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Alfred C. Barnes
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029308503
THE FIVE BOOKS FROM MACKABEANS IN ENGLISH INTRODUCTION BOOK V
WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY
HENRY COTTON, D.C.L.
ARCHDEACON OF CASHEL,
AND DECEASED STUDENT AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD
OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. MDCCCXXXII.
TO
THE PROVOST, FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS, VAN TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, TO WHOSE VALUABLE LIBRARY I HAD THE MOST GENEROUS ACCESS, THE PRESENT PUBLICATION IS ENGRAVED, IN TESTIMONY OF RESPECT AND REGARD.
Note from Webmaster
The books of the MACCABEES tell us the passages between Maleági in the OLD TESTAMENT to the birth of Jesus in the New Testament. There is nothing in the Bible about this. (±450 years) These books tell us about Judah and Benjamin, two of the tribes of Israel that remained and are now known to us as Jews, to the other 10 tribes known as Israel in exile carried off through Syria to this day. We must never forget that after the sin of Solomon for marrying Gentile women, God divided as punishment the old Israel which consisted of 12 tribes, 10 Northern tribes known as Israel and the two southern tribes confessed as Judah, now also called Jews. Read the Bible from 1 Kings 11 from verse 1 to MaleÁgi.
The events described in the five books took place under the rule of Greek leaders as the third world rulers as described in the Dream of Nebuchadnezzar. First there was Babylon, then fellow Persians to the Greeks who were taken over by the fourth viz. The Romans. Why not read the book of Daniel in the Bible? The events of the MACCABEES take place after Alexander the Great died, and his four Generals divided the world among them as rulers.
P.J.C.Schutte
BOOK V INTRODUCTION
The fifth book, although Calmet supposes that it was originally written in Hebrew, and from thence was translated into Greek, is not now known to exist in either of those languages. We have it in Arabic, and in Syriac. It is a kind of Chronicle of Jewish affairs, commencing with the attempt on the treasury at Jerusalem made by Heliodorus, (with an interpolation of the history of the Septuagint version composed by desire of Ptolemy,) and reaching down to the birth of Jesus Christ : or, speaking accurately, to that particular point of time, at which Herod, almost glutted with the noblest blood of the Jews, turned his murderous hands upon the members of his own family ; and completed the sad tragedy of the Asmonaean princes, by the slaughter of his own wife Mariamne, her mother, and his own two sons.
The Arabic of this book, with a Latin version of it by Gabriel Sionita, first appeared in the Paris Polyglott Bible of Le Jay, with no other notice than the following preface.
“Liber hic a ” cap. 1 usque ad 16 inclusive inscribitur ‘II.
” Machaheeorum ex Hehrceorum translatione,’ uti
” in calce ejusdem cap. 16 videre est. Reliquus
” vero liber simpliciter notatur ‘ II. Machahceo
” rum^ continuata tamen cum antecedentibus capitum
“serie. At cum neque textui Syriaco, qui
” praecipuae inter Orientales auctoritatis est, neque
” Graeco, neque Vulgatae editioni consonet, (quan
” quam in omnibus ferme Orientalium extet codicibus,)
” ilium in calce horum Bibliorum reposui
” mus, et quidem destitutum apicibus suis : tum
” ne cuiquam inter caeteros Canonicos libros recen
” seri a nobis videatur : tum quia secundus Machabaeorum,
“qui pro Canonico habetur, ex integro
” nobis extat, quanquam sub nomine primi. Habes
” tamen in hoc quaedam ex primo et secundo
” quaedam vero alia hactenus forte in lucem non
” edia quae tibi non injucunda fore speramus
” quandoquidem liber totus est quaedam historiae
” continuatio, ab ipsis Machabaeis deducta usque
” ad regnum Herodis et prsefecturam Pilati
“, et ” consequenter Christi Domini tempora. Tandem
” hoc unum scias velimus, nos ea bona fide textum
” expressisse, ut ne ea quidem quae facile emendari
” poterant mutaverimus.”
The translation of the above Latin into ENGLISH reads as follows:
This book from chapter 1 to 16 inclusive is titled ‘II. From the Hehrcean translation of the Machabees,’ as can be seen at the foot of chapter 16. The remaining book, however, is simply noted as ‘II. Machabees,’ though continued with the preceding series of chapters. But since it agrees neither with the Syriac text, which is of primary authority among the Easterns, nor with the Greek, nor with the Vulgate edition, (although it exists in nearly all Oriental manuscripts,) I have placed it at the end of these Bibles.
Indeed, and lacking its own endings: then “so that it may not appear to anyone among the other canonical books to have been recently added by us: then because the second Book of Maccabees, which is considered canonical, from beginning to end survives to us, although under the name of the first. Yet you have in this some from the first and second, and some other perhaps not previously brought to light, which we hope will not be unpleasant to you, since the entire book is a continuation of certain historical accounts, drawn from the Maccabees themselves up to the reign of Herod and the prefecture of PilateC and consequently the times of Christ the Lord. Finally know this one thing, we wished to express the text in good faith, so that we have not even changed what could easily have been corrected.
The appearance of this book in the Paris Polyglott, without any account of the Manuscript from which it had been taken, or any farther particulars connected with its publication, is thought to have arisen from the quarrels which were continually taking place between two of the editors of the Oriental department of that Bible, Gabriel Sionita and Abraham Ecchellensis. From the Paris edition it was copied into the London Polyglott of Bishop Walton.
c This appears to be a mistake, as will be perceived on referring to the note on chap. lix. verse 25.
Its author is wholly unknown. He may have been contemporary with Josephus but was not Josephus himself; as may be proved by many differences from that historian, and some contradictions of him, collected instances of which may be seen in Calmet. That he lived after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus may be evidenced by the expression occurring at chap. ix. ” till after ” the third captivity:” and again, in chap. xxi. ” till the destruction of the second House.” It has been supposed to have been compiled from the Acts of each successive high priest. In three places, chap. xxv. 5, Iv. 25, and lix. 96, mention is made of ” the author of this book;” but who is the person designated by this expression, it is not perhaps easy to say.
The book contains some remarkable peculiarities of language ; such as ” The House of God,” and “The Holy House,” for the Temple: —”the ” land of the Holy House,” for Judea —”the ” city of the Holy House,” for Jerusalem —the exclamations, ” to whom be peace !” and ” God be ” merciful to them,” used in speaking of the dead —”the men of the west:” —the “great and good ” God,” (answering to the ” Deus Optimus Maximus” of Roman authors 😉 and the same expression is found in the Samaritan Chronicle : —”the ” land of the sanctuary :” in the Samaritan Chronicle Jerusalem is called ” the sanctuary,” and its king, ” the king of the sanctuary.”
I may here remark, in passing, that this Samaritan Chronicle exists in an Arabic translation, made from the Hebrew, but in the ancient Samaritan characters, in a manuscript which formerly belonged to the learned Joseph Scaliger, and is now preserved in the public library at Leyden. It begins from the death of Moses, (whence it obtained the title of ” the book of Joshua,”) and ends with the emperor Antonine. I am not aware that it has ever been published ; but Hottinger has given an epitome of it in his ” Exercitationes ” Antimorinianae,” 4 to. 1644 ; and several extracts in his ” Smegma Orientale,” 4to. 1658: it is also briefly mentioned by Basnage, in his “His ” tory of the Jews,” II. i. 2.
The learned Dr. Huntington, who about a hundred and thirty years ago travelled into the East, and visited the town of Sichem, where he found only small and miserable remains of the Samaritans, saw there a ” Samaritan Chronicle” different from that which is mentioned by Scaliger, and less copious, but still embracing the period from the Creation to the time of Mahomet. This book he brought over with him to England, and it is now deposited among the Huntington MSS. in the Bodleian library. A chronological abstract of it appears in the ” Acta Eruditorura” for 1691 where it seems to have been continued by some unknown hand down to the year of Christ 1492.
In the “Biblia Maxima” by Jo. de la Haye, 19 tom. folio, Paris, I66O, the Latin version of Le Jay’s Polyglott is reprinted, but with the omission of the first nineteen chapters.
A French translation of this fifth book, from the Arabic, appears, with other apocryphal writings, in the Appendix to De Sacy’s Bible : and Calmet has given a version of a portion of it, viz. of chapters xx to xxvi; being so much as contains the acts of John Hyrcanus, namely, that part only which Sixtus Senensis had seen, and had considered to be the legitimate fourth book. He adds, that the entire book had been recently pub lished in French by M. Baubrun, in the third volume of Le Maitre’s Bible, fol. Paris. This I have not seen.
I do not know that it has hitherto appeared in English. I have rendered it from the Latin version of the Arabic text printed in the Poly taking care to adhere as closely as possible to my copy, lest a translation of a translation should be found to have wholly lost sight of the Original, if too much liberty were allowed ; only endeavouring, as before stated, that the English should bear some resemblance to that of the other Maccabaic books.
In the several notes and illustrations from heathen authors subjoined to the text, I have thrown upon various parts of it whatever light I was able to procure. But at the same time I have been unwilling to quote at length the corresponding pas- sages of those authors, lest the volume should be swelled to a bulk disproportionate to its worth.
On the Canonical authority sought to be affixed to two of these books.
It is well known to the learned, that of these five books, those which are commonly called the first and second have been usually attached to copies of the Bible throughout the western church ; and by the adherents to the see of Rome they are, even at this day, deemed to be of Canonical authority. The ground for this may perhaps be sought, and found, in an overstrained interpretation of those approving terms in which several of the early Fathers spoke of these books, either as churches ; faithful or edifying narratives. But, on the question of their having been considered as the work of inspiration, and in such a character admitted either into the Jewish or early Christian canon, I shall beg permission to adduce one single testimony from each of these two which, as it is that of a writer of high character, and is direct and unambiguous I trust may be thought decisive of the question, accord-
For the Jewish canon, hear Josephus, in his first book against Apion, sect. 8.
” Artaxerxes down to our own times, all events ” are indeed recorded : but they are not considered equally worthy of belief with those which preceded them, because there was not an exact succession of prophets as before.
And for the Christian church, no less an authority than St. Jerome distinctly affirms,
” Macha ” bseorumlibros legit quidem ecclesia, sed eos ” INTER CANONICAS SCRIPTURAS NON RECI ” PIT.” Praefat. in Proverb. Salomonis. Translation(“Macha” certainly read the holy books, but did not read them among the canonical scriptures.)
One might have thought, that this solemn assertion, coming from so high a quarter, would have been decisive : that a Roman catholic at least would have bowed with implicit deference to the recorded judgment of this learned Father, to whom he owns himself indebted for his Bible. And so indeed he did, during earlier and better times. But Rome found troubles come upon her: doubts arose, and objections were made, and must be met at all events : and the third book of Maccabees offered too fair a field, of dreams, and visions, and miraculous appearances, and a (fancied) recommendation of prayers for the dead, to be neglected by that church. The council of Trent boldly pronounced the two books Canonical; and as such they are professedly received by all the adherents of the Roman see.
It is sad however, to see some of her learned followers betraying their distrust of the grounds upon which they are bidden to stand ; and such men as P. de la Haye, and Calmet after him, driven to the miserable shift of attempting to find reasons for the propriety of their being deemed Canonical, from the mere fact of St. Paul’s having used, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. xi. 35, where he is speaking of the martyrs, the expression, —” which torture,” say they, ” Eleazar suffered !” as if therefore it necessarily followed, that the particular book which details these his sufferings must be, not only that one which the Apostle had in view, but moreover must have been written by divine inspiration, and consequently be Canonical The reader, who desires to see this point treated in detail, is referred to ” Jo. Rainoldi censura li ” brorum apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti, ad ” versum Pontificios,” 21 tom. 4to. Oppenheimii Translation(Jo. Rainoldi’s criticism of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, on the verse of the Pontiffs, 21 volumes, quarto, Oppenheim ) and to Archbishop Ussher’s ” Summary of 1591 : ” Christian Religion.”
I may also take leave to mention, that the question of the Canonical character of these books was warmly debated in Germany, about the middle of the last century, by Froelich and the two Wernsdorfs; the former of whom denied, and the latter maintained, their title to that high distinction.
The contest began by some observations made in a publication of Froelich, entitled ” Annales Regum Syrise,” 4to. 1744. To these E. Wernsdorf replied, in ” Prolusio de Fontibus Historiae ” Syriag in Libris Maccabseorum,” Translation(Introduction to the Sources of the History of Syria in the Books of the Maccabees) 4to. Lipsise, 1746. Froelich rejoined, in ” Prolusio in Examen ” vocata,” 4to. 1746. G. Wernsdorf then entered the field, with a ” Coraraentatio de Fide Histo ” rica Librorum Maccabasorum,” 4to. 1747 ; Translation(Authentication of the Faith History ‘Maccabean Books,’ 4th edition, 1747)and was supported by an anonymous Jesuit, who published a treatise entitled, ” Authoritas Libro ” rum Maccabaeorum canonico-historica adserta,” 4to. Viennse, 1749.Translation( Authority of the book of the Maccabees in canonical-historical assertion, 4th edition, Vienna, 1749.) In 1754, Froelich republished his ” Annales,” and probably replied to all the arguments of his opponents : for in the Preface he states, ” post ultimum anno 1749, pro li ” bris Maccabaeorum finitum certamen, silentium pronounce ; ” et pax.”Translation( After the last year 1749, for the Maccabees’ finished contest, silence was proclaimed; and peace.)
What may be the character or merits of these last-named publications, I am unable to judge or as not a single one of them was to be procured in any public or private library in
Dublin. —Nor have I been able to meet with ” Michaelis on the Maccabees,” 4to. 1774 : nor ” Charles Wilson’s Version of the apocryphal ” books, with critical and historical Observations,” 8vo. 1801 : nor the dissertations said to be contained in the ” Bibliotheca Historica” ofMeuselius: nor the ” Harmony” by J. M. Faber, Svo. 1794, &c. &c. : a perusal of which treatises, together with many others illustrating the same subject, might perhaps have considerably diminished the imperfections of the present work.
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