1 Maccabees 8: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Judas hears reports about the Romans: their wars among the Gauls and in Spain, their victories over Philip, Perseus and Antiochus, their power to set up and remove kings, and the way their senate meets daily while the government is handed to one man each year. Because of these reports he sends Eupolemus and Jason to Rome to make an agreement of friendship and alliance, and to ask the Romans to take the yoke off the Jews. The senate is pleased, and writes back on bronze tablets the terms by which each side will help the other in war, along with the message they have sent to Demetrius about his treatment of the Jews.

Claim by Claim

1. 8:1
   • Judas heard a report of the Romans.
   • The report said the Romans are mighty in strength.
   • The report said the Romans look with favor on all who join themselves to them.
   • The report said the Romans establish friendship with all who come to them.
2. 8:2
   • The report said the Romans are men of great valor.
   • Judas was told of the Romans' wars.
   • Judas was told of the brave deeds the Romans do among the Galatians.
   • The Romans conquered the Galatians.
   • The Romans brought the Galatians under tribute.
3. 8:3
   • Judas was told what the Romans had done in the country of Spain.
   • The Romans acted there to gain control of the silver and gold mines in that country.
4. 8:4
   • The Romans conquered the whole of that region by their policy and their patience.
   • That region was very far away from the Romans.
   • Kings came against the Romans from the uttermost part of the earth.
   • The Romans crushed those kings.
   • The Romans struck those kings a great blow.
   • Those who were left give the Romans tribute every year.
5. 8:5
   • The Romans crushed Philip in battle.
   • The Romans crushed Perseus, king of the Citims, in battle.
   • The Romans crushed in battle others who lifted themselves up against them.
   • The Romans overcame them.
6. 8:6
   • Antiochus the great king of Asia went against the Romans in battle.
   • Antiochus had one hundred and twenty elephants.
   • Antiochus had horsemen and chariots.
   • Antiochus had a very great army.
   • Antiochus was defeated by the Romans.
7. 8:7
   • The Romans took Antiochus alive.
   • The Romans imposed that Antiochus and those who reigned after him should pay a great tribute.
   • The Romans imposed that they should give hostages.
   • The Romans imposed a stipulated grant besides.
8. 8:8
   • The imposed terms included the country of India, Media, and Lydia.
   • The terms included some of the goodliest countries belonging to them.
   • The Romans took these countries from Antiochus.
   • The Romans gave those countries to king Eumenes.
9. 8:9
   • The Greeks had determined to come and destroy the Romans.
10. 8:10
    • The plan became known to the Romans.
    • The Romans sent one captain against them.
    • That captain fought against them.
    • Many of them fell wounded.
    • The Romans carried their wives and their children away captive.
    • The Romans plundered them.
    • The Romans took possession of their land.
    • The Romans pulled down their strongholds.
    • The Romans brought them into servitude to this day.
11. 8:11
    • The Romans destroyed the remaining kingdoms and the islands that at any time rose up against them.
    • The Romans brought them into servitude.
12. 8:12
    • The Romans kept friendship with their friends and with those who relied on them.
    • The Romans conquered kingdoms both near and far.
    • All who heard the Romans' name were afraid of them.
13. 8:13
    • Whomever the Romans wish to help to a kingdom, those reign.
    • Whomever the Romans wish, they depose.
    • The Romans were greatly exalted.
14. 8:14
    • In all this none of the Romans wore a crown.
    • None of them clothed himself in purple to be magnified by it.
15. 8:15
    • The Romans made a senate house for themselves.
    • Three hundred and twenty men sat in council daily.
    • They consulted continually concerning the people.
    • The purpose of their counsel was that the people might be well ordered.
16. 8:16
    • The Romans entrust rule over themselves to one man each year.
    • That one man has authority over all their country.
    • All of them obey that one man.
    • There is neither envy nor rivalry among them.
17. 8:17
    • Judas chose Eupolemus the son of John, the son of Accos.
    • Judas chose Jason the son of Eleazar.
    • Judas sent them to Rome.
    • He sent them to establish friendship and alliance with the Romans.
18. 8:18
    • He sent them also to have the yoke taken away from the Jews.
    • They saw that the kingdom of the Greeks was oppressing Israel with servitude.
19. 8:19
    • The envoys went to Rome.
    • The journey was very long.
    • They entered the senate house.
    • They spoke there.
20. 8:20
    • The envoys said that Judas, also called Maccabeus, and his brethren and the people of the Jews had sent them to the Romans.
    • They said they were sent to make an alliance and peace with the Romans.
    • They said they were sent that they might be registered as confederates and friends of the Romans.
21. 8:21
    • The proposal pleased the Romans.
22. 8:22
    • What follows is the copy of the letter the Romans wrote back on tables of brass.
    • They sent it to Jerusalem.
    • It was sent so that the Jews might have there a memorial of peace and alliance.
23. 8:23
    • The letter wished good success to the Romans and to the nation of the Jews by sea and by land forever.
    • The letter wished that the sword and the enemy be far from them.
24. 8:24
    • The terms covered the case of war coming first upon the Romans, or upon any of their confederates throughout all their dominion.
25. 8:25
    • In that case the nation of the Jews shall help the Romans as the occasion indicates to them.
    • The Jews shall do so with a full heart.
26. 8:26
    • The Jews shall not give anything to those who make war upon the Romans.
    • The Jews shall not supply them with victuals, weapons, money, or ships.
    • This is as it has seemed good to the Romans.
    • The Jews shall keep their obligations, taking nothing in return.
27. 8:27
    • In the same manner, if war comes first upon the nation of the Jews, the Romans shall help them with all their heart.
    • The Romans shall do so as the occasion indicates to them.
28. 8:28
    • Victuals, weapons, money, or ships shall not be given to those who take part against the Jews.
    • This is as it has seemed good to the Romans.
    • The Romans shall keep these obligations.
    • They shall keep them without deceit.
29. 8:29
    • The Romans made a covenant with the people of the Jews according to these terms.
30. 8:30
    • If afterward either party determines to add or to take away anything, they may do so at their pleasure.
    • Whatever they add or take away shall be ratified.
31. 8:31
    • Concerning the evils that Demetrius does to the Jews, the Romans wrote to him.
    • The Romans asked Demetrius why he had made his yoke heavy upon their friends and confederates the Jews.
32. 8:32
    • The Romans said that if the Jews complain any more against Demetrius, the Romans will do them justice.
    • The Romans said they will fight against Demetrius by sea and by land.

Words Worth Explaining

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

8:1

This chapter is a summary of what was reported to Judas about Rome, around 161 BC. Rome was then a republic in Italy, across the sea, not yet ruler of the eastern Mediterranean but already the strongest military power in the region. Several details in the report do not match what historians know of Roman history, and the notes below flag where.

8:2

The Greek word behind "Galatians" covers both the Gauls of northern Italy and France and the Galatians, Celtic tribes who had settled in central Asia Minor; Rome fought both, so translators differ. Tribute is a fixed yearly payment owed by a defeated people to its conqueror, part tax and part sign of submission.

8:3

Rome took Spain from Carthage in the war that ended in 201 BC. The silver mines near New Carthage were famous and enormously profitable, and controlling them was one of the prizes of that war.

8:4

The "kings from the uttermost part of the earth" are not named. The writer is compressing more than a century of Roman wars into a few lines, probably including the wars against Carthage and its allies.

8:5

Philip V of Macedon was defeated by Rome in 197 BC, and his son Perseus in 168 BC, which ended the Macedonian kingdom. "Citims" is Kittim, a word that first meant Cyprus, from its city Kition, and then widened to mean the lands and peoples across the sea to the west; here it stands for Macedonia.

8:6

Antiochus III, called the Great, ruled the Seleucid kingdom from Syria and was defeated by Rome at Magnesia in 190 BC. "Asia" here means Asia Minor, roughly modern Turkey, and the lands of his kingdom, not the continent. Elephants were the heavy weapon of Greek-style armies, trained to charge and break up lines of infantry.

8:7

Antiochus III was not in fact captured; he escaped the battle and died three years later. The terms described belong to the peace treaty of 188 BC, which imposed a vast payment in installments and required hostages: high-ranking relatives sent to live in the victor's city as a guarantee of good behavior, rather than prisoners in the modern sense. One of those hostages was his son, later Antiochus IV, the persecuting king of earlier chapters.

8:8

India and Media were never Rome's to hand over; they lay far beyond anything taken from Antiochus. The names may be a copying error for Ionia and Mysia, districts of western Asia Minor that Rome did award to Eumenes II, king of Pergamum, its ally in that war.

8:9

"The Grecians" here means the Achaean League, a confederation of cities in southern Greece. Rome crushed it and destroyed Corinth in 146 BC, which is later than Judas's lifetime; the chapter gathers reports of Roman power loosely rather than in order.

8:10

"Unto this day" is the writer's own day, late in the second century BC, some decades after the events of this chapter.

8:13

Rome really did decide who sat on eastern thrones, confirming some claimants and refusing others. Demetrius, named in verse 31, had taken the Seleucid throne without Roman approval after slipping away from Rome, where he had been held as a hostage.

8:14

Purple dye came from a shellfish and was ruinously expensive, so purple clothing was the badge of kings in the Greek East. Roman officials wore white with only a purple border, which to eastern eyes looked strikingly unkingly for men with that much power.

8:15

The Roman senate was a standing council made up chiefly of former officeholders. It numbered about three hundred rather than three hundred and twenty, and it met when summoned rather than every day.

8:16

Rome in fact elected two consuls each year, who held office jointly and could check each other. The report reaching Judas has flattened this into a single ruler appointed annually.

8:17

Accos is the Greek form of Hakkoz, the name of one of the priestly families, so the envoys were drawn from priestly houses. Eupolemus is probably the same man known as a Jewish historian who wrote in Greek, which would make him a natural choice for a mission to Rome.

8:18

A yoke is the wooden beam laid across the necks of oxen to harness them to a plow. It was the standard image for foreign domination, tribute and forced labor.

8:19

Rome lay roughly fifteen hundred miles from Jerusalem. The journey meant weeks of sailing and overland travel, and was a serious undertaking for a small nation at war.

8:20

Maccabeus was Judas's nickname. It may mean the hammer.

8:22

Rome recorded its treaties by engraving them on bronze tablets and displaying them publicly, with a copy sent to the other party. "A memorial" here means a permanent official record, not a monument to the dead.

8:23

The good wishes that open the letter are the standard preamble of a Roman treaty of friendship, set before the actual clauses begin.

8:24

Partners here means allies. Allies are countries that promise to help each other in a war.

8:25

"As the time shall be appointed" means as the circumstances of the moment require. The treaty fixes no number of troops, ships or supplies, which was usual in Roman agreements of this kind.

8:31

Demetrius I ruled the Seleucid kingdom from 162 to 150 BC and was the king Judas was fighting. He had been held in Rome as a hostage, escaped, and seized the throne without Roman consent, which is why a Roman rebuke carried weight. It is not clear whether these last two verses were part of the letter sent to Jerusalem or a separate message quoted alongside it, and the Greek leaves the question open.