Глава IV

The expulsion of the Jews to Alexandria, their imprisonment and census (3Mac.4:1-16). 3Mac.4:1-3 Wherever this command came, the pagans instituted public feasts with joyful shouts, as if the enmity that had long been ingrained in the soul was now boldly revealed. And the Jews began to feel inconsolable grief, bitter weeping and sobbing; for the groans of those mourning their unexpected, suddenly determined death burned the heart, reaching from all sides. What region or city, or what inhabited place, or what roads, was not filled with their weeping and cries? “Which area...”, τις νομός. Νομός is a common noun to designate the districts or districts into which Egypt was divided. 3Mac.4:4 Cruelly and without any pity, they were expelled together by the authorities of each city, so that at the sight of this extraordinary punishment, some of the enemies, looking at the common suffering and thinking about the unknown vicissitudes of life, mourned their most unfortunate exile. 3Mac.4:5 They drove a crowd of elderly people, covered with gray hair, hunched over from senile weakness in their legs, and at the request of forcible expulsion, they shamelessly forced them to a speedy procession. 3Mak.4:5–8. Having mentioned the disaster that befell the Jews in general terms, the writer gives a description of individual cases of how the Jews were sent to execution in Alexandria. 3Mac.4:6 The young women, who had just been married and entered the bridal chamber, began to weep instead of rejoicing, sprinkled ashes on their hair, fragrant with ointments, were led in uncovered, and instead of marriage songs they raised a common cry, being tormented by the tortures of foreigners. In chains they were openly dragged with violence, until they were thrown into the ship. “They sprinkled ashes… on their hair…” - as a sign of the greatest sorrow and mourning. - “Before being thrown into the ship...” The Jews of each region were apparently led to the nearest pier on the river. Nile, where they climbed onto special transports that descended from the upper reaches to the mouth of the Nile. 3Mac.4:7 And their spouses, instead of wreaths tied around their necks with ropes, in their blooming youth, instead of the feast and pleasure of youth, spent the remaining days of the marriage in weeping, for they saw open hell under their feet. Mention of the wreaths of the spouses - cf. Isa LXI: 10. These were either crowns in the proper sense, or special head decorations that resembled them. - “The remaining days of the marriage...” The marriage celebration usually lasted 7 days (Court XIV: 12, 15; Comrade XI: 18). – “Under your feet (i.e. in close proximity, spatial or temporal) you saw open hell...”, i.e. imminent death - corresponds to ours: death behind us, or - on the verge of death. 3Mac.4:8 They were carried in the likeness of beasts under the yoke of iron fetters; some were chained by the necks to the ship's benches, others were tied by the legs with strong bonds. In addition, covered with a dense platform, they were separated from the light, so that, surrounded on all sides by darkness, they were kept like intruders throughout the voyage. 3Mac.4:9 When they were brought to a place called Schedia, and the voyage was completed, as the king had appointed, then he ordered them to be placed in front of the city on a horse list, which had a wide circumference and was very convenient for exemplary reproach in view of everyone going to the city and going back to the interior of the country, so that they would not have communication with the army, nor would they be awarded any shelter at all. “A place called Schedia...” is also mentioned by Strabo (XVII, p. 800) - 120 stadia from Alexandria, probably a river harbor or pier for ships arriving in the city along the Nile. – The horse lists – the hippodrome of Alexandria lay – according to Strabo (XVII, p. 795) – in front of the eastern gates of the city. - “So that they have no communication with the army...” Here one can see the king’s fear, lest the rich of the Jewish captives persuade the army to release them through promises of a good ransom. 3Mac.4:10 When this was done and the king heard that their fellow tribesmen often went out secretly from the city to mourn the shameful misfortune of their brothers, he became very angry and ordered that they should be dealt with in exactly the same way as with those, so that they would receive no less punishment. From this verse it is revealed that the local Alexandrian Jews seemed to still enjoy freedom, and only the provincial Jews, whom their Alexandrian relatives began to visit, were deprived of it. This, however, does not fit well with III: 1, which says that the king first of all attacked the Jews of Alexandria and then the rest, “who lived in the whole country.” 3Mac.4:11-14 He ordered that all the people be registered by name, not for the hard servile service that had been announced shortly before, but in order to torment them with announced executions and completely destroy them in one day. And although this census was carried out with extreme haste and zealous diligence from sunrise to sunset, it could not be completely completed within forty days. The king, excessively and incessantly indulging in pleasure, instituted feasts in front of all idols, and with a mind that had deviated far from the truth, and with unclean lips, glorified those who were deaf and could not speak or give help, and uttered inappropriate things against the greatest God. After the said period of time, the scribes reported to the king that they were not able to make a census of the Jews because of their countless number; Moreover, even more of them are located in the regions; some remain in their homes, others are scattered in different places, so that it is impossible even for all the authorities in Egypt to do this. Poems either convey their thought unclearly, or this thought itself is difficult to accept and explain. At the very least, the question remains completely open and unclear: is the writer talking about a census of all the Jews, or only those of Alexandria, or only those who were at the hippodrome? In both cases and the third, strong contradictions and difficulties arise, which are difficult to understand due to the vagueness of the writer’s speech. – Philo estimates the total number of Jews in Egypt to be 1,000,000 (adv. Flacc. § 6). This casts serious doubt on many of the testimonies of the writer of our book. If indeed all the Jews from all regions of Egypt were gathered in Alexandria, then it is not clear how they could be imprisoned at the hippodrome in the number of a million? How could they be trampled underfoot by 500 elephants? How could they be fed and subsequently generously supplied from the king with everything that everyone needed before arriving at their home (VII: 16)? How could they celebrate, being content with everything from the king, until the fourteenth day (VI: 36)? All these difficulties force us to assume that the writer has a whole series of exaggerations that do not agree with the truth and were allowed by him to further glorify the Jewish name. 3Mac.4:15-16 When the king threatened them even more severely, suggesting that they had been bribed with gifts and were cunningly avoiding punishment, then they had to tangibly convince him of this. They proved that they lacked either charters or the necessary writing canes. This was the action of an invincible heavenly Providence that helped the Jews.