Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Jews, seeing armies of soldiers clashing in the sky, take from them an omen of the imminent wars and slaughters of Antiochus Epiphanes. Jason, returning from Ammonitis, seizes Jerusalem and ravages the citizens with massacres. Then, verse 11, Antiochus Epiphanes, excluded from Egypt, pours out his wrath on the neighboring Jews; therefore he takes Jerusalem, and in it slaughters 80,000, imprisons 40,000, and sells the same number; he violates and plunders the temple, carrying off 1,800 talents from it; then returning to Antioch, he left governors in Judea who afflicted the Jews more grievously than he himself. Therefore Judas Maccabaeus with his followers fled into the desert.
Vulgate Text: 2 Maccabees 5:1-27
1. At the same time Antiochus prepared a second expedition into Egypt. 2. But it happened that throughout the entire city of Jerusalem there were seen for forty days horsemen running through the air, wearing golden robes and armed with spears, like cohorts, 3. and courses of horses drawn up in ranks, and skirmishes taking place at close quarters, and the movement of shields, and a multitude of helmeted soldiers with drawn swords, and the hurling of javelins, and the splendor of golden arms and all kinds of armor. 4. Wherefore all prayed that the portents would turn to good. 5. But when a false rumor had gone out that Antiochus had died, Jason, having taken no fewer than a thousand men, suddenly attacked the city, and as the citizens rushed to the wall, when the city was finally seized, Menelaus fled to the citadel; 6. but Jason did not spare his own citizens in the slaughter, nor did he consider that prosperity against kinsmen was the greatest evil, thinking he was winning trophies over enemies and not over citizens. 7. And indeed he did not obtain the leadership, but received confusion as the end of his plots, and again fled as a fugitive to the Ammonites. 8. Finally, driven to his own destruction by Aretas, the tyrant of the Arabs, fleeing from city to city, hated by all as a deserter of the laws and abominable, as an enemy of his country and citizens, he was driven out into Egypt. 9. And he who had driven many from their own country perished abroad, having set out for Sparta, as if about to find refuge there on account of kinship; 10. and he who had cast out many unburied, was himself both unlamented and unburied, having had neither a foreign burial nor any share in his ancestral tomb. 11. When these things had happened, the king suspected that the Jews would desert the alliance; and therefore, setting out from Egypt with savage determination, he took the city by force of arms. 12. And he ordered the soldiers to kill and not to spare those they encountered, and to slaughter those climbing through the houses. 13. So there were massacres of young and old, and the destruction of women and children, and the killing of virgins and infants. 14. And in the space of three days eighty thousand were killed, forty thousand were imprisoned, and no fewer were sold. 15. But not even this was enough; he dared also to enter the temple, which was holier than any place on earth, with Menelaus as his guide, who had been a traitor to the laws and his country; 16. and taking the sacred vessels with his wicked hands, which had been placed by other kings and cities for the adornment and glory of the place, he handled them unworthily and defiled them. 17. Thus Antiochus, deranged in mind, did not consider that God had been angry for a little while because of the sins of the inhabitants of the city; on which account contempt had also fallen upon the place; 18. otherwise, if they had not happened to be involved in many sins, just as Heliodorus who was sent by King Seleucus to plunder the treasury, this one too, arriving immediately, would certainly have been scourged and driven back from his audacity. 19. But God chose not the nation for the sake of the place, but the place for the sake of the nation. 20. And therefore the place itself became a sharer in the misfortunes of the people; but afterward it will become a partner in their blessings, and the place that was abandoned in the wrath of Almighty God will again be exalted with the highest glory in the reconciliation of the great Lord. 21. Therefore Antiochus, having carried off eighteen hundred talents from the temple, quickly returned to Antioch, thinking in his pride that he could make the land navigable and the sea passable on foot, because of his mental exaltation. 22. And he left governors to afflict the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by birth, more cruel in character than the very man who appointed him; 23. and at Gerizim, Andronicus and Menelaus, who weighed more heavily on the citizens than the others. 24. And being set against the Jews, he sent the hateful commander Apollonius with an army of twenty-two thousand, ordering him to kill all those of full age and to sell the women and young men. 25. And when he came to Jerusalem, pretending peace, he kept quiet until the holy day of the Sabbath; and then, while the Jews were keeping the feast, he ordered his men to take up arms. 26. And he slaughtered all who had come out for the spectacle; and running through the city with armed men, he killed a vast multitude. 27. But Judas Maccabaeus, who had been the tenth, had withdrawn to a desert place, and there among the wild beasts he lived in the mountains with his companions; and feeding on grass for food, they remained there so as not to be partakers of the defilement.
This chapter, from verse 11 to the end, as well as chapters 6 and 7, in the chronological order in which the events took place, should be placed at the end of chapter 1 of Book 1, before the beginning of chapter 2.
Verse 1: Antiochus Prepared a Second Expedition
1. AT THE SAME TIME ANTIOCHUS (Epiphanes) PREPARED A SECOND EXPEDITION INTO EGYPT — to subjugate it by arms; but being prevented by the Romans, returning to neighboring Judea, he poured out his indignation. This same thing Gabriel had foretold to Daniel more than three hundred years before, ch. 11, 25 and following. See what is said there.
Verse 2: Horsemen Seen Running Through the Air
2. BUT IT HAPPENED THAT THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE CITY OF JERUSALEM THERE WERE SEEN FOR FORTY DAYS HORSEMEN RUNNING THROUGH THE AIR — clashing with one another with drawn swords and hurling javelins, as the author amplifies with very powerful words in what follows; all of which were portents of the immense disaster impending over Judea, as follows.
Now these portents were produced in the air by Angels at God's command through a certain arrangement, motion, and collision of vapors and exhalations, which presented the appearance of armies clashing, so that through them God might foretell to the Jews the slaughter that would soon be inflicted on them by Antiochus Epiphanes, and the battles which Judas Maccabaeus would wage against him. Similarly, before Titus and the Romans besieged and captured Jerusalem on the 21st day of May, Josephus says, in Book VII of The Jewish War, ch. 12: "After the feast days, before sunset, chariots were seen passing through the air over the whole region, and armed armies passing through the clouds and surrounding the city." The same happened in the time of St. Gregory, when the Lombards invaded Italy. Hear him, Homily 1 on the Gospel: "Before Italy was to be handed over to be struck by the pagan sword, we saw fiery armies in the sky, flashing with the very blood which was afterward shed of the human race." Julius Obsequens, Book on Prodigies addressed to Augustus Caesar, chapters 6 and 7, reports that under the consuls L. Opimius and Q. Postumius, arms were seen flying in the sky at Consa; and under the consuls C. Marius and Horus, a dog spoke at Rimini, celestial arms were seen fighting from east and west, and those from the west were conquered. Under the consuls Lucius Scipio and Gaius Norbanus during the time of Sulla, between Capua and the Vulturnus, a great sound of standards and a horrible clash of arms was heard, so that it seemed as if two armies were engaging for several days. Also under the consuls Pansa and Hirtius, when the battle was being fought against Antony, the appearance of arms and weapons was seen from the earth, rising with a crash toward the sky. Eutropius, Book VI of his History, when Caesar was fighting against Pompey, reports that there was such a clash of arms in the air that at Antioch the people rushed to the walls as if enemies were approaching.
Hear also Pliny, Book II, ch. 57: "We have received reports that the clash of arms and the sound of trumpets were heard from the sky during the Cimbrian wars, and frequently both before and after. In the third consulship of Marius, the people of Ameria and Tuder saw celestial arms from east and west clashing with each other, and those from the west prevailing." Similar signs preceded the murder of Caesar, about which Appian, Book IV of the Civil Wars, says: "Monstrous voices of men, the clash of arms, the galloping of horses were heard though no one was watching." About the same period, Ovid, Book XV of the Metamorphoses:
Yet they gave signs, not uncertain, of the mourning to come; They say that arms were heard clashing amid the dark clouds, And terrible trumpets and horns heard in the sky Foretold the crime.
Similar portents are recorded by Seneca in the Natural Questions, Augustus Niphus in the Meteorologica, Cornelius Gemma of Frisia in the Cosmocritica, and Conrad Lycosthenes, although heterodox in faith, in his Book of Prodigies, pages 489, 210, and 228. I remember that in Belgium, when I was a boy, similar portents in the sky were shown at the beginning of the Belgian wars, which wise men already at that time predicted from these signs were imminent for Belgium, and the outcome has taught and still teaches that the prediction was most true.
Finally, astrologers, and particularly Ptolemy in the Centiloquium, ch. 9, think that these things happen naturally by the power of the stars, and especially by the power of the star Perseus; so also Augustus Niphus, Book I Meteor., folio 31, page 4; but it is more true that these things are caused by the special providence of God through Angels, who nevertheless use stars, winds, and vapors to produce these apparitions, to foreshadow the figures of the disaster. See Christopher a Castro, Book I of the Prolegomena to the Minor Prophets, ch. 17.
Verse 4: All Prayed the Portents Would Turn to Good
4. WHEREFORE ALL PRAYED THAT THE PORTENTS WOULD TURN TO GOOD (in Greek exodon, that is, the appearance, visions, signs of armies clashing in the air, which foreshowed that the conflicts in Judea would be fierce) — that is, that the Jews in these conflicts would be superior and would not be conquered but would conquer, as in fact Judas and his brothers the Maccabees conquered Antiochus Epiphanes.
Verse 5: Jason Attacked the City
5. BUT WHEN A FALSE RUMOR HAD GONE OUT THAT ANTIOCHUS (Epiphanes) HAD DIED, JASON, HAVING TAKEN NO FEWER THAN A THOUSAND MEN, SUDDENLY ATTACKED THE CITY (namely Jerusalem. This Jason, brother of the holy pontiff Onias, had bought the pontificate from Epiphanes by paying money; and thus had driven his brother Onias from the pontificate; but Epiphanes handed the pontificate over to Menelaus, who offered more money, and Jason was excluded. Jason therefore, hearing the rumor of the death of Epiphanes, and no longer fearing his displeasure and power, returning from Ammonitis where he was in exile with a thousand armed men, invaded and occupied Jerusalem to recover the pontificate. Wherefore) MENELAUS (whom Jason had driven out of the city) FLED TO THE CITADEL — of Mount Zion.
Verse 7: He Did Not Obtain the Leadership
7. AND HE DID NOT OBTAIN THE LEADERSHIP (the sacred one, namely the pontificate, and the political leadership attached to it which Jason most desired; for at that time the pontiff was simultaneously the leader and prince of the people) (because he was expelled from the city by the converging multitude of citizens as an enemy and tyrant along with his men. For what could his thousand men and stratagems do against a hundred thousand or more citizens? Whence) HE AGAIN FLED AS A FUGITIVE TO THE AMMONITES — and from there, wandering and roaming like Cain, he fled to Arabia; but since he was suspected there by King Aretas of treachery or of ambition for the kingdom, and being captured he fled to Egypt: because Ptolemy, king of Egypt, was an enemy of Epiphanes; but when peace was made between the two, Jason, lest Epiphanes demand him from Ptolemy for execution, fled from Egypt to the Spartans, as the ancient friends and kinsmen of the Jews; and there he wretchedly ended his life in exile, and dying he lacked human burial, and was buried with the burial of a donkey in a dung heap.
Verse 8: A Deserter of the Laws
8. AS A DESERTER OF THE LAWS — in Greek, as an apostate from the laws, that is, a transgressor and apostate, inasmuch as he had apostatized from Judaism to paganism, and compelled others to apostatize.
Verse 11: The King Suspected the Jews
11. THE KING (Epiphanes) SUSPECTED THAT THE JEWS WOULD DESERT THE ALLIANCE (made with him). — The reasons for suspecting were: first, because he knew they were offended with him, since he had removed the holy pontiff Onias and had replaced him with impious and sacrilegious pseudo-pontiffs, Jason, Menelaus, and Lysimachus, who were striving to lead them from Judaism to paganism. Second, because Antiochus, having been expelled from Egypt with disgrace by the Romans, thought he would now be held in contempt by the Jews, and that they, relying on the help of the neighboring Egyptians and their allies the Romans, would throw off his yoke, as the Egyptians had done. Third, because he knew himself to be hated by the Jews for his greed and cruelty. Fourth, because the Jews had stoned Lysimachus, whom he had appointed pontiff. Fifth, because they had spread a false rumor of his death, verse 5. Gorionides adds that they had rejoiced at it: "There came," he says, "impious men from our nation to the king and said: Behold, certain portents were seen at Jerusalem, and the citizens said: Antiochus is dead, and they rejoiced at the death of our lord the king." Sixth, because the Jerusalemites were preparing to resist Antiochus on his return from Egypt; whence as soon as he arrived they shut the gates against him. All these things Epiphanes learned through his spies and friends, and especially through Menelaus, to whom he had restored the pontificate after the stoning of his brother Lysimachus. This man betrayed to him all the plans, deeds, and words of the Jews against Epiphanes, verse 43. And for these reasons Epiphanes, breaking through the gates of the city that had been shut against him by force, raged against the Jews with such cruelty and barbarity that in the space of three days he killed 80,000, sold 40,000, and imprisoned as many captives, as follows.
Verse 17: Antiochus Deranged in Mind
17. THUS ANTIOCHUS, DERANGED IN MIND (in Greek, exalted in spirit) — thought he had overcome the Jews so as to use them as slaves and to violate and plunder their temple sacrilegiously, having carried off from it 1,800 talents, verse 21.
Verse 19: God Chose the Place for the Nation
19. BUT GOD DID NOT CHOOSE THE NATION FOR THE SAKE OF THE PLACE, BUT THE PLACE FOR THE SAKE OF THE NATION — that is, God did not choose the Jewish nation for the sake of the land of Judea, but for the sake of the nation itself, once faithful and holy under David and Solomon, He chose the land of Judea, so that in it He might build Himself a house, namely a temple, in which as the most Holy among the holy He might dwell among His holy citizens, servants, and children. But now, because of the grave sins of the Jews, God has abandoned the temple and given it over as plunder to Antiochus; but as we hope, He will return there again when the Jews, repenting, have turned back to their God and have served Him piously and holily, as they did before.
Verse 22: Governors Left to Afflict the People
22. AND HE LEFT GOVERNORS TO AFFLICT THE NATION — that is, Antiochus, returning to Antioch as to the royal seat of his kingdom, left in Judea savage and fierce men who afflicted the Jews more than he himself, namely Philip, Andronicus, and Menelaus the pseudo-pontiff, the instigator and inciter of all wickedness.
Verse 24: Apollonius Sent with Twenty-Two Thousand
24. AND WHEN HE HAD SET HIMSELF (some think one should read "opposed," whence the Greek has apechthe, that is, having a hostile intention against the Jews) AGAINST THE JEWS, that is, when Antiochus had set, established, and hardened his heart against the Jews, to destroy and annihilate them if he could, HE SENT THE HATEFUL (hated by the Jews) COMMANDER APOLLONIUS WITH AN ARMY (namely with) 22,000, ORDERING HIM TO KILL ALL THOSE OF FULL AGE. — This is the same Apollonius who, when Antiochus the Great was fighting against the Romans, led his right wing, while Hannibal led the left, as Livy testifies, Book 37. The same man, a few years later, sent by Epiphanes against Judas Maccabaeus, was defeated and killed by him, 1 Maccabees 3:11.
Verse 26: He Slaughtered Those at the Spectacle
26. AND HE SLAUGHTERED ALL WHO HAD COME OUT FOR THE SPECTACLE (to watch the sacrifices and sacred ceremonies customarily celebrated by the Jews on the sabbath feast day).
Verse 27: Judas Withdrew to the Desert
27. BUT JUDAS MACCABAEUS, WHO HAD BEEN THE TENTH — that is, was to be the tenth pontiff counting from Jaddua, who had been pontiff in the time of Alexander the Great. So Salianus and Mariana. Lycanus and Dionysius, Simplicius, and others think Judas was called the tenth because at that time he was tenth in the order of the priests. Or rather Judas was the tenth, that is, a decemvir, or one of the ten chief men and leaders of the priests who governed the people. Moreover, from the Greek you may simply translate: But Judas, having become the tenth, that is, Judas gathered to himself nine companions of equal faith and virtue, of whom he himself was the tenth, with whom he withdrew into the mountains, living on herbs among wild beasts. So St. Bruno with six companions withdrew into the rough mountains of the Chartreuse and there established the Carthusian order. So our St. Ignatius gathered to himself nine companions, of whom he was the tenth, and withdrawing with them established the Society of Jesus. So Judas with nine Hasideans, the religious men of that age, about whom Book I, ch. 7, verse 43, withdrew into the mountains, and there living on herbs led an austere life. So Salianus and others. Judas therefore with his parents, brothers, and followers fled from the great rage of the persecutors.
HE HAD WITHDRAWN TO A DESERT PLACE, AND THERE AMONG THE WILD BEASTS HE LIVED IN THE MOUNTAINS WITH HIS COMPANIONS; AND FEEDING ON GRASS (that is, on vegetables, herbs, and roots) FOR FOOD, THEY REMAINED THERE SO AS NOT TO BE PARTAKERS OF THE DEFILEMENT — so as not to defile themselves by the companionship, conversation, and familiarity of Apollonius and his pagan soldiers, who most fiercely persecuted the Jews and compelled them to eat their foods sacrificed to idols, and indeed to sacrifice to their idols, as will be clear in chapters 6 and 7.