historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

50 DANIEL R. SCHWARTZ
with the Temple; Antiochus is said only to have gained control of
the city, killed many of his opponents in it, robbed, and departed.
During the second invasion, in contrast, Antiochus massacred the
general population, not just his opponents, and looted the Temple.
This reconstruction is more plausible than 1 Maccabees 1, as noted,
because it doesn't require us to believe that the Jews twiddled their
thumbs until "two years of days" after a major attack on the Temple
and removal of its central appurtenances.
If we wonder why, given his usual dependence upon 1 Maccabees, 10
Josephus departed seriously from its version of events here, or, more
precisely, why he inserted the Temple robbery details of 1 Macc.
1:21-23 into the chronological context of Antiochus' second visit, it
is difficult to find an answer. It is enough for us to surmise that he
must have thought he had a good reason to do so. Either his text
of 1 Maccabees differed from ours or he was sure, either from his
own research or from traditions to which Jerusalemites like him may
have had access, that the order was as he presented it. In any case,
it does not seem that Josephus knew of or used 2 Maccabees, although
it is possible that they had some indirect relationship.
So far, then, I have argued that it is likely that Antiochus twice
visited Jerusalem and each time committed robbery; that, contrary
to 1 Maccabees, it is unlikely that he robbed the Temple the first time;
and that this reconstruction is supported not only by historical probabilities
but also by Daniel and Josephus. I now turn to 4Q248.
This short text, containing ten fragmentary lines, refers to a king
who was (ruled?) in Egypt and "Greece" (whatever that means) and
who conducted a siege. After the siege, "he came to the Temple
City ( ) and took it with all. . .;" then he "turned around
in the lands of Gentiles and returned to Egypt. ..."
This text, as Broshi and Eshel saw, apparently refers to Antiochus'
two Egyptian campaigns. The text in lines 6-8, which we just quoted
in translation, is fairly complete:
10 See I. M. Gafni, "Josephus and 1 Maccabees," in Josephus, the Bible, and History,
ed. L. H. Feldman and G. Hata (Detroit: Wayne State, 1989), 116-31; L. H.
Feldman, "Josephus' Portrayal of the Hasmoneans Compared with 1 Maccabees,"
in Josephus and the History of the Greco-Roman Period: Essays in Memory of Morton Smith,
ed. F. Parente and J. Sievers, Studia Post-Biblica 41 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994),
41—68 — Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, Arbeiten zur Geschichte und Literatur des
antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums 30 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 137-63.