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 471
which tell of the humiliation which Nicanor, another enemy of God,
had received. Unfortunately, the content of vv. 34-36 follows naturally
on from v. 29 after which the story had shifted away from Nicanor for
four verses (57).
Let us sum up the foregoing: Chap. 8 down to v. 29 tells of Nicanor
and his eventual defeat; by content vv. 34-36 belong with vv. 1-29. Vv.
30-32 and 33 are connected both by content and by theme; and the
theme continues into vv. 34-36. Nothing, however, connects vv. 30-33
with what precedes them (58). We can surely now see both that vv. 30-
33 have been inserted into the story of Nicanor and what motivated
their insertion at that point: after their insertion the same thematic
thread ran from vv. 30-33 straight through vv. 34-36. The grafting in of
vv. 30-33 shews some rhyme and reason, then, even if the graft itself
remains obvious owing to the interruption of the contextually
connected preceding and following verses. Presumably the Epitomator
inserted vv. 30-33 himself; and then included the cross-references at
9,3 and 10,24 (59). We shall return to this in the next section.
4. The Historical Context of the Campaigns
We now come to the most difficult problem: dating and placing the
various campaigns against Timothy into their proper historical context.
In 1 Maccabees, as we noted at the beginning, all these campaigns —
including various other campaigns against the “neighbouring peoplesâ€
— are grouped together as though they belonged together
chronologically and are placed between the Purification of the Temple
and the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. In 2 Maccabees the first
campaign against Timothy stands before the Purification and
Epiphanes’ death; while all the other campaigns come after those two
events. Moreover, in 2 Maccabees this latter grouping of campaigns is
split into two groups: one before the first campaign of Lysias; and a
second after that campaign.
(57) BUNGE, Untersuchungen, 277, has suggested a slightly more complicated
variation on the idea adumbrated in the text, namely that the original sequence of
verses at the end of chapter 8 was as follows: 21-24 then 34-35 and finally 25-29.
He may well be right, but our argument remains unaffected.
(58) See also SIEVERS, Hasmoneans, 52 n. 29.
(59) It fits with what we know of the Epitomator that he maintained an
awareness of the alterations he made and that he took care to follow through with
consequential changes in the remainder of the narrative: PARKER, Campaigns (in
press).