Scripture Daily

Context No. 762 of 4322 · 1 Maccabees

Context · Reflection

1 Maccabees 12:6-18: in context

6“Jonathan the high priest, and the senate of the nation, and the priests, and the rest of the people of the Jews, to their kindred the Spartans, greetings. 7Even before this time letters were sent to Onias the high priest from Arius, who was reigning among you, to signify that you are our kindred, as the copy written below shows. 8Onias welcomed honorably the man who was sent and received the letters, wherein declaration was made of alliance and friendship. 9Therefore we also, even though we need none of these things, having for our encouragement the holy books which are in our hands, 10have undertaken to send that we might renew our brotherhood and friendship with you, to the end that we should not become estranged from you altogether; for a long time has passed since you sent your letter to us. 11We therefore at all times without ceasing, both in our feasts, and on the other convenient days, remember you in the sacrifices which we offer, and in our prayers, as it is right and proper to be mindful of kindred. 12Moreover, we are glad for your glory. 13But as for ourselves, many afflictions and many wars have encompassed us, and the kings who are around us have fought against us. 14We were unwilling to be troublesome to you, and to the rest of our allies and friends, in these wars; 15for we have the help which is from heaven to help us, and we have been delivered from our enemies, and our enemies have been humbled. 16We chose therefore Numenius the son of Antiochus and Antipater the son of Jason, and have sent them to the Romans, to renew the friendship that we had with them, and the former alliance. 17We commanded them therefore to go also to you, and to salute you, and to deliver you our letters concerning the renewing of friendship and our brotherhood. 18And now you will do well if you give us a reply.”

First Maccabees preserves a letter from Jonathan, now high priest and leader of the Jews, to the distant city of Sparta. He is renewing an old and rather legendary bond; an earlier Spartan king had once written to a Jewish high priest claiming the two peoples were kindred, descended from Abraham, and Jonathan writes back across the generations to keep the connection alive. What is striking is the reason he gives for writing. It is not that the Jews need anything from Sparta; he says as much, plainly, that they have all the encouragement they need in the holy books they hold. They are not reaching out from weakness.

They are reaching out so as not to drift apart. We have undertaken to renew our brotherhood and friendship with you, he writes, so that we should not become estranged from you altogether, for a long time has passed since you wrote. And he adds that they remember the Spartans in their sacrifices and their prayers, as it is right to remember kindred. Here is a people in the middle of wars, who could easily let a far-off, long-quiet friendship lapse for lack of any pressing need, deciding instead to send envoys across the sea simply to keep it from dying. They tend the tie before neglect turns it into a silence no one ever breaks.

Jonathan reached across distance and years to keep a friendship from quietly becoming estrangement, though he needed nothing from it. Which relationship have I let go silent for lack of any urgent reason, and could I reach out before the silence becomes permanent?

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