translated by Cyril W. Emmet, in R. H. Charles's Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913)
Despite its title, 3 Maccabees has nothing to do with Judas Maccabeus or the Hasmonean revolt against the Seleucids — it belongs to a different country, a different dynasty, and very likely a different century than 1 and 2 Maccabees. Its setting is Ptolemaic Egypt under Ptolemy IV Philopator, who first tries to force the Jews of Alexandria into a registered Dionysiac cult, and then, thwarted, orders five hundred elephants drugged with wine and frankincense to trample the entire community to death in the Alexandrian hippodrome — a massacre averted only by an angelic vision that turns the maddened elephants back on the king's own soldiers. It reached its present name only because later readers grouped it, in the manuscripts, alongside the genuinely Maccabean books of Jewish martyrdom literature. Read on its own terms, it is a lurid, richly rhetorical Alexandrian romance of persecution, deliverance, and vindicated loyalty — closer in spirit to Esther and the Letter of Aristeas than to the war narratives of 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Introductory Note (1913, Cyril W. Emmet)
The scene of 3 Maccabees is placed in the reign of Ptolemy IV (Philopator) at the time of the battle of Raphia (217 B.C.). It narrates an attempt made by the king to enter the Temple at Jerusalem, and his miraculous repulse. In consequence he determines to wreak his vengeance on the Jews of Alexandria, and of Egypt as a whole, first by interfering with their religion and altering their political status, and afterwards by letting loose drunken elephants to trample them to death in the Hippodrome of Alexandria. After his purpose has been several times providentially delayed, it is finally foiled by a vision of angels which turns the elephants upon the persecutors. The king repents and becomes the patron of the Jews, who return in safety and rejoicing to their homes.
The story as it stands is full of impossibilities and bombastic exaggerations, but each of the incidents taken singly may well rest on some basis of fact, though they certainly did not all take place in the same reign. The general accuracy of the technical and official language of the book is confirmed by a comparison with Ptolemaic papyri, and the book as a whole has striking points of contact with 2 Maccabees and the Letter of Aristeas. It would seem to have been written in Alexandria at about the same time as these books, not far from 100 B.C., a date which is confirmed by indications drawn from the papyri. The writer apparently used the lost memoirs of the reign of Philopator, written by Ptolemy Megalopolitanus shortly after his death. He seems to have combined a narrative of Philopator's attempt to enter the Temple with a later story, preserved in another form by Josephus, of a persecution of Egyptian Jews by Physcon.
"Maccabees" is really a misnomer for this book, unless — with Fritzsche — we consider it to be part of a prolegomena to a complete history of the Maccabees; Ptolemaica would be a more accurate title. Syncellus cites the Letter of Aristeas itself as Ptolemaica. It is probable that the present title is not original, and that it has simply arisen from the book's collocation with the other books of Maccabees in the manuscripts.
The book is found in Codex Alexandrinus and in V (Holmes and Parsons 23), and in many cursives; cursives 10, 62, 64, and 93 agree continually and give a Lucianic text. It is not in the Vulgate, but is found in the Syriac Peshitta, the text of which represents a free and expanded rendering, sometimes agreeing with the Lucianic text. There is also an Armenian version, probably to be dated A.D. 400–600, in the golden age of Armenian literature — a loose but very literary translation in the style of the fifth-century historian Faustus of Byzantium, found in most manuscripts of the Armenian Bible. (For these facts, and for the readings from the Armenian version cited in the notes, the editor is indebted to the help of Mr. F. C. Conybeare.)
The text is generally well preserved and presents as a whole no serious problems. The variant readings seldom affect the sense, and usually arise from a desire to substitute for the writer's forced phraseology a simpler and more familiar expression. Even where the manuscripts seem corrupt, the general meaning is clear, and the confusion always appears to be due to the difficulties raised by the verbose and obscure style of the book. Emendation is very uncertain, since the ordinary canons of language and grammar can hardly be applied. There are interesting examples of probable conflation, for instance at ii. 6, 24 and v. 43.
The date must be determined by internal considerations. There is no early attestation to the book's existence, but it cannot have been written after the destruction of the Temple. It clearly belongs to the Jewish apologetic literature that sprang up in the second century B.C. and remained popular for some time. It has points of contact with Esther and Judith on the one hand, though unlike them it has no hero, and with Sirach, Wisdom, and 4 Maccabees on the other; but its connexion is especially close with 2 Maccabees and the Letter of Aristeas.
In its relation to 2 Maccabees, many of the leading ideas and incidents recur in both books: the repulse of a would-be temple-violator — Heliodorus in 2 Maccabees, Philopator himself here — and the miraculous visions that accompany it; the punishment of the offending persecutor; the stress laid on the sanctity of the Temple and on prayers for it; attacks on the Jewish religion and attempts to impose alien citizenship; the prominence of memorial feasts instituted to commemorate deliverance; the appearance of an aged and pious Eleazar in both books; the inclusion of official letters; and a shared picture of the general horror and confusion attending persecution. The resemblance extends to style and language: both books show a fondness for crasis of the definite article and for various classical syntactical forms found nowhere else in the Septuagint, and both share a marked fondness for connecting sentences with the weak particle δέ. A substantial body of rare vocabulary, and of ordinary words used in the same peculiar sense, is common to the two books and is virtually absent elsewhere in Greek biblical literature — examples include δοριάλωτος ("captured in war"), ἀντίπαλοι ("adversaries"), εὐταξία ("good order"), φρυάσσομαι ("to rage," compare Acts iv. 25), ἀλιτήριοι ("accursed wretches"), and the phrase πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν λαμβάνειν ("to set before one's eyes"), among a good many others; a further set of words and phrases — such as the epithet "all-seeing" applied to God, the reference to the ivy-leaf of the Dionysiac cult, and a description of the "worst possible death" — likewise recur in both books and are rare or unattested elsewhere. (Emmet prints these parallels as two full tabulated word-lists, with column references to both books; they are summarized here in prose rather than reproduced verbatim — see the colophon below.)
Though these resemblances are sufficiently striking, real differences prevent us from ascribing the two books to the same author. The style of 2 Maccabees is much better than that of 3 Maccabees — less involved and exaggerated, and closer to the manner of Polybius — nor is it easy to establish a direct literary dependence in either direction. The impression left is that both books belong to the same school of thought, and probably to the same period, rather than that one is drawing directly on the other.
In its relation to the Letter of Aristeas, there is a general similarity of idea and purpose: both aim at glorifying the Jew in his own eyes and in the eyes of the Greek world, laying stress on his importance and on his fidelity to the Ptolemies. A Ptolemy is the central figure of each book, and is represented as acknowledging the protection of the God of the Jews. Much is made in both of the inviolability and beauty of the Temple, and of the overwhelming awe it inspires — the Letter's account of this awe seems a simpler expression of the physical terror that overtakes Philopator here. Other points of contact include the discussion of Jewish separateness in food and manner of life, the recurring role of royal feasts, the inclusion of official letters, and the position of the typical priest Eleazar in each. In style, the closest resemblances are found in the official letters or decrees embedded in each book — in their opening and closing formulas, their technical phrasing, and a body of shared vocabulary and idiom (again tabulated at length by Emmet and here condensed). As with 2 Maccabees, the connexion seems to be one of school and date rather than direct borrowing; and the marked similarity in technical and official language is especially notable, since — as the papyri show — this was language actually in use in documents of the Ptolemaic period.
The papyrus evidence confirms the general accuracy of the book's official and technical language, and suggests that it belongs to the Ptolemaic rather than the Roman period. Applying Thackeray's test of the spelling οὐθείς/μηθείς against οὐδείς/μηδείς, the older form appears three times in the manuscripts against six agreements on the later spelling with delta — a fluctuation much like that found in Wisdom, and both books probably belong to the "period of transition," 132 to 100 B.C. or rather later. The formula of greeting used in the royal letters, "to rejoice and be in health" (found also in the Letter of Aristeas), seems to point to a date at the end of the second or the beginning of the first century B.C.; earlier papyri generally use a conditional greeting-formula, while papyri from the end of the first century B.C. onward use "very many greetings" — the closest papyrus parallels to 3 Maccabees date to around 95 B.C. The word λαογραφία ("poll-registration"), once thought to point to the Roman period, has been shown by the papyri to belong quite naturally to the Ptolemaic age; and dating by Egyptian months alone, which some had taken as a mark of a late date, is likewise shown to occur much earlier, since the Egyptian and Macedonian calendars were already being equated in the reign of Euergetes II (Physcon). A range of further technical terms and phrases in the book — for petitions, for royal clemency, for the enrolling of records on a memorial pillar, for popular commemorative feasts — all find close and early parallels in the papyri and in the Ptolemaic inscriptions of Canopus and Rosetta.
Taken together, the evidence converges: there are good reasons for connecting the book with Alexandria; the Letter of Aristeas is certainly Alexandrian and of the same period; and the indications drawn from the papyri — the nature of the official language, the greeting-formulas of the letters, and the use of the forms οὐθείς and μηθείς — suggest a date of around 100 B.C. Since the connexion between 3 Maccabees and these other books is best explained as one of school and outlook rather than direct literary borrowing, it may even have been written a little before them; its upper limit is fixed by its apparent quotation, in chapter six, from the Song of the Three Children, which probably dates from the last quarter of the second century B.C.
Polemical writing for and against the Jews is known to have come into vogue in the reign of Physcon (146–117 B.C.) and to have remained fashionable afterward, and the present book clearly belongs to that class of literature. It was apparently written primarily for Jewish readers, to encourage and confirm their faith in themselves and their destiny, though certainly meant to be read by the wider world as well. It is an apology, representing the Jew as the Ptolemies' most loyal supporter, much as later Christian apologists represented the Christian as the empire's best citizen; and not far below the surface lies the further suggestion that it is imprudent to interfere too far with the Jew or his religion. It is, further, a tract on the orthodox side, supporting the strict view of the Hasidim against the laxer Hellenizing element, which must have been even stronger in Egypt than in Palestine — though there is little evidence that its polemic was specifically aimed at a Samaritan element, or very definitely at the rival temple of Onias.
The chief alternative date proposed is that of Ewald, who connects the book with Caligula's attempt to set up his image in the Jerusalem Temple, and with the persecution of the Alexandrian Jews under that emperor, as told by Philo in the Against Flaccus and the Embassy to Gaius. Certain motifs are common to Philo's story and to 3 Maccabees — the injustice of the persecution, the loyalty of the Jews, the punishment of the persecutor — but these are commonplaces of the genre. The story of 3 Maccabees lacks the features that most define the Caligula episode: the attempt to force the emperor's image specifically into the synagogues, the direct assault on the synagogues themselves, and Caligula's personal claim to divine honours — though this last could easily have been transferred, since the Ptolemies too were worshipped as gods. Moreover, in Philo's account the hostility begins with the populace, the Alexandrian riots precede the events at Jerusalem, and the Jews in fact suffer severely, which forces those who accept Ewald's date to assume that the author was simply too timid to press the parallel closely. But the tone of 3 Maccabees is not that of a time of oppression and martyrdom; it belongs rather to a time when the nation is prosperous and its position has been triumphantly vindicated — and tempting as Ewald's suggestion is at first sight, it cannot outweigh the positive indications of an earlier date drawn from other evidence. Attempts have also been made to connect the book with Pompey's attack on the Temple in 64 B.C., or with incidents involving Herod or Pilate recorded by Josephus, but the resemblances here are slighter still, and would only deserve serious consideration if there were independent grounds for placing the book in the Roman period.
In its relation to Polybius, the book's account of the battle of Raphia and its picture of Philopator's character broadly agree with Polybius's fifth book, though there are important differences of detail for which there is no obvious explanation. Now Polybius names a certain Ptolemy of Megalopolis — a fellow townsman of his own — who served as governor of Cyprus and wrote an anecdotal account of the reign of Philopator giving a very unfavourable picture of the king; Polybius used him as one of his sources, particularly for the story of Agathocles, and the comment he appends to that story — regretting the taste of some chroniclers for miraculous embellishment and for moralizing over an event rather than reporting its facts — probably refers to this Ptolemy's history. It is tempting to identify this lost source with the ultimate origin of the narrative in 3 Maccabees: the very faults Polybius attributes to Ptolemy Megalopolitanus — a love of marvels and embellishment, and a fondness for assigning causes — are exactly the qualities of 3 Maccabees, and several details of the Agathocles episode (the popularity of Arsinoe, the confusion in the streets of Alexandria, the debauchery, the cruelty, an unexpected escape) recall the Jewish story closely enough to suggest that its author drew, whether directly or at a remove, on the same anecdotal tradition — adapting, among the stories Ptolemy told of Philopator, some that a pious Jew could turn to the glorification of his own nation.
In its relation to Josephus, a passage in the Against Apion (ii. 5) tells a story certainly connected in some way with that of 3 Maccabees. After the death of Ptolemy Philometor, the Alexandrian Jews supported Cleopatra against his brother Physcon; the latter, in revenge, exposed the Jews and their families to drunken elephants, which instead turned on Physcon's own followers, and a phantom appearance further deterred the king from further violence. Earlier in the same chapter Josephus mentions a visit of Ptolemy Euergetes I to Jerusalem to give thanks for a victory, the services of the Jewish generals Onias and Dositheus, the intercession of Physcon's concubine on the Jews' behalf, and a memorial feast kept by the Alexandrian Jews on the day of their deliverance. Josephus's version is on the face of it far more probable than the sensational narrative of 3 Maccabees, and the presence of the festival in both suggests that some real historical incident underlies the legend in each. The question is whether Josephus is right to place it under Physcon: the papyri suggest the Jews were on the whole well treated under that king, though the evidence is somewhat thin and concerns mainly the later part of his reign; and it is entirely plausible that the widow Cleopatra and her infant son were supported at the start of his reign by Onias and the loyal Jews of Leontopolis, inviting reprisals once Physcon triumphed — reprisals that, on this reading, fell chiefly on Fayûm Jews brought to Alexandria for the purpose, which agrees well with the impression left by 3 Maccabees itself, and with a possible allusion elsewhere to an edict of Physcon extending Alexandrian citizenship to Egyptians and Jews alike.
The Jerusalem incident, on the other hand, is probably rightly placed by the author of 3 Maccabees in the reign of Philopator: in his triumphal progress after Raphia the king would hardly have bypassed the Jewish capital, and with his known interest in architecture and religion he would certainly have wished to enter the Temple, while the Jews would just as certainly have tried to stop him — circumstances that could easily give rise to the highly coloured narrative before us, and which may themselves derive in substance from the memoirs of Ptolemy Megalopolitanus.
The hypothesis that two originally independent stories have been combined in 3 Maccabees is supported by the book itself: the link between the Jerusalem episode and the subsequent persecution in Egypt is very artificial, and while there is no setting bounds to the unreason of a despot, it is not very likely that Philopator would have wished to destroy the innocent and loyal Jews of Egypt merely for an insult offered by their countrymen at Jerusalem — whereas the narrative's own references to taxation and to local religious friction supply a far more plausible explanation for the origin of the persecution. It appears, then, that the writer has combined the Physcon story and the Philopator story, transferring the former to the earlier reign — with the obvious advantage that, in Josephus's version, the position of the Jews under Physcon was a little ambiguous (loyal to Cleopatra, but on the losing and therefore technically rebellious side), an ambiguity that vanishes in the retelling. The writer has also, in passing, worked in a further story glorifying the Jew: Dositheus appears in the Physcon narrative alongside Onias as a Jewish general who served the Ptolemies well, and a Dositheus son of Drimylus is independently attested in the papyri as an Alexandrian priest around 222 B.C.; the author of 3 Maccabees apparently identifies the two, turning the son of Drimylus into a renegade Jew who nonetheless plays the part of a Mordecai and saves the king's life. The otherwise pointless mention of Arsinoe at the outset may be a similar trace: perhaps she was originally meant to play, like Physcon's concubine in Josephus, the part of an intercessor for the Jews — a feature later dropped without the earlier references to her being removed — or she may simply be carried over directly from the setting of Ptolemy Megalopolitanus's narrative, in which she seems to have figured prominently, without further symbolic weight.
It is in any case clear that the writer's aim was to combine in a single picture as many features as possible tending to the glorification of the faithful Jew: the frustrated attempt to enter the Temple, the saving of the king's life by a Jew, the attacks on Jewish religion and the attempts at hellenizing both in Alexandria and in Egypt at large, the evidence of Jewish influence and unwavering loyalty, the marvels of divine intervention, and the vengeance visited on renegades. The result is not very convincing either artistically or historically; but each feature, taken by itself and stripped of its sensational colouring, is entirely credible and probably rests on some basis in fact. Our knowledge of the history of the Jews in Ptolemaic Egypt is too fragmentary to justify denying the possibility of sporadic outbreaks of anti-Jewish feeling in the second and third centuries B.C.; and since the papyri confirm the writer's accuracy in various particulars, his work probably deserves a somewhat higher historical value than has usually been allowed it. On one point all are agreed: the character given here to Philopator matches fully the picture history has formed of him elsewhere — a king who, in the Latin tag, "spent his nights in debauchery and his days in banqueting." Whether that picture is entirely fair is another question; it may owe something to the hostile bias of Ptolemy Megalopolitanus, and inscriptions suggest there was something to be said on the king's side — they attest, at least, a genuine interest in architecture and religion, and a ready liberality toward cities and temples, which agrees with the picture given here.
It is sometimes held that the book as we have it is only a fragment of a larger work, or that at least its opening has been lost. The arguments offered are the abruptness of the introduction, the reference to the plot of Theodotus in the first chapter as though already familiar to the reader, and the mention of "before-mentioned" companions of the king in chapter two who have not in fact been introduced before. But if we accept the writer's dependence on Ptolemy Megalopolitanus, it is more natural to see these as slips arising from a careless adaptation of his source: at i. 2 "a certain Theodotus" is introduced as though for the first time, while the words that follow presuppose an earlier reference to his treachery — the source has evidently been only imperfectly adapted, and the indefinite phrasing shows that Theodotus cannot have been already named in some now-lost opening of the book itself.
Büchler, by contrast, argues that the book as it stands has been drastically edited and contains extensive interpolation that has introduced confusion into the story. He points out that in the closing chapters the Alexandrian Jews are barely mentioned, the narrative dealing solely with the return of country Jews to Moeris and the Arsinoite district, and suggests that the original story concerned a persecution of Fayûm Jews who had refused to join a birthday feast for Dionysus on some occasion when Philopator tried to establish that god's cult at Bacchis and Dionysias on the shores of Lake Moeris — with the references to renegades pointing to a Samaritan element ready to fall in with a lax syncretism. On this theory he proposes very considerable excisions from the text. There is no real ground for this: it is more likely that the writer himself combined several distinct stories and is responsible for the resulting confusion. At the same time, Büchler's suggestion as to the underlying cause of the persecution of the Fayûm Jews is plausible enough, and may well preserve one genuine historical element in the story.
The book is a product of Alexandrian literature, exemplifying in its most extreme form the pseudo-classicism of the Atticists; yet it would be misleading to call it written in a genuinely literary style, since its artificiality and extravagance scarcely deserve the name of literature. Particularly when the writer attempts purple passages of description, he succeeds only in being obscure and bombastic — see, for instance, i. 16 ff. and iv–v. 6 ff. His sentences are repetitive and awkwardly built, and for all their pretension to rhetoric are marked by an excessive reliance on the weak connective particle δέ: of the first eleven verses of the book, ten begin with it. The vocabulary is unusually rich: Swete lists some thirty-two words found nowhere else in the Septuagint, but the true figure runs to well over a hundred, including some twenty adjectives compounded with a privative alpha, and a number of poetical words such as πανόδυρτος ("all-lamented") and πολύδακρυς ("much-wept"). About fourteen words are otherwise unattested anywhere in Greek literature — verbs such as ψυχουλκεῖν ("to drag out the soul") and προανστέλλειν, and elaborate compound adjectives of the type of βυθοτρεφής ("bred in the deep"), μισούβρις ("hating insolence"), μυροβρεχής ("drenched with myrrh"), ποντόβροχος ("sea-drenched"), and φοβεροειδής ("terrible in aspect"). Among distinctively classical forms, unusual or unique within the Septuagint and marking the writer as a self-conscious Atticist, are a number of archaic vocabulary choices and grammatical forms, together with the classicizing use of crasis with the definite article (τοὐναντίον, τἀληθές); at the same time the writer shows throughout the influence of the ordinary koine of his day, and there is one striking example, at iv. 19, of a redundant preposition with the dative after a verb of use.
The book represents the most orthodox type of old-fashioned Judaism, devoted to the Temple, the Law, and the peculiar standing of the chosen people. God's role is to act as Israel's champion; there is no trace of universalism, nor any wish for converts. Philopator is forced to respect God, but, unlike Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel, he does not come to worship him, and there is none of the openness to syncretism found in the Letter of Aristeas. Yet alongside a certain arrogant self-satisfaction and narrow materialism there is real piety and an unshaken faith in the power of prayer. There is no reference anywhere to the Messianic hope, to apocalyptic speculation, or to the future life. An angelic vision terrifies Ptolemy and his army, but is not seen by the Jews themselves; there is no sign of any wish to interpose intermediaries between God and man, nor is he described by the periphrases common elsewhere — his providence is mentioned, but nowhere personified. He is addressed directly, and the sheer variety and number of divine attributes piled up in address to him is remarkable; such accumulation of divine epithets in prayer is itself a recognizable feature of Hellenistic Jewish piety. Several of the titles given to God here are otherwise unattested in the Septuagint, including "sole ruler" (μόναρχος), "forefather" (προπάτωρ), "great sovereign" (μεγαλοκράτωρ), and a number of further compound epithets, alongside striking phrases describing him as wielder of all power; the forms of address "thou who beholdest all things," "holy among the holy ones," "the God who has manifested himself," "worker of wonders," and "deliverer of Israel" are similarly distinctive. Theologically, then, the book belongs to the strict, conservative school of the Hasidim, devoted to the Law and drawing its inspiration from the lessons of the nation's history; it voices a bitter opposition to the hellenizing tendencies that so nearly overwhelmed Judaism in the second century B.C., and shows no sympathy at all for the newer developments of thought and doctrine then growing up within Jewish religious life. Though it is a product of Alexandria, it betrays no trace of the influence of characteristically Alexandrian ideas; the keenest heresy-hunter could have found no fault with its uncompromising orthodoxy.
References to 3 Maccabees are very few, and entirely confined to Christian writers — the Apostolic Canons, the Stichometry of Nicephorus, the Synopsis attributed to Athanasius, and Eusebius's Chronicle. The Stichometry of Codex Claromontanus implies knowledge of the book by its mention of a fourth book of Maccabees. In the Synopsis attributed to Athanasius the book is listed among "the four books of the Maccabees, Ptolemaica" — a phrase editors have long emended in various ways, most commonly to read "and Ptolemaica," identifying the Ptolemaica as a separate title for this very book. Theodoret of Antioch summarizes the book and treats it as history, and Swete notes an interesting combination of a scriptural verse with a phrase from 3 Maccabees in the Liturgy of St Clement. The attestation, it will be seen, is entirely Eastern: the book was never accepted into the Western Church's canon and does not appear in the Vulgate.
The translation that follows is based to some extent on Churton's version, but is practically a new one. The aim has been to convey something of the character of the Greek by preserving the complexity of the writer's sentences rather than smoothing them into easy English; a more fluent and literary rendering would have given a false impression of the book. In the notes, "Gr." and "K." refer to the editions of Grimm and Kautzsch respectively.
Chapter 1
1 Now when Philopator had learned from those who had returned of the capture by Antiochus of the places which had been held by him, he issued orders to all his forces, foot and horse, and taking with him his sister Arsinoe, marched to the district over against Raphia, where the army of Antiochus was encamped. 2 But a certain Theodotus, determining to carry out his plot, took with him the bravest of the soldiers of Ptolemy who had been previously assigned to him, and went by night to the tent of Ptolemy, intending to kill him single-handed, and thereby put an end to the war. 3 But Dositheus, called the son of Drimylus, who was by birth a Jew, but had subsequently abandoned the observance of the law, and renounced his ancestral faith, had conveyed Ptolemy away, and put some obscure person to sleep in the tent; and so it happened that on this man fell the vengeance intended for the other. 4 And when a fierce battle had begun, and things were favouring Antiochus, Arsinoe went frequently up and down the ranks, and, her hair dishevelled, exhorted them with lamentation and tears to fight manfully for themselves, their children, and their wives, promising to give them, if they conquered, two minae of gold each. 5 And thus it came about that their adversaries were destroyed in the encounter, and that many were also taken captive. 6 So Ptolemy, having crushed the attack, determined to visit the neighbouring cities, and encourage them. 7 And having done this, and given gifts to their shrines, he inspired his subjects with confidence. 8 And when the Jews had sent to him some of the senate and elders to greet him, and bring him gifts, and congratulate him on what had happened, he became the more eager to visit them as quickly as possible.
9 And when he had come to Jerusalem he sacrificed to the Most High God and offered thankofferings, acting in some measure according to what was suitable to the place. And entering into the holy place, and being struck by the care displayed, and the beauty, and admiring also the good order of the temple, 10 it came into his mind to purpose to enter into the sanctuary. 11 And when they said that this was not allowed, since not even members of their own nation could enter, or all the priests, but only the high-priest who was chief of all, and he once a year, he was by no means convinced. 12 And when the law had been read out to him, not even then did he desist from his claim that he himself should enter, saying, Even if they are deprived of this honour, I must not be so. 13 And he asked why, when he entered into every shrine, none of those present hindered him? 14 And some one answered thoughtlessly that he did wrong to make this boast. 15 But since this is so, he said, why should I not enter in any case, whether they wish it or not?
16 Then the priests in all their robes fell down, and besought the Most High God to aid them in that which had come upon them, and to turn the violence of him who was making this wicked attack, filling the temple with lamentation and tears; 17 and those who were left in the city hurried forth in confusion, concluding that something strange was happening. 18 The virgins who had been shut up in their chambers rushed forth with their mothers, and, covering their hair with dust and ashes, filled the streets with groanings and lamentations. 19 And those who had been lately married, leaving the chambers prepared for wedded intercourse and forgetting their proper modesty, ran about in confusion through the city. 20 And as for the new-born children, the mothers and nurses who had charge of them left them here and there, in the houses or in the streets without care, and came in crowds to the temple which is high above all.
21 And manifold were the supplications of those gathered here because of the impious enterprise of the king. 22 And with them the bolder from among the citizens would not endure his carrying the matter to an extremity, or his determination to complete his project; but calling on one another to rush to arms, and to die bravely for the law of their fathers, they made great confusion in the place, 23 and being with difficulty turned from their purpose by the elders and the priests, they joined in supplication with them. 24 And the multitude continued meanwhile praying as before. 25 But the elders who were with the king tried in many ways to turn his haughty mind from the purpose he had conceived. 26 But being emboldened and now setting them all aside, he was even beginning to approach, thinking that he would complete the design aforesaid. 27 Therefore those who were with him, seeing this, joined with our own people in beseeching him who has all power to defend them in their present need, and not to disregard the lawless and insolent deed. 28 So incessant and vehement was the united cry of the multitude that an indescribable uproar arose. 29 For it might have been thought that not only the people, but even the walls and the whole pavement were crying out, since all preferred death to the profanation of the holy place.
Chapter 2
1 Then the High-Priest Simon, bowing his knees before the holy place, and spreading out his hands in calm reverence, prayed after this manner: 2 Lord, Lord, king of the heavens, and sovereign of all creation, holy among the holy ones, only ruler, almighty, give ear to us who are grievously troubled by one wicked and profane, made wanton in insolence and might. 3 For thou who hast created all things, and governest the whole world, art a righteous ruler, and judgest those who do aught in violence and arrogance. 4 Thou didst destroy those who aforetime did iniquity, among whom were giants trusting in their strength and boldness, bringing upon them a boundless flood of water. 5 Thou didst burn up with fire and brimstone the men of Sodom, workers of arrogance, who had become known of all for their crimes, and didst make them an example to those who should come after. 6 Thou didst try with manifold and grievous punishments the insolent Pharaoh when he enslaved thy holy people Israel, and didst make known thy mighty power. 7 And when he pursued with chariots and a multitude of peoples thou didst overwhelm him in the depth of the sea, but those who trusted in thee, the ruler of all creation, thou didst bring safely through. 8 And they, seeing the works of thy hands, did praise thee, the almighty.
9 Thou, O King, when thou didst create the boundless and measureless earth, didst choose this city and sanctify this place for thy name — thou who hast need of nothing — and didst glorify it by a splendid manifestation, establishing it to the glory of thy great and honourable name. 10 And loving the house of Israel, thou didst promise that if there should be a falling away, and distress should overtake us, and we should come to this place and make our supplication, thou wouldst hear our prayer. 11 And indeed thou art faithful and true. 12 And seeing that oftentimes when our fathers were afflicted thou didst succour them in their humiliation, and didst deliver them from great evils, 13 behold now, O holy king, for our many great sins we are grievously troubled and put into subjection to our foes, and faint in our weakness. 14 In our low estate this insolent and profane man seeketh to do violence to the holy place which is consecrated upon earth to the name of thy glory. 15 For man cannot reach thy dwelling place, the heaven of heavens. 16 But since thy good pleasure was in thy glory amongst thy people Israel, thou didst hallow this place. 17 Punish us not by the uncleanness of these men, neither chastise us by their profane doings, lest the transgressors boast in their wrath or exult in the insolence of their tongue, saying, 18 We have trodden down the house of the sanctuary as the houses of the abominations are trodden down. 19 Blot out our sins and scatter abroad our offences and manifest thy mercy at this hour. 20 Let thy compassion speedily overtake us, and put praises in the mouth of the fallen and broken in heart, granting us peace.
21 Then the God who beholds all, the Father of all, holy among the holy ones, hearing the supplication spoken according to the law, scourged him who was greatly uplifted in violence and insolence, 22 shaking him to and fro as a reed by the wind, so that lying on the ground powerless and paralysed in body he could not so much as speak, being smitten by a righteous judgement. 23 Whereupon his friends and body-guard, seeing that the chastisement which had overtaken him was swift, and fearing lest he should even die, speedily drew him out, being overwhelmed by an exceeding great fear. 24 But having after some time recovered himself, he by no means came to repentance though he had been thus punished, but departed with bitter threats.
25 So, arriving in Egypt, and going on further in his wickedness, through his boon companions and associates, who have been already mentioned, utter strangers to all justice, he was not content with his countless excesses, but even reached such a pitch of insolence that he raised evil reports in those parts, and many of his friends, watching carefully the royal purpose, themselves also followed his will. 26 He purposed publicly to inflict a disgrace upon the Jewish nation, and erected a pillar on the tower in the palace with the inscription: 27 That none who did not sacrifice should be allowed to enter their temples; and that all Jews should be degraded to the rank of natives and the condition of serfs, and that those who spoke against it should be taken by force and put to death; 28 and that those who were registered should even be branded on their bodies with an ivy-leaf, the emblem of 30 Dionysus, and be reduced to their former limited status. But that he might not appear an enemy to all, he added: But if any of them prefer to join those who are initiated into the mysteries, they shall have equal rights with the citizens of Alexandria.
31 Some, obviously hating the price paid for the religion of their city, readily gave themselves up, expecting to gain great glory from their association with the king. 32 But the greater part stood firm with a noble courage, and departed not from their religion; and paying money as a ransom for their lives fearlessly attempted to save themselves from the registration. 33 And they remained of good hope that they should find help, and abhorred those who parted from them, accounting them as enemies of their nation, and excluding them from social intercourse and the rendering of any service.
Chapter 3
1 The impious king, perceiving this, was so greatly enraged that he was not only wroth with those who dwelt at Alexandria, but was even more bitterly hostile to those in the country, and ordered that they should all be speedily gathered together, and put an end to by the most cruel death. 2 While this was being arranged a malicious report was noised abroad against the Jewish nation on the part of men who agreed together to do them hurt, an occasion being afforded for representing that they hindered them from the observance of the laws. 3 But the Jews continued to maintain their goodwill towards the king and their unswerving fidelity. 4 Yet worshipping God, and living according to his law, they held themselves apart in the matter of food; and for this reason they were disliked by some; 5 but adorning their conversation by the good practice of righteousness they were established in the good report of all. 6 But of this good practice, which was the common talk of all men with regard to the nation, the foreigners took no account; 7 but they talked continually of the difference they made with regard to worship and food, alleging that they were friendly neither to the king nor his army, but ill-disposed, and bitterly hostile to his interests; thus they cast no small opprobrium upon them. 8 But the Greeks in the city, having been in no way injured by them, 9 seeing the unexpected disturbance about them, and the unlooked-for concourse, were not able to help them — for they lived under a tyranny — but tried to comfort them and were indignant, expecting that this affair would take a change for the better; for so great a community could not be thus 10 allowed to perish when it had committed no fault. And already some of their neighbours and friends and business associates, taking aside some of the Jews secretly, gave pledges of their protection and earnest endeavours for their assistance.
11 So the king, puffed up by his present prosperity, and regarding not the power of the most high God, but supposing that he himself would always hold firmly to the same purpose, wrote this letter 12 against them: King Ptolemy Philopator to his generals and soldiers in Egypt and every place, greeting and prosperity. 13 I myself and our affairs prosper. Our expedition into Asia, of which you yourselves are aware, having been brought to an expected conclusion by the help of the Gods, 14 we thought, not by force of arms, but by kindness and much benevolence, to foster the peoples of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, bestowing benefits upon them with all readiness. 15 And having granted large revenues to the temples in the cities, we came to Jerusalem as well, going up thither to show honour to the temple of the accursed people who never cease from their folly. 16 Seemingly they welcomed our presence, but their welcome was insincere; 17 for when we were eager to enter their shrine and to honour it with magnificent and beautiful offerings, carried away by their ancient pride they prevented us from going in, being left unhurt by our power on account of the benevolence we have to all. 18 But they show plainly their ill-will towards us, and standing alone among nations in their stiff-necked resistance to kings and their own benefactors, they refuse to take anything in a proper spirit. 19 We accommodated ourselves to their folly, and returning victoriously to Egypt, and treating all nations with kindness, have acted as was right. 20 And under these circumstances, making known to all our ready forgiveness of their fellow-countrymen, on account of their alliance, and the numerous matters which have been freely entrusted to them from of old, we have ventured to make a change, and have made up our mind to hold them worthy even of Alexandrian citizenship, and to give them a share in our religious rites from time to time. 21 But they, taking this in the opposite spirit and rejecting the good offer with their inborn ill-feeling, and continually inclining to evil, 22 not only refused the invaluable citizenship, but also show their contempt silently and by words for the few among them who behave properly towards us, in every case secretly expecting that through their infamous behaviour we should speedily alter our policy. 23 Therefore, having good proof for our persuasion that they are evilly disposed towards us in every way, and taking precautions lest, when some sudden tumult is raised against us hereafter, 24 we should have these impious people behind our backs as traitors and barbarous foes, we give order that, as soon as this epistle reaches you, you shall at once send to us with harsh and violent treatment those who dwell among you, with women and children, binding them fast in every way with 25 iron chains, to meet a terrible and ignominious death, as befits traitors. 26 For we believe that when they have been punished together, our estate will be established for the future in the surest and best condition. 27 And whoever shall harbour any Jew, old man or child or very suckling, shall with all his house be tortured to death with the most horrible torments. 28 Information may be given by any one; the informer to receive the estate of the guilty party, with two thousand drachmae from the royal treasury, and to be honoured with freedom. 29 And every place where a Jew shall be detected at all in concealment shall be made a waste and burnt with fire, and shall become entirely useless to any mortal creature for all time. 30 Thus ran the letter.
Chapter 4
1 In every place where this decree reached, a feast at the public charges was made for the heathen with exultation and joy, the hatred which had long before become inveterate in their hearts being now freely displayed. 2 But among the Jews there was unceasing grief and a lamentable crying with tears, their heart being all aflame with their groanings, as they bewailed the unlooked-for destruction 3 which had been suddenly decreed against them. What district or city or what habitable place at all 4 or what streets were not filled with wailing and lamentation for them? For in such manner with harshness and pitiless heart were they sent away with one accord by the generals in the cities, that at the sight of their unusual sufferings even some of their enemies, with common pity before their eyes, remembering the uncertain issue of life, wept at their hapless departure. 5 For there was carried away a multitude of old men, covered with their wealth of grey hairs, forcing to a swift journey their feet bent and sluggish from old age under the violence of their rough driving which knew no shame. 6 And the young women who had but lately entered the marriage chamber for the society of wedded life, with lamentations instead of joy, and with their perfumed locks covered with dust, were carried away unveiled, and with one accord sang a dirge in place of the wedding hymn, scarred by the cruel treatment of the heathen; 7 and as prisoners exposed to public gaze they were dragged along with violence until they were embarked on board. 8 And their consorts, with ropes on their necks instead of garlands, in the flower of their youthful age, spent the remainder of the days of their marriage feast in dirges instead of mirth and youthful ease, seeing the grave already yawning at their feet. 9 And they were brought on board driven like wild beasts under the constraint of iron bonds; some were fastened by the neck to the benches of the ships; others had their feet secured in the strongest fetters; 10 and further they were shut off from the light by the thick planks above, that in entire darkness they might be treated as traitors throughout the whole voyage.
11 When they had been brought to the place called Schedia, and the voyage was completed as determined by the king, he ordered them to be imprisoned in the hippodrome that was before the city, a place of immense circuit and very suitable for making them a gazing stock to all who entered the city, and to those who went out from it into the country to sojourn, so that they might 12 neither communicate with his army, nor in any way claim protection of the walls. 13 But after this had been done, hearing that their fellow-countrymen in the city often went out in secret and bewailed the shameful fate of their brethren, he was enraged and ordered that they should be treated in exactly the same way as the others, receiving in no respect a lesser punishment. 14 And he commanded that the whole race should be registered by name, not for the wearisome service of labour which was briefly described before, but that they should be tortured with the torments to which he had sentenced them, and finally be made an end of in the space of a single day. 15 The registration therefore was carried on with bitter haste and zealous diligence from sunrise to sunset, coming to an end after forty days but still uncompleted.
16 But the king was greatly and continually filled with joy, ordering feasts in the temples of his idols, with a heart far astray from the truth and profane lips, praising dumb idols which could not speak to them or help, and uttering words which were not fitting against the most high God. 17 But after the aforesaid space of time the scribes reported to the king that they were no longer able to continue the registration of the Jews on account of their incalculable number; 18 although the greater number of them were still in the country, some still remaining in their homes and others on the journey, it was impossible for all the generals in Egypt. 19 And after he had threatened them fiercely as having been bribed to contrive their escape, 20 he was at length clearly convinced on this point, when they told him and proved that even the paper manufactory and the pens which they used for writing had already given out. 21 But this was the working of the invincible providence of him who was aiding the Jews from heaven.
Chapter 5
1 Then he called Hermon, who was in charge of the elephants, and, filled with bitter anger and wrath, and altogether inflexible, ordered him 2 for the next day to drug all the elephants — in number five hundred — with copious handfuls of frankincense, and abundance of unmixed wine, and then, when they were maddened by the plentiful supply of drink, to bring them in to compass the fate of the Jews. 3 And giving this order he turned to his feasting, having gathered together those of his friends and army who were most hostile to the Jews, 4 while Hermon, the ruler of the elephants, attended to the injunction with all care. 5 And the servants who were in charge of the Jews went out in the evening and bound the hands of the hapless wretches, taking all other precautions to keep them safe through the night, imagining that the nation would at one blow meet its final destruction. 6 But the Jews, who seemed to the heathen to be destitute of all protection, on account of the constraint and bonds which encompassed them on every side, 7 with crying that would not be silenced, all called with tears on the almighty Lord and ruler of all power, their merciful God and father, beseeching him to frustrate the wicked design against them and to deliver them by a glorious manifestation from the fate yawning ready before them. 8 So their prayer ascended fervently to heaven; 9 but Hermon, having given the pitiless elephants drink till they were filled with the plenteous supply of wine and sated with frankincense, came early in the morning to the palace to report to the king about this.
10 But the good creature, bestowed night and day from the beginning of time by him who gives the portion of sleep to all, even to whomsoever he will — this he sent upon the king; 11 and he was overborne by a sweet and heavy slumber by the operation of the Lord, thus being greatly foiled in his lawless purpose, and utterly disappointed in his unchangeable design. 12 But the Jews, having escaped the appointed hour, praised their holy God, and again besought him who is ready to forgive to manifest the might of his all-powerful hand before the proud eyes of the heathen. 13 But when the middle of the tenth hour had nearly come, he who was in charge of the invitations, seeing the guests assembled, went to the king and shook him. 14 And having woken him up with difficulty, he pointed out that the hour for the banquet was already passing, reminding him of the circumstances. 15 And the king, considering these, betook himself to his cups and ordered those who had come for the banquet to take their places over against him. 16 And when this had been done he called on them to give themselves up to revelry, and, counting themselves highly honoured, to reckon as a joy the feast, late as it was.
17 And when the entertainment had gone on for some time, the king called Hermon and asked with fierce threats why the Jews had been allowed to survive that day. 18 But when he pointed out that he had completely carried out the order overnight, and his friends confirmed him, the king, with a rage more fierce than Phalaris, said that the Jews might thank his sleep for the respite of the day; 19 but, he added, make ready the elephants in the same manner without further delay for the following day, to destroy utterly the accursed Jews. 20 When the king had spoken, all who were present readily assented with joy with one accord, and each one departed to his own house. 21 But they did not spend the night season in sleep, so much as in devising all manner of cruel insults for those whom they thought to be in such wretched plight.
22 So as soon as the cock had crowed in the morning, Hermon harnessed the beasts and began to put them in motion in the great colonnade. 23 And the multitudes in the city assembled for the piteous spectacle, eagerly looking for the break of day. 24 But the Jews, drawing their last breath for but a brief moment more, with tearful supplications and strains of woe, raising their hands to heaven, besought the most high God again to help them speedily. 25 The rays of the sun were not yet scattered abroad, and the king was receiving his friends, when Hermon came to his side and invited him to go forth, explaining that the desire of the king was ready to be fulfilled. 26 When the king understood him, he was astonished at the unusual summons to go forth, having been overwhelmed with complete ignorance, and asked what was the matter on account of which this had been so zealously accomplished. 27 But this was the operation of God, the ruler of all, who had put in his mind forgetfulness of his former devices. 28 But Hermon and all his friends pointed to the beasts and the army: It is prepared, O king, according to thine eager purpose.
29 But he was filled with fierce anger at the words, because by the providence of God he had entirely lost his wits on this matter, and, looking on him, said threateningly, 30 If thy parents or offspring were here, I would have furnished them as this rich banquet for the fierce beasts in place of the Jews, against whom I have no charge, and who have shown in a pre-eminent degree a full and unshaken loyalty to my ancestors. 31 And indeed, if it were not for the affection kindled by our life together and thy service, thou shouldst have died instead of these. 32 So Hermon met with an unexpected and dangerous threat, and his eyes and countenance fell. 33 And the king's friends, slinking away sullenly one by one, sent away the assembled crowds, each to his own business. 34 And the Jews, hearing the words of the king, praised the Lord God who had manifested his glory, the king of kings, having obtained this help also from him.
35 But the king, having arranged the banquet once more in the same way, ordered them to turn to their pleasures. 36 And calling Hermon he said threateningly, How often, thou wretched creature, must I give thee orders about these very things? 37 Even now make ready the elephants for the morrow to destroy the Jews. 38 But his kinsmen who sat at table with him wondered at his shifting purpose, and remonstrated, How long, O King, dost thou make trial of us as though we were fools, 39 now for the third time giving orders for their destruction, and once more, when the matter is in hand, changing and cancelling thy decree? 40 Wherefore the city is in a tumult through its expectation, and, being crowded with throngs of people, has now been several times in danger of being put to plunder. 41 On this the king, a Phalaris in all things, was filled with madness, and, reckoning nothing of the changes of mind which had been wrought in him for the protection of the Jews, swore strongly a fruitless oath that he would without delay send to the grave the Jews mangled by the knees and feet of the beasts, 42 and would march against Judaea and quickly level it to the ground with fire and sword, and, burning to the earth their temple which we might not enter, would quickly make it empty for all time of those who sacrificed therein. 43 Then his friends and kinsmen went away joyfully with good confidence, and ordered the army to the most convenient places of the city to keep guard.
44 And the ruler of the elephants, having driven the beasts into a state almost, one might say, of madness by fragrant draughts of wine mingled with frankincense, and having fitted them in a fearful guise with implements, at dawn, the city being now filled with countless multitudes thronging towards the hippodrome, entered the palace and urged on the king to the business that lay before him. 45 And he, his impious heart filled with fierce anger, started forth with all his force with the beasts, determined with an unfeeling heart and his own eyes to gaze on the grievous and piteous destruction of the aforementioned Jews. 46 And when they saw the dust raised by the elephants going out at the gate, and the armed force accompanying them, and the movement of the crowd, and heard the far-sounding tumult, 47 thinking that the last crisis of their life had come and the end of their miserable suspense, they betook themselves to lamentation and groans, and kissed one another, embracing their relatives and falling on their necks, parents and children, mothers and daughters; 48 and others with new-born babes at their breast drawing their last milk. 49 But none the less, reflecting on their former deliverances sent from heaven, with one accord they threw themselves on their faces, 50 and took the babes from their breasts, and cried out with an exceeding loud voice, 51 beseeching the ruler of all power by a manifestation to show pity upon them now that they were come to the gates of death.
Chapter 6
1 But a certain Eleazar, a man of note among the priests of the country, whose years had already reached old age, and who was adorned with every virtue of life, made the elders who were round him cease from calling on the holy God, and prayed thus: 2 King of great power, most high, almighty God, who governest all creation with loving-kindness, look upon the seed of Abraham, the children of Jacob thy sanctified one, the people of thy sanctified inheritance, who are unjustly perishing, 3 strangers in a strange land. 4 O Father, thou didst destroy Pharaoh, the former ruler of this Egypt, with his multitude of chariots, when he was lifted high in his lawless insolence and a tongue speaking great things, drowning him together with his proud host, and didst cause the light of thy mercy to shine upon the race of Israel. 5 Thou, when Sennacherib, the cruel king of the Assyrians, was puffed up by his countless hosts, after he had taken the whole earth captive by his sword, and was lifted up against thy holy city speaking grievous words of boasting and insolence, thou, Lord, didst break him in pieces, making manifest thy power to many nations. 6 Thou, when the three friends in Babylonia freely gave their life to the flames that they should not serve vain things, didst make as dew the fiery furnace, and deliver them unharmed even to the hair of their head, turning the flame upon all their adversaries. 7 Thou, when Daniel was cast through the slanders of envy to the lions beneath the ground as food for wild beasts, didst bring him up to the light unhurt. 8 And when Jonah was languishing unpitied in the belly of the sea-born monster, thou didst restore him [illegible in scan] 9 of all, quickly manifest thyself to the saints of Israel's line, in their insolent oppression by the abominable and lawless heathen.
10 And if our life has been ensnared in impious deeds during our sojourning, save us from the hand of the enemy, and destroy us, O Lord, by whatever fate thou choosest. 11 Let not the men whose thoughts are vanity bless their vain gods for the destruction of thy beloved, saying, Neither has their God delivered them. 12 Thou who hast all might and all power, the Eternal, look now upon us; pity us who by the mad insolence of lawless men are being sent to death as traitors; 13 and let the heathen to-day fear thy invincible might, thou glorious one, who hast mighty works for the salvation of the race of Israel. 14 The whole multitude of babes with their parents beseecheth thee with tears. 15 Let it be shown to all heathen that thou art with us, O Lord, and hast not turned thy face away from us; but as thou hast said, Not even when they were in the land of their enemies have I forgotten them, even so bring it to pass, O Lord.
16 And when Eleazar was even now ending his prayer, the king with the beasts and the whole insolent array of his army came to the hippodrome. 17 And the Jews, beholding it, raised a great cry to heaven, so that now the surrounding valleys re-echoed it, and caused in all the hosts an uncontrollable trembling. 18 Then the greatly glorious, almighty, and true God, making manifest his holy face, opened the gates of heaven, from which two glorious angels of terrible aspect descended, visible to all but the Jews, 19 and withstood them and filled the army of the adversaries with confusion and terror, and bound them with immovable fetters. 20 And a great horror seized on the body of the king as well, and his fierce insolence was forgotten. 21 And the beasts turned round against the armed hosts that followed them and began to tread them under foot and destroy them.
22 And the king's wrath was turned to pity and tears on account of that which he had devised before. 23 For hearing the outcry and seeing them all prostrate to meet their death, he wept and angrily threatened his friends, saying, 24 Ye usurp the kingly power, surpassing even tyrants in your cruelty; and me myself, who am your benefactor, ye plot to deprive of my dominion and my life, devising secretly things that are unprofitable to the kingdom. 25 Who hath driven each one from his home the men who have faithfully held the fortresses of our country, and gathered them here without reason? 26 Who hath thus lawlessly overwhelmed with indignities those who from the beginning have been in all things conspicuous beyond all nations in their goodwill towards us, and have ofttimes encountered the worst dangers man can undergo? 27 Loose, yea loose, their unjust bonds; send them to their homes in peace, asking pardon for what has been already done. 28 Set free the sons of the almighty living God of Heaven, who from the days of our ancestors until now hath granted an unimpaired stability and glory to our estate. 29 Thus he spake; and they, having been set free in a moment, praised the holy God their saviour, having but now escaped death.
30 Then the king, returning to the city, called the officer who was over the revenues, and ordered him to supply to the Jews for a space of seven days wines and all else necessary for a feast, decreeing that they should keep a festival of deliverance with all manner of rejoicing in the very place in which they had thought to meet their fate. 31 Then those who before were reviled and nigh to the grave, or rather had already one foot therein, instead of a bitter and most lamentable death, held a banquet to celebrate their deliverance, and full of joy they portioned between their companies the place which had been prepared for their destruction and grave. 32 And ceasing the piteous strain of dirges, they took up the song of their fathers, praising God the saviour of Israel and doer of wonders; and laying aside all wailing and lamentation they formed dances in token of joy for their safe deliverance. 33 And likewise the king too, convening a great banquet in celebration of this, unceasingly gave thanks in exalted terms to heaven for their unexpected deliverance. 34 And those who before supposed that the Jews were doomed to destruction and to be food for birds, and had joyfully carried out the registration, groaned at finding themselves covered with confusion and their fiery blast of insolence quenched ingloriously. 35 And the Jews, as we have already said, formed the dance which we have before described, and spent their time in feasting with joyful thanksgiving and psalms. 36 And establishing a public ordinance about this, to be observed for all their sojourning from generation to generation, they appointed the days mentioned to be kept as a festival, not for the sake of drinking or gluttony, but in memory of the salvation granted them by God. 37 And they petitioned the king, desiring to depart to their home.
38 Now they were registering them from the twenty-fifth day of Pachon to the fourth of Epiphi, for forty days; and they were appointing their destruction from the fifth of Epiphi to the seventh, three days. 39 And on these did the ruler of all with great glory manifest his mercy and deliver them one and all unhurt. 40 And they feasted, provided with all things by the king, till the fourteenth day, on which they also made petition for their return. 41 And the king, granting their request, wrote for them the following letter to the generals in the cities, generously declaring his purpose.
Chapter 7
1 King Ptolemaeus Philopator to the generals in Egypt and to all set over his affairs, greeting and prosperity. 2 We ourselves and our children prosper, the great God directing our estate as we will. 3 Certain of our friends with evil heart, by frequently urging the matter upon us, persuaded us to gather together in a body the Jews in the kingdom, and to inflict upon them extraordinary punishments as traitors, 4 urging that our state would never be firmly established, on account of the enmity which they have to all nations, until this was done. 5 And they, bringing them bound with harsh treatment as slaves, or rather traitors, without any inquiry or examination, attempted to put them to death, girding themselves with a cruelty fiercer than Scythian customs. 6 But we severely threatened them for this, and of the clemency which we have to all men scarcely granted them their lives; and knowing that the God of heaven surely protects the Jews, fighting on their side continually as a father for his children, 7 and taking into account the goodwill as of a friend which they have shown unswervingly to us and our ancestors, we have rightly absolved them from all blame on whatsoever account. 8 And we have ordered them each to return to his own home, and that no one in any place should injure them at all or reproach them for their unreasonable sufferings. 9 For know well that if we devise any evil against them, or harm them in any way, we shall have not man but the ruler of all power, the most high God, as an adversary to avenge what is done, and that in every way and at all time without being able to escape him. Fare ye well.
10 The Jews, receiving this epistle, did not at once make haste to prepare for their departure, but desired further of the king that those of the Jewish race who had of their own will transgressed against the holy God and the law of God should receive at their hand fitting punishment, 11 urging that those who for their belly's sake had transgressed against the divine commands would never be well disposed to the king's commands either. 12 And he, acknowledging the truth of what they said and praising them, gave them full indemnity to destroy in every place in his dominions those who had transgressed against the law of God, and this with all freedom without any further authority or inquiry from the king. 13 Then, having received his words with applause, as was fitting, their priests and the whole multitude, with shouts of hallelujah, departed in joy. 14 So as they went on their way they slew whomsoever they met of their countrymen who had been defiled, and put them to death with ignominy. 15 And on that day they slew over three hundred men, and they kept it as a joyful festival, having destroyed the impious. 16 But they themselves, who had held fast to God even unto death, and had entered into the full enjoyment of their safe delivery, departed from the city crowned with all manner of fragrant flowers and with cries of joy, in praises and melodious hymns giving thanks to the God of their fathers, the eternal saviour of Israel.
17 And when they had reached Ptolemais, called on account of the peculiarity of the place "The rose-bearing," the fleet according to their general wish waited for them seven days, 18 and they held there a banquet to celebrate their deliverance, the king having generously provided for them all things for their journey until each one had come to his own home. 19 Having reached the end of their voyage in peace with befitting thanksgivings, there too in like manner they determined to observe these days as well as a festival during the time of their sojourning; 20 and, having inscribed them as holy on a pillar, and having dedicated a place of prayer on the spot where they had held their festival, they departed unharmed, free, and full of joy, being brought safely on their journey by land and sea and river according to the king's command, each to his own country, 21 [illegible in scan] with even greater authority than before in the eyes of their enemies, with glory and respect, and being despoiled by no one at all of their goods. 22 And they all recovered the whole of their property according to the registration, so that those who held any of it returned it with great fear, the great God having perfectly wrought great things for their salvation.
23 Blessed be the deliverer of Israel for ever and ever. Amen.
Colophon
Prepared from R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, Vol. 1: Apocrypha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), translation and introduction by Cyril W. Emmet. Source: archive.org item apocryphapseudep01charuoft (University of Toronto copy). This edition's per-verse textual-critical apparatus — the Greek manuscript sigla, comparative readings, and cross-references printed below each verse group — is omitted from this transcription; it survives complete in the 1913 printed edition and in the cited scan.
Two further disclosed omissions: (1) In the Introductory Note's discussion of the book's relation to 2 Maccabees and to the Letter of Aristeas, Emmet prints two lengthy tabulated columns of shared rare Greek vocabulary. These tables are too corrupted by OCR (missing diacritics, transposed Greek letters) to transcribe reliably word-for-word; they are summarized here in discursive prose with a representative sample of the clearest legible examples, and the summarization is noted at that point in the text. (2) A footnote on 3 Maccabees v. 29 records that one cursive manuscript (64) contains a substantial alternative addition at that point; this manuscript variant is part of the omitted critical apparatus and is not reproduced.
Two short spans of the translation proper are illegible in the scan and are marked inline as such: within Eleazar's prayer at 3 Maccabees vi. 8–9 (between "thou didst restore him" and "of all, quickly manifest thyself"), and at 3 Maccabees vii. 21 (a word or short phrase before "even greater authority than before"). In both cases the surrounding sense is preserved; only the missing span is marked rather than supplied.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted transcription and editorial work.
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