How do the campaign’s reported numbers and spoil distributions differ?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Judas’s campaign defeats Nicanor’s planned captive sale; the edition preserves variant troop figures, different distributions and attributed divine aid.

Chapter breakdown

Judas Machabeus and his companions privately enter towns, call kinsmen and friends and gather those continuing in Jewish religion, assembling six thousand. They ask the Lord to regard the oppressed people, pity the defiled temple and destroyed city threatened with leveling, hear the voice of blood, remember unjust deaths of innocent children and blasphemies, and show indignation. The narrator attributes Judas’s irresistible advance to wrath turned into mercy. He surprises and burns towns and cities, takes advantageous places and kills many enemies, especially campaigning at night; his valor becomes widely known.

Philip sees his growing success and asks Ptolemee, governor of Celesyria and Phenicia, for aid to royal affairs. The note identifies Philip as Jerusalem’s governor, unable to contend with Judas especially after victories over Apollonius and Seron, citing First Machabees 3. Ptolemee sends his special friend Nicanor son of Patroclus with no fewer than twenty thousand armed men of different nations to root out the Jews, joining the experienced soldier Gorgias. The note gives the larger force as forty thousand foot and seven thousand horse, explaining that only twenty thousand were with Nicanor at the battle.

Nicanor plans to raise the king’s two-thousand-talent Roman tribute by selling captive Jews. He invites coastal buyers, promising ninety slaves for one talent; the metal is not supplied. Judas reports his approach. Some flee from fear and distrust of God’s justice. Others sell their remaining property and pray for rescue, invoking the ancestral covenant and God’s holy name even if not their own merits.

Judas gathers seven thousand according to the verse. The note says the Greek has six thousand, of whom three thousand have no arms, citing First Machabees 4:6. He urges them not to reconcile with their enemies or fear the wrongful multitude, but fight courageously. He recalls injuries to temple and city and destruction of ancestral ordinances. The enemies trust weapons and boldness; they trust the Almighty who can destroy the attackers and whole world at a beck. He recalls the destruction of one hundred eighty-five thousand under Sennacherib and a battle in Babylonia where six thousand, with their Macedonian companions at a stand, killed one hundred twenty thousand Galatians through heavenly help and received favors. The edition identifies Galatians as Gauls who ravaged Italy and Greece, entered Asia in vast numbers and founded Galatia or Gallo Graecia. The number is not eight thousand Jews with four thousand Macedonians.

Encouraged to die for law and country, they are divided under his brothers Simon, Joseph and Jonathan, each with fifteen hundred. Esdras reads the holy book, the watchword is The help of God, and Judas leads the first band into battle with Nicanor. The account attributes victory to the Almighty: above nine thousand killed, most of Nicanor’s army wounded or disabled and driven away. The note says that total includes three thousand killed in pursuit. They take buyers’ money and pursue on all sides, then return for lack of time because the day precedes the Sabbath. A sunset clock time, ferocious charge and camp’s bags of gold are not specified.

They gather arms and spoils, keep the Sabbath and bless the Lord for deliverance and the beginning of mercy. Afterward spoils go to the feeble, orphans and widows, with the remainder for themselves and servants. They make common prayer for lasting reconciliation. Further victories kill above twenty thousand under Timotheus and Bacchides and secure high strongholds. Spoils are shared equally with the feeble, fatherless, widows and aged; arms are stored conveniently and remaining spoil brought to Jerusalem. Feeble is not silently narrowed to wounded veterans.

They kill Philarches, an associate of Timotheus who had afflicted Jews in many ways. During Jerusalem’s victory feast they burn Callisthenes, who burned the holy gates and sheltered in a house; the narrator calls it deserved repayment. Nicanor, who brought a thousand merchants, is defeated by those he discounted, through the Lord’s help. He discards his glorious garment and flees alone through the inland country to Antioch, miserable at his army’s destruction. The note explains removal of ostentatious apparel to avoid recognition, not a slave disguise. Having planned Roman tribute from Jerusalem’s captives, he now professes that God protects the Jews and that they cannot be hurt because they follow his laws. This is Nicanor’s reported profession, not an unrestricted guarantee added by the reviewer.

The story inside

Initial recruitment and night expeditions lead Philip to seek reinforcements. Nicanor invites buyers before victory, while Judas warns and encourages his followers. The battle, interrupted pursuit and Sabbath precede one distribution; further victories include an equal-share distribution and secure storage. Nicanor’s flight and confession close the account.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Six thousand are initially gathered; the later seven-thousand verse and six-thousand Greek note remain distinct.
2
The Babylonia example gives six thousand, with Macedonian companions at a stand.
3
The first distribution gives the remainder to the victors and servants; the later distribution explicitly includes equal portions for the aged.

Test your recall

Why does the note say Nicanor removes his glorious apparel?

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 109053–109127
8:9. And he with all speed sent Nicanor, the son of Patroclus, one of his special friends, giving him no fewer than twenty thousand armed men of different nations, to root out the whole race of the Jews, joining also with him Gorgias, a good soldier, and of great experience in matters of war. Twenty thousand.... The whole number of the forces sent at that time into Judea, was 40,000 footmen, and 7000 horsemen, 1 Mac. 3.30. But only 20,000 are here taken notice of, because there were no more with Nicanor at the time of the battle. 8:10. And Nicanor purposed to raise for the king the tribute of two thousand talents, that was to be given to the Romans, by making so much money of the captive Jews: 8:11. Wherefore he sent immediately to the cities upon the sea coast, to invite men together to buy up the Jewish slaves, promising that they should have ninety slaves for one talent, not reflecting on the vengeance which was to follow him from the Almighty. 8:12. Now when Judas found that Nicanor was coming, he imparted to the Jews that were with him, that the enemy was at hand. 8:13. And some of them being afraid, and distrusting the justice of God, fled away. 8:14. Others sold all that they had left, and withal besought the Lord, that he would deliver them from the wicked Nicanor, who had sold them before he came near them: 8:15. And if not for their sakes, yet for the covenant that he had made with their fathers, and for the sake of his holy and glorious name that was invoked upon them. 8:16. But Machabeus calling together seven thousand that were with him, exhorted them not to be reconciled to the enemies, nor to fear the multitude of the enemies who came wrongfully against them, but to fight manfully: Seven thousand.... In the Greek it is six thousand. But then three thousand of them had no arms. 1 Mac. 4.6. 8:17. Setting before their eyes the injury they had unjustly done the holy place, and also the injury they had done to the city, which had been shamefully abused, besides their destroying the ordinances of the fathers. 8:18. For, said he, they trust in their weapons, and in their boldness: but we trust in the Almighty Lord, who at a beck can utterly destroy both them that come against us, and the whole world. 8:19. Moreover, he put them in mind also of the helps their fathers had received from God: and how, under Sennacherib, a hundred and eighty-five thousand had been destroyed. 8:20. And of the battle that they had fought against the Galatians, in Babylonia; how they, being in all but six thousand, when it came to the point, and the Macedonians, their companions, were at a stand, slew a hundred and twenty thousand, because of the help they had from heaven, and for this they received many favours. Galatians.... That is, the Gauls, who having ravaged Italy and Greece, poured themselves in upon Asia, in immense multitudes, where also they founded the kingdom of Galatia or Gallo Graecia. 8:21. With these words they were greatly encouraged and disposed even to die for the laws and their country. 8:22. So he appointed his brethren captains over each division of his army; Simon, and Joseph, and Jonathan, giving to each one fifteen hundred men. 8:23. And after the holy book had been read to them by Esdras, and he had given them for a watchword, The help of God: himself leading the first band, he joined battle with Nicanor:
Lines 109129–109187
8:24. And the Almighty being their helper, they slew above nine thousand men: and having wounded and disabled the greater part of Nicanor’s army, they obliged them to fly. Above nine thousand.... Viz., including the three thousand slain in the pursuit. 8:25. And they took the money of them that came to buy them, and they pursued them on every side. 8:26. But they came back for want of time: for it was the day before the sabbath: and therefore they did not continue the pursuit. 8:27. But when they had gathered together their arms and their spoils, they kept the sabbath: blessing the Lord who had delivered them that day, distilling the beginning of mercy upon them. 8:28. Then after the sabbath they divided the spoils to the feeble and the orphans, and the widows, and the rest they took for themselves and their servants. 8:29. When this was done, and they had all made a common supplication, they besought the merciful Lord, to be reconciled to his servants unto the end. 8:30. Moreover, they slew above twenty thousand of them that were with Timotheus and Bacchides, who fought against them, and they made themselves masters of the high strong holds: and they divided amongst them many spoils, giving equal portions to the feeble, the fatherless, and the widows; yea, and the aged also. 8:31. And when they had carefully gathered together their arms, they laid them all up in convenient places, and the residue of their spoils they carried to Jerusalem: 8:32. They slew also Philarches, who was with Timotheus, a wicked man, who had many ways afflicted the Jews. 8:33. And when they kept the feast of the victory at Jerusalem, they burnt Callisthenes, that had set fire to the holy gates, who had taken refuge in a certain house, rendering to him a worthy reward for his impieties: 8:34. But as for that most wicked man, Nicanor, who had brought a thousand merchants to the sale of the Jews, 8:35. Being, through the help of the Lord, brought down by them, of whom he had made no account, laying aside his garment of glory, fleeing through the midland country, he came alone to Antioch, being rendered very unhappy by the destruction of his army. Laying aside his garment of glory.... That is, his splendid apparel, which he wore through ostentation; he now throws it off, lest he should be known on his flight. 8:36. And he that had promised to levy the tribute for the Romans, by the means of the captives of Jerusalem, now professed that the Jews had God for their protector, and therefore they could not be hurt, because they followed the laws appointed by him.