HistoricalChristian.Faith

1 Maccabees 13

1 Now when Simon heard that Tryphon had gathered together a great host to invade the land of Judea, and destroy it, 2 And saw that the people was in great trembling and fear, he went up to Jerusalem, and gathered the people together, 3 And gave them exhortation, saying, Ye yourselves know what great things I, and my brethren, and my father's house, have done for the laws and the sanctuary, the battles also and troubles which we have seen. 4 By reason whereof all my brethren are slain for Israel's sake, and I am left alone. 5 Now therefore be it far from me, that I should spare mine own life in any time of trouble: for I am no better than my brethren. 6 Doubtless I will avenge my nation, and the sanctuary, and our wives, and our children: for all the heathen are gathered to destroy us of very malice. 7 Now as soon as the people heard these words, their spirit revived. 8 And they answered with a loud voice, saying, Thou shalt be our leader instead of Judas and Jonathan thy brother. 9 Fight thou our battles, and whatsoever, thou commandest us, that will we do. 10 So then he gathered together all the men of war, and made haste to finish the walls of Jerusalem, and he fortified it round about. 11 Also he sent Jonathan the son of Absolom, and with him a great power, to Joppa: who casting out them that were therein remained there in it. 12 So Tryphon removed from Ptolemaus with a great power to invade the land of Judea, and Jonathan was with him in ward. 13 But Simon pitched his tents at Adida, over against the plain. 14 Now when Tryphon knew that Simon was risen up instead of his brother Jonathan, and meant to join battle with him, he sent messengers unto him, saying, 15 Whereas we have Jonathan thy brother in hold, it is for money that he is owing unto the king's treasure, concerning the business that was committed unto him. 16 Wherefore now send an hundred talents of silver, and two of his sons for hostages, that when he is at liberty he may not revolt from us, and we will let him go. 17 Hereupon Simon, albeit he perceived that they spake deceitfully unto him yet sent he the money and the children, lest peradventure he should procure to himself great hatred of the people: 18 Who might have said, Because I sent him not the money and the children, therefore is Jonathan dead. 19 So he sent them the children and the hundred talents: howbeit Tryphon dissembled neither would he let Jonathan go. 20 And after this came Tryphon to invade the land, and destroy it, going round about by the way that leadeth unto Adora: but Simon and his host marched against him in every place, wheresoever he went. 21 Now they that were in the tower sent messengers unto Tryphon, to the end that he should hasten his coming unto them by the wilderness, and send them victuals. 22 Wherefore Tryphon made ready all his horsemen to come that night: but there fell a very great snow, by reason whereof he came not. So he departed, and came into the country of Galaad. 23 And when he came near to Bascama he slew Jonathan, who was buried there. 24 Afterward Tryphon returned and went into his own land. 25 Then sent Simon, and took the bones of Jonathan his brother, and buried them in Modin, the city of his fathers. 26 And all Israel made great lamentation for him, and bewailed him many days. 27 Simon also built a monument upon the sepulchre of his father and his brethren, and raised it aloft to the sight, with hewn stone behind and before. 28 Moreover he set up seven pyramids, one against another, for his father, and his mother, and his four brethren. 29 And in these he made cunning devices, about the which he set great pillars, and upon the pillars he made all their armour for a perpetual memory, and by the armour ships carved, that they might be seen of all that sail on the sea. 30 This is the sepulchre which he made at Modin, and it standeth yet unto this day. 31 Now Tryphon dealt deceitfully with the young king Antiochus, and slew him. 32 And he reigned in his stead, and crowned himself king of Asia, and brought a great calamity upon the land. 33 Then Simon built up the strong holds in Judea, and fenced them about with high towers, and great walls, and gates, and bars, and laid up victuals therein. 34 Moreover Simon chose men, and sent to king Demetrius, to the end he should give the land an immunity, because all that Tryphon did was to spoil. 35 Unto whom king Demetrius answered and wrote after this manner: 36 King Demetrius unto Simon the high priest, and friend of kings, as also unto the elders and nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting: 37 The golden crown, and the scarlet robe, which ye sent unto us, we have received: and we are ready to make a stedfast peace with you, yea, and to write unto our officers, to confirm the immunities which we have granted. 38 And whatsoever covenants we have made with you shall stand; and the strong holds, which ye have builded, shall be your own. 39 As for any oversight or fault committed unto this day, we forgive it, and the crown tax also, which ye owe us: and if there were any other tribute paid in Jerusalem, it shall no more be paid. 40 And look who are meet among you to be in our court, let then be enrolled, and let there be peace betwixt us. 41 Thus the yoke of the heathen was taken away from Israel in the hundred and seventieth year. 42 Then the people of Israel began to write in their instruments and contracts, In the first year of Simon the high priest, the governor and leader of the Jews. 43 In those days Simon camped against Gaza and besieged it round about; he made also an engine of war, and set it by the city, and battered a certain tower, and took it. 44 And they that were in the engine leaped into the city; whereupon there was a great uproar in the city: 45 Insomuch as the people of the city rent their clothes, and climbed upon the walls with their wives and children, and cried with a loud voice, beseeching Simon to grant them peace. 46 And they said, Deal not with us according to our wickedness, but according to thy mercy. 47 So Simon was appeased toward them, and fought no more against them, but put them out of the city, and cleansed the houses wherein the idols were, and so entered into it with songs and thanksgiving. 48 Yea, he put all uncleanness out of it, and placed such men there as would keep the law, and made it stronger than it was before, and built therein a dwellingplace for himself. 49 They also of the tower in Jerusalem were kept so strait, that they could neither come forth, nor go into the country, nor buy, nor sell: wherefore they were in great distress for want of victuals, and a great number of them perished through famine. 50 Then cried they to Simon, beseeching him to be at one with them: which thing he granted them; and when he had put them out from thence, he cleansed the tower from pollutions: 51 And entered into it the three and twentieth day of the second month in the hundred seventy and first year, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and cymbals, and with viols, and hymns, and songs: because there was destroyed a great enemy out of Israel. 52 He ordained also that that day should be kept every year with gladness. Moreover the hill of the temple that was by the tower he made stronger than it was, and there he dwelt himself with his company. 53 And when Simon saw that John his son was a valiant man, he made him captain of all the hosts; and he dwelt in Gazera.
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Commentaries
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:31AD 856
About this Pompey reports as follows: While these things were taking place meanwhile in the regions of Syria, Tryphon, who had endeavored to have himself appointed by the people as guardian of Antiochus, the stepson of Demetrius, after killing his ward, seized the government of Syria. Having long held it, at last, when the favor of his recent rule had faded, he was defeated in war by Antiochus, still very much a boy, the brother of Demetrius, who was being brought up in Asia, and therefore the kingdom of Syria returned again to the offspring of Demetrius.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:49-50AD 856
Those who were in the citadel of Jerusalem and were attacking the Jews themselves signify the heretics and schismatics who, establishing themselves in the fortress of their own pride, stir up disputes and wars against Catholics. Simon forbids them to go out and enter the region and to buy and sell, because the holy teachers, together with the Catholics, order that no communion of fellowship at all be maintained with such people. For this reason many of them perished by famine, because many of them, once they were cut off outside the communion of the Church with anathema, perish through hunger for the word of God and lack of spiritual knowledge. But because, driven by extreme necessity, people of this sort asked that right hands of fellowship be given them by the Church, this agreement is imposed on them by the Church itself: that they abandon their errors, anathematize the wicked sects to which they had previously observed, and cleanse their conscience from all the wickedness of heretics, and therefore they are restored to the communion of the Church.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:44AD 856
For although the disrespect of the barbarians has indeed tried to escape the Gospel, it has nevertheless been bound and restrained by the truthful testimonies of the law of God.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:44AD 856
When the whole world was shaken by the preaching of the Gospel, for a great disturbance arose in the city when the savagery of the nations was stirred up to persecute the confessors of Christ, so that those who were faithful defenders of the faith and doctrine of Christ became true martyrs.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:27AD 856
Simon constructs, for his father and mother and brothers, out of polished stone a memorial above the tombs, just as holy preachers, by recalling to those present the deeds of the fathers who went before and their glorious end, show them with great authority as examples: for this is what it means to place polished stone before and behind, namely that they strive clearly, by a faithful narrative, to explain to their hearers how they lived before the end of life in regard to doctrine and holy conduct, and what kind of example of the patience of their long-suffering they left to their descendants after their death. Moreover, that holy men are called by the name of father and mother and brothers is shown by the Savior in the Gospel, saying: "Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother" (Matt. 12:50). Therefore the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says (1 Cor. 4:15): "For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel;" and of Timothy he says to the Philippians: "But know the proof of him, that as a son with a father he has served with me in the Gospel." (Philip. 2:22)
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:53AD 856
Simon entrusted to his son Joachim, when he saw that he was a man, the leadership of all the virtues, so as to show that no teacher ought to commit to his son or his disciple the authority and order of ecclesiastical governance unless he has first seen that he is a man, that is, proven in understanding and diligent in the works of virtue. But since above we have said that Simon bears the figure of the holy doctors, he can in this place express the meaning of the prince of shepherds, who has given to the Catholic people the ministry of sacred governance and the knowledge and effect of all virtues, to whom what is written in the following fits most suitably.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:48AD 856
As, through the Gospel, they strengthen the Church everywhere with the defense of faith, by residing in its abode, the very teachers, for their devout labor, await the eternal rewards which, for the confession they have made, are to be rendered to them at the end by the judge of the living and the dead.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:29AD 856
Indicating their weakness and uprightness in faith, and how in that same faith they fought against enemies with spiritual weapons.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:29AD 856
For, in this way those righteous who went before have crossed the sea of this present life in the ship of the cross of Christ, toiling amid the waves of this world, and by teaching they strengthen others in the hope of their comfort, so that they may know that just as that aforementioned ship safely brought them to the shore of rest, so also faith in the passion of Christ and in our redemption in it, if they are willing to have works worthy of that same faith, will grant to them the harbor of eternal salvation.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:43AD 856
What does it mean that Simon undertakes to attack Gaza, if not that preachers strive to vanquish errors that must be condemned? Gaza, which is interpreted "his strength," signifies the hardness and rigidity of the nations. Therefore Simon builds many schemes against Gaza, when holy teachers employ various doctrinal means of the spirit to capture the fortifications of the nations, so that they may turn them into the saving spoil of their Lord and King, that is, Jesus Christ. In this he struck one tower and took it, when he laid low the pride of the Gentiles and brought their hearts into obedience to the Gospel.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:45AD 856
But who were they, and who are those who, with their wives and children, climbed up onto the wall with their garments torn and asked Simon to give them the right hand, if not those who, entangled in the anxieties and desires of this world by its riches, later converted, not tearing their clothes but their hearts through repentance, seek to receive from church leaders the right hands of reconciliation and fellowship? To whose petition Simon, the man of the Spirit, assenting with mercy, does not strike them with the sword of excommunication, but, leading them out from the superstition of paganism, removes their errors by cutting them away, so that he may prepare a fitting dwelling in their sinful hearts for the Lord Christ.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:51-52AD 856
These numbers, that is, one hundred and seventy-one and twenty-three, are full of sacred mysteries: for the hundredth, in which Abraham begot Isaac, the son of promise, signifies the perfection of life; the seventieth, in which the captivity of the inhabitants of Jerusalem was ended, signifies the remission of sins. But because these things exist only in the truth of the Church, therefore a unit is added to the number seventy. Moreover, the number twenty-three signifies the faith of the Holy Trinity together with the two commandments of love, in which the whole fullness of the Law consists; and the second month, in which it seemed that Passover was to be celebrated for those who were pure with respect to the soul of man, shows the time of grace and the calling of the nations. Therefore, when according to this wording and the meaning of the mystical numbers victory is obtained by the faithful, that is, when they keep whole, according to the evangelical doctrine, the faith of the Holy Trinity with the two commandments of love, and, having the perfection of life according to their capacity, remain in the unity of the Church in understanding and faith so that they may come to the fullness of remission: therefore then they will rightly enter the heavenly Jerusalem with song and branches of palms, that is, with true praise and sure victory, and they will render various thanks and praises perpetually to their Creator for the salvation and security obtained, because the great enemy has been crushed out of Israel and death, together with its author dead, stands condemned forever. Nor does this sense conflict with the meaning of the following exposition, where it is written that Simon decreed that on this day joy should be celebrated every year, and that he fortified the mount of the temple, which was beside the citadel, and that he himself and those who were with him dwelt there: because at every time of this life the memory of that day is to be reserved in hope, on which, triumphing over death through the grace of our Redeemer, we shall be restored to eternal life.

Since each year we celebrate the somberness of the Lord's resurrection to show that through his resurrection and victory over death we hope both for the resurrection of our own bodies at the end of the age and for everlasting life in the heavenly kingdom, therefore we must fortify the mount of the temple, which is beside the citadel, that is, the incarnation of Christ, which by its own perfection surpasses every height of the perfection of the saints, by holding it with firm faith in our heart and by devoutly laboring in this throughout all the time of our life, both on our own behalf and on behalf of those entrusted to us, or joined to us in fellowship, so that, being joined to his body and united with it, we may likewise, together with him who is the head of the heavenly kingdom, become heirs. The blessed apostle Peter commends to us the joy and remembrance of that day in his Epistle, saying: But do not let this one thing escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promises, but deals patiently for your sake, not wishing anyone to perish, but that all should turn back to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a great rush, and the elements will be dissolved by heat. Since therefore all these things are to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought we to be in holy conduct and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord, through which the burning heavens will be dissolved and the elements will melt with the heat of fire? Yet we await new heavens and a new earth and his promises, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, as you await these things, strive to be found without blemish, in peace, and regard the patience of our Lord Jesus Christ as salvation (2 Peter 3:8-14).
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:47AD 856
So also, when the errors of the pagans have been cast out, with praises of God the holy teachers will enter the assemblies of the nations; then likewise they place there the men who make the law, because by sincere preachings they cause the true worshipers of Christ to be there.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:28AD 856
With each teacher showing how the light of wisdom of each of the earlier Fathers was conferred on each person, a light which is granted to the faithful through the sevenfold Spirit.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
Rabanus Mauruson 1 Maccabees 13:34AD 856
That Simon sent men to King Demetrius to obtain remission for the region signifies, if I am not mistaken, that holy Church sends its preachers to the rulers of this world, so that by the word of faith it may win them to itself and bring to nothing the figurative deeds of Tryphon, that is, of heretics and schismatics, and crush by the rigor of external powers their pride, on account of which they were unwilling to submit to ecclesiastical gentleness. To these rulers the messengers also present a golden crown and peace, which they say is an ornament made entirely from golden rings according to the custom of the province: with these they promise, for the good contest of eternal life, a crown, and, for the timely support by which they help the churches through their edicts and acts of protection, heavenly rewards. Therefore in general.
Source: Commentary on 1 Maccabees
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