Context No. 167 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees
Context · Reflection
1 Maccabees 1:41-53: in context
41King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, 42and that each should forsake his own laws. All the nations agreed according to the word of the king. 43Many of Israel consented to his worship, sacrificed to the idols, and profaned the Sabbath. 44The king sent letters by the hand of messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, that they should follow laws strange to the land, 45and should forbid whole burnt offerings and sacrifice and drink offerings in the sanctuary; and should profane the Sabbaths and feasts, 46and pollute the sanctuary and those who were holy; 47that they should build altars, and temples, and shrines for idols, and should sacrifice swine’s flesh and unclean animals; 48and that they should leave their sons uncircumcised, that they should make their souls abominable with all manner of uncleanness and profanation; 49so that they might forget the law, and change all the ordinances. 50Whoever doesn’t do according to the word of the king, he shall die. 51He wrote according to all these words to his whole kingdom. He appointed overseers over all the people, and he commanded the cities of Judah to sacrifice, city by city. 52From the people were gathered together to them many, everyone who had forsaken the law; and they did evil things in the land. 53They made Israel hide themselves in every place of refuge which they had.
This passage is the decree that started the Maccabean revolt, and its opening sentence is chilling in its reasonableness: King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, and that each should give up his own customs.
What follows is the specific application to Judea. Forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices in the sanctuary, profane the Sabbaths and feasts, defile the sanctuary and the priests, build altars and shrines for idols, sacrifice pigs and unclean animals, leave sons uncircumcised, and make themselves abominable by everything unclean, so that they would forget the law and change all its ordinances. Anyone who disobeyed was to die.
The stated goal was unity, and the method was the erasure of one people's particulars. Many in Israel complied, the text says plainly, and some did so willingly. Copies of the law that were found were torn up and burned, and women who had their children circumcised were put to death with the infants hung around their necks. First Maccabees does not present a nation that resisted as one. It presents a decree, a wave of compliance, and a remnant that refused. When conformity is the reasonable-sounding request, what would I discover I was unwilling to give up?
Sources
- 1 Maccabees 1:41-42: the decree that all should be one people and give up their own customs
- 1 Maccabees 1:56-61: the burning of copies of the law and the killing of women who circumcised their children
- 1 Maccabees 1:43 and 1:52: the many in Israel who complied willingly