NARRATIVE ART IN | MACCABEES VI 1-17 by D.S. WILLIAMS Athens, Georgia Scholars are paying increasing attention to literary artistry in bib- lical literature.! Thus far, however, 1 Maccabees seems to have been virtually ignored in this regard. How unappreciated | Maccabees is as an artistic work can be gathered from a comment made by the author of the Anchor Bible commentary on the book, J.A. Goldstein,’ in which he compares 1 Macc. iii 38-iv 25 and 2 Macc. viii 9-36: Both here [in 1 Maccabees} and in [2 Maccabees] the two commanders, Nicanor and Gorgias, are mentioned. Here, attention is focused on Gorgias; there, on Nicanor, The difference need not reflect a difference in sources but rather a difference in the author’s interests. Here, we can see the hand of the admirer of Hasmonean Judas, who out-generaled the wily Gorgias. There, we can see the hand of the literary artist, who organized his narrative in parallel sections around the Feast of Dedication and the Day of Nicanor. Thus, whereas the author of 2 Maccabees is to be viewed as a liter- ary artist, the author of 1 Maccabees is not. Contributing to the lack of attention to narrative art in | Maccabees is the fact that the book has been seen primarily, and almost exclu- sively, as only a historical source on the events surrounding the Mac- cabean revolt and the beginnings of the Hasmonean dynasty. To be sure, literary facets of the book have been treated to some degree. For instance, commentaries on the book do generally offer brief appraisals ' Cf. the bibliographies compiled by M.A. Powell, The Bible and Modem Literary Criticism (New York, 1992); and D.F. Watson and AJ. Hauser, Rhetorical Criticism of the Bible (New York, 1994). In a few places in the present study I draw upon wording found in my unpublished book manuscript, The Structure of 1 Maccabees, which is currently under editorial review. 2 JA. Goldstein, J Maccabees (AB 41; Garden City, NY, 1976), p. 258; emphasis added. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 1999 Vetus Testamentum XLIX, |110 D.S. WILLIAMS of the literary character of 1 Maccabees. Yet the only literary issues to receive extended treatment have been the book’s poetry and its unity.* Thus, N. Martola has aptly observed that a “look at the his- tory of the study of [1 Maccabees] shows that literary problems . . . have attracted little interest”.* While I agree that 1 Maccabees is an important historical source, the present study is intended to demonstrate that the book manifests literary artistry as well. To illustrate the activity of narrative art in 1 Maccabees, I will focus on 1 Macc. vi 1-17, which describes the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. I will perform a literary critical analysis of this material in section II below.’ As a prelude to this inves- tigation, in the following section I will discuss the context of the pas- sage within 1 Maccabees and examine the treatment of the passage in commentaries on the book. I Antiochus IV appears four times in 1 Maccabees. First, he is intro- duced in i 9-10 as being one of the “sons” of Alexander the Great who “caused many evils on the earth”.® Second, in i 16-24, Antiochus initially invades Egypt, capturing and plundering cities, and then turns his attention to Jerusalem. He attacks the city and enters the temple, from which he steals several objects, and in i 29-63 his forces occupy the city and persecute Torah-abiding Jews. Third, in iii 27-37, when he hears about a Jewish uprising against him, Antiochus sends his gen- eral, Lysias, to subdue the revolt, while the king himself takes half of his forces to the east. In vi 1-17, we join Antiochus in the east, where * See especially G. Neuhaus, Studien zu den poetischen Stiicken im 1. Makkabderbuch (Warzburg, 1974) and H.W. Ettelson, “The Integrity of I Maccabees”, Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 27 (1925), pp. 249-384. *N. Martola, Capture and Liberation: A Study in the Composition of the First Book of Maccabees (Abo, 1984), p. 9. 5 While 1 Maccabees was originally composed in Hebrew, the book survives only in a Greek translation, Since it is commonly accepted that, as J.C. Exum (“Promise and Fulfillment: Narrative Art in Judges 13”, JBL 99 [1980], p. 44) puts it, “the lit- erary task is to interpret the text as it stands”, I will not attempt to restore the Hebrew wording, and will instead deal with the Greek, For an example of a literary critical analysis of a Greek translation of an original Hebrew book, see T. Craven, Artistry and Faith in the Book of Judith (Chico, CA, 1983). Cf. P. Trible, Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method, and the Book of Jonah (Minneapolis, 1994), pp. 36-38. All translations of 1 Maccabees in this study are taken from, or are based on, the NRSV.NARRATIVE ART IN I MACCABEES VI I-17 A he tries to plunder a temple in Elymais. He fails, and when he addi- tionally hears about the successes of the Jews against Lysias—includ- ing the fact that they have liberated their temple—he becomes sick and dies, whereupon he is succeeded by his young son, Antiochus V Eupator, whose guardian, Philip, Antiochus IV appoints shortly before his death. In the discussions of 1 Macc. vi 1-17 found in major commentaries on the book,” the following topics regularly appear: (a) the location of Elymais, as well as its status as a region and not a city, as | Maccabees has it; (b) the historical background of the story of Antiochus’ attempted temple robbery; (c) the actual location where Antiochus died; (d) the date of Antiochus’ death, together with the question of whether he actually died before or after the Jewish liberation of the temple; and (e) the identity and rank of Philip, and the nature of his rivalry with Lysias. In sum, as we would expect, the commentaries on 1 Macc. vi 1-17 are preoccupied with matters of history and geography. As a result, the intricacies of the literary presentation of the death of Antio- chus IV are largely ignored. In contrast, I will demonstrate in the following pages that the narra- tive portrayal of the death of Antiochus IV in 1 Maccabees is artfully presented, with a sophisticated literary structuring that is deserving of special and close attention. Il I shall begin my study of the literary characteristics of 1 Mace. vi 1-17 by considering those aspects of the passage that allow us to consider it a distinct unit. First, we may note that vi 1 contains the words “King Antiochus” (6 Baotiedc ‘Avtioxoc), while in vi 16 we again find 7 [ have consulted the following: C. Grimm, Das ersle Buch der Maccabier (Leipzig, 1853); E. Kautzsch, “Das erste Buch der Makkabiier”, in Die Apokyphen und Pseudepigraphen des Alten Testaments (vol. 1; 1900; reprinted, Hildesheim, 1962); W. Oesterley, “The First Book of Maccabees” (APOT 1; Oxford, 1913); H. Bévenot, Die Beiden Makkabdierbiicher (Bonn, 1931); F-M. Abel, Les Livres des Maccabées (Paris, 1949); S. Tedesche and S. Zeitlin, The First Book of Maccabees (New York, 1950); J.C. Dancy, A Commentary on I Maccabees (Oxford, 1954), F.-M. Abel and J. Starcky, Les Livres des Maccabées (Paris, 1961); J.R. Bartlett, The First and Second Books of the Maccabees (Cambridge, 1973), NJ. McEleney, The First Book of Maccabees (New York, 1973); Goldstein, 1 Maccabees, K.-D. Schunck, I. Makkabderbuch (Gitersloh, 1980); JJ. Collins, Daniel, First Maccabees, Second Maccabees (Wilmington, DL, 1981); W. Dommershausen, 1 Makkabier 2 Makkabdier (Warzburg, 1985); and R. Doran, “1 Maccabecs” (NIB 4; Nashville, 1996).