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.
Judas Maccabaeus’ Campaigns against Timothy 463
than rhetorical divagation and literary topos: Judas and his men pray
and fast before the battle (in 2 Maccabees far more is made of Judas’
and his men’s unrelenting piety than in 1 Maccabees) (23); during the
battle five horsemen with shining bridles descend from Heaven and
guard Judas during the battle (2 Maccabees abounds in similar
miracles — a circumstance scholars commonly allege to discredit the
book as an historical source) (24); the inhabitants of the town which
Judas sacks after the battle blaspheme and mock the Jews (in 2
Maccabees Judas’ opponents are routinely presented or apostrophised
as blasphemers) (25); the details concerning Judas’ storming of the town
are standard ones, easily supplied by the author (26). Once we strip
away rhetoric and topos, we have before us substantially the same
account as in 1 Maccabees.
Yet we must note the two exceptions: First, in 1 Maccabees the
sacked town is called Jazer, which lies in the Transjordan. In 2
Maccabees it is Gazara which lies in the coastal plain west of the
Judaean Hill Country. Next, in 2 Maccabees we read how, after the
sack of the town, Timothy is captured and slain. One could explain
away the second as just another rhetorical expansion — the malefactor
Timothy receives his just deserts (27) —, yet unlike the others, which
have no discernible impact on the remaining narrative (which they
simply enliven), this one jars violently against it. After all, Timothy
reappears in chap. 12 to do battle against Judas once more.
We may toy with several theoretically possible albeit cheap
solutions, if only to reject them: First, we could assume that Jason of
Cyrene mentioned Timothy’s death proleptically and that the
Epitomator, through faulty abridging, erased the statements indicating
that Jason had told of Timothy’s death out of chronological
(23) E.g. in 1 Maccabees the Jewish rebels fight (when attacked) on the
Sabbath (1 Macc 2,29-41), but 2 Maccabees accepts no “pragmatic†interpre-
tations of the relevant precept — see esp. 2 Macc 15,1-5; cf. 2 Macc 8,25-26. On
the Maccabees’ general piety in 2 Maccabees see also 12,39-45.
(24) Additional miracles: 2 Macc 3,25-26; 5,1-4. On the negative opinion
which these miracles have evoked in modern commentators: E. KAUTZSCH, “Das
erste Buch der Makkabäerâ€, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten
Testaments (Tübingen 1900; 5th unaltered edition, Hildesheim 1992) 26; M.
NOTH, Geschichte Israels (Göttingen 1956) 322-323.
(25) See (e.g.) 2 Macc 9,28; 12,14; 13,11.
(26) Cf. 2 Macc 12,14-16a.27b.
(27) See BAR-KOCHVA, Judas, 513.