The author shows how the Jewish community in Jerusalem is scrupulousabout their own religion and their allegiance to God and His Temple. On theother hand, 2 Macc reveals a Hellenistic orientation by viewing the Templeas that of the city, as is shown by the progression city-place-Temple (cf. 3:1-3)and by reference to the high priest of the city (cf. 3:9).Our section (3:14-22) focuses on the author’s intention to involve theauditorium in the action, as he highlights the tragic emotion experienced.The classification of roles in the description of the population of the cityis interesting. The priests in their formal attire form a distinct group withthe greatest attention (two verses) given to describing the grief of the highpriest. The males participate in the public supplication (3:18), while themarried women express their grief with bared breasts and sackcloth aroundtheir waists, symbolising their role as child-bearers.The unified narrative conforms to the general pattern of a deity’s defenceof his temple: attackers approach, the defenders ask the deity for help and thedeity responds. There are many examples of this type of narrative such asthe defence of Delphi by Apollo against marauding Persians in 480 B.C.E.,the story told by Herodotus (8:35-39).
The expression of Jewish identity in national and political terms is found in a wide range of writings and literary genres. The form which lent itself most readily to this purpose was undoubtedly history writing. History, as the story of the people’s past and origin, had always been highly valued in Judaism. Much of the biblical material has a “history-like” character in the sense that it tells the story of the people within a chronological framework. In the Hellenistic age the Jews had a new reason to retell the story of their past. The spread of Hellenism under Alexander the Great and his successors was accompanied, at least initially, by considerable Greek curiosity about the strange peoples of the East. A number of writers, such as Hecataeus of Abdera, Demetrius, Artapanus, Pseudo-Hecataeus and Eupolemus, attempted to satisfy it. They did express themselves in forms which might have been accessible to the Greeks.We may distinguish three main approaches to the past in the Jewish Hellenistic literature: the Septuagint as an example of religion work, chronicles and the historical romances, the epic and philosophical poets.
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