3 Maccabees


3 Maccabees, also called the Third Book of Maccabees, is a book written in Koine Greek, likely in the 1st century BC in either the late Ptolemaic period of Egypt or in early Roman Egypt. Despite the title, the book has nothing to do with the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire described in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Instead it tells the story of a persecution of the Jews under Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator in Ptolemaic Egypt, some decades before the Maccabee uprising in Judea. The story purports to explain the origin of a Purim-like festival celebrated in Egypt. 3 Maccabees is somewhat similar to the Book of Esther, another book which describes how a king is advised to annihilate the Diaspora Jews in his territory, yet is thwarted by God.
In 3 Maccabees, King Ptolemy IV Philopator attempts to enter the Second Temple in Jerusalem, but is rebuffed by divine power. He grows to hate Jews, and orders the Jews of Egypt assembled in his hippodrome to be executed by elephants. However, God protects the Jews, and Ptolemy's elephants trample his own men instead. Ptolemy experiences a change of heart and lets the Jews go free; the Jews establish a festival in celebration.
3 Maccabees is considered part of the Biblical Anagignoskomena in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, and some Oriental Orthodox Churches: the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church. Jews, Catholics, and Protestants do not regard it as canonical, though some include it in the apocrypha section of their bibles. The split dates back to the Apostolic Canons approved by the Eastern Church's Council in Trullo in 692 AD but rejected by the Western Church's Pope Sergius I. Trullo established that the first three books of Maccabees were canonical in the Chalcedonian Eastern Church.

Contents

According to the book, after Ptolemy IV Philopator's victory against Antiochus III in 217 BC at the Battle of Raphia, he visited Jerusalem and the Second Temple, wishing to see the inner sanctuary. However, he is miraculously prevented from entering the building. This leads him to hate the Jews. Upon his return to the capital of Alexandria, he orders that all the Jews in the kingdom are to be registered, be made to pay a poll tax, and be reduced to the status of slaves. Those Jews who agree to abandon their faith and be initiated into the cult of Dionysus are to be spared. After most Jews persist in their faith, the king orders them rounded up and put to death in his hippodrome.
The attempt to register all the Jews before their execution is thwarted by the sheer number of the Jews. Ptolemy then attempts to have the Jews killed by crushing by elephant and orders 500 elephants to be intoxicated in order to enrage them. However, the execution is repeatedly thwarted. God first causes Ptolemy to oversleep, then causes him to miraculously forget his anger against the Jews. Ptolemy finally attempts to lead the elephants and his own army into the hippodrome to destroy the Jews personally, but after an impassioned prayer by Eleazar, God sends two angels who prevent this.
Ptolemy abruptly forgets his anger with the Jews and honors them with various immunities and a banquet, with several dates being established as commemorative festivals. The Jews request and receive permission to return home and to kill all the Jews who chose to abandon their faith in order to be spared. The book includes a letter, ostensibly by Ptolemy, to this effect. Finally, the Jews return home.

Authorship and date

The author of this book was likely an Alexandrian Jew who wrote in Greek as part of Hellenistic Judaism. The author is prone to rhetorical constructs and has a bombastic style. His Greek is excellent and native, including rare and poetic words; he also seems familiar with Hebrew literature, if possibly in translation. The themes and style of the book are similar to those of 2 Maccabees, the Letter of Aristeas, and the Book of Esther, suggesting the author had read them. Similar to 2 Maccabees, the author was likely influenced by the "pathetic" style of Greek argumentation that sought to appeal to emotion and sentiment, with stories such as brides and grooms being dragged away from their homes. The author seems interested and fluent in Ptolemaic court politics and protocol.
The precise date of authorship is unknown, but the widest plausible range keeping with the text is considered to be between 100 BC and 70 AD. Scholars generally advocate for one of three periods of Egyptian history: the late Ptolemaic period, the early Roman period, and the later Roman period.
Advocates for the early Roman period include Moses Hadas, Victor Tcherikover, and Matan Orian. They argue that the work was written perhaps around 25-15 BC. This is because the story attacks the idea of a census and its related poll tax, saying it would reduce the Jews to the status of slaves, and the Romans conducted such a census in Roman Egypt in 24 BC. Additionally, publishing a story where a Ptolemaic king acted rashly and was thwarted while the Ptolemies still ruled would be very bold, suggesting a publication date after the Roman absorption of Egypt in 30 BC. The work could then function as an esoteric criticism of Roman policies without naming them directly.
Advocates for the later Roman period include Heinrich Ewald, Hugo Willrich, and John J. Collins. They hold that the book was written as a polemic against Emperor Caligula, thus dating from around 40 AD. The work includes an incident at the Second Temple and an attack on Egyptian Jews; something similar happened in this period albeit with the order reversed, with anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria in 38 AD and Caligula attempting to install a statue of himself in the Temple around 39-40 AD. Arguments against this theory are that Caligula's actions do not match Ptolemy in the book that closely; for example, Ptolemy does not claim he is a divinity and attempt to self-deify himself as Caligula did. The riots in Alexandria came from common people rather than government ministers, as in 3 Maccabees. The author does not appear to have knowledge of Roman activities of the later 1st century that caused opposition from Jews such as desecration of sanctuaries.
Scholars who favor the late Ptolemaic period include Elias Bickerman, Hugh Anderson, and Sara Raup Johnson. On the topic of the census, they propose that it is entirely possible that a Ptolemaic census had also threatened to reduce the status of Jews to that of native Egyptians by making Alexandrian Jews pay a tax usually only levied on rural populations. Even if laographia is truly felt to be a reference to the Roman census, that is only an argument for a slight post-publication modification of a few passages, in this view. The rest of the work fits snugly into traditions of works of Hellenistic Judaism which inspired the author such as 2 Maccabees, which date to around 100 BC, so 3 Maccabees should fit into that same cultural milieu and era as well. More generally, while the threatened extermination of Jews may seem extreme and thus fit better in the Roman period of declining Jew-Gentile relations, the work is still ultimately an endorsement of the status quo of the Hellenistic era. The tone is largely positive, with glad thanksgivings for God's deliverance rather than thundering apocalyptic proclamations. Even as the royal court persecutes them, the author writes that "The Jews continued to maintain goodwill and unswerving loyalty towards the dynasty." The Jews are eventually given legal immunities by the king and return to contented loyalty to the Greek government, a sentiment considered by supporters of a Ptolemaic-era origin to be a poor fit for the Roman era of distant governors unsympathetic to the Jews.

Manuscripts and title

3 Maccabees was preserved due to inclusion in the Septuagint, the Greek Jewish Scriptures. While Hellenistic Judaism waned with time and the work was not included in the Masoretic canon of the Tanakh used by later Jews, early Christians preserved the Septuagint as the basis for the Christian Old Testament, ensuring that the work was not lost. The lists of books in early manuscripts of the Septuagint were not yet standardized, however. The Codex Vaticanus lacks the books of Maccabees and the Codex Sinaiticus includes only 1 and 4 Maccabees; only the Codex Alexandrinus includes all of 1, 2, 3, and 4 Maccabees. The 8th-9th century Venetus, while written much later than Alexandrinus, largely agrees with it, so there are few textual variations.
Lucian of Antioch made a number of changes to his version of the Septuagint, resulting in variant readings. Lucianic versions became the standard in Syria, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, with the version of 3 Maccabees in the Syriac Peshitta notably Lucianic in character, as well as being a rather free translation that included several expansions. There also exists also a paraphrastic Armenian version that dates to 400-600 AD. Robert Hanhart published a critical edition of the Greek text in 1960, with a second edition in 1980.
The original title of the book, if any, is unknown. The Septuagint is what gave the work the title "3 Maccabees", despite being something of a misnomer. Presumably, this was due to the apparent links to 2 Maccabees and to distinguish it from the other books of Maccabees in the Septuagint. Similarities with stories in 2 Maccabees include the High Priest Simon II appearing, the father of Onias III who is discussed in 2 Maccabees, and fends off an attempt by Philopator to enter the Temple of Jerusalem; the suffering of Egyptian Jews is described in a similar manner to the martyrdom of Eleazar and the woman with seven sons; Eleazar himself reappears in this story; and two angels appear in the finale of the story to stop a king's anti-Jewish actions, similar to the story of Heliodorus. The book may also have been referred to by Pseudo-Athanasius as "Ptolemaica".