How does the narrator explain the temple’s suffering and future restoration?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The account combines reported portents, Jason’s assault and exile, royal slaughter and temple pillage with an attributed explanation of temporary divine anger and promised restoration.

Chapter breakdown

As Antiochus prepares a second journey to Egypt, Jerusalem sees horsemen running in the air for forty days: gilded clothing, spears, ranks of horses running against each other, shaking shields, helmets, drawn swords, darts, glittering gold armor and varied harness. All pray these prodigies may turn to good. Pennants are not mentioned.

A false rumor of Antiochus’s death prompts Jason to attack the city suddenly with no fewer than a thousand men. Citizens gather at the wall, but the city is eventually taken and Menelaus flees into the castle. Jason kills countrymen mercilessly, treating them as enemies rather than citizens; the narrator calls prosperity against one’s kindred a great evil. He nevertheless fails to gain the principality and flees again to the Ammonites. Aretas, king of the Arabians, shuts him up intending his destruction. He flies between cities, hated as a forsaker of laws and enemy of country and countrymen, and is expelled into Egypt. He perishes abroad, going to Lacedemon in hope of refuge through supposed kinship. Having cast others out unburied, he himself is cast out unmourned and unburied, without foreign burial or a place in his fathers’ tomb. Sailing and a route of wall-scaling are not supplied.

The king suspects the Jews will forsake their alliance; this is suspicion of a future breach, not verified nationwide revolt. He leaves Egypt in fury and takes the city by force, ordering soldiers to spare no one encountered and enter houses to kill. Young and old, women and children, virgins and infants are slaughtered. The account reports eighty thousand slain over three whole days, forty thousand made prisoners and as many sold. Guided by Menelaus, called a traitor to law and country, Antiochus enters the temple and profanes holy vessels given by other kings and cities for its ornament and glory. Golden altars are not specified.

The narrator says Antiochus fails to understand that God is angry for a while because of the inhabitants’ sins and that this accounts for the place’s contempt. Without their many sins, Antiochus would have been scourged and turned back like Heliodorus. God chose the place for the people’s sake, not the people for the place. The place therefore shares their evils and will share their good, exalted again when the Lord is reconciled. This is the narrator’s explanation of this episode and promised restoration; it is not extended into a general formula for every community’s catastrophe.

Antiochus removes eighteen hundred talents from the temple and hastens to Antioch. Their metal is not specified here. The narrator describes his proud thought that land could be made navigable and sea passable on foot. He leaves oppressive governors: Philip, a Phrygian, in Jerusalem, described as more barbarous in manners than his appointer; Andronicus and Menelaus in Gazarim, with a heavier hand on the citizens. The wording is retained without adding a Mount Gerizim identification or authority over both locations.

He sends the hateful prince Apollonius with twenty-two thousand men, ordering him to kill those of perfect age and sell women and younger people. Apollonius pretends peace and waits until the Sabbath. While the Jews keep holiday, he orders his men armed, kills those who come out to see and runs through the city with armed men, destroying a great multitude. No military parade, cavalry, Mysian title or absolute refusal of Sabbath warfare is supplied. Judas Machabeus withdraws into a deserted mountain place, living among wild beasts with his company and eating herbs to avoid pollution. The note explains that being the tenth means he has nine companions. A waiting plan for a future deliverance is not stated.

The story inside

A false death rumor precedes Jason’s attack, but his seizure does not restore his principality. Antiochus suspects an alliance breach and attacks; the narrator then pauses to explain why this differs from Heliodorus’s repulse. Governors and Apollonius’s Sabbath violence follow, while Judas and nine companions withdraw.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Jason brings no fewer than a thousand men; the king suspects an alliance breach rather than verifying a nationwide revolt.
2
Eighteen hundred talents are taken, without a stated metal.
3
The mountain company lives among wild beasts and eats herbs to avoid pollution; an unrecorded strategic waiting plan is not added.

Test your recall

How many companions does the edition’s note give Judas?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 108606–108644
5:5. Now when there was gone forth a false rumour as though Antiochus had been dead, Jason taking with him no fewer than a thousand men, suddenly assaulted the city: and though the citizens ran together to the wall, the city at length was taken, and Menelaus fled into the castle. 5:6. But Jason slew his countrymen without mercy, not considering that prosperity against one’s own kindred is a very great evil, thinking they had been enemies, and not citizens, whom he conquered. 5:7. Yet he did not get the principality, but received confusion at the end, for the reward of his treachery, and fled again into the country of the Ammonites. 5:8. At the last, having been shut up by Aretas, the king of the Arabians, in order for his destruction, flying from city to city, hated by all men, as a forsaker of the laws and execrable, as an enemy of his country and countrymen, he was thrust out into Egypt: 5:9. And he that had driven many out of their country perished in a strange land, going to Lacedemon, as if for kindred sake he should have refuge there: 5:10. But he that had cast out many unburied, was himself cast forth both unlamented and unburied, neither having foreign burial, nor being partaker of the sepulchre of his fathers. 5:11. Now when these things were done, the king suspected that the Jews would forsake the alliance: whereupon departing out of Egypt with a furious mind, he took the city by force of arms, 5:12. And commanded the soldiers to kill, and not to spare any that came in their way, and to go up into the houses to slay. 5:13. Thus there was a slaughter of young and old, destruction of women and children, and killing of virgins and infants. 5:14. And there were slain in the space of three whole days fourscore thousand, forty thousand were made prisoners, and as many sold.
Lines 108654–108701
5:17. Thus Antiochus going astray in mind, did not consider that God was angry for a while, because of the sins of the inhabitants of the city: and therefore this contempt had happened to the place: 5:18. Otherwise had they not been involved in many sins, as Heliodorus, who was sent by king Seleucus to rob the treasury, so this man also, as soon as he had come, had been forthwith scourged, and put back from his presumption. 5:19. But God did not choose the people for the place’s sake, but the place for the people’s sake. 5:20. And, therefore, the place also itself was made partaker of the evils of the people: but afterwards shall communicate in the good things thereof, and as it was forsaken in the wrath of Almighty God, shall be exalted again with great glory, when the great Lord shall be reconciled. 5:21. So when Antiochus had taken away out of the temple a thousand and eight hundred talents, he went back in all haste to Antioch, thinking through pride that he might now make the land navigable, and the sea passable on foot: such was the haughtiness of his mind. 5:22. He left also governors to afflict the people: at Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by birth, but in manners more barbarous than he that set him there: 5:23. And in Gazarim, Andronicus and Menelaus, who bore a more heavy hand upon the citizens than the rest. 5:24. And whereas he was set against the Jews, he sent that hateful prince, Apollonius, with an army of two and twenty thousand men, commanding him to kill all that were of perfect age, and to sell the women and the younger sort. 5:25. Who, when he was come to Jerusalem, pretending peace, rested till the holy day of the sabbath: and then the Jews keeping holiday, he commanded his men to take arms. 5:26. And he slew all that were come forth to see: and running through the city with armed men, he destroyed a very great multitude. 5:27. But Judas Machabeus, who was the tenth, had withdrawn himself into a desert place, and there lived amongst wild beasts in the mountains with his company: and they continued feeding on herbs, that they might not be partakers of the pollution. Was the tenth.... That is, he had nine others in his company.