The Apocalyptic Imagination - Part 2 "The Maccabean Revolt as Background for the Book of Daniel."

The Maccabean Revolt

After the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC), his vast empire was divided up amongst his generals, whose decendants subsequently became kings in their own rights.  For our purposes, let us take note of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty and the Syrian Seleucid Dynasty.  During this period, Judea was caught between these two rival dynasties to the south and north, with pressure being exerted alternately from each direction.  For much of the third century BC, Judea was under the rule of the Ptolemies.  Toward the beginning of the second century BC, the Seleucids defeated the Ptolemies, and Palestine was essentially brought into the Seleucid  empire.

The Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (ruled 175-163 BC) began to interfere with internal Jewish religious politics.  In 175, Onias III, the Jewish High Priest was removed by power by his brother who had pledged fealty and financial revenue from the Temple to Antiochus IV.  Subsequently, Antiochus invaded Egypt in two campaigns (169 &168 BC), both times plundering Jerusalem on his way back through.  He set also set up a fortress in Jerusalem across from the Temple.  Most provocatively, though, he desecrated the Temple and set up a form of foreign worship there.  This is what Daniel refers to as “the abomination of desolation.” 

In 166/5 BC, the priestly family Mattathias and his sons began a resistance movement against their oppressors and those who were co-operating with them and forcing Jews to forsake the Jewish law and assimilate to Hellenism.  The revolt is violent and moves into a protracted war.  Mattathias and several of his sons are killed but Judah the Maccabee (i.e., “the hammer”) and several other brothers fight on and found a new priestly-royal dynasty, “the Hasmoneans”.  The story of the Maccabean revolt can be found in two versions in 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees (part of the Catholic Bible and Protestant Apocrypha).  This is the story that operates below the symbolic world of the latter half of the Book of Daniel.

The Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is taken to be one of the latest compositions in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, being composed sometime around the Maccabean revolt. Christians place the book amongst “the prophets”, while Jewish place it amongst “the writings”. Daniel, of course, is a much older prophetic figure hearkening back to the time of the captivity. The first six chapters are stories and fables drawn from much this older tradition and are edited together into a narrative of that earlier period.  However, it is clear that the redactor is using this much older material to speak to the events of his own time.  It should be noted that there are other stories from the Daniel tradition that did not make it into either the Jewish or Protestant Bibles, but have come down to us in Greek versions. These include the “the Song of the Three Young Men in the Furnace”, “Bel and the Dragon”, and “Susannah”, which can all be found in the Apocrypha or in Catholic Bibles. 

The second half of the Book of Daniel (7-12) is series of visions. The character of Daniel (a literary construct?) narrates these visions in the first person.  These visions are described as “apocalypses”. Keep these visions in mind when we turn to the Book of Revelation and other apocalypses.  In these visions we see several features common to later apocalypses: the history of Israel is retold in epochal periods; there is the appearance of an angelic figure; the use of animal imagery (beasts) to describe various empires (watch for this again in Enoch); and horns on the fourth beast refer to various rulers; there are visions of heavenly judgement; the slaying of beasts; more animal imagery (ram and he-goat); a lament that explains how things have gone wrong theologically/ethically (ch 9); a prophecy of weeks/years (again, watch for this in Enoch); another historical survey with an angelic figure (10-12); a prophecy about Antiochus Epiphanes (11:21-45); and finally in chapter 12 the Archangel Michael intervenes and conquers, and then we are given a vision of the resurrection of the dead.  All of these tropes will be recognizable from Koch’s list, given last week.

It will be important for us to shift our understanding of this text from one being written in a long-past captivity and looking forward, to one being written during a present-day crisis and looking back as to how we got here, and from whence hope might yet come.  The former captivity is used as something of “a cover” to talk about “present-day” events (i.e., the Maccabean period).  

For further reading: 

Daniel J. Harrington The Maccabean Revolt: Anatomy of a Biblical Revolution

W. Sibley Towner Daniel (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching)