Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Judas and the Jews, under the leadership of an Angel, overthrow the vast army of Lysias. Therefore Lysias makes peace with them. Then from verse 16 and following are reviewed the letters of Lysias, of Antiochus Eupator, and of the Romans given to the Jews on this matter.
Vulgate Text: 2 Maccabees 11:1-38
1. But after a short time, Lysias, procurator of the king, both kinsman and administrator of affairs, bearing grievously the things that had happened, 2. having gathered eighty thousand men and all the cavalry, came against the Jews, thinking that he would make the captured city a dwelling place for the Gentiles, 3. and that he would hold the temple for monetary profit, as the other shrines of the Gentiles, and would sell the priesthood every year: 4. nowhere considering the power of God, but with unbridled mind, he trusted in the multitude of foot soldiers, and in the thousands of horsemen, and in the eighty elephants. 5. Having entered Judea and approaching Bethsura, which was in a narrow place, at an interval of five stadia from Jerusalem, he besieged that garrison. 6. But when Maccabeus and those who were with him learned that the garrisons were being besieged, with weeping and tears they begged the Lord, and the whole crowd together, to send a good angel for the salvation of Israel. 7. And Maccabeus himself first, having taken up arms, exhorted the others to undergo danger together with him, and to bring aid to their brothers. 8. And when they advanced together with eager spirit, there appeared preceding them from Jerusalem a horseman in white garments, with golden arms, brandishing a spear. 9. Then all together blessed the merciful Lord, and their spirits were strengthened: they were prepared to penetrate not only men, but also the most ferocious beasts, and iron walls. 10. Therefore they went forth readily, having a helper from heaven, and the Lord showing mercy upon them. 11. And rushing upon the enemy with the impetus of lions, they laid low eleven thousand foot soldiers and sixteen hundred horsemen: 12. and they put all the rest to flight, and many of them escaped wounded and stripped. But Lysias himself also escaped, fleeing disgracefully. 13. And because he was not without sense, reflecting within himself on the diminution he had suffered, and understanding that the Hebrews were invincible, relying on the help of almighty God, he sent to them: 14. and he promised that he would agree to all that was just, and would compel the king to become their friend. 15. Maccabeus agreed to the requests of Lysias, in all things consulting what was useful: and whatever Maccabeus wrote to Lysias concerning the Jews, the king granted. 16. For there were letters written to the Jews by Lysias, containing this: Lysias, to the people of the Jews, greetings. 17. John and Abesalom, who had been sent by you, delivering the writings, requested that I fulfill what was signified through them. 18. Whatever therefore could be brought before the king, I presented: and what the matter permitted, he granted. 19. If therefore you maintain fidelity in affairs, I shall also endeavor hereafter to be a cause of benefits for you. 20. Concerning the rest, I have given instructions word by word on each matter, both to these men and to those who have been sent by me, to confer with you. 21. Farewell. In the one hundred and forty-eighth year, the twenty-fourth day of the month Dioscorus. 22. The letter of the king contained this: King Antiochus to his brother Lysias, greetings. 23. Since our father has been translated among the gods, we, wishing those who are in our kingdom to live without disturbance and to attend diligently to their own affairs, 24. have heard that the Jews did not consent to our father to be transferred to the Greek rite, but wished to keep their own institutions, and therefore ask us to grant them their own laws. 25. Wishing therefore that this nation also should be at rest, we have determined and judged that the temple be restored to them, so that they may conduct themselves according to the custom of their ancestors. 26. You will therefore do well if you send to them and give them the right hand: so that, knowing our will, they may be of good courage and attend to their own interests. 27. The letter of the king to the Jews was as follows: King Antiochus to the Senate of the Jews, and to the rest of the Jews, greetings. 28. If you are well, it is as we wish: and we ourselves are well. 29. Menelaus has come to us, saying that you wish to go down to your own people who are with us. 30. To those therefore who travel until the thirtieth day of the month Xanthicus, we give the right hand of security, 31. that the Jews may use their own foods and laws, as before: and that none of them should suffer any molestation on account of things done through ignorance. 32. We have also sent Menelaus, to address you. 33. Farewell. In the one hundred and forty-eighth year, the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus. 34. The Romans also sent a letter, as follows: Quintus Memmius and Titus Manilius, ambassadors of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greetings. 35. Concerning those things which Lysias, kinsman of the king, has granted you, we also grant. 36. But concerning those matters which he judged should be referred to the king, send someone immediately, conferring more diligently among yourselves, so that we may decide as is fitting for you: for we are going to Antioch. 37. Therefore hasten to write back, so that we also may know what your will is. 38. Farewell. In the one hundred and forty-eighth year, the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus.
Verse 1: Lysias, Procurator of the King
1. Lysias, procurator of the king (Antiochus Eupator, who as a boy had succeeded his father Antiochus Epiphanes, now dead, and was being educated and governed by Lysias), and kinsman, that is, a blood relative or "cognate," as is said at verse 35. Lysias, hearing that the camps of both Gorgias and Timothy had been cut down by Judas, conscripted a new army of 80,000 foot soldiers with all the cavalry and 80 elephants, with which he hoped to devour the Jews and Judea. But Judas, invoking God, obtained an Angel, under whose leadership he overthrew the entire camp of Lysias.
Verse 3: The Temple Held for Monetary Profit
3. And that he would hold the temple for monetary profit. — Lysias intended to impose a great tax on the temple, and to assign the gifts offered to the temple, either entirely or in large part, to the royal treasury, and to convert them to his own uses, as tyrants are accustomed to do with the shrines of the Gentiles. These gifts moreover were both very numerous and very precious; for the temple was extremely wealthy.
A priesthood for sale, — that is, he would sell the Pontificate every year at a great price to the Jews.
Verse 6: They Begged the Lord to Send a Good Angel
6. With weeping and tears they begged the Lord, etc., to send a good angel for the salvation of Israel, — as He had sent to Moses, Gideon, and Manoah. For He had promised this to Moses, in Exodus XXIII, 20, saying: "Behold, I send My Angel, who shall go before you and guard you." See what I said there: for there I reviewed all the appearances of Angels and the help they rendered to the Hebrews.
Verse 8: A Horseman in White Garments
8. There appeared preceding them a horseman in white garments, with golden arms, brandishing a spear. — This was St. Michael, protector of Israel, or certainly an Angel of a lower order sent by Michael to aid the Jews, so that as a leader he might go before the army, and give courage to Judas and the Jews, but strike the enemy with fear and dread, as he indeed did. Therefore he went ahead in the form of an armored horseman, brandishing a spear with golden arms, clothed in white. For the whiteness of Angels signifies purity, splendor, joy, immortality, victory, and glory, as I said at Ecclesiastes IX, 8, on the words: "Let your garments be white at all times."
Verse 9: They Were Strengthened in Spirit
9. They were strengthened in spirit (they took on great and mighty courage, seeing an armed Angel going before them as their leader. For they knew that an Angel was invincible, and that by a single Angel the entire camps of enemies could be overthrown, as by him 185,000 soldiers of Sennacherib had been laid low under Hezekiah. Therefore under the Angel's leadership, certain of victory, they advanced courageously to battle), prepared to penetrate not only men, but also the most ferocious beasts (elephants) and iron walls. — For to an Angel nothing is impenetrable, nothing invincible, nothing impossible; indeed, nothing is difficult or hard. Therefore the Angel cast these spirits and ardors into Judas and the Jews, by which they, inflamed, attacked the most numerous and strongest camps of Lysias
at once scattered and dispersed them like chaff. For nothing is so difficult that the ardor of soldiers cannot break through. Therefore Vegetius teaches that commanders should above all excite and kindle these ardors in their soldiers; for from this arises a sure hope and omen of victory. And he adds that a commander should skillfully investigate what his soldiers who are about to fight think about the outcome of the battle, so that if they augur it will be successful, he should fight; if unsuccessful, he should refrain from battle. Hear Vegetius, book III, chapter XII: "On the very day when soldiers are about to fight, it is fitting to carefully explore what they feel. For confidence or fear is discerned from the face, words, gait, and movements. Nor should you trust if a recruit desires battle; for battle is sweet to the inexperienced, and you should know that you ought to defer if experienced warriors fear to fight. Nevertheless, by the admonitions and speeches of the commander, virtue and courage grow in the army: especially if they receive such an account of the coming contest that they hope to easily achieve victory. Then the cowardice or error of the enemy must be shown: or if they were previously defeated by us, this must be recalled. It must also be said what things may move the minds of soldiers to hatred of the adversaries, with anger and indignation."
Verse 11: Rushing Upon the Enemy with the Impetus of Lions
11. And rushing upon the enemy with the impetus of lions, they laid low eleven thousand of them, and 1,600 horsemen. — This battle is different and distinct from that which is narrated in book I, chapter IV, where a different number of slain is recorded. For lions are fearless and terrible: whence, as Pliny testifies, with eyes closed they charge into hunting spears, swords, and lances, and scatter and break everything. Such were Judas and the Jews here, according to that prophecy of Jacob, Genesis XLIX, 9: "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up: crouching, you lay down as a lion, and as a lioness, who shall rouse him?" For although Judas was not from the tribe of Judah, to whom this oracle was given by the patriarch Jacob, but from the tribe of Levi; nevertheless he, in place of Judah, was the leader of all the Jews, to whom this oracle pertains.
Tropologically, when Lysias, that is the devil, attacks you and suggests movements of anger, pride, lust, etc., resist and confront him like a lion, and you will immediately put him to flight. For the devil, before the courageous and resolute, is timid as an ant; but to the timid and hesitant he is a terrible lion. Whence St. Gregory, book IV of the Morals, chapter XVII, explaining that passage of Job IV: "The tiger perishes because it has no prey," according to the Septuagint who translate "tiger" as myrmicoleion, that is, ant-lion, "which," he says, "is an animal hostile to ants, and kills them as they carry grain, and consumes them once killed," mystically applying this to the devil: "Rightly," he says, "it is called myrmicoleion, that is, lion and ant: for to ants, as we said, it is a lion; to birds, an ant;
because indeed the ancient enemy, just as he is strong against those who consent, so he is weak against those who resist. For if assent is given to his suggestions, he cannot be endured at all, like a lion; but if he is resisted, he is crushed like an ant. To some therefore he is a lion, to others an ant; because carnal minds can scarcely tolerate his cruelty, while spiritual minds trample upon his weakness with the foot of virtue."
Verse 13: He Was Not Without Sense
13. And because he was not without sense, — but was a sensible and prudent Lysias, hence he easily recognized from so great a defeat of his men that God was fighting for the Jews through an Angel, and therefore that they were unconquerable. For this reason he sought peace from them and obtained it.
Verse 19: If You Maintain Fidelity
19. If you maintain fidelity (that is, faithfulness both to this treaty, and to the subjection which you promised to the Antiochian kings as kings of Asia and Syria, and have rendered to others), I shall also endeavor hereafter to be a cause of benefits for you, — that is, I likewise will attend to your interests, and by my recommendation before King Eupator I will procure for you many good things and benefits.
Verse 20: Concerning the Rest
20. Concerning the rest (of the articles proposed by you), I have given word-by-word instructions on each matter, both to these men (namely John and Abesalom, sent by you) and to those who have been sent by me (that is, my envoys, whom I am sending to you along with yours) to confer with you, — so that they may settle each matter with you, and satisfy you in all things.
Verse 21: In the Year 148
21. In the year 148. — You will object: In this year 148 of the Greeks, Antiochus Epiphanes was still living and reigning; how then are these letters written as given by Antiochus Eupator his son, as if already reigning after the death of his father? For Epiphanes died in the year 149 of the Greeks, as was said in book I, chapter VI, verse 16.
I respond that the years of the Greeks are calculated in two ways; first, from the twelfth year after the death of Alexander the Great, and this from the month of March, because in that year, which was the 442nd from the founding of Rome, and the 117th Olympiad, as Eusebius, Ptolemy, St. Jerome, Josephus, Dio, Appian, and others attest, and in that month of March Seleucus, having defeated Antigonus king of Asia Minor, placed the diadem of all Asia upon himself.
By this reckoning the Jews count the years of the Greeks, or the Seleucid era, and therefore the first book of Maccabees used the same system as the Egyptians, and for this reason these years of the Greeks are called now Jewish, now Macedonian, now Alexandrian.
Secondly, the years of the Greeks begin a year and a half later, perhaps because at that time Seleucus, triumphing from Asia Minor, returned to Asia Major or Syria, whence this chronological reckoning is called Syrian, Chaldean, and Antiochene. By this second reckoning, therefore, these years begin in the 13th year from Alexander's death, in the seventh month Tisri, which corresponds to our September, that is, a year and a half later than the previous Jewish or Alexandrian reckoning. The second book of Maccabees uses this reckoning. Hence in this passage it calls the year 149 of the Greeks, in which, according to book I, chapter VI, 16, Antiochus is said to have died, the year 148 of the Greeks, because the year which by the Jewish and Alexandrian reckoning was 149, that same year by the Antiochene or Chaldean reckoning was 148. So say Salianus, Serarius, and others.
Scaliger responds differently, namely that it was the year 148 if you begin the year from Nisan, that is March: and that it was again the year 149 of the Greeks, if you begin the year from Tisri, that is September.
The month of Dioscorus, — in Greek Dios Korinthiou, that is, of Jupiter the Corinthian. This month is not found among the ordinary Greek months, whence Scaliger and Salianus think it was an embolismic or intercalary month. But Serarius rightly refutes this, and holds that Dioscorus is Dysrius, which corresponds to our March, when kings are accustomed to go forth to war.
Verse 22: King Antiochus to His Brother Lysias
22. King Antiochus to his brother Lysias, greetings. — Lysias was the guardian of the king. It is therefore surprising that the king, who, as Appian says, was a nine-year-old boy, does not call him father rather than brother; but the king did this deliberately, or rather the king's secretary, to conceal the king's youth before the Jews, lest he be despised by them on account of it: as if therefore already older and more mature, he calls Lysias brother, not father.
Additionally: he does not call Lysias father, because shortly afterward he calls Antiochus Epiphanes his father, whence he adds:
Verse 23: Our Father Translated Among the Gods
23. Since our father has been translated among the gods (Gorionides: among the Angels). — The flatterers of kings among the Gentiles pretended that they were numbered among the gods after death. Hence at the funerals of kings and emperors their apotheosis, or translation among the gods, took place, which Herodian elegantly describes at the beginning of book IV, with the ceremonies by which it was performed among the Romans, where among other things he says that an eagle was accustomed to fly from the pyre, to carry the soul of Caesar to heaven to the gods. But the impious Antiochus Epiphanes, on account of his crimes and sacrileges, was translated not among the gods of heaven, but of hell, that is, among the demons.
Verse 24: The Jews Ask for Their Own Laws
24. The Jews, etc., ask us to grant them their own laws, — that is, that they be allowed to live by their own laws and rites, in their own faith and worship of the one God, and not be compelled to live in the manner of the Gentiles and worship their gods and idols.
25. We have judged that the temple be restored to them. — Judas and the Jews had already recovered the temple by arms and purified it. Nevertheless the king here arrogates this to himself, to display his power over the Jews as well as his liberality, when in reality he does not restore the temple to them, but approves and confirms the restoration already accomplished.
26. You may give them the right hand, — that is, if having given the right hand to the Jews (for this is the rite of entering into a covenant) you ratify a treaty with them. Moreover this treaty is different from the one which Lysias and Antiochus entered into with the same Jews, in chapter XIII, 23 and following, and in book I, chapter VI, where, on the occasion of Philip's rebellion and occupation of Antioch, in order to defeat him, Lysias in the king's name sought and obtained peace from the Jews. Whence you may infer that this treaty did not last long, but was soon broken when war was renewed, as will be clear in the next chapter.
Thus the Turk easily enters into peace with Christians when pressed by a Persian war or some similar one; but when that has been quieted, he easily finds an occasion for breaking the peace, if he judges war to be more useful to himself than peace.
Verse 29: Menelaus Came to Us
29. Menelaus came to us (not that pseudo-pontiff and traitor of the Jews, concerning whom see chapter IV, 34 and following, as some wish, but another envoy of the Jews to the king and Lysias. So say Salianus and others) saying that you wish to go down to your own people who are with us, — that is, so that you may visit your Jewish relatives and friends, who live with me in Syria.
Verse 30: The Right Hand of Security
30. To those therefore who travel until the 30th day of the month Xanthicus (which immediately follows Dysrius, and corresponds to our April) we give the right hand of security. — The king therefore gives the Jews 15 days of security (for on the 15th of the same month Xanthicus these letters of the king were written, as is evident from verse 33), during which they may freely go down to Syria; because peace between him and the Jews had not yet been concluded, but was being negotiated through envoys with the Jews: but once concluded, it was free for the Jews to travel to Syria at any time.
Verse 31: Things Done Through Ignorance
31. Let none of them in any way suffer molestation on account of things done through ignorance. — The king decrees an amnesty for those things that had been done in hostility up to this point between his people and the Jews, so that they may be considered excused, indeed obliterated, as if committed through ignorance.
Verse 32: We Have Sent Back Menelaus
32. We have sent back (that is, returned) Menelaus (sent by you to me) to address you, — and to report to you those things which he discussed with me and to convey my thoughts and words to you.
The Romans also sent a letter, — namely the ambassadors who were being sent by the Romans to Antiochus, to command him to burn the ships he had beyond the number prescribed by the Roman Senate and to kill the elephants, so as to remove from the Romans the fear or suspicion of a new war, as Appian narrates, and from him Sigonius at the year 591 of the city. These ambassadors of the Romans therefore likewise sent a letter to the Jews, in which they indicated that if they desired any other just conditions of peace with Antiochus, they should write them out for them: for they would see to it that Antiochus agreed to them. For the Romans, as Salianus rightly observes, readily assisted all supplicants who were unjustly harassed, which was the primary origin of their power and expansion in Sicily, in Spain, in Greece, in Asia, in Africa, and everywhere in the world, as the course of Roman History has shown up to this point. When therefore the Jews had betaken themselves to the Roman ambassadors, who were at that time in Syria, and had perhaps already then shown that they aspired to their friendship and alliance, they asked that they confirm what was being granted by Lysias, and settle some other matters with the king in favor of their nation.