Jewish Independence

After the death of Judas in battle, his brothers Jonathan and then Simon carry on the work. Little by little, playing on the rivalries of the Greek kings, they win not only freedom of worship but the political independence of Israel, lost since the exile. A dynasty of priest-kings, the Hasmoneans, then governs Judea. It is the last great episode of the Old Testament before the silence that precedes Christ.

Jonathan and Simon

At the death of Judas, fallen weapons in hand before an overwhelming army, his brother Jonathan takes up the leadership of the resistance. A shrewd tactician even more than a warrior, he turns to advantage the quarrels that tear the kingdom of Syria between claimants to the throne: each, to secure his support, grants him ever greater favors. One of the kings even clothes him in the sacred vestments and makes him high priest at the feast of Booths; another recognizes his government of Judea. The freedom and power of the Jews thus grow, more by the play of alliances than by battles, and Jonathan even makes distant treaties with Rome and Sparta to secure his position. But, lured into a trap by a Syrian general, Trypho, he is captured and then put to death. Then comes Simon, the last of the sons of Mattathias, who completes what his brothers had begun. He at last expels the pagan garrison from the citadel that had dominated Jerusalem for twenty-five years, purifies the place, and obtains from the king of Syria the remission of tribute: around 142 before Jesus Christ, the yoke of the nations is lifted from Israel, and the land, for the first time since the exile, governs itself at last.

Independence and the Hasmonean Dynasty

Under Simon, Israel knows a time of peace and prosperity such as it had not tasted since the great kings: trade flourishes again, the cities are fortified, the old men sit in the squares, and each cultivates his land in safety, with no one to trouble him. "Each sat under his vine and his fig tree, and no one troubled them." 1 Maccabees 14:12 In gratitude, the people engrave on bronze tablets a solemn decree establishing Simon as leader, high priest, and governor, but with a reservation that tells everything: forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise. "Simon should be their leader and their high priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise." 1 Maccabees 14:41 The family of the Hasmoneans thus founds a dynasty of priest-kings; but the very act that establishes it knows itself to be provisional, in the expectation of a true prophet, a sign that the definitive reign has not yet come. These princes, moreover, are priests and not sons of David: they cannot be the promised king, for the throne of David still awaits its heir. Simon himself will be murdered at a banquet by his own son-in-law; his son John Hyrcanus will enlarge the kingdom, but his descendants will tear one another apart for power, until Rome, called in to settle their quarrels, seizes the country, and Herod, a foreigner, ascends the throne in the name of the Romans.

Why These Books, and toward Christ

The two books of the Maccabees are deuterocanonical: the Church received them, following the Greek Bible the apostles and the first Christians read, while the Reformation set them aside, partly because of what the second teaches on prayer for the dead. Yet they carry treasures: the clearest witness in all the Old Testament to the resurrection, the foundation of prayer for the dead, the example of the martyrs, the affirmation that God created the world out of nothing. They also fill the last stretch of history before the New Testament, that long silence of nearly two centuries in which no prophet speaks any longer. After the Maccabees, the parties that will run through the Gospel take shape, the Pharisees attached to the Law and the Sadducees of the Temple; Rome advances; and Israel, independent for a time and then subjugated again under Herod and under the Romans, waits, more ardently than ever, for the promised Messiah. In this waiting, kept awake by the Law, by the Temple given back by Judas, and by the hope of the resurrection proclaimed by the martyrs, Christ will come, true Prophet, true Priest, and true King, son of David, whom the provisional kingship of the Hasmoneans did but call for. The age of the Maccabees closes the Old Testament, and by its very expectation, it opens onto the Gospel.