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النشر الإلكتروني

The distress among the loyal Jews was naturally intense. Many, as has been already mentioned, had abandoned their homes in the city, when Apollonius took possession of it: others now followed their example, taking refuge in hiding-places in the country (1 Macc. i. 53; cf. ii. 29-31). The dirge over the desolation of Jerusalem, placed in the mouth of Mattathias (1 Macc. ii. 7-13), no doubt represents truly the feelings of faithful Jews at the time. Nevertheless, they were quite determined, even at the risk of their lives, not to yield to the demands of Antiochus. The consequence was that there were numerous martyrdoms (1 Macc. i. 62, 63; ii. 31-38, etc.: Dan. xi. 32 6, 33, 35). But the 'little help' (Dan. xi. 34) before long appeared (167). The brave Mattathias, a priest, resident at Modin, a town about 18 miles N.W. of Jerusalem, when ordered by the king's commissioner to do sacrifice, stoutly refused, and slew both an apostate Jew who came forward to do it in his stead, and the king's officer as well. The flame of revolt soon spread. The national party, who were now known as the ḥasīdīm or 'godly' (1 Macc. ii. 42, vii. 13; 2 Macc. xiv. 6)1, rallied round Mattathias and his five sons, and organized themselves for concerted action. At first they remained on the defensive, fleeing to the mountains, and taking refuge in inaccessible hiding-places. In one case, a party of 1000 allowed themselves to be cut off without resistance, rather than profane the sabbath by fighting. But as their numbers increased they grew bolder, and began soon to assume the aggressive. Traversing the country, they destroyed heathen altars, enforced circumcision, and hunted down apostates. In 167 Mattathias died, after exhorting his sons, in a parting charge, to continue the struggle bravely (1 Macc. ii.).

His son Judas, the 'Maccabee,' a man of singular ability and strength of character, assumed now the leadership of the

1 The word is a frequent one in the Psalms (as Ps. iv. 3, xii. 1; A.V., R.V. often 'saints'); and in some of the later ones (as cxvi. 15, cxlix. 1, 5, 9) may denote the same party. It is the party which developed ultimately into that of the Pharisees' ('separated ones,' or, as we should say, 'separatists'): see Schürer2, ii. 334 f. (§ 26).

patriotic party. His enterprises were almost uniformly successful. Within a year, he defeated and slew the two Syrian generals, Apollonius and Seron, who had successively invaded Judah (1 Macc. iii. 10-24). Exasperated by these disasters, Antiochus (166) entrusted his general, Lysias, with half of his entire army, commissioning him to extirpate entirely the Jewish nation, and to people their land with strangers (1 Macc. iii. 34-36). But his efforts were of no avail: though Lysias despatched against Judah an army of 4000 infantry, and 7000 cavalry, under three generals, they were discomfited by Judas, with great loss, at Emmaus (15 m. W.N.W. of Jerusalem); and when, in the following year (165), he took the command in person with an army of 65,000 men, he met with no better fortune, but was defeated at Beth-zur (16 m. S.S.W. of Jerusalem), and returned to Antioch (1 Macc. iv. 1-35). As a consequence of these successes, the Jews were in a position to restore the 'desolated' sanctuary, the gates, it is said, were burnt, the priests' chambers pulled down, and shrubs were growing in the courts,-and to re-dedicate the altar. I Macc. iv. 36-60 describes how this was done, amid great rejoicings, on the 25th of Chisleu (Dec.), 165, exactly three years after the first heathen sacrifices had been offered upon it. The heathen neighbours of Judah, Idumaeans, Ammonites, and others, were jealous of these successes, and 'took counsel to destroy the race of Jacob': but Judas and his brother Simon took the field against them (164), and gained important victories in Galilee and Gilead, and smaller successes in Idumaea and Philistia (1 Macc. v.). In the same year (164), Antiochus, who had made an expedition into the far East for the purpose of replenishing his exchequer (1 Macc. iii. 28-31, 37), died, somewhat suddenly, at Tabae (a little S.E. of Ecbatana), after a futile attempt to rob a temple in Elymais (1 Macc. vi. 1-16; see also the note on p. 197). Lysias made another determined effort to stamp out the rebellion in Judah, and succeeded in capturing the fortress of Beth-zur; but being anxious, for political reasons, to get back to Antioch, he agreed to sign a treaty with the Jews, granting them complete religious freedom

(1 Macc. vi. 55-61). The war did not indeed end yet; but it was henceforth a war for merely civil independence: the religious liberties of the Jews were now secure.

§3. Authorship and Date1.

It used formerly to be assumed as a matter of course that the Book of Daniel was written by Daniel himself,—and there are still scholars who, upon apologetic grounds, defend this opinion. A careful survey, however, of the facts presented by the book, in the light of the larger knowledge which recent years have brought, shews that this position is not really a tenable one. Internal evidence demonstrates, with a cogency that cannot be resisted, that the Book of Daniel must have been written not earlier than c. 300 B.C., and in Palestine; and there are considerations which make it highly probable that it was, in fact, composed during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, between B.C. 168 and 165.

i. The following are facts of a historical nature which point, more or less decisively, to an author later than Daniel himself:

I. The position of the Book in the Jewish Canon, not among the prophets, but in the miscellaneous collection of writings, called the Kethūbīm, or 'Hagiographa.' The Jewish Canon consists of three distinct parts: (1) the Tōrāh or Pentateuch; (2) the Prophets (consisting of the 'Former Prophets,' i.e. Josh., Judg., Sam., Kings, and the 'Latter Prophets,' i.e. Is., Jer., Ezek., and the 12 Minor Prophets); and (3) the Kethibim, or 'Hagiographa,' comprising (according to the order adopted in ordinary Hebrew Bibles) Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five Megilloth (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles. This is the manner in which the books of the O. T. are arranged

1 The following pages are adapted, with some additions and modifications of form, from the writer's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, chap. xi.

in both MSS. and printed editions1; and though little definite is known respecting the formation of the Canon, there are strong reasons for thinking that the threefold division represents three stages in the collection and canonization of the sacred books of the O. T.,-the Pent. being canonized first, then the 'Prophets' (in the Jewish sense of the expression), and lastly the Kethubim. The collection of the 'Prophets' could hardly have been completed before the third century B.C.2; and had the Book of Daniel existed at the time, and been believed to be the work of a prophet, it is difficult not to think that it would have ranked accordingly, and been included with the writings of the other prophets.

2. Jesus, the son of Sirach (writing c. 200 B.C.), in his enumeration of famous Israelites, Ecclus. xliv.—l., though he mentions Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and (collectively) the Twelve Minor Prophets, is silent as to Daniel. In view of the remarkable distinctions attained by Daniel, and the faculties displayed by him, according to the Book, the statement in Ecclus. xlix. 15 that no man had ever been born 'like unto Joseph,' seems certainly to suggest that the writer was unacquainted with the narratives respecting Daniel.

3. That Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, and carried away some of the sacred vessels in 'the third year of Jehoiakim' (Dan. i. 1, 2), though it cannot, strictly speaking, be disproved, is at least doubtful: not only is the Book of Kings silent, but Jeremiah, in the following year (xxv. 9 ff., see v. 1), as also in Jehoiakim's fifth year (xxxvi. 29, see v. 9), speaks of the Chal

1 There are slight differences in Heb. MSS. in the order in which the books comprising both the Latter Prophets and the Hagiographa are arranged (see L.Ö. T. p. ii; or more fully Ryle, Canon of the O. T. pp. 219-234, 281 f., ed. 2, pp. 230-246, 292 ff.); but no book belonging to one division of the Canon is ever found in another.

The Canon of Melito (Euseb. iv. 26) does not bear witness to a different arrangement of the Heb. Bible: as (amongst other things) the Septuagint titles shew, it merely enumerates the Hebrew books in the order in which they were current in the Greek O. T. (Ryle, pp. 214, 218 f., ed. 2, pp. 225, 229 f.).

2 Ryle, l. c. pp. 106—113 (ed. 2, pp. 117—124); cf. p. 120 f. (131 f.).

daeans in terms which seem to imply that their arms had not yet been seen in Judah (see further the note on i. 1).

The following table exhibits the chronology of the period:

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Twenty-first year of Nabopolassar. JApproximate date of the battle of Carchemish.

Accession of Nebuchadnezzar (the first contract-tablet of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, at present known, is dated Tammuz 14 in the 'beginning of his reign,' i.e. his accession-year [see on Dan. ii. 1]: Winckler, Alttest. Untersuchungen, 1892, p. 81; KB. iv. 181).

First year of Nebuchadnezzar.

Ab
Elul

The Babylonian year began in spring (with Nisan), the Jewish year (probably) in autumn (with the month called by the Babylonians Tishri) 2. The fourth year of Jehoiakim would be most naturally equated with the first year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xxv. 1) in the manner suggested. It is consequently doubtful whether the date in Jer. xlvi. 2 is correct: it may be a gloss, added to the text of Jeremiah upon the assumption that Nebuchadnezzar was already king when he won the battle of Carchemish. If the scheme given above is correct, the battle of Carchemish will have taken place in Jehoiakim's third year; but there remains the doubt (see below, p. 2 f.) whether, following it in the same year, there was really any 'siege' of Jerusalem.

4.

The 'Chaldaeans' (Kasdim) are synonymous in Dan.

1 The names of the months are given in their Hebraized forms. 2 Nowack, Hebr. Archäologie (1894), i. 219. Cf. also Tiele, Bab.Ass. Gesch. (1886), pp. 439–41; Hommel, Gesch. Bab. u. Ass. (1885), PP. 752-5.

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