Victor L. Parker, «Judas Maccabaeus' Campaigns against Timothy», Vol. 87 (2006) 457-476
Both 1 and 2 Maccabees mention various campaigns of Judas Maccabaeus against
an opponent called Timothy. The author argues that although 1 Maccabees in
several instances does provide more accurate detail, 2 Maccabees’ presentation
of these campaigns as chronologically discrete has the greater historical
plausibility. Additionally, 2 Maccabees alone preserves a record of a third,
historically plausible campaign against Timothy. Overall, 2 Maccabees deserves
more esteem as an historical source than it commonly receives.
462 Victor L. Parker
places him amongst the neighbouring “nations†who menace the Jews:
he is the leader of “Ammonites†and others, but never a Seleucid
general like Lysias or Nicanor (18). Also, in both books Timothy hires
mercenaries, in particular Arabs, to fight against Judas (19).
Finally, in both books the sequence of campaigns against the
neighbouring peoples is substantially the same, albeit with omissions:
the first campaign against Timothy is absent from 1 Maccabees as is
Judas’ campaign against Jamnia; likewise, one fails to find in 2
Maccabees the campaign against the sons of Baean, Joseph’s
campaigns in the coastal plain, and Judas’ campaign against Azotus.
All the same, the four campaigns which both books have in common
do stand in the exact same sequence. As Kolbe put it, “wir haben
es…mit identischen Darstellungen der gleichen Ereignisse zu tun, die
sich gegenseitig ergänzen, aber nirgends widersprechen†(20).
2. The Campaign at 2 Macc 10,24-38 and 1 Macc 5,6-8
If we have then shewn that 1 and 2 Maccabees are, in general, at
least speaking of the same man and the same campaigns, and that the
campaign at 2 Macc 12,2.10-31 corresponds to that at 1 Macc 5,24-
54 (21), our next task must then be to determine if 2 Macc 10,24-38 and
8,30-32 also correspond clearly to accounts in 1 Maccabees.
A case can be made for the second campaign in 2 Maccabees, that
it corresponds to that at 1 Macc 5,6-8 (22). The terse account in 1
Maccabees has Judas defeating Timothy and then — after the main
battle, in an action not clearly related to the campaign against Timothy
— taking a town on the way back to Judaea. In 2 Macc 10,24-38 Judas
defeats Timothy in a battle, after which Timothy flees to a town which
Judas takes by storm. Although the account in 2 Maccabees is
expansive (in contrast to the brevity of 1 Maccabees), the added
material proves, with one or just possibly two exceptions, little more
(18) 1 Macc 5,6.
(19) 1 Macc 5,39; 2 Macc 10,24 and 12,10.
(20) KOLBE, Beiträge, 133. Cf. J. SIEVERS, The Hasmoneans and their
Supporters from Mattathias to the Death of John Hyrcanus I (Atlanta 1990)
51-52.
(21) For a synopsis of the two accounts (together with Josephus’ version) see
J. SIEVERS, Synopsis of the Greek Sources for the Hasmonean period : 1-2
Maccabees and Josephus, War 1 and Antiquities 12–14 (Subsidia Biblica 20;
Roma 2001) 86-98.
(22) For a synopsis see SIEVERS, Synopsis, 74-76.