Глава III

The royal order to gather and bring all the Jews to execution (3Mak.3:1-22). 3Mac.3:1 Having learned about this, the wicked became so furious that he not only became embittered against the Jews who lived in Alexandria, but also discovered cruel enmity against those who lived in the whole country, ordering to immediately gather everyone together and put them to the most shameful death. 3Mac.3:2 When this matter was being prepared, an evil rumor was spread against the people of Judah by people who were single-minded about crime, regarding such an order, as if they were evading the fulfillment of their legal duties. The idea of ​​the verse is this: the king’s evil intent was greatly fueled by the enemies of the Jews, who also gave the reason for the implementation of this intent - the spread of all kinds of rumors about the evasion of the Jews from their legal duties. 3Mac.3:3 Meanwhile the Jews maintained good will and unfailing loyalty to the kings; but they revered God, lived according to His law, and therefore in some cases allowed deviations and abolitions: for this reason they seemed hostile to some; from all other people, by the good fulfillment of everything that was just, they acquired favor. “Departures and abolitions...” here refers, in all likelihood, to the Jewish statutes about food and their other ritual features, by which they differed from the pagans (see further, v. 4). 3Mac.3:4 Despite the well-known good way of life of this people, the foreigners considered it nothing. They only noticed the difference in worship and food and said that these people did not allow communion of meals with either the king or the nobles, that they were envious and great opponents of the state, and thus divulged deliberate blasphemies about them. "Foreigners", αλλόφυλοι - these are those who should be meant by "some" - ένιοι - of the 3rd verse. They are contrasted with “all other people” - άπαντες άνθρωποι (3 v.) and “the Hellenes who lived in the city” (5 art.), and by “Greeks” here we mean not all non-Jews, as Rome II: 9 et c., but, probably, the Greeks themselves, as the more educated and noble part of the urban population. 3Mac.3:5 The Greeks who lived in the city, who did not experience any offense from them, seeing the unexpected disturbance against these people and their sudden gathering, although they could not help them, for it was the king’s order, but they consoled them, were indignant and hoped that the matter would change: “The sudden confluence of them...” The Greek text does not have “them” here - συνδρομας απροσκόπους - therefore, we can understand here not the confluence of Jews (“them”), but the confluence of pagans that gave rise to unrest, so to speak - popular gatherings with speeches inciting against the Jews. 3Mac 3:6-8 For it was impossible to despise such a multitude of people who were innocent of anything. However, some neighbors and friends and those who traded with them, secretly receiving some of them, promised to help them and do everything possible to protect them. And he, proud of his temporary prosperity and not thinking about the power of the greatest God, thought to remain unchanged in the same intention and wrote the following letter against them: 3Mac.3:9-12 “King Ptolemy Philopator to the inhabitants of Egypt and local military leaders and soldiers - rejoice and be healthy. I myself am healthy, and our affairs are successful. After the campaign we undertook in Asia, which, as you yourself know, with the unexpected help of the gods and our strength, according to our intention, reached a happy ending, we thought of prospering the peoples living in Kel-Syria and Phenicia, not by force of arms, but by condescension and great love for mankind, willingly benefiting them. Giving rich contributions to churches in the cities, we also came to Jerusalem, planning to honor the sanctuary of these worthless people, who never abandon their madness. They, having accepted our arrival willingly in words, but in deeds in deeds, when we wanted to enter the church and honor it with appropriate and best gifts, pompous with their ancient pride, forbade us entry, without suffering from us violence out of love for mankind, which we have towards all people. 3Mac.3:13-15 Having clearly revealed their hostility against us, they alone of all nations stubbornly resist kings and their benefactors and do not want to do anything just. But we, tolerating their madness, both then, as we returned with victory, and in Egypt itself, accepting all peoples with humanity, acted as it should be. By the way, declaring to everyone our unforgettable malice towards their fellow tribesmen, we decided to introduce changes: since they served us in the war and were engaged in very many things that had long been simply granted to them, we even wanted to honor them with the rights of Alexandrian citizenship and make them participants in the primordial priesthood. “The original priesthood” - the king here obviously calls Dionysus, contrasting with him the cult of Judaism that he destroyed. 3Mac.3:16-17 They, having accepted this in opposition to themselves and, out of their kindred evil, rejecting the good and always inclining towards the bad, not only despised the invaluable right of citizenship, but also openly and secretly abhor those few of them who are sincerely disposed towards us, constantly hoping that we, due to their disordered way of life, will soon abolish our institutions. Therefore, we, having been sufficiently convinced by experience that they in any case harbor hostile plans against us, and foreseeing that someday, when an indignation suddenly arises against us, we will have behind us in the person of these wicked traitors and cruel enemies, By indignation against himself that might someday arise, the king means either a war with Syria, or an uprising of his Egyptian subjects, or a soldier’s revolt, or palace turmoil; in all this, the obvious or secret participation of the Jews could have been reflected (an amazing characteristic feature of the Jewish tribe, well known to everyone to this day). 3Mac.3:18-21 We command that as soon as this letter is received, the people we have mentioned with their wives and children, with violence and torture, are imprisoned in iron shackles, and sent from everywhere to us for the death penalty, merciless and shameful, worthy of such criminals. If they are punished once, then we hope that in the future our state affairs will be in perfect order and in the best possible order. If anyone hides any of the Jews, from old man to child, not excluding infants, he must be exterminated with his entire household in the most cruel way. And whoever reveals someone will receive the property of the guilty person and another two thousand drachmas from the royal treasury, will receive freedom and will be honored. “He will receive freedom and will be honored...”, και της ελευθερίας στεφανωθήσεται ..., glory. “he will receive freedom and be crowned.” To the Greek τής ελευθερίας, many texts add τεύξεται. Here, obviously, we are talking about informers and detectives from slaves, the lower classes of the population. All such are promised freedom and crowning, that is, a civil crown, civil rights. - Other interpreters read τής ελευθερίας without any implied terms - as a genitive tense, and translate the entire expression: “will be crowned on the festival of Dionysus,” which was called τά ελευθέρια (from the nickname of Dionysus - ' Ελευθερευς or ' Ελευθήρ). 3Mac 3:22 Every place where a hiding Jew is caught must be devastated and burned, so that no mortal will be fit for anything for ever.” This was the meaning of the letter.