First Epistle
(1) To their brethren the Jews in Egypt (from) the Jews in Jerusalem and in the country of Judaea: greetings (and) good peace. (2) And may God be be-neficent unto you and remember His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob His faithful servants; (3) and may He give you, all of you, a heart to revere Him and to do His will wholeheartedly and with a willing spirit;
(4) and may He open your heart in His Torah and in the commandments, and make peace; (5) and may He hear your requests and become reconciled with you and not abandon you in an evil time.
(6) And now, we are praying for you here. (7) In the reign of Demetrius, year 169, we Judaeans have written you concerning the oppression and the crisis which came upon us in these years, beginning when Jason and those who were with him rebelled against the Holy Land and the kingdom.
(8) And they set fire to the gate and spilled innocent blood, and we prayed to the Lord and He hearkened unto us, and we brought sacrifices and fine flour. And we lit the lamps and presented the showbreads. (9) And now (we have written you) so that you shall celebrate the days of (the festival of) Tabernacles of the month of Kislev (10) of the year 148.
Second Epistle
The people in Jerusalem and those in Judaea and the Council of Elders and Judas to Aristobulus the teacher of King Ptolemy, who is of the line of the anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt: greetings and good health.
(11) Having been saved by God from great dangers, we – who drew our-selves up for war against the king – give great thanks unto Him. (12) For He Himself drove out those who drew themselves up for war in the Holy City.
(13) For when the leader came to Persia along with an army thought to be irresistible, they were cut down in the temple of Nanaia, the priests of Na-naia having employed a stratagem. (14) Namely, when Antiochus and his Friends came to the place as if to cohabit with her, in order to take the great sums of money (that were there) as a payment towards her dowry, (15) and
after the priests of the temple of Nanaia had displayed them and he, accom-panied by a few people, had come to the precinct of the sacred enclosure, then, after Antiochus entered, they locked the temple and, (16) having opened the secret door of the compartment in the ceiling, they thundered down upon the leader, throwing rocks (through it); after cutting them to pieces and severing their heads they cast them out to those outside. (17) For all this is our God to be blessed, who handed those who did impiously over (to their condign fate).
(18) As we are about to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of Kislev the purifi-cation of the Temple, we thought it necessary to inform you so that you too shall celebrate it as the holiday of Tabernacles and fire that Nehemiah (cel-ebrated) when, after constructing the Temple and the altar, he offered up sac-rifices. (19) For when our fathers came to the Persian country the pious priests of the time, having taken fire from the altar, secretly hid it in the hol-low of an empty cistern, and they secured it there so that the place remained unknown to all. (20) But after enough years had passed, as seemed appro-priate to God, Nehemiah – who had been delegated by the king of Persia – sent the descendants of the priests, who had hidden the fire, to bring it.
(21) When they informed him that in fact they found no fire, but only a vis-cous liquid, he ordered them to draw it up and bring it. And when the things pertaining to the sacrifices had been offered up (on the altar) Nehemiah or-dered the priests to douse with the liquid the pieces of wood and that which lay upon them. (22) When that was done and time passed, the sun lit up – hav-ing previously been clouded over – and a great fire broke out, so that every-one was amazed. (23) And the priests prayed while the sacrifice was con-sumed – the priests and everyone else, Jonathan leading and all the others, including Nehemiah, chiming in. (24) Their prayer had the following form:
“O Lord, O Lord God, creator of all, who is terrible and powerful and just and merciful, who alone is king and good, (25) who alone sustains, who alone is just and All-Ruler and eternal, who preserves Israel from all evil, who chose the Patriarchs and sanctified them – (26) accept this sacrifice on behalf of all Your people Israel and protect Your portion and hallow it. (27) Gather in our diaspora, emancipate those who are enslaved among the Gentiles, look down upon those who are set at naught and held to be abominable, and let the gentiles know that You are our God. (28) Torment those who oppress and outrage in arrogance.
(29) Plant Your people in Your holy Place, as Moses said.”
(30) And the priests sang the hymns. (31) When the parts of the sacrifice had been consumed, Nehemiah ordered that the remaining liquid be
poured out upon large rocks. (32) When that was done, fire broke out, but it was consumed when the light was reflected back from the altar. (33) When what had happened became known, and the king of Persia was told that in the place, where the exiled priests had hidden the fire, this liquid had appeared from which Nehemiah’s people had sanctified the parts of the sacrifice, (34) the king – after getting confirmation of the event – fenced off (the place) roundabout and made it into a temple. (35) And the king took large sums of money and bestowed them upon the people who had drawn out (the liquid). (36) Those who were with Nehemiah called it nephthar, which in translation means “purification,” but among most people it is called nephthai.
(Chapter 2: Continuation of Second Epistle)
(1) And it is found in the writings that the prophet Jeremiah ordered the ex-iles to bring some of the fire, as has been indicated, (2) and that the prophet, in giving them the Law, enjoined the exiles not to forget the Lord’s com-mandments and not to go astray in their minds when seeing golden and silver idols and all their ornaments. (3) And saying other similar things he encouraged them not to let the Law depart from their hearts. (4) In that text it is also (written) that the prophet – upon the occurrence of a divine oracle – ordered (some people) to follow him with the Tabernacle and the Ark (of the Covenant), when he went out to the mountain from which Moses, after ascending it, viewed the inheritance of God. (5) And Jeremiah, after going there, found a cave-like house and brought into it the Tabernacle and the ark and the altar of incense, whereupon he blocked the way to the door.
(6) When some of them who had together followed him approached in order to mark the way, they could not find it. (7) When Jeremiah learned of this, he rebuked them saying:
“This place shall also remain unknown until God will gather in the people and be merciful. (8) Then will the Lord display these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will be seen, as it was also evident in the days of Moses – just as Solomon too asked that the Place be sancti-fied greatly.”
(9) And we have also been informed that, being wise, (Solomon) offered up a sacrifice for the rededication and completion of the Temple. (10) And just as Moses prayed before the Lord, and fire descended from heaven and consumed the parts of the sacrifice, so too did Solomon pray, and fire
descended and consumed the whole burnt offerings. (11) And Moses said: “Since the sin-offering was not to be eaten, it was consumed.” (12) So too did Solomon celebrate the eight days. (13) And the same things are also related in the records and in the memoirs of the days of Nehemiah, as well as that he, having founded a library, collected the books concerning the kings and the prophets, and also David’s books, and kings’ epistles concerning votive offerings. (14) So too did Judas gather all (the writings) which had been scattered by the war which transpired, and they are with us. (15) So if you ever have need of any of them, send people to bring them to you.
Conclusion of Second Epistle
(16) So, as we are about to celebrate the (holiday of) purification, we have written you; and you will indeed do well if you celebrate the days. (17) For the God who saved His entire people and returned to all (of us) the inherit-ance, including the kingdom and the priesthood and the sanctity, (18) as is promised in the Law – in that God we place our hope, that He will speedily be merciful to us and gather us from (all places) under heaven unto the Holy Place; for He saved us from great evils and purified the Place.
COMMENT
The first two chapters of our book are not really part of it. Rather, they con-sist of two letters (1:1–10a; 1:10b–2:18) and the epitomator’s preface (2:18–32). Formally, the book itself, which begins with the idyll at 3:1, is an attachment to the letters. Indeed, the seventh verse of the first letter seems explicitly to refer to the book, summarizing it as the story of events which began with Jason.1
The first letter, of which the paratactic Semitic (Hebrew or Aramaic) style is very tangible beneath the Greek (with κα appearing three-four times in most verses, eight in v. 8), is addressed in general by the Jews of Je-rusalem and Judaea to those of Egypt, inviting them to celebrate the festi-val commemorating the rededication of the Temple. It is very straightfor-ward: the opening salutation (v. 1) is followed by a series of stylized
1 For the understanding of Ch. 3, which reports events prior to Jason, as something of a prologue, see above, pp. 4–6.
expressions of good will (vv. 2–5), whereupon the writers segue in v. 6 into the matter at hand (vv. 7–10a): they summarize the story from the advent of Jason to the rededication of the Temple and then urge the recipients to join in the celebration of the holiday instituted to commemorate that event.
The second letter, in contrast, is more convoluted, due to two reasons:
(a) its first section (1:11–17) seems to have suffered an extensive interpo-lation (vv. 13–16), and (b) the main body (1:18–2:15) tells its story in re-verse historical order. It begins somewhat like the first letter: a salutation from the Jews of Jerusalem to the Jews of Egypt (which adds some specific names on both sides – v. 10b) is followed by a summary reporting that God had rescued them, and the Holy City, from great troubles. It concludes, similar to the first one, with an invitation (2:16–18) to join in the cel-ebration of the holiday. In between, there are two main parts and each pres-ents some difficulties.
The first part, 1:11–17, follows its opening statements, about God hav-ing saved “us” (v. 11) by expellhav-ing those who had drawn up for war against the Holy City (v. 12), with a story (vv. 13–16) about Antiochus IV’s troubles and death in Persia, after having attacked a temple there. While this contributes to the general case that God punishes evildoers in general – especially for attacks upon temples – and punished Antiochus IV in par-ticular, it focuses on the wrong temple. Moreover, there is some evident clumsiness at its introduction, as is seen by the repetition ofγρ in both v. 12 and v. 13; and it is also significant that the verb used in v. 12, of those
“expelled” from the Holy City (which in our book refers to Jerusalem), is the same as the one used at 5:8 to refer to the expulsion of Jason from Je-rusalem. It seems, therefore, that someone has interpolated, into a letter that focused upon the salvation of Jerusalem and the expulsion of a Jewish villain, a section which “enriched” the letter by telling a story about the downfall of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is also a prominent villain in our book.
At this point, 1:18, the letter initiates its second main move, namely, the tracing of the history of the central functional element of the Temple of Je-rusalem: the fire on its altar. The story begins with Nehemiah, describing how at his direction the priests, at the time of the building of the Second Temple, found a viscous liquid in the cave in which the fire from the First Temple had been hidden at the time of its destruction. This liquid, when poured upon the altar, ignited in an amazing way; thus, more or less mir-aculously, the fire on the altar of the Second Temple may be seen to be identical with, and hence just as legitimate as, the fire which was on the altar of the First Temple.
Having shown that, and having noted that Nehemiah had instructed the priests to pour the remaining oil onto rocks, which evidently absorbed it (the significance of which will be explained below), the epistle now goes on, in its continuation in Chapter 2,2 to trace the Temple’s fire back through the First Temple period. As in 1:18–19, he moves backwards.
First he shows how Jeremiah, at the time of the destruction of the First Temple, arranged for the fire to be hidden (thus amplifying the brief ac-count in 1:19), along with some other of the Temple’s appurtenances.3 Then he moves back with some statements about Solomon and Moses, which are not entirely clear, but which do include, at 2:10 and 2:12, the two most important points for the author of the letter: that the fire in use in the First Temple descended from heaven when Solomon dedicated it (a claim explicit already in 2 Chr 7:1) and that Solomon celebrated the Temple’s dedication for eight days (so 1 Kgs 8:66 and 2 Chr 7:9–10).
These two points guarantee, respectively, the ultimately heavenly and hence sacred origin of the fire in use in the Second Temple, and the appro-priateness of celebrating the Temple’s rededication for eight days. Accord-ingly, after documenting his claims by referring to documents collected first by Nehemiah and then again by Judas Maccabaeus, the epistle ends with a call upon its recipients to join in the celebration of the new festival celebrating the Temple’s rededication – Hanukkah (2:16). This invitation is bolstered by a heavy peroration (vv. 17–18) that underlines the unity of the Jewish people.
As for the question of why Nehemiah had the unused oil poured onto rocks, the answer is given in 10:3: when Judas Maccabaeus and his men re-dedicate the Temple, the fire for the altar was supplied by “igniting rocks and extracting fire from them.” That is, these rocks served the same func-tion as had the cave chosen by Jeremiah: to store and preserve the original sacred fire, in one form or another, until opportunity arose to revive it.
Thus, the most recent link in the story, that of Judas Maccabaeus, is at-tached to a chain which links it back to Solomon, and so to heaven, assuring the legitimacy of the restored Temple – and leaving no doubt about the pro-priety of celebrating its rededication. Q.E.D.
Questions concerning the dating and authenticity of these two letters are dealt with in Appendix 1.
2 For the artificial and merely technical division between Chs. 1 and 2, see above, p. 17.
3 For an interpretation of this story that focuses upon the way it allowed Jews to believe the preservation of the Temple, for the future, transpired beyond the reach of foreign rule, see Weitzman, Surviving Sacrilege, 25–28.
NOTES
1:1. To their brethren. This is a standard salutation in letters between Jews.
Note, for some other cases of letters concerning holidays: “the Passover ep-istle” from Elephantine (A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century B.C. [Oxford: Clarendon, 1923], no. 21) and Rabban Gamaliel’s letters cited in t. Sanh 2:6 (ed. Zuckermandel, 416–417): “To our brethren the Galileans … and to our brethren the southerners … and to our brethren of the Babylonian diaspora …”4 Cf. NOTE on 10:21, brethren.
the Jews in Jerusalem and in the country of Judaea. This formulation implies that the city of Jerusalem has its “country” (ξ)ρα), that is, Judaea is the territory that surrounds Jerusalem and is defined by it. The writer is using standard Hellenistic terminology, just as, for example, 1 Macca-bees 14:36–37; Letter of Aristeas 83; Josephus, Antiquities 13.284 (ν BΙε-ροσολμοι« κα τP ξ)ρQ); Acts 10:39 (*ν τε τP ξ)ρQ τν BΙοψδα ν κα BΙεροψσαλημ), etc.; see also above, p. 6, n. 8. Such usage is especially prevalent with regard to Alexandria and Egypt; so e.g. Letter of Aristeas 107–111; 3 Maccabees 3:1; Philo, In Flaccum 5; and LSJ, 2015, s.v.ξ)ρα (fin). In rabbinic literature, the equivalent of ξ)ρα would seem to be medina, which is frequently paired with ‘ir (“city”); so, for example, “it is allowed in the ‘ir and forbidden in the medina” (t. Demai 4.12 [ed. Lieber-man, 80]), “fruit in Jerusalem and money in the medina” (m. Maaser Sheni 3.4).
greetings (ξα ρειν). This is a standard Hellenistic opening, which appears in various combinations; cf. v. 10, also 11:16, 22, 27, 34; 1 Macca-bees 10:18, 25; etc. For the particular order used here, “to X (addressee) ξα ρειν from Y (the writer),” see Exler, Greek Letter, 42–44, 65–67. As Exler notes, the usual order puts the writer first, as in the letters in Chap-ter 11, so the order employed here usually bespeaks the wriChap-ter’s wish to portray himself as less important than the recipient – the same usage that figures as part of the joke at 9:19, below. But that does not seem to be the case in the present epistle, and anyway the end of this verse will show that it is not to be judged by the standards of Greek letters.
4 On rabbinic reports concerning the emissaries who brought calendrical information from Palestine to the Diaspora see R. T. Beckwith, Calendar, Chronology and Wor-ship: Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (AGAJU 61; Leiden & Bos-ton: Brill, 2005) 8–14.
good peace. A typically Aramaic formulation; the wish for “peace” appears at the end of almost every Aramaic letter. See Fitzmyer, “Notes,” 214–217.
Goldstein (2 Macc, 140) suggests that these words allude especially to Jere-miah 33:9, “for all the good and all the peace,” and it is indeed possible, in light of what is assembled in our next note.
2. be beneficent unto (!γα"οπο ησαι). From here until v. 5 we have a string of blessings overflowing with biblical diction; see Enermalm-Ogawa, Langage de prière, 56–58. It seems that there is particular reference to Jere-miah 32 which, beginning in v. 26, refers to the Babylonian conquest of Je-rusalem (for comparison of Antiochus Epiphanes to the Babylonian king see also NOTE on 9:9, worms) and to the Babylonians’ introduction of their abominations into the Temple (Jer 32:34; cf. below, 6:4–5 and 10:2–3), but also has Jeremiah expressing his hope that God will “be beneficent” to the residents of the city (Jer 32:39, 40, 41) and even – as in our next verse – that
“I will give them one heart and one way to fear Me” (Jer 32:39).
remember His covenant. A frequent motif in prayers, e.g. 1 Maccabees 4:10.
The formulation, here and in the continuation, recalls prayers ascribed to Moses, such as Deuteronomy 9:27 (“Recall for your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”) and Exodus 32:13 (“Remember for your servants, Abra-ham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom You swore …”). However, it is especially important to cite here Exodus 2:24 and Leviticus 26:42. In both of these passages, recalling the covenant with the fathers introduces the end of exile – just as in Jeremiah 32 (v. 37), and as such is especially appropriate in a letter from Jerusalem to the Diaspora.
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. For reference to them in a similar
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. For reference to them in a similar