BMCR 2009.05.51: Shaw on Schwartz, 2 Maccabees. Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature

Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees. Commentaries on Early Jewish
Literature.  Berlin/New York:  Walter de Gruyter, 2008.  Pp. x, 617.
ISBN 9783110191189.  $158.00.

Reviewed by Frank Shaw, Cincinnati, Ohio ([email protected])
Word count:  3053 words
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The publication of a full-length commentary in English on 2 Maccabees
is a rare occurrence (the only other one was a quarter century ago), so
the appearance of Schwartz's tome is both needed and welcome. His
mentor Menahem Stern had just begun work on a 2 Macc. commentary when
he was murdered during the first intifada in 1989, and the task of
continuing the project fell to Schwartz. Originally published in Hebrew
in 2004, the book has undergone significant changes in the English
version. General comments between his translation and the
verse-by-verse commentary have been added; the bibliography has been
improved and updated; statements only related to modern Hebrew have
been dropped; various revisions and corrections have been made, some
stemming from reviewers of the Hebrew edition. Important too is
Schwartz's claim of an "English translation [that] is not only new but
also qualitatively different from the Hebrew one." Here he means it is
"freer and, consequently, more idiomatically English" (vii). Naturally
the English version will be far more widely read than the Hebrew one.

The work is comprised of four major parts: 1. an introduction of
considerable substance subdivided into eight sections (126 pp.); 2. his
translation and commentary (387 pp.); 3. 11 appendices (39 pp.); 4. an
index of references to ancient and medieval literature as well as
inscriptions and papyri, another of names and subjects, and a third of
modern authors (57 pp.). An abbreviations list and general bibliography
comprise the final section of the introduction and total 29 pages. The
most recent entries date to 2007. The only part of the work written by
Stern is appendix seven, three pages on the Jewish role in the
otherwise unattested battle of the Macedonians and Jews against the
Galatians reported at 2 Macc. 8.20.

It does not take the informed reader of the introduction long to
realize that Schwartz has several notions which depart substantially
from those established in 2 Maccabean scholarship. The first is his
belief that the book dates early, close to the events (which date c.
185-161 BCE) that it describes. 2 Macc. is a complex work because it is
a pre/cis of a reputed five-volume history (now lost) by an otherwise
unknown Jason of Cyrene. This epitome is then prefaced with two letters
that take up all of chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2.
Academics have for some time placed the date of the epitomizer in the
late second or first century BCE, usually from the reigns of John
Hyrcanus (135/4-104 BCE) or Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE). Dating the
epitome is partly calculated on determining the time of the letters. As
for Jason himself, estimates vary because we know so little about him,
but some have long held that he wrote soon after the reported action,
even believing he was an eyewitness. Schwartz's accepting this last
notion is not novel, but his idea that Jason's work was condensed soon
thereafter is. He proposes the following scenario: unnamed
"Jerusalemite propagandists" added what is now 10.1-8 (a section on
Hanukkah) as well as both prefatory letters "upon the achievement of
Judean independence" in 143/142 BCE. Naturally the epitome had to have
been already written by then. Schwartz finds support for this view by
declaring that the account of Judas' embassy and consequent alliance
with the Romans (in 161 BCE) at 4.11 "is fresh in the readers' memories
[and] . . . they know of only one such delegation to Rome" (8-15). His
view also requires a rejection of the standard reading of "year 188" at
1.10 for the less well-attested "year 148," present in only 2 minuscule
MSS (11-12, 143-144, 519-529). All this puts the finished product some
20 years before the earliest date proposed by others for 2 Macc., and
thus prior to 1 Macc. as well.

Also radical is Schwartz's view of the work's composition, the related
issue of the sources used, and especially to whom the term "author"
should be applied. In effect, he chooses to redefine terminology
traditional in 2 Maccabean scholarship. The designation "epitomator" is
normally employed for the individual who abridged Jason's work, as the
book itself indicates (2.23-28). The word "author," while certainly
difficult to apply to our text in some passages, is usually reserved
for Jason. However, Schwartz argues that because of the epitomizer's
reflections at 4.16-17, 5.17-20, and 6.12-17, it is legitimate to look
for other intrusions into the synopsis of Jason, and Schwartz believes
that when he finds them, they come from sources the summarizer employed
in addition to Jason's history. These are the following: the Heliodorus
episode (ch. 3); the martyrdoms of Eleazar, the mother and the seven
sons (6.18-7.42); Antiochus Eupator's accession, Judas vs. the
Idumeans, Judas vs. Timothy (10.9-38); and Lysias at Beth-zur as well
as the resulting four quotations of documentary letters (all of ch.
11). Previous scholarship has focused on speculating what Jason's
sources were, but Schwartz concentrates on the epitomizer's. For
Schwartz then, the epitomator is not merely the real author but even a
"craftsman" whose "extensive work on the book went well beyond
epitomizing" (37).

This conclusion is intimately related to the matter of 2 Maccabees'
composition, namely that when this author/craftsman utilized the
proposed new sources, he changed the original sequence of material.
Building on seven delineated problems, some of which have long been
known (e.g., the courtier Philip's frightened flight to Egypt at 9.29
vs. his suddenly being in charge of the Seleucid government at 13.23;
Timothy's being killed at 10.37 but his still being pursued at 12.10),
Schwartz contends that the order we see of chs. 9-13 should be
understood chronologically as 13, 12, and 9, with most of ch. 10 and
all of 11 being inserted after ch. 9, and things being rearranged due
to "sloppy editing" once his author/craftsman discovered the sources
that were to become those chapters. As a result "he would easily arrive
at 9-10-11-13-12." He then changed the order of 13 and 12 for possible
reasons that Schwartz admits are not "quite satisfying." Another factor
at work here was his author/craftsman's "mistaken impression . . . that
Antiochus IV had died by 148 [of the Seleucid calendar]" (32-33, 37).
On a conceptual level these notions form the most conjectural part of
Schwartz's volume, as the following quotation attests: "let us imagine
what our author might have done if . . ." (32).

Beginning with the third subsection of the introduction "Historical
Worth and Leading Ideas" the volume stands on firmer ground. The first
part documents the continual rise in historical accuracy that 2 Macc.
has been accorded in modern scholarship, while the second offers
support for Schwartz's contention that the book's basic tenor is
diasporan rather than Palestinian--in regard to his author/craftsman as
well as Jason. A notable point here is his disagreement with the
long-established view that a major interest in 2 Macc. is the Jerusalem
temple. Taking cues from the work of Bernard Renaud,[[1]] he prefers to
say that the emphasis is rather on the city Jerusalem of which the
temple is merely a part, something a diasporan Jew would stress. The
final segment of the third subsection reminds readers that, though
truly valuable, 1 and 2 Macc. have their individual biases, so each
must be used judiciously.

While the brief fourth subsection reviews the consensus that 2 Macc. is
both Jewish and Greek, the lengthier fifth covers a needed matter: the
character of the book's Greek. Portions of two never-published German
dissertations, two short journal articles, scattered comments in Robert
Hanhart's textual commentary,[[2]] and one chapter in Robert Doran's
Temple Propaganda book[[3]] are the only prior discussions of this
matter. Here Schwartz details our work's wide-ranging vocabulary, its
abbreviation and brevity, and most substantially its use of
confrontations and "lively language . . . to involve the reader
emotionally in the heat of the struggles" (76). This last part extends
10 pages.

The sixth subsection "Reception and Text" treats who in antiquity read
2 Macc. and, more importantly, issues of textual criticism. On the
first score, he highlights the lack of Jewish interest in our book and
assesses the church's attraction to it. For the second matter, the
contents merit more than a simple summary. The standard Goettingen
edition of Hanhart[[4]] has undergone fairly widespread criticism. In
an impressively concise way Schwartz handles several important subjects
both conceptually and with specific detail, thus offering a more
nuanced position than have others. He understands where each camp is
coming from, concurs with the censure that Hanhart was too sparse in
his apparatus, but in other ways defends him: Schwartz disagrees with
the notion espoused by Peter Katz/Walters[[5]] and G. D.
Kilpatrick[[6]] that more credit should be given to the Lucianic
readings in 2 Macc., and he is not as eager to accept testimony from
the Old Latin as some are (e.g., Abel[[7]]). Unfortunately, Schwartz
does not comment on the criticism of Hanhart by Christian Habicht[[8]]
(recently echoed by Joachim Schaper in the NETS[[9]]) that Hanhart
relied too heavily on mainly four Greek MSS. Thus while in the main
defending many of Hanhart's decisions, Schwartz does not lock himself
into them. Indeed our author differs with him at 1.10 (as above), 3.4
(95-96), 5.2-3 (252), 6.2 (537-540), and elsewhere (96 n. 236 contains
of list of other such passages).

One is struck with how the English translation reads, especially after
Schwartz's buildup that he strove to be both free and idiomatic. On the
contrary, the initial impression a reader gets is that it seems formal
and outmoded, as the opening words indicate: "To their brethren the
Jews in Egypt (from) the Jews in Jerusalem and in the country of
Judaea: greetings (and) good peace. And may God be beneficent unto you
and remember His covenant . . ." (129). The fact that Schwartz has
chosen occasionally to utilize the RSV (261, 344, 353) while the NRSV
does not even rate a place on the abbreviations list (101) may also
suggest that he is tied to an old type philosophy of translation.
Whatever the case may be, the English translation generally reads
smoothly and understandably. A check of sample problematic passages
yields some fruitful results. Schwartz opts for rendering the knotty
<greek>u(/dwr paxu/</greek> (lit. "thick water") as "viscous liquid" at
1.20/21 (130) as do Be/nevot[[10]] and Goldstein[[11]], something that
fits the context of naphtha well (contra Habicht, the LEH
lexicon[[12]], and Schaper who offer "marsh water"). At 4.11 he picks
up on the humanity present in <greek>fila/nqrwpa</greek> by translating
"benevolent privileges" (207), a meaning missed in other renderings
that have simply "concessions" (NAB, NRSV). Insights in translation
appear when dealing with textual problems too; for instance, at 15.11
Judas receives "a trustworthy dream," <greek>o)/neiron
a)cio/piston</greek>, but then a modifier follows, either <greek>u(pe/r
ti</greek> according to Hanhart, or the Lucianic reading <greek>u(/par
ti</greek>, "a certain vision," which most follow on the basis of
sense. Schwartz's "a dream . . . more trustworthy than anything else"
(492) deals with the puzzling and less popular text better than
Goldstein's awkward "beyond measure."

The commentary likewise displays a lush depth of learning. Schwartz is
more familiar with rabbinic sources than are the majority in modern
times who have written on 2 Macc., and he draws regularly on Philo,
Josephus, and classical authors; the last is often via Grimm's 1857
commentary which he calls "still the most useful" for such matters
(97). Schwartz is widely read in literature published not only in
European languages but also in modern Hebrew; the latter has often
been, or, without our colleague's contribution, would have likely
become, neglected in Maccabean studies. Finally, Schwartz admits that
living the life of both a diasporan Jew and one in Israel has
contributed to his understanding of our ancient work. Some examples
bear these factors out. In the first prefatory letter the prayer is
made that God open the recipients' hearts <greek>e)n tw=| no/mw|
au)tou= kai\ e)n toi=s prosta/gmasi</greek> (1.4). This has normally
been taken as "to his law and ordinances" (most scholars) or as "by
means of" or "with his Law" (Goodspeed[[13]]). Speaking of the
Hellenistic use of <greek>e)n</greek>, Moulton and Milligan call it the
"maid-of-all-work,"[[14]] so, given the context, few would think that
here it should be understood with its basic meaning "in." Enter
Schwartz who so renders it and reminds readers that the phrase appears
in the Uva leZion prayer at b. Berakhot 17a, and that a medieval
understanding took "the implied physiology quite seriously" (137).
Dozens of similar examples from rabbinic material are to be found. His
bibliography contains well over 40 entries to modern literature in
Hebrew that bear on 2 Macc., and further such sources are common within
the commentary (145, 154, 165, et freq.). As for extrapolating his
personal experiences within and outside of modern Israel, this cuts two
ways, as Schwartz seems well aware (viii). A case in point is his
statement that 2 Maccabees' "focus on martyrdom is typically diasporan"
(48). Are there other contemporary martyrdoms available so that one can
say that in its own world the presentation of the martyrs in 2 Macc. is
typical? Such reliance on often considerably later sources and/or
personal experience, while surely valuable, also carries the very real
danger of anachronism.

Schwartz is current in his scholarship. An outstanding example is his
3-page appendix on the much-mooted contextual meaning of 4.9,
registering "the men of Jerusalem as Antiochenes." To this statement
Schwartz, following Walter Ameling[[15]] and Nigel Kennell,[[16]]
applies the inscription published in 1997 and 2002 of the Attalid
letters granting "the Phrygian community of Tyriaion the right to
organize itself as a polis," an obviously valuable insight into the
debate on our 2 Macc. text (530-532). On page 87 n. 204 we learn that
Philip Alexander is now preparing a commentary on 3 Macc. The book is
also rich in observations. A good illustration is his finessing the
statement of Jan van Henten that 2 Macc. is of Judean origin.[[17]]
Schwartz takes this not as others naturally have (e.g., David
deSilva[[18]]) but as "a formal statement about the book as it is now:
formally, it is two letters with an 'attachment.'" He continues, "just
as Paul, of Cilician Tarsus, could spend time in Jerusalem, so could
our writer" (45 n. 100). Another noteworthy remark is his highlighting
the problems of applying the text critical lectio brevior rule when
"dealing with a book whose author clearly loved to play with words and
pile them on" (93).

Yet even high quality works have their weaknesses and our volume is no
exception. On a conceptual level two points come to mind. While
certainly intriguing is the notion that our ancient book's emphasis is
more on the city than the temple (in fact, there is much to be said on
behalf of this idea), still there are some potential problems with the
way Schwartz argues his position. He is not averse to overstating his
case: "our author is pedantically emphatic about the people being more
important than the Temple" (46). How is the one general and brief
statement he cites in this vein (5.19), indeed the only such direct
sentiment expressed throughout our history, "pedantically emphatic"?
Then too 2 Macc. does have considerable focus on the temple which is
repeatedly referred to with strong, even superlative, epithets: it is
<greek>me/giston</greek> (2.19; 14.31), <greek>pa/shs th=s gh=s
a(giw/taton</greek> (5.15), and <greek>peribo/hton</greek>  ["noised
abroad, famous"] <greek>kaq' o(/lhn th\n oi)koume/nhn</greek> (2.22).
Where is Jerusalem itself referred to in like manner? Exaggeration and
the failure to explain adequately what could be viewed as contrary
evidence are not keys to winning over critically minded colleagues.
Secondly, if the epitomator (his "author") was such a "craftsman," then
why did he so clumsily stick in his new source material and furthermore
mix it up so that it would have numerous blunders (like the Philip and
Timothy inconcinnities) and be easily discoverable to readers like
Schwartz, especially when he was arguably the most educated writer in
the LXX? How do crafting a book and then committing large-scale "sloppy
editing" within it correspond? It will prove interesting to see how
scholarship reacts to our colleague's innovative proposals concerning
the time, author, sources, composition, and emphasis of this ancient
work. Some may conclude that at least a few of his creative solutions
to long-standing problems create new difficulties.

One further surprise needs mention: Schwartz's mere single footnote
reference (550 n. 98) to the above-mentioned LEH LXX lexicon. This tool
has already undergone a revision, and although it has been criticized,
it is nevertheless quite useful, especially for gathering statistics on
vocabulary. It will not be replaced until Muraoka's lexicon is
completed, and that will be true only if Muraoka's contains a similar
entry for each word's frequency of occurrence within the LXX. LEH
relied on the Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies project
(CATSS) begun by Robert Kraft and Emanuel Tov for these data. Several
times Schwartz mentions how he slogged through partial surveys
utilizing the unwieldy Hatch and Redpath concordance[[19]] (H&R) for
statistics on vocabulary (e.g., 67 n. 164, 71 n. 176, 87 n. 201). In at
least some of these instances, performing the same or similar tasks
with LEH, supplemented by H&R, likely would have expeditiously
completed his surveys--the present writer has done so with relative
ease for the 2 Macc. chapter in the forthcoming handbook of the LXX (T
& T Clark).

Such issues, however, should in no way detract from the significance of
the book, for this undertaking by Schwartz is a great boon to students
of (i) ancient Judaism, (ii) a significant episode in Jewish-Greek
relations, and (iii) the Septuagint. Its importance is difficult to
overstate; only the author can fully appreciate the huge task he has
accomplished, while the rest of us are genuinely grateful for his
courageous candor and industry. For anyone interested in the serious
study of 2 Macc. a great impediment has been the dated nature of the
major works on it: Goldstein's Anchor Bible commentary is 26 years old;
Habicht's JSHRZ volume is aged 33; Abel's tome is now 60. Schwartz's
book rectifies this situation and will prove to be the work that all
individuals sincerely investigating 2 Macc. will turn to for some time
to come, at least until Doran's Hermeneia volume is ready, and probably
for a long time afterward.


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Notes:


1.   Renaud, Bernard, "La loi et les lois dans les livres des
Maccabe/es," RB 68 (1961) 58-64.

2.   Hanhart, Robert, Zum Text des 2. und 3. Makkabaeerbueches, (MSU
VIII; Goettingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961).

3.   Doran, Robert, Temple Propaganda: The Purpose and Character of 2
Maccabees (CBQ Monograph Series 12; Washington: Catholic Biblical
Association of America, 1981).

4.   Hanhart, Robert, Maccabaeorum libri I-IV.2: Maccabaeorum liber II
(Goettingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959; 2nd edn, 1976).

5.   Walters (formerly Katz), Peter, "The Text of 2 Maccabees
Reconsidered," ZNW 51 (1960) 10-30; ibid. The Text of the Septuagint:
Its Corruptions and Their Emendations (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1973).

6.   Kilpatrick, G. D., Review of Hanhart (1959, 1961), Goettingische
Gelehrte Anzeigen, 215 Jahrgang (1963) 10-23; reprinted in Sidney
Jellicoe, ed., Studies in the Septuagint: Origins, Recensions, and
Interpretations (New York: KTAV, 1974) 418- 431.

7.   Abel, F.-M., Les Livres des Maccabe/es (EBib; Paris: Gabalda,
1949).

8.   Habicht, Christian, 2. Makkabaeerbuch (JSHRZ 1.3; Guetersloh: G.
Mohn, 1976, 2nd edn, 1979) 192.

9.   Schaper, Joachim, "2 Makkabees," A New English Translation of the
Septuagint (NETS), A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright, eds. (New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 504-505.

10.   Be/nevot, H., Die beiden Makkabaeerbuecher (Die heilige Schrift
des Alten Testamentes IV.4; Bonn: P. Hanstein, 1931).

11.   Goldstein, J. A., II Maccabees, AB 41A (New York: Doubleday,
1983).

12.   LEH has now become the standard abbreviation for J. Lust, E.
Eynikel, and K. Hauspie, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint
(2-vol. 1st ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft 1992, 1996;
1-vol. 2nd ed. 2003).

13.   Goodspeed, Edgar J., The Complete Bible, an American Translation
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939).

14.   Moulton, James H. and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the
Greek Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930) 209.

15.   Ameling, Walter, "Jerusalem als hellenistische Polis: 2 Makk
4,9-12 und eine neue Inschrift," BZ n. F. 47 (2003) 105-111.

16.   Kennell, Nigel M. ""New Light on 2 Maccabees 4:7-15," JJS 56
(2005) 10-24.

17.   Henten, Jan Willen van, The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the
Jewish People: a Study of 2 and 4 Maccabees (Leiden: Brill) 50.

18.   deSilva, David, A., Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context,
and Significance (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002) 270.

19.   Hatch, Edwin and Henry A. Redpath, A Concordance to the
Septuagint, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1897-1906; reprint Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1983).