The Testament of Matathias to His Sons in 1 Macc 2:49-70 1 A Keyword Composition with the Aim of Justifcation Renate Egger-Wenzel 1. Introduction 2 The fght of the Jewish people against political and economic suppres- sion, against the forced assimilation and ban of religion by the Seleuc- ids on pain of death in the second century before Christ, and especially against the cruelties of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the temple and tried to take away the identity of the Jewish people by his edict fnd both their leading fgure and their point of contrast in Mat- tathias ben Johanan who came from an insignifcant family of priests of Joarib 3 from Modein (situated North West of Jerusalem). The Jewish fght for freedom started in the countryside, not without reason, considering the massive social tensions between the rural and urban population as well as between the urban priesthood and the poor country priests. In fact, the upper classes in the city collaborated with the people in power mainly for economic reasons 4 . Matathias’ active resistance and his Testament to his sons (cf. 1 Macc 16:3), both aimed at winning back the religious and political freedom of the people, are handed down to us in a kind of prologue in 1 Macc 1-2. The rest of the book (3-16) is concerned with the frst generation of the Hasmonean dynasty, the name which Flavius Josephus 5 gives to them. This work was probably still available to Jerome and Origen in its original Hebrew version of which there was a single Greek translation on which all further Greek manuscripts and other ancient translations seem to depend 6 . The book probably originated at the end of the rule of John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC) and before Pompey’s intervention in 63 BC. It took a positive stance towards the Hasmoneans even though they were a non-Zadokite 7 family pf priests from the country and non-Davidic rul- 1 See Hieke, Productive Reception, and Reiterer, Role of History. 2 Thanks are due to Ursula Kücher-Hogg and especially to Michael Tait for translating this paper. 3 1 Chr 24:7 seems to refect an editorial redaction which was adapted to the historical conditions (cf. Mittmann-Richert , Einführung 30). 4 Cf. Mittmann-Richert , Einführung 27-31. 5 Cf. Ant.Jud. XII.1.265, mMid. 1.6 and bShab. 21b. 6 Cf. Engel, Bücher, 314. 7 Cf. the opposite view in Schofield – VanderKam, Hasmoneans, 73-87, and, earlier, Angemeldet | renate.egger@sbg.ac.at Autorenexemplar Heruntergeladen am | 22.08.19 16:45