1 Maccabees 12: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jonathan sends envoys to Rome to renew the friendship and alliance there, and writes to the Lacedemonians, and the chapter copies out both his letter and an earlier one from Areus their king. Jonathan then marches against Demetrius' commanders, raids the Zabadean Arabs, and Simon takes Joppa, after which they plan and build up the defenses of Jerusalem and Judea. Tryphon, who wants the crown of Asia for himself, is afraid Jonathan will stop him, so he receives Jonathan warmly, persuades him to send his army home, and then seizes him at Ptolemais and kills the men with him. Israel mourns, and the surrounding nations say the Jews have no leader and plan to wipe them out.

Claim by Claim

1. 12:1
   • Jonathan saw that the time was working in his favor.
   • Jonathan chose certain men.
   • Jonathan sent them to Rome.
   • The purpose was to confirm and renew the friendship the Jews had with the Romans.
2. 12:2
   • Jonathan also sent letters to the Spartans.
   • Jonathan also sent letters to other places.
   • These letters were for the same purpose.
3. 12:3
   • The envoys went to Rome.
   • The envoys entered the senate house.
   • The envoys said that Jonathan the high priest and the nation of the Jews had sent them.
   • The envoys said they were sent to renew the friendship and the alliance as in former time.
4. 12:4
   • The Romans gave the envoys letters addressed to the authorities of every place.
   • The letters directed that the envoys be conducted to the land of Judea in peace.
5. 12:5
   • What follows is the copy of the letters Jonathan wrote to the Spartans.
6. 12:6
   • The letter is from Jonathan the high priest, the council of elders of the nation, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people.
   • The letter is addressed to the Spartans.
   • The letter calls the Spartans their brethren.
   • The letter sends greeting.
7. 12:7
   • Letters were sent in times past to Onias the high priest.
   • Those letters came from Darius, who was then reigning among the Spartans.
   • Those letters signified that the Spartans are brethren of the Jews.
   • The copy of those letters is set down below.
8. 12:8
   • Onias received the man who had been sent with honor.
   • Onias received the letters.
   • In those letters declaration was made concerning alliance and friendship.
9. 12:9
   • The Jews say they have need of none of these things.
   • The Jews say they have the holy books in their hands as their comfort.
10. 12:10
    • The Jews have nevertheless attempted to send to the Spartans to renew brotherhood and friendship.
    • The purpose is that they not become estranged from the Spartans altogether.
    • A long time has passed since the Spartans sent to them.
11. 12:11
    • The Jews remember the Spartans at all times without ceasing.
    • They remember them at their feasts and on the other appropriate days.
    • They remember them in the sacrifices they offer and in their prayers.
    • It is right and fitting to be mindful of brethren.
12. 12:12
    • The Jews are glad because of the Spartans' glory.
13. 12:13
    • Many afflictions and many wars have surrounded the Jews.
    • The kings round about them have fought against them.
14. 12:14
    • The Jews were unwilling to be a burden to the Spartans in these wars.
    • The Jews were unwilling to be a burden to their other allies and friends in these wars.
15. 12:15
    • The Jews have the help that comes from heaven helping them.
    • The Jews have been delivered from their enemies.
    • Their enemies have been brought low.
16. 12:16
    • The Jews chose Numenius son of Antiochus and Antipater son of Jason.
    • They sent these men to the Romans.
    • The purpose was to renew the friendship they had with the Romans and the former alliance.
17. 12:17
    • The Jews commanded these men also to go to the Spartans.
    • They commanded them to greet the Spartans.
    • They commanded them to deliver the letters concerning the renewing of the brotherhood.
18. 12:18
    • The Spartans will do well to send an answer to this.
19. 12:19
    • What follows is the copy of the letters which Oniares sent.
20. 12:20
    • The letter is from Areus king of the Spartans.
    • The letter is addressed to Onias the high priest.
    • The letter sends greeting.
21. 12:21
    • It has been found in writing that the Spartans and the Jews are brethren.
    • It has been found in writing that they are of the stock of Abraham.
22. 12:22
    • Now that this has come to the Spartans' knowledge, the Jews will do well to write to them about their welfare.
    • The Spartans ask the Jews to write to them of their prosperity.
23. 12:23
    • The Spartans write back that the cattle and goods of the Jews belong to the Spartans.
    • The Spartans write that what is theirs belongs to the Jews.
    • The Spartans command that their envoys report to the Jews accordingly.
24. 12:24
    • Jonathan heard that the commanders of Demetrius had come to fight against him.
    • They came with a greater army than before.
25. 12:25
    • Jonathan marched away from Jerusalem.
    • Jonathan met them in the land of Amathis.
    • Jonathan gave them no respite to set foot in his country.
26. 12:26
    • Jonathan sent spies to the enemy camp.
    • The spies came back.
    • The spies reported that the enemy were arranged to fall upon them by night.
27. 12:27
    • As soon as the sun went down, Jonathan commanded his men to keep watch.
    • Jonathan commanded them to be under arms.
    • Jonathan commanded them to be ready for battle all night long.
    • Jonathan posted sentinels around the camp.
28. 12:28
    • The adversaries heard that Jonathan and his men were ready for battle.
    • The adversaries were afraid.
    • Their hearts trembled.
    • They kindled fires in their camp.
29. 12:29
    • Jonathan and his men did not know of it until morning.
    • They saw the fires burning.
30. 12:30
    • Jonathan pursued after them.
    • Jonathan did not overtake them.
    • They had crossed the river Eleutherus.
31. 12:31
    • Jonathan turned aside against the Arabians called Zabadeans.
    • Jonathan struck them.
    • Jonathan took their spoils.
32. 12:32
    • Jonathan set out from there and came to Damascus.
    • Jonathan traveled through all the country.
33. 12:33
    • Simon went out.
    • Simon traveled as far as Ascalon and the strongholds near it.
    • Simon turned aside to Joppa.
    • Simon seized Joppa.
34. 12:34
    • Simon had heard that they intended to hand the stronghold over to the men of Demetrius.
    • Simon set a garrison there to guard it.
35. 12:35
    • Jonathan returned.
    • Jonathan called together the elders of the people.
    • Jonathan consulted with them about building strongholds in Judea.
36. 12:36
    • Jonathan consulted about raising the walls of Jerusalem higher.
    • Jonathan consulted about raising a great mound between the citadel and the city.
    • The mound was to separate the citadel from the city so that it would stand alone.
    • The purpose was that those in it could neither buy nor sell.
37. 12:37
    • They gathered together to build.
    • Part of the wall by the ravine on the east side had fallen down.
    • He repaired the section called Caphenatha.
38. 12:38
    • Simon built up Adida in the lowland.
    • Simon fortified it with gates and bars.
39. 12:39
    • Tryphon sought to reign over Asia.
    • Tryphon sought to put the crown on his own head.
    • Tryphon sought to raise his hand against Antiochus the king.
40. 12:40
    • Tryphon feared that Jonathan would not permit him.
    • Tryphon feared that Jonathan would make war against him.
    • Tryphon sought a way to seize Jonathan in order to kill him.
    • Tryphon set out and came to Bethsan.
41. 12:41
    • Jonathan went out to meet him with forty thousand men chosen for battle.
    • Jonathan came to Bethsan.
42. 12:42
    • Tryphon saw that Jonathan was present with a great force.
    • Tryphon was afraid to raise his hand against him.
43. 12:43
    • Tryphon received Jonathan with honor.
    • Tryphon commended Jonathan to all his friends.
    • Tryphon gave Jonathan gifts.
    • Tryphon commanded his friends and his forces to obey Jonathan as they obeyed himself.
44. 12:44
    • Tryphon said to Jonathan, asking why he had put all this people to such trouble.
    • Tryphon said there was no war between them.
45. 12:45
    • Tryphon told Jonathan to send the men away to their homes.
    • Tryphon told Jonathan to choose a few men to remain with him.
    • Tryphon told Jonathan to come with him to Ptolemais.
    • Tryphon said he would hand Ptolemais over to Jonathan.
    • Tryphon said he would hand over the rest of the strongholds and the forces and all the officials.
    • Tryphon said he would then turn back and depart.
    • Tryphon said this was the reason for his coming.
46. 12:46
    • Jonathan trusted him.
    • Jonathan did as Tryphon said.
    • Jonathan sent away his forces.
    • The forces went into the land of Judea.
47. 12:47
    • Jonathan kept three thousand men with himself.
    • He left two thousand of them in Galilee.
    • One thousand went with him.
48. 12:48
    • Jonathan entered Ptolemais.
    • The people of Ptolemais shut the gates.
    • They seized Jonathan.
    • They killed with the sword all who had come in with him.
49. 12:49
    • Tryphon sent troops and cavalry into Galilee and into the great plain.
    • Their purpose was to destroy all of Jonathan's men.
50. 12:50
    • Jonathan's men learned that he had been seized and had perished along with those with him.
    • They encouraged one another.
    • They went forward in close formation, ready for battle.
51. 12:51
    • Those pursuing them saw that they were fighting for their lives.
    • The pursuers turned back.
52. 12:52
    • They all came in peace into the land of Judea.
    • They mourned for Jonathan and those who were with him.
    • They were greatly afraid.
    • All Israel made great lamentation.
53. 12:53
    • All the nations round about them sought to destroy them.
    • They said the Jews have no ruler and no one to help them.
    • They said, let us now make war on them.
    • They said, let us take away their memory from among men.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

12:1

"Friendship" here is a formal term of ancient diplomacy, not personal warmth. A treaty of friendship and alliance between Rome and another people set out mutual obligations, and it had to be confirmed again by each new set of rulers, which is why envoys are sent to "renew" it.

12:2

The Lacedemonians are the Spartans. Lacedaemon was the territory in southern Greece of which Sparta was the chief city, and the two names were used interchangeably.

12:3

By this date the high priesthood was a political office as well as a religious one. Jonathan had been appointed high priest by one of the rival Greek claimants to the Syrian throne, and he led the Jews as their ruler and general as well as presiding over the temple.

12:4

These letters were passports of safe conduct, addressed to local officials along the route, instructing them to let the envoys travel unmolested.

12:6

The "elders of the nation" were a standing council of leading men at Jerusalem, called in Greek the gerousia, which advised and acted with the high priest.

12:7

The king's name is a problem in the text. The King James reads "Darius", but the Greek manuscripts and modern editions read Areus, a king of Sparta who reigned about 309 to 265 BC. The Onias named is the high priest of roughly that period. The letter quoted below is therefore presented as about a century and a half older than Jonathan's own letter.

12:9

"The holy books" are the scriptures of Israel. The point of the sentence is diplomatic modesty: we are not approaching you out of need.

12:11

The sacrifices were those offered at the temple in Jerusalem. The "feasts" are the fixed festivals of the Jewish year, such as Passover and the Feast of Weeks; the "other suitable days" are new moons and similar appointed occasions.

12:12

"Honour" here means renown and good standing, the reputation Sparta enjoyed, rather than respect shown to someone.

12:15

First Maccabees almost never uses the word God. "Heaven" stands in its place throughout the book, as a reverent way of naming him indirectly.

12:16

Numenius and Antipater are the envoys of verse 1. Their fathers' names, Antiochus and Jason, are Greek, a sign of how far Greek naming had spread among prominent Jewish families.

12:19

The King James prints the sender's name as "Oniares", which is not a person: it is a run-together of Onias and Areus produced by a copying error in the Greek manuscripts. Better readings give "the letter which they sent to Onias", and the letter that follows is from Areus.

12:21

Claims of shared ancestry between distant peoples were a normal instrument of Greek diplomacy; cities regularly argued from a common legendary forefather to establish formal ties. The claim recorded here, that the Spartans descend from Abraham, is made in the letter and is not explained further in the book.

12:23

"Your livestock and your goods are ours, and ours are yours" is a set formula of alliance, declaring the two peoples to be a single interest for purposes of the treaty. It is not a transfer of property.

12:24

Demetrius is Demetrius II, one of two rivals for the Syrian throne. Jonathan had abandoned him for the boy king Antiochus VI and his backer Tryphon, so Demetrius' generals are now hostile.

12:25

Amathis is Hamath, on the Orontes river in Syria, far to the north of Judea. Marching that distance was the point: Jonathan intercepted the invading force before it could reach his own territory.

12:26

Spies were men sent secretly to watch the enemy camp.

12:27

To keep watch means to stay awake and look for danger. Guards stood all around the edge of the camp.

12:28

Lighting the campfires and then slipping away in the dark was a standard ruse. The fires made the camp look occupied all night.

12:29

The sense is that they did not discover the enemy had gone, because the burning fires convinced them the camp was still there.

12:30

The Eleutherus ran west into the sea north of Tripolis and was commonly treated as the boundary between Phoenicia and Syria proper. Once across it the retreating army was outside the territory Jonathan could safely operate in.

12:31

The Zabadeans were an Arab people living in the hills between Damascus and the Lebanon range. "Took what they had as plunder" means goods and livestock seized in the raid, the ordinary way an army of this period paid itself.

12:32

Damascus was a big, very old city north of Judea.

12:33

Ascalon and Joppa are the coastal cities of Ashkelon and Jaffa. Joppa mattered out of all proportion to its size: it was the only usable harbor within reach of Judea, and holding it gave the Jews access to the sea.

12:36

The "citadel" is the Akra, a fortress inside Jerusalem manned by a Seleucid garrison and their Jewish supporters. It had held out for years in the middle of the city. The mound was to wall it off from the streets so its defenders could not reach the markets, which is what "no one there could buy or sell" means: a blockade by starvation rather than an assault.

12:37

The brook on the east side is the Kidron ravine, which runs along the eastern side of Jerusalem. Caphenatha was a section of the wall or a quarter of the city; the name appears nowhere else and its location is not known.

12:38

Sephela is the Shephelah, the belt of low hills between the coastal plain and the Judean highlands. Adida sat on a route from the coast up to Jerusalem. The "bars" are the heavy beams dropped across a city gate to hold it shut.

12:39

"The kingdom of Asia" means the Seleucid empire, the Greek kingdom ruled from Antioch that covered Syria and the lands east of it; it does not mean the continent. Antiochus VI was a child, and Tryphon, who had put him on the throne, governed in his name and now wanted the crown himself.

12:40

Bethsan is Beth-shan, called Scythopolis by the Greeks, at the eastern end of the Jezreel valley where the route from Galilee meets the Jordan.

12:43

"His friends" is a court title, not a description. The Friends of the King were a formal rank of officials and advisers at a Hellenistic court.

12:45

Ptolemais is the port city of Akko on the coast north of Mount Carmel, renamed after the Ptolemies of Egypt, who had held it earlier. "All who hold any office" means the royal officials of the district, whose posts Tryphon claims to be handing over along with the fortresses.

12:47

Galilee was the green land north of Judea.

12:48

Cities then had walls all around, with gates that shut. Shutting the gates trapped Jonathan inside.

12:49

The great plain is the plain of Jezreel, also called Esdraelon, the broad valley cutting across northern Israel. It was open ground where cavalry could be used, unlike the hills of Judea.

12:52

"All Israel mourned deeply" refers to formal public mourning, a declared period of lament observed by the whole people, not simply private grief.

12:53

"Nations" here renders the King James "heathen", which in 1611 simply meant the non-Jewish peoples living round about, with no comment on what they believed. Wiping out "the memory of them from among people" means destroying them so completely that the name survives nowhere, the harshest threat available in this idiom.