From: 1 Maccabees 6:1-13
Death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes
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[1] King Antiochus was going through the upper provinces when he heard that
Blymais in Persia was a city famed for its wealth in silver and gold. [2] Its tem-
ple was very rich, containing golden shields, breastplates, and weapons left
there by Alexander, the son of Philip, the Macedonian king who first reigned
over the Greeks.
[3] So he came and tried to take the city and plunder it, but he could not, be-
cause his plan became known to the men of the city [4] and they withstood
him in battle. So he fled and in great grief departed from there to return to Ba-
bylon.
[5] Then some one came to him in Persia and reported that the armies which
had gone into the land of Judah had been routed; [6] that Lysias had gone first
with a strong force, but had turned and fled before the Jews; that the Jews had
grown strong from the arms, supplies, and abundant spoils which they had ta-
ken from the armies they had cut down; [7] that they had torn down the abo-
mination which he had erected upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had
surrounded the sanctuary with high walls as before, and also Beth-zur, his city.
[8] When the king heard this news, he was astounded and badly shaken. He
took to his bed and became sick from grief, because things had not turned out
for him as he had planned. [9] He lay there for many days, because deep grief
continually gripped him, and he concluded that he was dying. [10] So he called
all his friends and said to them, “Sleep departs from my eyes and I am down-
hearted with worry. [11] l said to myself, ‘To what distress I have come! And into
what a great flood I now am plunged! For I was kind and beloved in my power.’
[12] But now I remember the evils I did in Jerusalem. I seized all her vessels of
silver and gold; and I sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without good rea-
son. [13] I know that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me;
and behold, I am perishing of deep grief in a strange land.”
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Commentary:
6:1-17. According to 3:29-31, Antiochus embarked on his expedition to get
funds to counter the drain on the empire caused by the war against the Jews.
And now we are told that the king’s death was brought on by the reports on that
war. The information given here about the death of Antiochus agrees with that in
2 Maccabees 9:1-29 only in a very general way. First Maccabees says that Ely-
mais was a city, whereas it was a region in Persia (Elam) where the capital, Su-
sa, was located. The king dies as a result of depression caused by reports of the
Jewish victories, and he acknowledges that he has acted wrongly towards the
Jews; but, he does not go so far as to invoke the God of Israel (as 2 Maccabees
says he did). Second Maccabees, moreover, describes him as suffering a most
awful death (not the case here). However, both books make it clear that Antio-
chus realized that in persecuting the Jews and profaning their temple he was ta-
king on someone much more powerful than himself, and that that was why he
was punished by God. In Christian tradition (St Hippolytus, “In Danielem”, 4, 49;
St Jerome, “Commentaria in Danielem”, 11), Antiochus is depicted as the first
instance of the Antichrist who for a period seeks to take God’s place but is even-
tually overpowered by him.
The death of Antiochus, resulting from his frustration at not being able to eradi-
cate loyalty to and worship of the true God, symbolizes in some way the tragic
condition of those who go so far as to try to uproot God from their own lives or
that of society.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 20:27-40
The Resurrection of the Dead
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[27] There came to Him (Jesus) some Sadducees, those who say that there is
no resurrection, [28] and they asked Him a question saying, “Teacher, Moses
wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man
must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. [29] Now there were se-
ven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; [30] and the second
[31] and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. [32]
Afterward the woman also died. [33] In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife
will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
[34] And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in mar-
riage; [35] but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the
resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, [36] for they
cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God,
being sons of the resurrection. [37] But that the dead are raised, even Moses
showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of
Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. [38] Now He is not God
of the dead, but of the living; for all live to Him.” [39] And some of scribes ans-
wered, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” [40] For they no longer dared to ask
Him any question.
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Commentary:
27-40. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body or the im-
mortality of the soul. They came along to ask Jesus a question which is appa-
rently unanswerable. According to the Levirate law (cf. Deuteronomy 25:5ff), if
a man died without issue, his brother was duty bound to marry his widow to pro-
vide his brother with descendants. The consequences of this law would seem
to give rise to a ridiculous situation at the resurrection of the dead.
Our Lord replies by reaffirming that there will be a resurrection; and by explai-
ning the properties of those who have risen again, the Sadducees’ argument sim-
ply evaporates. In this world people marry in order to continue the species: that
is the primary aim of marriage. After the resurrection there will be no more mar-
riage because people will not die anymore.
Quoting Sacred Scripture (Exodus 3:2, 6) our Lord shows the grave mistake the
Sadducees make, and He argues: God is not the God of the dead but of the li-
ving, that is to say, there exists a permanent relationship between God and Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacob, who have been dead for years. Therefore, although these
just men have died as far as their bodies are concerned, they are alive, truly alive,
in God — their souls are immortal — and they are awaiting the resurrection of their
bodies.
See also the notes on Matthew 22:23-33 and Mark 12:18-27.
[The note on Matthew 22:23-33 states:
23-33. The Sadducees argue against belief in the resurrection of the dead on the
basis of the Levirate law, a Jewish law which laid down that when a married man
died without issue, one of his brothers, according to a fixed order, should marry
his widow and the first son of that union be given the dead man’s name. By out-
lining an extreme cases the Sadducees make the law and belief in resurrection
look ridiculous. In His reply, Jesus shows up the frivolity of their objections and
asserts the truth of the resurrection of the dead.]
[The note on Mark 12:18-27 states:
18-27. Before answering the difficulty proposed by the Sadducees, Jesus wants
to identify the source of the problem—man’s tendency to confine the greatness
of God inside a human framework through excessive reliance on reason, not gi-
ving due weight to divine Revelation and the power of God. A person can have
difficulty with the truths of faith; this is not surprising, for these truths are above
human reason. But it is ridiculous to try to find contradictions in the revealed
word of God; this only leads away from any solution of difficulty and may make
it impossible to find one’s way back to God. We need to approach Sacred Scrip-
ture, and, in general, the things of God, with the humility which faith demands.
In the passage about the burning bush, which Jesus quotes to the Sadducees,
God says this to Moses: “Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on
which you stand is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).]
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.