04_Biblica_1_C_Thiessen_Layout 1 30/01/13 13:16 Pagina 546 546 MATTHEW THIESSEN gues 10. Nonetheless, the increased frequency of katalu/w in 4 Mac- cabees demonstrates that the author is not merely passively preserv- ing this link between the word and the Antiochan persecution, already established by 2 Maccabees, but is further emphasizing this connection. Antiochus abolishes (katalu&w) the Jewish high priest Onias, and unlawfully makes Onias’s brother Jason high priest (4,15-16). In a manner befitting his law-abolishing appointment to the high priesthood, Jason repays Antiochus for the office by chang- ing the nation’s way of life and government including the building of a gymnasium to replace the abolished Temple service (a)lla_ kai\ katalusai th_n tou~ i9erou~ khdemoni/an, 4,20). 4 Maccabees 4,21, ~ following 2 Maccabees, links this abolishing of the law to the Anti- ochan persecution. Jason’s unlawful actions anger divine justice and lead to the Antiochan persecution. According to 4 Macc 4,24, Anti- ochus is not able to abolish (katalu=sai) the observance of the law because many Jews abolished (kataluome/naj) his decrees and pun- ishments. One example of such abolishment of Antiochus’s decrees occurs in 4 Maccabees 5, when Antiochus tries to force a priest named Eleazer to eat pork. The old priest’s response to Antiochus is as fol- lows: “Do not think that it would be a small sin to eat unclean food, for to transgress the law in small or larger matters is of equal serious- ness, for in each the law is disdained” (5,19-21). Eleazar argues that the eating of unclean meat, even under compulsion of death, is an abolishment of the ancestral law (to_n pa&trion katalu~sai no&mon, 5,33). The author states that reason guided Eleazar despite torture and the maddening waves of emotion and that his example strengthened others’ loyalty to the law since he did not abolish (kate/lusaj) the holiness of which he spoke (7,9). The remainder of 4 Maccabees relates the martyrdoms of seven brothers and their mother. Ironically, it is the machinations of An- tiochus, not the laws, which are abolished. Through reason the Jews abolished his tyranny (8,15; 11,24), abolished the fear of tortures (14,8), abolished Antiochus’s violence (17,2), and brought about Antiochus’s own abolishment (11,25). These five occurrences of J.W. VAN HENTEN, The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish 10 People. A Study of 2 and 4 Maccabees (JSJSup 57; Leiden 1997) 70-73. This increased frequency coincides with the argument of H.-J. KLAUCK (4 Makkabäerbuch [JSHRZ; Gütersloh 1989] 664-665) that the author is trying to persuade Jews not to assimilate to the wider culture. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati