that on account of this he fell into sickness out of grief, because it had not been done to the Jews as he had intended. This, unless I am mistaken, is resolved in no other way than that Philip, when the empire had been entrusted to him, wrote the same decree to the generals of Syria to be carried out, which Lysias had already previously undertaken to attempt to carry out, but had not completed, nor was he able to achieve it among the Jews in the way he had planned by his own expedition, as the following history shows.
8:10 Nicanor, moreover, fixed for the king, as the tribute that had to be paid to the Romans, two thousand talents, etc.
This was briefly mentioned in the previous book: namely, that merchants gathered with gold and silver to buy the sons of Israel as slaves for themselves. But here it is recounted more clearly that, by Nicanor, who promised the king to make up the tribute owed to the Romans from Jewish slaves, the merchants themselves were invited to purchase Jewish slaves.
8:12 But Judas, when he learned of it, informed those who were with him, the Jews, of Nicanor’s coming, etc.
Concerning this coming of Nicanor into Judea, which took place under Antiochus, the former book clearly does not speak; yet, while relating that he was chosen by Lysias together with Ptolemy and Gorgias, powerful men, with an accompanying mass of followers, to invade and lay waste Judea, it asserts that under Demetrius he was sent there and wished by deceit to seize and invade Judea; but he was not able to prevail. Now it has already been said above that Nicanor himself bears the figure of hypocrites, who do everything in a pretended manner. But Judas engages in battle against Nicanor and his allies with seven thousand men and defeats them, because through the sevenfold grace of the Spirit, the people of the Church together with their leaders conquer all their enemies; nor does any Jew, or pagan, or heretic, or schismatic, or any hypocrite or wicked man ever win victory over it. Rather, he himself, together with his victorious King, will possess the trophy of glory forever.
8:33 And when they were celebrating victory songs in Jerusalem, they burned the man who had set fire to the sacred gates, that is, Callisthenes, when he had taken refuge in a certain dwelling, etc.
In place of “victory songs” I have read in another edition “days of victory.” Therefore, with the enemies overcome, Judas celebrates the feast, because together with the saints each person, through the grace of Christ, triumphs over the ancient enemy, and, filled with spiritual joy, ought to compose fitting praises and render many thanks to his maker; nor is it proper for someone to become ungrateful who remembers that he has been helped by divine work.