Context No. 2401 of 4322 · 2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees 9:19-29: in context

19“To the worthy Jewish citizens, Antiochus, king and general, wishes much joy and health and prosperity. 20May you and your children fare well, and may your affairs be as you wish. Having my hope in heaven, 21I remembered with affection your honor and good will. Returning out of the region of Persia, and being taken with an annoying sickness, I deemed it necessary to take thought for the common safety of all, 22not despairing of myself, but having great hope to escape from the sickness. 23But considering that my father also, at the time he led an army into the upper country, appointed his successor, 24to the end that, if anything fell out contrary to expectation, or if any unwelcome tidings were brought, the people in the country, knowing to whom the state had been left, might not be troubled, 25and, moreover, observing how the princes who are along the borders and neighbors to my kingdom watch for opportunities and look for the future event, I have appointed my son Antiochus to be king, whom I often entrusted and commended to most of you when I was hurrying to the upper provinces. I have written to him what is written below. 26I therefore urge you and beg you, having in your remembrance the benefits done to you in common and severally, to preserve your present good will, each of you, toward me and my son. 27For I am persuaded that he in gentleness and kindness will follow my purpose and treat you with moderation and kindness. 28So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured the most intense sufferings, even as he had dealt with other men, ended his life among the mountains by a most piteous fate in a strange land. 29Philip his foster brother took the body home and then, fearing the son of Antiochus, he withdrew himself to Ptolemy Philometor in Egypt.

Second Maccabees prints a letter from Antiochus, the king who had savaged the Jews, now dying of a wretched illness. The tone is startling: warm greetings, wishes for their welfare, talk of his hope in heaven, and the appointment of his son as successor whom he commends to their goodwill. The narrator then records that this murderer and blasphemer, who had made others suffer, ended his life by a pitiable fate in a foreign land.

The letter is a study in a certain kind of conversion, the sort produced by fear rather than repentance. Facing death, the tyrant turns courteous and even pious, but the aim is to secure his dynasty and his reputation, not to renounce the cruelty that defined him. His sudden good manners manage his legacy; they do not change his heart. It is a sobering picture: religious language and a softened tone can decorate a deathbed without any real turning underneath.

Is my turning to God ever just crisis management, softer words with an unchanged heart, rather than actual repentance?

Sources

2 Maccabees 9:20: May you and your children fare well, and may your affairs be as you wish. Having my hope in heaven.
2 Maccabees 9:28: So the murderer and blasphemer, having endured great sufferings, ended his life among the mountains by a pitiable fate in a strange land.
Hosea 6:4: your goodness is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that goes away early.