Глава V

The bloodshed in Jerusalem carried out by Jason, and the shameful end of the life of this wicked man (2 Mac. 5: 1-10). The rampages of Antiochus in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Mac. 1:16–28) ( 2 Mac. 5:11–20). Oppression of the people by the cruel officers of Antiochus (2 Mac. 5:21–27). 2Mac.5:1 About this time Antiochus made another expedition to Egypt. About Antiochus's campaign in Egypt - cf. 1Mac.1:17 etc. 2Mac.5:2-3 It happened that over the entire city, for almost forty days, there appeared in the air horsemen in golden robes and like warriors armed with spears, and orderly detachments of cavalry, and attacks and retreats on both sides, the turning of shields, many spears and swings of swords, the throwing of arrows and the shine of golden armor and all kinds of weapons. Josephus Flavius ​​tells about a similar heavenly phenomenon (“On the War of Judas.” VI, 5, 3) before the last Jewish War and the destruction of Jerusalem, which is also confirmed by another, pagan writer Tacitus (Hist. V, 3: visae per coelum concurrrere acies, rutilantia arma, et subito nubium igne collucere templum). Whether such a celestial phenomenon, which popular fantasy interprets as an omen of grave wars and political disasters, was the pure fruit of the excited power of the imagination, or whether it really represents the result of some inexplicable connection between heaven and earth, between the higher spiritual world and the lower, material one, this, given the limitations of our knowledge, remains inaccessible to a final explanation. 2Mac 5:4 Why did everyone pray that this manifestation would be for good. “Everyone prayed that this phenomenon would be for the good...”, that is, for the victory of the Jewish people, since in any case it heralded war. 2Mac 5:5 When a false rumor later spread that Antiochus had died, Jason, gathering at least a thousand men, made a sudden attack on the city; when they climbed the wall and the city was finally taken, Menelaus fled to the fortress. Jason uses the rumor about the death of Antiochus to attack Menelaus - naturally because in this Antiochus was all the support of Menelaus. The capture of the city by only one thousand people is quite possible, provided that the attack was sudden, and also in view of the fact that Jason had many supporters in the city itself who helped him a lot in this matter, according to Flavius ​​(Arch XIII, 5, 1). 2Mac.5:6-7 And Jason mercilessly carried out bloodshed among his fellow citizens, not reflecting that success against fellow tribesmen is the greatest misfortune, and imagining to receive trophies as if over enemies, and not over fellow tribesmen. However, he did not reach the authorities, and the end of his malicious intent was that he, in disgrace, as a fugitive, again went to the country of the Ammonites. “However, he did not reach the leadership ...”, that is, the high priesthood. Probably Menelaus, relying on the fortress, put up such strong opposition to Jason that he again had to flee the city. 2Mac.5:8 The end of his evil life was that, accused before Arethas, the ruler of Arabia, he ran from city to city, persecuted and hated by everyone, as an apostate from the laws, and despised as an enemy of the fatherland and fellow citizens, he was expelled to Egypt. “The end of his evil life was that...”, Greek: πέρας ούν κακής άναστροφής έτυχεν, έγκλεισθείς ..., τ more precisely slav.: “the end for he received the evil of life, he is imprisoned...” More precisely in Russian it would be conveyed like this: “the end of his evil behavior he received is as follows: imprisoned by Aretas, that is, either imprisoned and escaped from it, or in the sense: deprived of the opportunity to find refuge with Aretas, thanks to the demands of Menelaus or the Syrian eparch to hand over the fugitive, he ran from city to city...”. – The rulers of Arabia (τύραννος), which Aretas is called here, were then the kings of Navatea, whose main city was Petra. At that time, the country of Ammon, where Jason went, also belonged to their possessions. 2Mac.5:9 He who expelled so many from the fatherland, himself died on a foreign side, coming to the Lacedaemonians and hoping, due to the affinity of origin, to find refuge with them. On the similarity of the origin of the Jews with the Lacedaemonians - see 1 Mac.XII. 2Mac.5:10 Having left many without burial, he himself remained unmourned, and was not awarded either burial or his father’s tomb. “Not a father’s coffin...”, that is, a coffin in a family crypt on domestic soil. 2Mac 5:11 When all that had happened reached the ears of the king, he thought that Judah was being revolted from him, and he rose from Egypt, enraged in his soul, and took the city with an armed hand. “Enraged in the soul...”, τεθηριωμένος τή ψυχή .., glor.: enraged in the soul..., literally - enraged in the soul... 2Mac.5:12-14 He ordered the soldiers to mercilessly beat everyone they came across and kill anyone who would hide in their houses. This is how the beating of young and old took place, the killing of husbands, wives and children, the slaughter of virgins and infants. Over the course of three days, eighty thousand died: forty thousand fell at the hands of murderers, and no less than those killed were sold. In 1 Mac.1:24 - this is said only a little and dully, that Antiochus “committed murders...”; For this reason, the looting of the church is described in much more detail (vv. 20–23). Josephus gives only the number of captives, indicating up to 10,000 (Archeol XII, 5, 4). 2Mac.5:15-18 But, not content with this, he dared to enter the most holy church in all the earth, having as a guide Menelaus, that traitor of the laws and the fatherland. With wicked hands, accepting sacred vessels and other things donated from other kings for the exaltation and glory and honor of the holy place, admiring them with wicked hands, he distributed them. And Antiochus exalted himself in his thoughts, not realizing that the Lord was angry for a short time for the sins of those living in the city, which is why this place was left without charity. If they had not been overwhelmed by many sins, then, like Iliodorus, sent by King Seleucus to inspect the treasury, he, as soon as he had invaded, would have been immediately punished and would have abandoned his insolence. About the unsuccessful attempt of Iliodor - it is said above - III: 24 etc. 2Mac 5:19 But the Lord did not choose a people for a place, but for a people this place. “The people are not for the place, but the place for the people...” - a saying similar to the Savior’s - “the Sabbath is for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark II: 27). The church itself was not the goal of choosing the people, but the election and education of the people was the goal for which the Lord favored the church and the Divine services in it. 2Mac.5:20-21 Therefore, the place itself, having become involved in the former misfortunes of the people, then participated in the good deeds of the Lord and, having been abandoned by the Almighty in anger, again, with the propitiation of the Supreme Lord, rose in all its glory. So, Antiochus, having stolen one thousand eight hundred talents from the church, hastily retired to Antioch, in exaltation of his heart, finding it possible to make the earth navigable and the sea dry. “Finding it possible to make the earth navigable and the sea dry...”, that is, considering the most impossible things possible for oneself, like the described robbery of the church. 2Mac.5:22 Meanwhile he left officers in Jerusalem to oppress the people - Philip, a Phrygian by birth, and a man of even more cruel character than the one who appointed him, About Philip the Phrygian - see 1 Mac VI:14. - “He who placed him...”, i.e. Antiochus himself. 2Mac.5:23 and in Gerizin - Andronicus and, moreover, Menelaus, who surpassed the others in malice towards the inhabitants and had a hostile disposition towards the citizens of Judah. Garizin, a famous mountain near Shechem (Deut. XI: 29), on which the Samaritans had their church (hereinafter VI: 2; cf. Arch. Jos. Fl. XI, 8, 2). The name of the mountain is used instead of the city of Shechem, which stands at its foot, in order to more expressly show that the Syrian guards were planted in the central places of the Jewish and Samaritan cult, where uprisings against Syrian rule were most likely to occur. These overseers (επισταται) must be distinguished from the overseers (επίσκοποι) mentioned in 1 Mac I: 51. Those (επίσκοποι) observed the execution of the orders and efforts of the king to Hellenize the Jews; these (επιστάται) were appointed to suppress imaginary or real discontent and unrest among the people and were probably at the main disposal of the military commander of Kele-Syria, Samaria and Judea. – Andronikos, left as a bailiff in Garizin, is obviously a different person from the one mentioned earlier (IV: 31 etc.). (Menelaus) “had a hostile disposition towards the citizens of Judah, i.e. those who remained faithful to their Jewish faith and customs: πολίτης ᾿Ιουδαίος - instead of ανήρ ᾿Ιουδαίος (1 Mac II: 23; XIV: 33, 37). 2Mac.5:24 He sent the author of the wickedness, Apollonius, with twenty-two thousand troops, commanding that all the adults be killed, and the women and children sold. Apollonius, mentioned here, is the culprit of misfortunes (more correctly glorified: hated chief - μυσάρχης), the same chief of taxes whom 1 Mac I: 29 also mentions. 2Mac.5:25-26 But he, having come to Jerusalem and feigning peace, delayed until the holy day of the Sabbath, and, having caught the Jews at the time of rest, he ordered his men to arm themselves. He killed everyone who came out to see this spectacle and, having invaded the city with an army, beat up many people. “I ordered my people to arm themselves. He killed everyone who came out to see this spectacle...” Obviously, something like maneuvers or military games were arranged, which, as an innocent spectacle, everyone was drawn to look at. And this became the death of many. 2 Maccabee 5:27 But Judas Maccabee, the tenth of his generation, withdrew into the wilderness and lived with his followers in the mountains in the likeness of animals, eating herbs, so as not to become involved in defilement. “The tenth of his kind...”, δεκατός που γενηθείς, is an expression of quantitative rather than ordinal meaning: the tenth, that is, with nine others, similar to the expression: ογδοον N ώ e (2 Pet II: 5) - the eighth Noah, that is, with seven other members of his family (“in eight souls”). - “He withdrew into the wilderness...”, είς τήν έρημον, i.e., into the Judean desert (see 1 Mac II: 29). - “Eating herbs (χορτώδης τροφή - plant food), so as not to become involved in defilement” - through eating meat, which was forcibly and with all sorts of tricks forced to eat from animals sacrificed to the pagan gods (cf. 1 Mac I: 62).