The Torah in 1Maccabees by Francis Borchardt

Author:Francis Borchardt [Borchardt, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2014-07-17T00:00:00+00:00

Historical Arguments

We accept the basic dating of the composition of 1 Macc to 132 – 128 BCE, as proposed by many scholars.527 We apply this dating only to the foundational layer of 1 Maccabees, which we shall call 1MaccGrundschrift.528 We have arrived at this dating based upon a variety of criteria. First, the text of 1MaccG covers the time period from 175 – 141 BCE.529 A text of this magnitude would have taken some time to commission and then compose, this especially applies to the sources used, which may have included some Seleucid annals, and would have taken more time to obtain and then translate.530 Further, though 1MaccG contains no explicit information on the succession, it might hint at the passage of power to John Hyracanus in the final verse (13:53). This would mean that a date of 134 BCE would be a starting point for the process of composition, however it could be as early as 140, under the reign of Simon. The date of 1MaccG likely has a lower limit in the expansionist policies of John Hyrcanus, both in his hiring of foreign mercenaries and his introduction of non-Jews into the nation.531 This policy started once Hyrcanus was freed from the gentile chains that bound him, in around 130 BCE.532

The conclusion one must draw then, is that 1MaccG, which has a focused aim of describing the liberation of the Jerusalem temple cult and the Judean state from the gentiles,533 would be written shortly after the time this task was completed. This leaves open the question of the various additions to 1MaccG, and their possible date of inclusion and historical setting. We will now try to hypothesize the occasions for which each of these redactions were made, basing our information on what the text stresses and on the outside historical situation as far as we know it. These ideas about dating should not be taken as fact, rather they should be appreciated as recommendations of occasions wherein composition of each of these layers might make sense. It is of course highly possible that the composition and inclusion of any of these layers was not particularly occasional, but the result of far more complex processes of textual transmission. We will proceed with this investigation in the order in which the additional layers were covered above.534 These have no bearing on the supposed chronology, but simply will make for a clearer presentation.

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