PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

1 Maccabees 3:8
And [Judas Maccabeus] went through the cities of Judah and destroyed the ungodly
out of Judah, and turned wrath from Israel.
2 Maccabees 5:27
But Judas Maccabeus, and a handful who had come with him, withdrew into the
desert, and he survived in the manner of the wild animals in the mountains, together
with those who were with him; and they continued to live on the nourishment of
vegetation, so that they would not share in the defilement.
4 Maccabees 1:11
For it was not only the people in general who were amazed at their courage and
endurance, but also those who were doing the torturing, as they were the cause that
brought down the tyranny against the nation, having conquered the tyrant by their
endurance, so that through them the homeland was purified.
This motif of the impact of the special few on the nation was further democratised by those
who inherited the Judaism bequeathed by the Maccabean successes. The action of every
individual in responding to the Torah became effective in a way that was comparable to
Maccabean zeal.
From the perspective of the Pharisees, the adherence of individuals to the Torah and the
traditions, and their avoidance of Gentile idolatry, affected the purity of the nation as a
whole. 101
101 On the nature of the Pharisees as an influential group pushing for national reform, see
Roland Deines, “The Pharisees Between ‘Judaisms’ and ‘Common Judaism’” in Justification
and Variegated Nomism Vol.1 (ed. D.A. Carson et al.; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 443-
504; 461. See also Deines, “Pharisäer,” in Theologishes Begriffslexikon zum Neuen
Testament: neubearbeite Ausgabe, Band II (ed. Lothar Coenen and Klaus Haacker; Wuppertal:
Brockhaus, 2000), 1455-1468; 1461.
246