4 Maccabees
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4 Maccabees,
The work is largely an elaboration of the stories of
Synopsis
I could prove to you from many and various examples that reason is dominant over the emotions, but I can demonstrate it best from the noble bravery of those who died for the sake of virtue, Eleazar and the seven brothers and their mother. All of these, by despising sufferings that bring death, demonstrated that reason controls the emotions.
— 4 Maccabees 1:7–9 (NRSV)[1]
The work consists of a prologue and two main sections. The first advances the philosophical thesis on the basis of examples from the Law of Moses and the biblical tradition while the second illustrates the points made using examples drawn from
The work is in fluent and complicated Greek using the rhetorical argumentative style of the time.[7][8] Harry Orlinsky describes it as "an elaborate variation, in philosophical and highly dramatic vein, of the theme" of 2 Maccabees 6:18–7:4.[9] The work uses secular allusions to Greek-style athletics and military contests, calling Eleazar a "noble athlete" and the martyred mother of the seven sons a "soldier of God".[5]
The work defends the merits of Judaism in a Hellenized world. According to it, devout practice of Judaism perfects the values held dear in Greek and Roman contexts, with the martyrs presented in terms reminiscent of Greek sages.[10]
Authorship, date, and title
The author of the work is unknown. The book is ascribed to the Jewish historian
The original title of the work, if any, is uncertain. The Septuagint is what gave it its modern name of "4 Maccabees" to distinguish it from the other books of Maccabees in it, but it almost certainly was not the original title of the work.[8] Eusebius and Jerome wrote that the work of Josephus on the martyrdoms of the Maccabees – presumably 4 Maccabees – was called "On the Sovereignty of Reason", suggesting that might have been the original title.[15] This title would be consistent with the conventions of Greek philosophical and ethical works of the period (e.g., Seneca's "On Anger," "On Benefits," "On the Constancy of the Wise Person").[12][8][2]
The book is generally dated between 20 and 130 CE. Elias J. Bickerman suggests a composition date somewhere between 20–54 CE; Moses Hadas agrees with that range and further suggests that perhaps around 40 CE during the reign of Roman Emperor Caligula would fit.[16][17] Other scholars such as André Dupont-Sommer support a later date, perhaps during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (118–135 CE).[8][18]
The last chapter differs from the earlier chapters in style, and is a somewhat disorganized summary of what has been stated before.[19] According to some scholars, this might be evidence that the last chapter is a later addition to the work, though this is disputed.[20] The argument in favor of it being an original part of the composition is that the book would have a weak ending without the final chapter, and that the style and vocabulary of the final chapter is not as different as claimed.[21] The change of direction with chapter 17 supports the view of the work as a homily held before a Greek-speaking audience on the feast of Hanukkah, as advanced by Ewald and Freudenthal, where this would be a rhetorical element to draw the listeners into the discourse. Others hold that a homily would have to be based on scriptural texts, which this work is only loosely.[22]
In terms of genre, the book resembles both the panegyric or encomium (speeches in honor of a particular person or subject) as well as the philosophical diatribe.[7][23][2] The work has a clearly Stoic stamp as the thesis it seeks to demonstrate is that "pious reason exercises mastery over the emotions" (4 Maccabees 1:1). The adjective "pious," however, is critically important: the author is altering the common topic ("reason can master the emotions") in order to suggest that it is the mind that has been trained in the piety and exercises in the practices of the Jewish Law that is equipped to exercise the mastery that Greek ethicists praise. The work resonates also with sentiments articulated by other philosophical schools such as Platonism as well.[24][8]
Theology
The writer believes in the
While the setting of the book is during the Seleucid and Maccabee period of Judea, it is generally believed that the author intended to apply the lessons from this era in his current time. The book thus functions as an endorsement of fidelity to Jewish customs and law and against assimilation to Gentile practice where this conflicted with the Torah.[3]
David A. deSilva considers the work's depiction of personal trust and faithfulness toward God as being in line with early Christian theology; notably, he argues that the
Canonicity
4 Maccabees enjoyed little influence on later Judaism.
The work was preserved largely among Christians.[12] These early Christians both were interested in stories of martyrdom and generally admired Stoicism. The book seems to have been reasonably esteemed in the early Christian church: sermons and works of John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Ambrose evince familiarity with 4 Maccabees.[31] The popular Martyrdom of Polycarp exhibits many similarities with the stories in 4 Maccabees.[31][32] Despite circulating among early Christian communities who used versions of the Septuagint that included 4 Maccabees, church councils were generally more skeptical. They did not include the work as canonical nor deuterocanonical. As a result, it is not in the biblical canon for modern Christians. If the Gelasian Decree is taken as an accurate record of the "Damasine canon" compiled by Pope Damasus I (366–383 CE), then neither 3 Maccabees nor 4 Maccabees was in the Western, Latin church's list of canonical books of the 4th century. The book was not translated by Jerome into the Latin Vulgate. As a result, the work was generally obscure in Latin-reading Western Europe.
In the Greek-reading East, it seems the work was more popular, but still failed to be included in later canon lists. The Eastern Orthodox Canon was laid out in the
The Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic language
Manuscripts and translations
4 Maccabees is in two of the three of the most ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint: the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) and the Codex Alexandrinus (5th century). It is not, however, in the Codex Vaticanus.[33] With the exception of the section 5:12-12:1, it is found also in the eight or ninth-century Codex Venetus.[34] There are over 70 extant Greek manuscripts of 4 Maccabees.[35]
Four pre-modern translations of 4 Maccabees are known. There survives a complete
The Fourth Book of Maccabees is not in the Vulgate and so is absent from the Apocrypha of the Roman Bible as well as from Protestant Bibles.[34]
Notes
References
- ^ 4 Maccabees 1:7–9
- ^ ISBN 978-0190689667.
- ^ ISBN 978-0230602793.
- ^ Hadas 1953, p. 100
- ^ ISBN 9781119099826.
- ^ 4 Maccabees 14:9
- ^ a b Hadas 1953 pp. 100–103
- ^ a b c d e f deSilva 1998, pp. 12–18
- ^ JSTOR 3262470
- ^ deSilva 1998, p. 11
- ISBN 0195046455) p. 482
- ^ a b c Hadas 1953, pp. 113–115
- ^ a b deSilva 1998, pp. 18–21
- ^ a b Hadas 1953, pp. 109–113
- ISBN 0813201004.
- ^ Hadas 1953, pp. 95–99
- ISBN 9789047420729.
- ^ van Henten 1997, pp. 76–78. Note that van Henten supports a wider range than Dupont-Sommer and suggests the final decades of the 1st century are plausible as well.
- ^ Hadas 1953, pp. 237–240
- ^ deSilva 1998, pp. 28–32
- ^ van Henten 1997, pp. 67–70
- ^ Toy, Crawford Howell; Barton, George A.; Jacobs, Joseph; Abrahams, Israel (1904). "Books of Maccabees". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. pp. 239–244.
- ^ deSilva 1998, pp. 25–28; 76–77
- ^ Hadas 1953, pp. 115–118
- ^ The Access Bible (Oxford University Press, 1999), Apocrypha 330.
- ISBN 0548231117.
- ^ deSilva 1998, pp. 128–131
- ^ deSilva 1998, pp. 137–141
- ^ a b deSilva 1998, pp. 143–149
- ^ See Galatians 5:1–6:10 for example, a letter to Asia Minor – potentially where 4 Maccabees was written. Cited by deSilva 1998, p. 145.
- ^ a b c Hadas 1953, pp. 123–127
- ^ deSilva 1998, pp. 149–154
- ^ a b Hadas 1953, pp. 135–137
- ^ ISBN 0-385-18813-7(Vol. 2), pp. 531-532
- ^ a b Robert J. V. Hiebert, "Preparing a Critical Edition of IV Maccabees: The Syriac Translation and the Passio Sanctorum Machabaeorum as Witnesses to the Original Greek", in F. García Martínez and M. Vervenne (eds.), Interpreting Translation: Studies on the LXX and Ezekiel in Honour of Johan Lust (Peeters, 2005), pp. 193–216.
- ^ Some comparison of the Syriac with the Greek was undertaken in the joint work of R. L. Bensly and W. E. Barnes, published at Cambridge in 1895, titled The Fourth Book of Maccabees and Kindred Documents in Syriac.
- ^ Ivan Miroshnikov, "The Sahidic Coptic Version of 4 Maccabees", Vetus Testamentum 64 (2014): 69–92.
Bibliography
- deSilva, David A. (1998). ISBN 1850758964.
- LCCN 53-5114.
- van Henten, Jan Willem (1997). The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-10976-5.
External links
- Works related to Μακκαβαίων Δ', Septuagint Greek text from 1935 Alfred Rahlfs' edition of the Septuagint (Septuaginta: Id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes) at Wikisource
- English text from The Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
- English text from The Apocrypha, Revised Standard Version (RSV)
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). 1911. .
- Swete, Henry Barclay (1914). "Books not included in the Hebrew canon". An introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Cambridge University Press. p. 280.
- New Testament Allusions to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (including 4 Macc.) Archived 2018-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- New English Translation of the Septuagint (4 Maccabees)