The Composition of II Maccabees: Insights Provided by a Literary topos (*) According to its preface II Maccabees is the summary of a much larger work by an otherwise unknown Jason of Cyrene. In its extant form it covers the period from 175-161 B.C. and provides us with a reasonably detailed account of the events leading up to the suppression of the Jewish religion (1). It is, however, a much-maligned text, suffering in comparison to the more “matter- of-fact” I Maccabees. Critics focus on supernatural events and stories, yet II Maccabees is not all miracles and anecdotes (2): in broad outline it agrees with I Maccabees, and evidence external to both texts lends support to its presentation of certain events and/or persons. A notable example is the recent discovery of an inscription containing three letters from the administration of King Seleucus IV. The first of these letters is to one Heliodorus announcing the appointment of an administrator to oversee the sanctuaries of the region (including Judaea). The purpose seems to be the extension of royal control over the region’s sanctuaries and revenues. This is the very point to which the Jews object in II Maccabees, where in Chapter 3 a Seleucid ‘chief minister’ called Heliodorus is sent to seize some funds held in the Temple, only to be thwarted by divine intervention (2 Macc 3,4-40). The miracle aside, the convergence between inscription and text is revealing (3). Be that as it may, it is true that the composition of II Maccabees as we have it is unusual. To begin it is prefixed by two letters that, although they were attached at a very early date, are almost certainly later additions and (*) The author wishes to thank Assoc. Prof. Victor Parker who kindly read through a draft of this paper. Of course, any mistakes are solely my responsibility. An early version of this paper was presented at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference 29, 2008, at Christchurch New Zealand. (1) All dates are B.C. unless otherwise stated. All translations are my own although I have made extensive use of commentaries by J.A. GOLDSTEIN, II Maccabees (AB 41A; Garden City, NY 1983) and F.M. ABEL, Les Livres des Maccabées (Paris 1949), so what I have set may reflect agreement with these translations. (2) The scholarship is extensive, but see as demonstrative E. BICKERMAN, Der Gott der Makkabäer (Berlin 1937); C. HABICHT, 2.Makkabäerbuch. Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit I.3 (Gütersloh 1976) and ABEL, Livres, who have all maintained the categorisation of II Maccabees as “tragic”, to the detriment of its acceptance as a “proper” historical work. Contra, note R. DORAN, Temple Propaganda. The purpose and character of II Maccabees (Washington 1981) 77-81 (also 84-97). For more see also R. DORAN, “2 Maccabees and Tragic History”, HUCA 50 (1979) 107-114; GOLDSTEIN, II Maccabees, 20-22; L.L. GRABBE, Judaism From Cyrus to Hadrian (London 1992) 224. (3) See H.M. COTTON – M. WÖRRLE, “Seleukos IV to Heliodorus: A New Dossier of Royal Correspondence from Israel”, ZPE 159 (2007) 191-203. They conclude that this stele is independent verification of II Maccabees’ account of events leading up to the Maccabean revolt; the miracle is described as a way of ‘dressing up’ the rebuff against Seleucus IV’s attempt at the Temple treasury. On the office of ‘Chief Minister’ see E.J. BICKERMAN, Institutions des Séleucides (Paris 1938) 197. This is not an isolated example, note also (e.g.) the assassin Andronicus (2 Macc 5,31-38); on him cf. Diod 30,7.2 and GOLDSTEIN, II Maccabees, 238-239.