Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Transliteration of Hebrew
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- PART I HISTORICAL EVALUATION
- PART II ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLES: INTRODUCTION, TEXT AND COMMENTARY
- 8 The sources: their date, provenance and characteristics
- 9 The beginning of the Revolt and the battle against Apollonius
- 10 The ambush for Seron at the Beth Horon Ascent
- 11 The ceremony at Mizpah and the Ammaus campaign
- 12 Lysias' first expedition and the raid near Beth Zur
- 13 Lysias' second expedition and the battle at Beth Zacharia
- 14 The negotiations with Nicanor and the encounter at Kafar Salama
- 15 The battle of Adasa and Nicanor Day
- 16 Bacchides' second expedition and the battle of Elasa
- Conclusion
- PART III APPENDICES
- EXCURSUS
- Plates
- Abbreviations
- References
- Indexe locorum
- General index
- Index of Greek terms
- Index of Hebrew words and phrases
8 - The sources: their date, provenance and characteristics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Transliteration of Hebrew
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue
- PART I HISTORICAL EVALUATION
- PART II ACCOUNTS OF THE BATTLES: INTRODUCTION, TEXT AND COMMENTARY
- 8 The sources: their date, provenance and characteristics
- 9 The beginning of the Revolt and the battle against Apollonius
- 10 The ambush for Seron at the Beth Horon Ascent
- 11 The ceremony at Mizpah and the Ammaus campaign
- 12 Lysias' first expedition and the raid near Beth Zur
- 13 Lysias' second expedition and the battle at Beth Zacharia
- 14 The negotiations with Nicanor and the encounter at Kafar Salama
- 15 The battle of Adasa and Nicanor Day
- 16 Bacchides' second expedition and the battle of Elasa
- Conclusion
- PART III APPENDICES
- EXCURSUS
- Plates
- Abbreviations
- References
- Indexe locorum
- General index
- Index of Greek terms
- Index of Hebrew words and phrases
Summary
The main sources for reconstructing the course of the battles are I and II Maccabees. The complex questions connected with the identity of the authors, the language and date, the provenance, aims and characteristic features of these two books have often been discussed and reviewed in scholarly literature, so that there remains only to refer the reader to the numerous introductions to and studies of the Books of the Maccabees. In the present survey we shall deal only with those questions that are of decisive importance in reconstructing the course of the battles, or where an analysis of battle accounts contributes to a solution.
The First Book of the Maccabees
I Maccabees, originally written in Hebrew, reached us in Greek translation. It covers the period from the plunder of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 169 b.c. (1.16ff.) until the murder of Simeon the Hasmonaean by Ptolemy son of Abubus in 135 b.c. (16.11–22). After a short introduction reporting briefly the successes of Alexander the Great, the dissolution of his empire, the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Hellenistic reform in Jerusalem (1.1–15), the book surveys at length the coercive edicts (1.16–64), the start of the Revolt under the leadership of Mattathias the Hasmonaean (2.1–69), the period of Judas Maccabaeus’ leadership until his death in the battle of Elasa (3.1–9.22), the leadership of Judas’ brother Jonathan and the political and military struggle in his time-160 to 143 b.c. (9.23–12.52). It ends with the period of Simeon after the achievement of independence and the start of the Hasmonaean state – 143 to 135 b.c. (13.1–16.16).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Judas MaccabaeusThe Jewish Struggle Against the Seleucids, pp. 151 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989