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 473
Once he had transferred Antiochus IV’s death, as well as the
Purification, it only remained for the Epitomator to make sure that he
achieved proper transitions both before and after. The latter was easier:
he had only to note that now Antiochus V Eupator was King (thus 2
Macc 10,10). The former presented the greater challenge since the
Epitomator needed to transfer some material relating to the entry into
(and presumably capture) of Jerusalem so as to explain Judas’ presence
there to carry out the Purification. We have already seen that chap.
8,30-33 — which deal with precisely that — have been secondarily
inserted into their current position just before the Purification and
Antiochus IV’s death. In fact, precisely because these verses told of
Judas’ entry into Jerusalem, they had to be transferred along with the
Purification (62). We have already discussed how the Epitomator
grafted the verses into the story of Nicanor’s defeat in chap. 8 and then
made sure to refer to it at 9,3 and 10,24.
We may postulate then the following order of events in 2
Maccabees before the Epitomator rearranged them (we add, for
convenience sake, suggested dates in years B.C.):
165 Gorgias’ and Nicanor’s campaign in Judaea against
Judas; Judas defeats them at Emmaus (2 Macc 8,9-29.34-
36)
Late 165 or Judas fights against the Idumaeans and Timothy (2 Macc
Early 164 10,24-38)
164 Lysias himself takes the field against Judas and Judas
wards off his attack (2 Macc 11,1-15); thereafter Judas
fights again against Timothy (2 Macc 8,30-32); towards
the end of the year Judas enters Jerusalem and punishes
Callisthenes (2 Macc 8,33); Antiochus IV dies (2 Macc
9); Judas purifies the Temple (2 Macc 10,1-8)
Early 163 Judas again fights Timothy and the Idumaeans (2 Macc
12,10-31)
163 Lysias invades Judaea a second time (2 Macc 13,1-26)
(62) BUNGE, Untersuchungen, 277-279, has seen that verses 8,30-33 have been
transferred in order to make some sort of a transition to what follows, yet he fails
to say how they do this. In BUNGE’S view, the Epitomator was responsible for
transposing chap. 9 (the account of Antiochus IV’s death) from after 10,8 to
where it now stands. Yet verses 8,30-33 clearly account for Judas’ presence in
Jerusalem. That is to say, their own presence at the end of chapter 8 presupposes
that Judas is about to do something in Jerusalem; and that can only mean the
Purification. That is to say, the person who grafted verses 8,30-33 into their
current place was not responsible for transposing chap. 9 and 10,1-8. (See above
nn. 10, 44).