The Use and Function of Scripture in 1 Maccabees

The central thesis of Dongbin Choi’s The Use and Function of Scripture in 1 Maccabees is that the use of Scripture in 1 Maccabees indicates that the Hasmoneans were seen as part of YHWH’s ongoing covenant of faithfulness to His people (2). In chapter 1, Choi surveys the secondary literature on 1 Maccabees, and notes that “monarchial legitimation of the Hasmoneans is the key function of the book” (14). This idea leads Choi to explore how the use of Scripture in 1 Maccabees helps achieve that aim. For Choi, 1 Maccabees contains “two types of past” (19). The first past (Past^R) relates the recent past from the author’s time and highlights the heroics of the Hasmoneans via propaganda. The second past (Past^S) is the scriptural past, the history of the Jewish people as recounted in the Scriptures, “through which the author views the meaning and legitimacy of Past^R” (19).

In chapter 2, Choi states his reasons for employing an author-oriented intertextual approach to the study the use of Scripture in 1 Maccabees. He also does not follow various redactional methods and instead considers 1 Maccabees an original holistic narrative consisting of our extant sixteen chapters (24). He suggests the best reconstructed Greek text of 1 Maccabees is Werner Kappler’s and notes that the reconstructed Greek text is based on a Hebrew original. In terms of authorship and date of composition, Choi holds to a Jewish author around the latter part of Hyrcanus’ reign (55). Since his thesis involves the use of Scripture in 1 Maccabees, he must contend with the theory of scholars like Niels Peter Lemche, who argue that the Bible is a Hellenistic product, meaning the author of 1 Maccabees might only have had access to the written Torah, and in which case the additional scriptural parallels the author draws would depend on oral tradition (57-58). However, Choi cogently contends that the author of 1 Maccabees likely had access to both the Torah, the Former and Latter Prophets, and some of the Writings. This conclusion is based on the fact that contemporary writings like Ben Sira and 4QMMT speak of the Law, Prophets, and other writings (58-64).

Choi concludes that the author of 1 Maccabees views the past and Israel’s Scriptures as a lens to the present and that history roughly repeats itself in specific patterns. The past thus serves as a memory bank from which the author of 1 Maccabees can creatively incorporate memories and patterns into his narrative. The aim is to show that the Hasmoneans are part of YHWH’s providential plan for His people.

Chapter 3 contains a list of references and allusions to Scripture in 1 Maccabees based on morphological grounds. Choi works from Armin Lange and Matthias Weigold’s list of biblical quotations and allusions in second temple Jewish literature but modifies it by creating a handy chart that shows if other commentators have picked up on the proposed allusions. In a sense, the intertextual work properly begins here. While the systematic use of charts is effective and well done, it becomes a bit convoluted when Choi uses multiple different terms like explicit and implicit quotations, explicit and implicit allusions, explicit mention of people and circumstances, parallels, and idiomatic expressions. These ideas and distinctions could be explained in greater detail (147-48). This reader is certainly left wondering how Choi can claim that an idiomatic expression “is not intended to point to a specific text but only the expression” (148). Choi has not sufficiently established the methodology for this kind of assertations thus far.

Chapter 4 explores thematic parallels between 1 Maccabees and the Jewish Scriptures, focusing on Deuteronomy and Judges because these two books have been neglected in the secondary literature. Choi cogently shows that the author of 1 Maccabees incorporates covenantal themes from Deuteronomy 28-30, thereby creating a link between Israel’s covenantal past and the Hasmoneans in order to portray the Hasmoneans as natural inheritors and successors of YHWH’s promises to Israel. The parallels between 1 Maccabees and Judges suggest that “the Hasmoneans and the judges…were both generally highlighted as voluntary and self-sacrificial leaders” (176).

Chapter 5 deals with the two main eulogies in 1 Maccabees (3:3-8; 14:1-15) and how they use Scripture to legitimize Hasmonean rule. Juda’s eulogy is connected to the motif of Israel’s restoration via the evocation of texts like Jer 18:20, Ezra 10:14, and Dan 9:16. Importantly, Choi’s argument that the promised restoration of Israel occurs in 1 Maccabees seems to complicate a common notion amongst some New Testament scholars. N.T. Wright, for example, has auggested that that the Jews at the time of Jesus considered themselves living in a continuing exile stretching back to the Babylonian conquest. However, Wright’s view of the motif of exile and restoration in the New Testament becomes more difficult to sustain if Choi is correct in his assertion

Simon’s eulogy in 1 Maccabees draws on Scriptures like Zech 8, Ezek 34, Lev 26, and Mic 4 (204-208). These scriptural parallels point to themes of safety, long life, and agricultural renewal. Choi suggests the author of 1 Maccabees has in mind the concept of the promised land even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the text. Choi believes the conceptual parallels to the Deuteronomic covenant entail a focus on the land. After all, the covenantal blessing meant possessing the land, and the covenantal curse would result in the loss of the land. While the theme of land may be somehow implicit, Choi’s argument is still tenuous. Also, Choi has mentioned that the author has a creative license to incorporate past memories. According to Choi’s own methodology, the author of 1 Maccabees is not bound to repeat biblical history slavishly. However, both eulogies still mirror a Deuteronomic covenantal schema and show the Hasmoneans bringing blessings to the Judeans.

Overall, Choi successfully demonstrates his thesis’ viability by highlighting the lexical and conceptual parallels between 1 Maccabees and Deuteronomy and Judges. These scriptural books help bolster the author’s claim that the Hasmoneans are part of YHWH’s covenant people and that by being pious and faithful to YHWH, they have, like the judges of the past, helped gain the land for YHWH’s people and thus restored Israel.

Marc Groenbech-Dam is an assistant professor of New Testament at Vanguard University of Southern California.

Marc Groenbech-Dam

Date Of Review:

October 24, 2022