1, 2, 4 Maccabees and the New Testament

My intertestamental literature class approaches its first exam of the semester. I thought I would use the chance to collect my thoughts on how 1, 2, and 4 Maccabees potentially shed light on the meaning of the New Testament. 1 and 2 Maccabees are of course part of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox OT. 4 Maccabees is not a part of anyone's OT but is a kind of appendix to the Greek Old Testament. [Apocrypha quotes are from the NRSV translation]


1 Maccabees

• 1 Maccabees is our primary historical source for the Maccabean period from the Syrian king Antiochus IV and the events of Daniel 11 (167BC) to John Hyrcanus (ca. 104BC). It is clearly pro-Maccabean, but still seems a reasonably accurate historical source. Compare 1 Macc. 1:54 with Dan. 11:31 and Mark 13:14.


• It gives us a snapshot of what the NT understands by "zeal for the law" (e.g., Acts 21:20; Romans 10:2). So 1 Macc. 2:50: "my children, show zeal for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of our ancestors."


• One aspect of 1 Maccabees that was seriously misused by a previous generation is its sense that prophecy had ceased in Israel (9:27; 4:46). An older stream of thought used this comment to argue for why apocalyptic began, arguing that since there was no prophecy, people wrote through the voices of the past. I don't think anyone accepts this any more.


• The zealous Hasidim of 2:42 have long been suggested to be the forerunners of the Pharisees. This is seriously questioned by many today.

2 Maccabees

• No way to say for sure, but it has often been suggested that this book was written by a Pharisee. That's because it has a strong sense of physical resurrection, intestines and all.


• Surely the most relevant element to 2 Maccabees is its strong sense of resurrection for those who die a martyr's death (cf. chap. 7 and 14:37-46).


• Hebrews 11:35 probably alludes to the mother and 7 brothers of chap. 7: "Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to be released, that they might rise to a better life."


• 2 Maccabees does not necessarily have a sense of a general resurrection. In some sense it is the way the brothers die that secures their resurrection. So Paul only speaks of the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and perhaps echoes old ways of thinking when he connects the "fellowship" of Christ's sufferings with the possibility "if somehow I might attain to the resurrection for the dead" (Phil. 3:11; cf. 2 Cor. 4:10-11).


• Resurrection in 2 Maccabees is strongly physical, intestines and all (e.g., 2 Macc. 14:46). Presumably those who were raised would live out the life snatched from them and die again. Paul does not have such a view of the resurrection. Resurrection is corporeal (embodied) to be sure (1 Cor. 15:35). But it is a spiritual body that is not composed of flesh and blood (1 Cor. 15:50).
  
  It is possible, of course, that some of the gospel writers or even Jesus had a more fleshly idea about our resurrection bodies (cf. Luke 24:40). What does Jesus mean when he says it is better to enter into the kingdom with one eye rather than to be thrown into Gehenna with two?


• The biggest thorn in Luther's side was the sacrifice for the dead Judas makes in 2 Macc. 12:38-45. This sacrifice makes it possible for these sin-laden dead soldiers to rise from the dead in the resurrection. This passage gets my vote as the best explanation for the rationale behind baptism for the dead that Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 15:29.


• Connected to resurrection is the curious comment in 2 Macc. 7:28: "Look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed." Leaving Gen. 1:1-2 out of the discussion, this is the first candidate for the idea of ex nihilo creation in Jewish literature. I personally don't think that's what 7:28 is saying. It is rather affirming God's ability to reconstitute the bodies of the martyrs.


• Although it is debated, 2 Macc. 7:38 may imply that the death of a righteous individual can satisfy God's wrath toward his people, resulting in their restoration: "I, like my brothers, give up body and life for the laws of our ancestors, appealing to God to show mercy soon to our nation ... and through me and my brothers to bring to an end the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation."
  
  It makes a lot of sense that the disciples and early believers in the resurrection may have conceptualized Jesus' death in similar terms. They may have believed that Jesus' death would bring God's wrath toward Israel to an end and bring about the restoration of the nation. Certainly Acts 1:6 and Romans 11:26 seems to look for such an eventual restoration of Israel in the light of Christ's death. See 4 Maccabees below.


• 2 Maccabees 6:12-17 has the curious sense that God punishes the sins of Israel differently from the sins of the other nations. With Israel, he disciplines them as they go along (cf. Heb. 12). But with the Gentiles, he stores up his wrath until he absolutely obliterates them. Possible NT parallels include 1 Peter, where the judgment of the house of God is underway (1 Pet. 4:17). But watch out for what things will look like when the judgment gets to the rest of the world! Romans 3:25 also mentions the need for justice in relation to sins God has passed over. Some have argued, I think wrongly, that Paul only has in mind the sins of the Gentiles here.


• Strong emphasis on a noble death that leaves an example of zeal for the law for those who follow.


• N. T. Wright's sense that Israel has never really returned from exile (e.g., 2:7, 18).

4 Maccabees

• A philosophical version of 2 Maccabees 6:12-7:42


• Very Stoic in tone--(devout) reason over emotions, self-control


• controlling the passions of the flesh (7:18) reminds us of Paul in Romans 7:5 where Paul speaks of the person "in the flesh" as subject to the "passions of sins" in their "members." For Paul, the Spirit liberates us from the slavery of sin. For 4 Maccabees, it is a matter of reason giving a person control of such passions.


• 4 Maccabees goes beyond 2 Maccabees to see the deaths of the martyrs as having atoning value, even substitutionary value:
  
  "Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them. Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs" (Eleazar, 6:28-29)
  
  "The tyrant was punished, and the homeland purified--they having become, as it were, a ransom for the sin of our nation. And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice [ιλαστήριον], divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated" (17:21-22)
  
• Compare these quotes to a couple verses in the NT:
  
  "The Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
  
  "Whom God offered as an atoning sacrifice [ιλαστήριον], through faithfulness, by means of his blood, to demonstrate his righteousness."
  
• It doesn't seem far fetched to suggest that the earliest post-resurrection followers of Jesus might have conceptualized Jesus' death in this way. Of course it is then interesting to wonder if 1) they saw this as a death for the sins of Israel, leading to its political restoration and 2) we should note that the concept of "atonement" in such a case is neither universal nor comprehensive for all time. In other words, such martyr-effected atonement would not necessarily imply an end to the temple or of the need for its ongoing sacrifices. We have the benefit of Hebrews; they did not.


• Interestingly, 4 Maccabees no longer looks at the afterlife in terms of resurrection but in terms of the immortality of the soul: "Although the ligaments joining his bones were already severed, the courageous youth, worthy of Abraham, did not groan, but as though transformed by fire into immortality, he nobly endured the rackings" (9:22).


• Death thus brings perfection (7:15), a statement that reminds me of Romans 6:7!


• Because the interrogation seems to take place at Antioch, because Antioch early on had a cult venerating the seven brothers, it is often suggested that 4 Maccabees was written at Antioch. Also, since the territory of Antioch is joined to Cilicia (4:2--compare 2 Macc. 3:5), it is often suggested that this treatise was written AD20-72, during which time the Roman provinces were joined. Given that Antioch was the center of the Hellenistic mission of the early church, it is not ridiculous to suggest that some early Christians like Paul might have known of it.