04_Biblica_1_C_Thiessen_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:16 Pagina 545 04_B ABOLISHERS OF THE LAW IN EARLY JUDAISM AND MATTHEW 5,17-20 545 I. The Hellenizers and the Antiochan Persecution The events surrounding what is often referred to as the Antiochan persecution were ingrained in the minds of many Second Temple Jews. At least four detailed works, 1, 2, and 4 Maccabees as well as the five-volume work of Jason of Cyrene, were written to retell this episode of Jewish history, while four other works, Daniel, the Testa- ment of Moses, and Josephus’s Antiquities and the Jewish War also recount or allude to these events. Further, 1 Macc 4,36-59, 2 Macc 1,1-2,18, and 10,1-8 describe the celebration of the rededication of the Temple after this attack, a celebration that Josephus makes clear in Ant. 12.324-25 was observed throughout the late Second Temple period. In light of the importance which many Jews accorded these events, it is noteworthy that three authors use the words katalu/w, luw, and kata/lusij twelve times in four different accounts of the / Antiochan persecution: three times in 2 Maccabees, six times in 4 Maccabees, twice in Antiquities, and once in the War. As the author of 2 Maccabees summarizes his work, he says that, through zeal for Judaism, the people repelled Antiochus Epiphanes and “restored the laws that were about to be abolished” (tou_j me/llontaj katalu&esqai no&mouj e0panorqw~sai, 2,22). But who was threatening to abolish the law? According to 2 Macc 4,9-11, it was Jason, the brother of the high priest Onias, who bought Antiochus’s support in order to supplant his brother as high priest, who desired to build a gymnasium, and who wanted to make the men of Jerusalem citizens of Antioch. The author por- trays these reforms as innovations that led to the introduction of new customs and to the abolishment (katalu/w) of lawful living and the neglect of the temple cult. Finally, in 2 Macc 8,15-17, Judas Maccabeus gathers an army together and inspires them with the accusation that their enemies had abolished their ancestral way of life (th_n th~j progonikh~j politei/aj kata&lusin). The result of this law abolishment, according to 2 Macc 4,16-17, was that “harsh disaster surrounded them, and those whose ways of living they admired and wished to imitate completely became hostile and punished them”, for “irreverence to the divine laws is no light matter”. The author of 4 Maccabees picks up and expands upon this theme of law abolishment. This is not surprising given the probability that 4 Maccabees used 2 Maccabees as a source, as J.W. van Henten ar- © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati