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VIRTUAL CHANUKAH
POSTED 08 DECEMBER, 2007
Teaching on 1 Maccabees 4:26-61
commentary by J.K. McKee
Those of the foreigners who
escaped went and reported to Lysias all that
had happened. When he heard it, he was
perplexed and discouraged, for things had
not happened to Israel as he had intended,
nor had they turned out as the king had
commanded him. But the next year he mustered
sixty thousand picked infantrymen and five
thousand cavalry to subdue them. They came
into Idumea and encamped at Bethzur, and
Judas met them with ten thousand men
(1 Maccabees 4:26-29).
1 Maccabees 4:26-61 is a
selection of text that many people in the
Messianic community will be reading, as it has
been published with a variety of Torah reading
schedules by some Messianic ministries. In our
examination of the history surrounding Chanukah,
I think it is prudent for us to examine a
selection from this reading, to get a good idea
about what was taking place during this time.
All too often, we hear “about the Maccabees” or
“about the Greeks,” but we often do not delve
into what was actually going on.
Because of the uncertain authorship and dating
of 1 Maccabees, it is not accepted as canonical
Scripture by Jews and Protestants. George A. F.
Knight speculates that “Our author must have
been living after the close of the period of
which he writes (134 B.C.)…On the other hand,
the author shows no effect of the advent in
Palestine of the Romans, which occurred in 63
B.C. We suppose therefore that he wrote before
that time. It is more than likely, then, that he
finished his book soon after 104.”[1]
The text as we have it today “has come down to
us in Greek. But that is certainly a translation
from the original Hebrew text.”[2]
The version of 1 Maccabees that we have was
compiled with other Apocryphal texts as an
adjunct for the Greek Septuagint, which is used
in English translations today.
Today’s teaching comes from a
section that begins after Judas Maccabeus
defeats Gorgias at Emmaus, and right before he
meets Lysias in battle. It demonstrates that at
first the Seleucids thought they could easily
defeat Judas and his guerilla army, with “five
thousand infantry and a thousand picked cavalry”
(1 Maccabees 4:1), but are defeated by an
inferior force of three thousand. I would
recommend that you read 1 Maccabees 4:1-25 to
get an important backdrop of what we will be
examining today, as we see the Maccabees gaining
momentum are greatly feared by their enemies.
26 Those of the foreigners who
escaped went and reported to Lysias all that had
happened.
Prior to Lysias’ engagement with
Judas Maccabeus, “foreigners” are said to have
escaped and make their way to him. Previously,
we are told, “The Gentiles were crushed and fled
into the plain…and all those in the rear fell by
the sword. They pursued them to Gazara, and to
the plains of Idumea, and to Azotus and Jamnia;
and three thousand of them fell (1 Maccabees
4:14-15). The Greek text calls these men
allophulos (allofuloß),
meaning, “of
another tribe, foreign”
(LS).[3]
Knight indicates that these were mercenaries who
were “concerned only to earn their wages as
soldiers.”[4]
This might account for some of the reason why,
as originally of a force of 5,000, they run from
Judas Maccabeus and his army. But at the same
time, it was Judas who appeals to his army,
“Remember how our fathers were saved at the Red
Sea, when Pharaoh with his forces pursued them”
(1 Maccabees 4:9). Judas further rallies his
troops with the battle cry, “And now let us cry
to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us and
remember his covenant with our fathers and crush
this army before us today. Then all the Gentiles
will know that there is one who redeems and
saves Israel” (1 Maccabees 4:10-11).
Being defeated by those rallied from images of
the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, these
mercenaries wearily come to the feet of Lysias.
Lysias was an extremely important man in the
empire of Antichous Epiphanes, having been
“appointed regent of Syria and guardian of his
son while he attacked Persia…Lysias sent
Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias with a large army
against Judas, but the Jews soundly defeated
them near Emmaus” (ISBE).[5]
If you were in Lysias’ position,
and you had just sent these men to defeat a
rag-tag Jewish militia, and here the army comes
fleeing for their lives—even if they were just
mercenaries—what would you be thinking? You
would be furious. You would feel that your
subordinates could not take care of a simple
task as crushing the Jewish uprising. Later, you
might be thinking, that a bigger problem needs
to be resolved. Lysias himself would now have to
take care of it, as he was probably shaking his
head in anger and disgust as to what had just
transpired.
27 When he heard it, he was
perplexed and discouraged, for things had not
happened to Israel as he had intended, nor had
they turned out as the king had commanded him.
V. 27 describes the attitude that
Lysias had as he was hearing the report from the
battlefield. The REB says “He was stunned at the
news, bitterly disappointed.” This is because
Lysias’ plans of a simple military defeat of the
Jewish guerillas had not worked. Now his army
was defeated, and the revolt was gaining
momentum. Lysias’ well-laid plans had not been
executed as he had ordered. But it is not as
though Lysias is just furious about his
subordinates’ failure; he is also very concerned
about himself, being the regent of Syria. Notice
that the text tells us, “the result was quite
the opposite to what the king had ordered” (NJB).
If you were in the position of either Lysias’
subordinates, or Lysias himself, you would be
very concerned about your own life. In ancient
times, most generals and military leaders who
failed in combat were either expected to commit
suicide in the face of defeat, or often faced
execution.
Of course, we all know the real reason why
Lysias is given this negative report: the God
of Israel won out over His enemies. Knight
makes the important observation, “The Jews were
fired by loyalty, faith, and trust both in God’s
covenant and in the rightness of their cause.”[6]
We need to understand that for the author of 1
Maccabees, the Jewish people are “Israel.” This
is difficult for many non-Jewish Believers in
the Two-House Messianic community to understand,
because while seeing themselves as a part of
Israel, they often relegate the Jewish people
only to the place of “Judah.” However, at
this time in Biblical history, “Judah” was all
that remained of recognizable Israel. The
Apostle Paul himself refers to the Jewish people
as “Israel” in his teaching on the olive tree in
Romans chs. 9-11. He says, “they
were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans
3:2).
During Chanukah, when we
recall these events, we get to consider what the
“oracles of God” actually are. Many immediately
conclude that these oracles are the Torah, and
this would be a correct answer. But more and
more studies into the Jewish background of the
New Testament are revealing that when “the Law”
(Grk. nomos,
nomoß)
is spoken of by the Apostolic writers, it is in
a much looser sense than just the Biblical books
of Genesis-Deuteronomy. It does, in fact,
include some of the Oral Torah. Are oracles from
God found in the Oral Torah? A good litmus test
to see whether or not someone in the independent
Messianic community believes so, or does not
believe so, is whether or not they are
celebrating Chanukah. Let us not forget
that if Judah, the recognizable remnant of
Israel, had been destroyed, there would have
been not only no operating Temple or Torah, but
no Messiah to come into the world to save us
from our sins.
28 But the next year he mustered
sixty thousand picked infantrymen and five
thousand cavalry to subdue them. 29 They came
into Idumea and encamped at Bethzur, and Judas
met them with ten thousand men.
V. 28 describes
how seriously Lysias was concerned about the
forces of Judas Maccabeus. In spite of how it is
variably translated, the fact that Lysias takes
“the Jewish threat” seriously is obvious. He
assembles “sixty thousand picked infantrymen and
five thousand cavalry.” His does this with “the
intention of finishing off the Jews” (NJB).
Perhaps we can assume that Lysias knew the power
of the Jewish religion, and had heard of the
stories of the God of Israel. In spite of having
superior numbers, as a polytheist Lysias would
have believed that Israel’s God could intervene
on their behalf. He would have believed his gods
to be superior, but even so he wants the
rebellion crushed in a speedy manner before God
can act.
Knight explains that
these events probably occurred in the Fall of
164 B.C., and that “Lysias must have marched
from Antioch S down the coast to Philistia,
turned E, then N. He was now in the land where
David had led his freebooters and where
Saul and Jonathan had fought
against the Philistines.”[7]
Whereas the previous force only encountered a
Jewish army of 3,000, here Lysias encounters an
army of 10,000. Still outnumbered more than 6 to
1, there must have been an incredible amount of
zeal in the Maccabees. Here they were fighting
in the midst of their homeland, where their
forefathers David and Jonathan, and even Saul,
had fought off some of Israel’s most ruthless
enemies. David S. Williams comments, “Although
Judas’s forces have grown, the Jews are still
greatly outnumbered. Their subsequent victory
against the larger forces assembled by Lysias
carries forward the theme that strength comes
from God, not from numbers.”[8]
How many of us
have the courage and spiritual zeal inside of us
to continue like the Maccabees? When we consider
the role the enemy plays in battle, we can see
that he is desperately concerned because he
knows that he is fighting against God and cannot
win. This was the case of Lysias as he must
assume control of his forces and put down the
Jewish rebellion himself. Of course, we know
that he does not succeed.
Sometime in the
future, Satan’s servant, known by various terms
in Scripture such as the beast, the man of
lawlessness, or simply the antichrist, is going
to come to power. He is not going to succeed
according to his master’s wishes. He is going to
fail. In the end, at the end of the Millennium,
Satan is going to be released to deceive the
world. Satan is going to get his chance and will
be in direct control of the events, not through
an intermediary like the antimessiah. But he
too, in the end, will fail:
“When the thousand
years are completed, Satan will be released from
his prison, and will come out to deceive the
nations which are in the four corners of the
earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together
for the war; the number of them is like the sand
of the seashore. And they came up on the broad
plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of
the saints and the beloved city, and fire came
down from heaven and devoured them” (Revelation
20:7-9).
Bibliography
Anderson, Hugh. “Books of Maccabees,” in ABD,
4:439-454.
Brownlee, W.H. “Books of Maccabees,” in IDB,
3:201-215.
Knight, George A. F. “The First Book of the
Maccabees,” in The Interpreter’s One-Volume
Commentary on the Bible, pp 588-599.
McEleney, Neil J. “The First Book of the
Maccabees,” in The Oxford Study Bible, pp
1197-1232.
Williams, David S. “1 Maccabees,” in New
Interpreter’s Study Bible, pp 1551-1593.
NOTES
[1]
George A.F. Knight, “The First Book of
the Maccabees,” in Charles M. Laymon,
ed., The Interpreter’s One-Volume
Commentary on the Bible (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1971), 588.
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
H.G. Lidell and R. Scott,
An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 38.
[4]
Knight, in
Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on
the Bible, 593.
[5]
J.J. Scott, Jr., “Lysias,”
in in G.W. Bromiley, ed. et. al.,
International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1988), 3:192.
[6]
Knight, in
Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary on
the Bible, 593.
[7]
Knight, in Interpreter’s
One-Volume Commentary on the Bible, 593.
[8]
David S. Williams, “1
Maccabees,” in Walter J. Harrelson, ed.,
et. al. New Interpreter’s Study Bible,
NRSV (Nashville: Abingdon, 2003),1563.
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