OT+-+Chapters+29,+30

Important Terms: Purim, Son of Man, Second Temple, Aramaic


 * 1. Name a few differences between 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.**

Even though they both are the accounts of Maccabean revolt, 1 Maccabees covers 185 to 135 BCE but 2 Maccabees covers from 175 to 161 BCE

There are many differences between 1 and 2 Maccabees. The Second omits some details found in 1 Mac. It makes no mention of Mattathias, or of the death of Judah Maccabeus. Only Judas is given unalloyed praise among the five Maccabee brothers. We also find inconsistencies of chronology, most notably concerning the order of events:According to 1 Mac 6, Antiochus IV died in 163 BCE, sometime after the rededication of the Temple;but according to 2 Mac 9, his death occurred in 164, before the holy city had been taken by Judas Maccabeus. The precise geography of 1 Mac is much vaguer and at points is confused, suggesting that the author was not personally familiar with locations in Judea. 2 Mac is infused with the stylistic conventions of Greek historiography, such as addressees to the reader by the author, quotations of official records, and frequent speeches by the principal characters. Yet while 1 Mac has a decidedly secular character, 2 Mac is more explicitly religious. 2 Mac also highlights the heroic piety of those who died rather than abandon their traditional religious practices, such as sabbath observance, circumcision, and diet, describing their sufferings in gory detail. 2 Mac adopts the dominant biblical view of divine justice, in which God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the author, the persecution of Antiochus IV was a divinely sent punishment of the Jews for the Hellenizing tendencies of the high priest Jason....501-502p

2. Describe the genre that Coogan represents as romance and give examples. Jewish Novellas (p. 516) are short works of fiction that developed during the Persian and Hellenistic period. They feature
 * a Jewish hero demonstrating loyalty to fellow Jews and their ancestral religion
 * historic settings with inaccurate details (maybe on purpose to let the reader know they are works of fiction)
 * Women are often major protagonists
 * the protagonist is persecuted because they are Jewish
 * Then in a plot twist the persecutor are punished by the same means they had planned to use on the Jews
 * Satisfying resolution and happy endings
 * Written to instruct Jews how to be faithful under foreign rule and for entertainment
 * Examples: Esther

3. What are some characteristics of late wisdom literature (Sirach, Book of Wisdom)?

Unlike earlier wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible, which tends to be universal, these works also include recapitulations of the history of Israel as a basis for comfort in the troubling contexts in which they were written. But ironically, despite the great resistance to Hellenization shown in the revolt of the Maccabees, Greek philosophical concepts and vocabulary began to permeate Jewish tradition. 503p

4. How are the books of Esther and Judith different Esther is basically a secular book (no mention of God and the Jews are portrayed by ethnicity not religious observance) Esther is written as an etiology of Purim Judith prays and defeats the enemy with God's help, Esther does not (although this was later changed in the additions to Esther) Esther has been altered and expanded from the original Hebrew (perhaps to make a secular work more religious) The name Judith is a personification Judith is set in Judea; Esther is set in Persia Judith is primarily concerned for her people