Tuesday, October 10, 2006

These are the assignments from last week.
Sorry that I took so long to get them up on the website. You can also find the assignments in PDF format on the right side of the page.

Batya Weinstock
October 3, 2006
Ancient Jewish History
The First Book of Maccabees
After Alexander of Macedon defeats Darius, the Median and Persian king, he begins to not only reign over Darius’ kingdoms, but wages wars, captures land and assassinates rulers. Alexander’s successors also “[do] much evil” throughout their respective provinces. Among his evil successors is Antiochus Epiphanes, who conquers both Egypt and Jerusalem with force, brutality and arrogance. Before he seizes Jerusalem, however, the people of Israel are already facing problems with the adoption of heathen ritual and the rebellion from Jewish Law; as it states “…there arose out of Israel lawless men…they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, in the heathen fashion, and submitted to uncircumcision, and disowned the holy agreement.”(375-376)
In Jerusalem, Antiochus enters the Beit haMikdash and “in arrogance”(376) removes items such as the altar, lampstand and “secret treasures”(376). The text mentions Antiochus’ arrogance again, on page 376 as it states, “He massacred people and spoke with great arrogance.” It’s use conveys a possible additional aspect to the relationship between Antiochus’ siege of Jerusalem and the religious disobedience taking place at that time. Perhaps the Jews associated Antiochus’ haughtiness and confidence with factual superiority and therefore strove to further imitate his and his peoples’ ways?
Despite the eager acceptance of heathen practices by many, Antiochus’ siege still spawns intense mourning throughout the land. This grief only increases as two years later, Antiochus cunningly convinces the people of Jerusalem to trust him before he un-expectantly attacks and destroys much of the city and its people. Jerusalem loses her people and with them, her sanctuary’s use and city’s religiosity. Antiochus succeeds in conforming many of the people of Israel so that they, and his own people are practicing the same rituals and following the same laws. It seems at this point in the document that the people of Israel have been split into to very different groups; one group has willingly and perhaps even eagerly adopted heathen practices while the second group was forced “to hide in every hiding place they had.”(378)
The attempt to conform the people of Israel soon turned violent as the Greeks began in “Chislev, in the once hundred and forty-fifth year”(378) to murder the men, women and families who were circumcising their sons. The document suddenly focuses on a specific family on page 379 and tells of Mattathias, a decedent of a priest who transports his family from Jerusalem to Modin. Mattathias laments to his five sons about the atrocities taking place in Jerusalem and in her temple. The family not only refuses to follow the heathen practices but Mattathias even murders a man complying to the king’s order to make a heathen sacrifice, and the commanding officer whose orders the man was following. After this act of defiance Mattathias exclaims, “Let everybody who is zealous for the Law and stands by the agreement come out after me.”(380) It is at this moment that the people of Israel not willing to comply to Antiochus’ decrees (except for Mattathius’ family) form a secluded camp in the wilderness in order to escape their oppression. Antiochus’ army attacks them on the Sabbath but the people refuse to fight due to their religious beliefs; they are all murdered -–“ to the number of a thousand.”(381) This tragedy convinces Mattathius that if attacked on the Sabbath, he and his sons must fight in order to protect themselves.
The following scene in “The First Book of Maccabees” is one that transforms the natures of Mattathius, his sons and his comrades into the stereotypical ‘Maccabees’ that are courageous and righteously violent in their attempt to retain Jewish Law within Israel. Perhaps the reason for this change is that Mattathius and his sons are joined by “Hasideans, war-like Israelites, every one a volunteer for the Law.”(382) The men advance from their hiding and begin destroying heathen altars, circumcising Israel’s children and “[rescuing] the Law from the hands of the heathen and their kings.”(382)
From this point forward, Mattathius and his sons are forceful fighters with significant motivation and a clear mission. They seem to replace fear and grief with fervor and impatience. It is interesting to note where this transformation takes place for it is immediately after their fellow rebels fall that Mattathius and his sons realize the grave danger that they and their beliefs are facing. Mattathius recognizes that unless they use force to combat their oppressors, his people will be erased not only from Jerusalem but from the “face of the earth.”(381)

The Apocrypha, The First Book of Maccabees
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2 comments:

lospielman said...

Simone Gore
9/28/06
AJH
Professor Spielman

An Examination of First Maccabees (1.1-4.3)

First Maccabees has a historical preface that briefly tells the back story of the Seleucid Empire : “It came to pass after Alexander, the son of Phillip, who came from the land of Chittim, had utterly defeated Darius…”(1 Macc.1.1-3). The story relates, in what is a primary believable narrative, the story of the Seleucid conquest of Judea and the subsequent rebellion against the government due to their enactment of cruel anti-Jewish laws. For the purpose of this response, I will analyze First Maccabees via the use of language.
First Maccabees certainly gives the aura of historicity, and the main detraction from the “accuracy” is the tendency of the author(s) to use very biased language. However, it is easy to the see the prejudice within the text, “And he [Alexander of Macedon] made his way to the end of the earth and despoiled a multitude of nations” (1 Macc. 1.3). Did Alexander really despoil a multitude of nations? According to Anthony Padgen, “Alexander had been relatively constrained in his handling of defeated populations” (Padgen 9). It is interesting how the author(s) loathe Alexander, perhaps they have fond recollections of folk tales of the generosity of the Persians. Another interesting use of language is when “On the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, he [Antiochus Epiphanes] erected a dreadful desecration upon the altar” (1 Macc. 1.44). Dreadful desecration, is that a dysphemism for idol? The loathing of “heathen” behavior runs rampant through the language of the text, which is logical, because after all the Maccabees were fighting against Greek influence and the government enforcement of pagan practices.
The whole pattern of writing shifts (from diction to tone) when dealing with the Jews and the Temple. In fact, several times First Maccabees waxes poetical and switches to verse: “And they shed innocent blood all around the sanctuary…The inhabitants of Jerusalem fled away because of them,/And she became a place where strangers lived…Her dishonor was as great as her glory had been” (1 Macc. 1.37-40). The poetry here is poignant and heart-wrenching, which helps to underline the cause of the Maccabees (i.e. the return to the proper practice of worship and the rededication of the Temple). A very interesting aspect about First Maccabees is the apparent Jewish flight from Jerusalem due to the enforcement of the anti-Jewish laws, like the murder of circumcised infants. This flight was more or less a miniature exile of observant Jews into the Judean heartland. This phenomenon is mentioned twice within the text, in the above poem “The inhabitants of Jerusalem...”and “Then many seekers for uprightness and justice went down into the wilderness to settle, with their sons and wives and their cattle” (1 Macc. 2.29-30). Another striking part of First Maccabees is the apparent massing of slave traders before the presumed destruction of Judea “And he [Lysias] sent with them [his generals Nicanor and Gorgias] forty thousand men and seven thousand horses to go to the land of Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded” (1 Macc. 3.39). A large force, so it follows that the presumed destruction of Judea would be great, so “The merchants of the country heard about them [the Seleucid army] and they took a great quantity of silver and gold, and fetters, and came to the camp to get the Israelites for slaves” (1 Macc. 3.41-42). I imagine that the massing of slavers before an imminent battle may have been a relatively common occurrence in ancient times. However, at this point the slavers were not to enslave the Israelites at this time do to the strategy of Judah Maccabee and the other sons of Mattathias.
Perhaps, part of the language issue might result from translation. Norman Gottwald suggests, “The Books of Maccabees did not enter the canon, in spite of their thrilling accounts of Jewish national revival, because they were written in Greek” (Gottwald 414). Anything that is translated loses something with the resulting transformation into another language and gains something of the translator’s biases. Perhaps part of the feel of the language results from translation. A general idea about the author’s biases is apparent within the repeated words that can stand for the themes, found within the text, like profane, heathen, glory, and zeal. The themes are the profanation of the Temple and Judaism by the heathen, and the resulting zeal of the righteous Maccabees will and does restore the glory of the Temple and proper Judaic practice (banned by Antiochus, according to the text), like circumcision, the observance of Shabbat, etc. Verily, zealotry is lauded in the text. Mattathias is described as slaying a Jew performing idolatry, and is likened to Pinchas of the Pentateuch. The text also praises the practice of the Maccabees and their followers of forcible circumcision.
Ultimately, First Maccabees is a story of the glorious zealots triumphing over the profane heathen. This text gives important insight into the life of religious Jews during the Seleucid period as well as the behavior of slave traders. The language (albeit slightly marred from translation) is a good method for analyzing First Maccabees, because the language is basically all that we as historians have to work with.

Works Cited
First Maccabees. Coursepacket. JTS, 2006.

Gottwald, Norman. The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-literary Introduction. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1987.

Pagden, Anthony. Peoples and Empires. New York: The Modern Library, 2001.

10/10/2006 6:22 AM
lospielman said...

Simone Gore
9/28/06
AJH
Professor Spielman

An Examination of First Maccabees (1.1-4.3)

First Maccabees has a historical preface that briefly tells the back story of the Seleucid Empire : “It came to pass after Alexander, the son of Phillip, who came from the land of Chittim, had utterly defeated Darius…”(1 Macc.1.1-3). The story relates, in what is a primary believable narrative, the story of the Seleucid conquest of Judea and the subsequent rebellion against the government due to their enactment of cruel anti-Jewish laws. For the purpose of this response, I will analyze First Maccabees via the use of language.
First Maccabees certainly gives the aura of historicity, and the main detraction from the “accuracy” is the tendency of the author(s) to use very biased language. However, it is easy to the see the prejudice within the text, “And he [Alexander of Macedon] made his way to the end of the earth and despoiled a multitude of nations” (1 Macc. 1.3). Did Alexander really despoil a multitude of nations? According to Anthony Padgen, “Alexander had been relatively constrained in his handling of defeated populations” (Padgen 9). It is interesting how the author(s) loathe Alexander, perhaps they have fond recollections of folk tales of the generosity of the Persians. Another interesting use of language is when “On the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the one hundred and forty-fifth year, he [Antiochus Epiphanes] erected a dreadful desecration upon the altar” (1 Macc. 1.44). Dreadful desecration, is that a dysphemism for idol? The loathing of “heathen” behavior runs rampant through the language of the text, which is logical, because after all the Maccabees were fighting against Greek influence and the government enforcement of pagan practices.
The whole pattern of writing shifts (from diction to tone) when dealing with the Jews and the Temple. In fact, several times First Maccabees waxes poetical and switches to verse: “And they shed innocent blood all around the sanctuary…The inhabitants of Jerusalem fled away because of them,/And she became a place where strangers lived…Her dishonor was as great as her glory had been” (1 Macc. 1.37-40). The poetry here is poignant and heart-wrenching, which helps to underline the cause of the Maccabees (i.e. the return to the proper practice of worship and the rededication of the Temple). A very interesting aspect about First Maccabees is the apparent Jewish flight from Jerusalem due to the enforcement of the anti-Jewish laws, like the murder of circumcised infants. This flight was more or less a miniature exile of observant Jews into the Judean heartland. This phenomenon is mentioned twice within the text, in the above poem “The inhabitants of Jerusalem...”and “Then many seekers for uprightness and justice went down into the wilderness to settle, with their sons and wives and their cattle” (1 Macc. 2.29-30). Another striking part of First Maccabees is the apparent massing of slave traders before the presumed destruction of Judea “And he [Lysias] sent with them [his generals Nicanor and Gorgias] forty thousand men and seven thousand horses to go to the land of Judah and destroy it, as the king had commanded” (1 Macc. 3.39). A large force, so it follows that the presumed destruction of Judea would be great, so “The merchants of the country heard about them [the Seleucid army] and they took a great quantity of silver and gold, and fetters, and came to the camp to get the Israelites for slaves” (1 Macc. 3.41-42). I imagine that the massing of slavers before an imminent battle may have been a relatively common occurrence in ancient times. However, at this point the slavers were not to enslave the Israelites at this time do to the strategy of Judah Maccabee and the other sons of Mattathias.
Perhaps, part of the language issue might result from translation. Norman Gottwald suggests, “The Books of Maccabees did not enter the canon, in spite of their thrilling accounts of Jewish national revival, because they were written in Greek” (Gottwald 414). Anything that is translated loses something with the resulting transformation into another language and gains something of the translator’s biases. Perhaps part of the feel of the language results from translation. A general idea about the author’s biases is apparent within the repeated words that can stand for the themes, found within the text, like profane, heathen, glory, and zeal. The themes are the profanation of the Temple and Judaism by the heathen, and the resulting zeal of the righteous Maccabees will and does restore the glory of the Temple and proper Judaic practice (banned by Antiochus, according to the text), like circumcision, the observance of Shabbat, etc. Verily, zealotry is lauded in the text. Mattathias is described as slaying a Jew performing idolatry, and is likened to Pinchas of the Pentateuch. The text also praises the practice of the Maccabees and their followers of forcible circumcision.
Ultimately, First Maccabees is a story of the glorious zealots triumphing over the profane heathen. This text gives important insight into the life of religious Jews during the Seleucid period as well as the behavior of slave traders. The language (albeit slightly marred from translation) is a good method for analyzing First Maccabees, because the language is basically all that we as historians have to work with.

Works Cited
First Maccabees. Coursepacket. JTS, 2006.

Gottwald, Norman. The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-literary Introduction. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1987.

Pagden, Anthony. Peoples and Empires. New York: The Modern Library, 2001.

10/10/2006 6:24 AM

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