Era 10: Maccabean Revolt

Introduction:

The NARRATIVE BOOKS in this era is 1 Maccabees. The SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKS are 2 Maccabees, Sirach, and Wisdom

• This Era lasted from 167 BC to AD 1

• Fun Fact #1: The World Power in this era is The Roman Empire

• Fun Fact #2: Famous secular persons who lived in this era included Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus

• Fun Fact #3: Important events that happened in this era include Pompey capturing Jerusalem in 63 BC and Virgil writing the Aeneid in 30 BC

• Welcome back, Jeff Cavins!!

• We have just left the Return after the Exile

• Now the people of Israel are back in the land of Judah

• There are a number of books during this time period that not a lot of people in this Bible in a Year community are familiar with

• So what do we do now?

• We are entering one of the most UNDERRATED AND IMPORTANT periods in setting the table for the Messiah, Jesus, to come onto the scene

• For our Protestant friends who have been joining us on our most excellent adventure, they are running into a book now that might seem a little bit foreign

• So we will take a couple minutes to explain that book, where it came from, what it’s talking about, and this whole issue of being INSPIRED or DEUTEROCANONICAL or “APOCRYPHA”

• We have FOUR BOOKS 

• 1 and 2 Maccabees

• The Book of Sirach

• The Book of Wisdom

• Not everyone in this community will be familiar with them

• We talked about some of the other Deuterocanonical books in the past

• Like Judith, Tobit, Baruch, and parts of Esther and Daniel

• So how do we read/listen to these books?

• Do we listen/read them the same way as the rest of the Bible?

• What’s the story with how we got these books and how some Bibles don’t have these books?

• When Jeff Cavins first created the Great Adventure Bible Study and the Timeline, he was a 25 year old pastor

• When he got to this period of Salvation History, he had what he called “400 silent years”

• When he came back to the Catholic Church, he was blessed by getting seven more books which were not NEW, but were quite old

• Lo and behold, these books filled in that 400 year gap

• That was Maccabees, specifically some of the events of 2 Maccabees

• It is worth noting that there are two different canons in Christianity today

• You have the Protestant canon, which has 66 books

• You have the Catholic canon, which has 73 books 

• One of which is 1 and 2 Maccabees

• So we have to ask ourselves the question, which comes up so often, “Did we as Catholics ADD seven books? Or did Protestants TAKE AWAY seven books?”

• The answer is NEITHER ONE

• The early Church that the Catholic Church springs from, used what was called the SEPTUAGINT

• The Septuagint is the Greek Old Testament

• That is the book that the Early Church used

• IN FACT…

• It had Maccabees and the other books in there all the way until the REFORMATION

• The REFORMERS decided not to go with the Septuagint

• They decided to go with a different canon, which was the Jewish canon that did not have those seven books

• It’s not fair to say, “Catholics added books.”

• It’s not fair to say, “Protestants took books away.”

• What IS fair to say is that the Bible we have been using for Bible in a Year IS THE BIBLE THAT THE EARLY CHURCH USED

• So we encourage our Protestant friends not to get upset, but to be open to understanding Salvation History

• The Early Church used this as the INSPIRED WORD OF GOD

• So maybe they can be open to what God wants to help become more like Jesus

• Fr. Mike has gotten messages from folks who have been journeying with us who are not Catholic and they find Tobit to be so fascinating

• IN FACT…

• A woman who has a very popular podcast reached out to him and said, “This is incredible to me to be able to go through this story of The Book of Tobit and getting so much out of these books that I have never encountered before.”

• Not only are there Catholics who have never read these books before 

• But for ALL OF US, there is something when it comes to being OPEN TO WHATEVER GOD HAS FOR US IN THIS JOURNEY

• One of the temptations or battles that a lot of folks might have to face in the next thirty or so days in this Maccabean Revolt Era is SUSPICION

• We already addressed that months ago when it came to learning how God acting in the lives of broken people

• Or here is God acting in the lives of people who are coming in to conquer the land of Canaan

• We can have this kind of suspicion about God and his motives in Scripture

• BUT…

• One of the temptations we have to be aware of and be able to face is the temptation to suspicion IN OUR OWN HEARTS towards, “If I don’t understand one of THESE books of the Bible, maybe I will be suspicious towards the Bible. Whereas in the past, I was suspicious towards God himself. Now maybe I’m suspicious towards God’s Word.”

• So just be OPEN!!

• GOD HAS SOMETHING HE WANTS TO SAY TO ALL OF US IN THESE WORDS!!

• DO NOT IMMEDIATELY DISCOUNT THEM EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE  KIND OF A DIFFERENT STYLE!!

• It is very much HISTORY and they seem different

• When you begin to listen to 1 and 2 Maccabees you are going to be reading along with a type of history that is MORE FAMILIAR than say, Judith 

• You are going to run into some FAMOUS EVENTS and some FAMOUS PEOPLE that are in history as we know it

• For example, we have Alexander the Great

• We have Antiochus Epiphanes

• We have the Maccabean Revolt

• Even though the Jewish community does not consider 1 and 2 Maccabees to be INSPIRED SCRIPTURE, what is happening in these books, namely HANUKKAH, is quite at the center of Jewish celebration TODAY

• One way to really help everybody to situate themselves in The Book of Maccabees is to go back and remember all of the enemies of Israel

• We have a little pithy saying, “Eat A Big Purple GRape.”

• E for EGYPT

• A for ASSYRIA

• B for BABYLON

• P for Persia 

• G for Greece

• R for Rome

• That is a wonderful way to not get lost and to remember where we are at

• We are now entering the RISE OF THE GREEK CULTURE

• HELLENIZATION

• The star is Alexander the Great

• Most of us are familiar with him

• A poll was taken not too long ago, “Who is the greatest Greek ever to live?”

• 98% or so of the people who answered said Alexander the Great

• EVEN NOW!!

• Alexander the Great’s goal was to hellenize the world

• He wanted the whole world to speak Greek and to worship Greek gods and Greek customs and so forth

• He actually was quite successful

• He was a REAL military leader

• He didn’t just sit back and watch

• He had his armies follow him and he was injured quite a bit

• He really took most of the modern world and stopped just short of India because his leaders and soldiers were worn out

• Maccabees records how he came to Jerusalem and the people were so afraid that they even did something that is hard to think about

• They reversed circumcision to blend into the crowd

• They didn’t want to be known as the people who were marked as different

• Alexander the Great was actually quite impressed with the Jews in Jerusalem and allowed them to maintain their life

• BUT THEN…

• Everything went south when Alexander died suddenly

• Historians have said it was due to some viral infection

• But just in the last 20 years historians are starting to think he was assassinated 

• He left his entire kingdom to two generals

• The Ptolemies

• The Seleucids

• The Ptolemies took over in this area of the world and continued to allow this doctrine of tolerance that Alexander had

• Then the Seleucids took over

• This is where we meet Antiochus Epiphanes, who is like the devil on wheels

• He is like Jezebel, Ahab, and all those older kings who did horrible things

• HORRIBLE THINGS!!

• NAUGHTY THINGS!!

• So he decided to strike at the heart of the Jewish people 

• He goes to a little city northwest of Jerusalem called Modein (I’m just guessing at the spelling here...hope I’m right 😉)

• Modein is very close to the place where the early Christians would walk and fellowship with one another

• So he goes to Modein and he starts to pick on the really orthodox families

• He tries to get them to eat pork 

• You and I know that pulled pork is not on the menu (sadly, neither is bacon 😉)

• The Jewish people resist 

• Antiochus Epiphanes even desecrates the Temple in Jerusalem

• This brings about a TREMENDOUS REVOLT against the Greek leader

• This is the setting we have in Maccabees where a number of REALLY AMAZING stories take place

• Probably the most well known story is Hanukkah

• When the Jews resisted the Greeks and took back Jerusalem and the Temple, what happened?

• They REDEDICATED THE TEMPLE!!

• Lo and behold, a MIRACLE took place

• They didn’t have enough oil to rededicate the Temple

• BUT…

• The oil that they had lasted and the Temple was rededicated

• Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days starting on the 25th day of Chislev according to the Hebrew calendar

• When they finally realized that they had Jerusalem back, they wanted to rededicate it

• They wanted the lights to shine again

• So while in the New Testament we don’t call it Hanukkah, we do celebrate it and Jesus does

• It is called the FEAST OF LIGHTS

• Of course, Jesus is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD

• This great holiday of Hanukkah which our older brothers and sisters, the Jewish people, celebrate it every single year and we also celebrate it with them as well in the REDEDICATING OF THE TEMPLE

• So in Modein there was a family that ended up resisting

• They were pretty successful

• Judas Maccabeus, his brothers, and the Jewish people were able to wage a war against this massive army and fight back for their sovereignty

• One of the great stories is in 2 Maccabees Ch 7

• That is the story of a woman who is going to go down in history as being one of the greatest ever in the entire Bible

• She has seven sons

• She is a Jewish martyr

• Her seven sons are Jewish martyrs

• They were all arrested by Antiochus Epiphanes and were forced to prove their respect to him by consuming pig meat

• They refused and he tortured and killed the sons one by one in front of this unflinching, powerful woman

• THAT IS SO HEROIC!!

• Many of us see the Blessed Virgin Mary in that

• She stood and watched her Son who was CRUCIFIED

• Her Son who DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD

• Her Son who said, “I will not bow. I will be the faithful Son.”

• So we see a PERFECT PICTURE there of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus

• IT IS VERY VERY POWERFUL!!

• Not too long ago, Dr. Scott Hahn and his wife, Kimberly, had a son named Jeremiah who became a priest

• Jeff Cavins talked to Kimberly and she said, “Oh Jeff, I just went and I prayed and I asked the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the times that we are living now, oh please don’t let my son suffer. Don’t let my son suffer as a priest. I beg you, please don’t.”

• She said that she felt like Mary spoke back to her and said, “You’re talking to me? I’ve watched my Son suffer!”

• Just like this heroic Jewish martyr in 2 Maccabees Ch 7 who watched her seven sons die in front of her

• We will get to this story in around 20 days from now

• IT IS A STORY OF FAITHFULNESS!!

• Fr. Mike prays with this story so many times

• Not only because of the BROTHERHOOD of the brothers

• Not only because of the MOTHERHOOD of this mom

• BUT BECAUSE OF THE FAITHFULNESS THEY HAD

• THEY REFUSED TO COMPROMISE

• This is a theme particularly when it comes to the leverage the Greeks would have tried to use in this particular case over the Jews

• “Just pretend to eat some of this meat and you will be fine.”

• “No, I can’t even pretend to violate this because what kind of scandal would I give?”

• IT IS REALLY REMARKABLE ON SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS

• The sons are saying, “Hey, be a man!”

• The mom is saying, “Hey, be a man, my sons!”

• THAT REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE!!

• It’s not just a modern thing

• BUT…

• In our hearts we think, “The Lord would not want me to suffer. The Lord wouldn’t really want this,”

• God doesn’t necessarily want us to suffer

• BUT…

• GOD DOES WANT US TO BE FAITHFUL

• THAT IS A HIGH CALL THAT WE EXPERIENCE!!

• That is one of the stories that highlights 1 and 2 Maccabees

• So what else should we hone in on and not miss?

• 2 Maccabees 12:38-46

• We have an example of the faithful on earth PRAYING, SACRIFICING, HAVING A RELATIONSHIP WITH THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US!! 

• Our Protestant brothers and sisters might flinch at that

• But what we see here is that in the Kingdom of God, and certainly after Jesus’ Sacrifice, we DO have this Body of Christ that CANNOT BE SEPARATED BY DEATH!!

• So when people ask us, “Why do you guys pray to dead people?”

• OUR ANSWER IS, “WE DO NOT TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE! WE TALK TO ALIVE PEOPLE! WE TALK TO PEOPLE WHO ARE ALIVE IN CHRIST AND IN SOME WAYS PROBABLY MORE ALIVE THAN WE ARE TODAY! JUST LIKE WE ASK ONE ANOTHER FOR PRAYERS AND INTERCESSION, WE DO THAT WITH OUR OLDER BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO HAVE GONE ON BEFORE US!”

• So when you read 2 Maccabees Ch 12, BE OPEN

• Listen to this economy, if you will, in the Old Testament

• IT IS VERY VERY POWERFUL!!

• There is also another great story in 2 Maccabees 2:4-8

• Let’s set the stage real quick…

• When you hear Fr. Mike reading this, it is going to COME ALIVE

• We know that in the Old Testament there is an ARK OF THE COVENANT

• When they came out of Egypt, Moses built a Tabernacle which had a Holy Place

• In the back was a square called the Holy of Holies

• Inside the Holy of Holies was the ARK OF THE COVENANT

• THE MOST PRIZED, PRECIOUS, HOLY PIECE OF FURNITURE 

• The Ark of the Covenant contained a copy of the Ten Commandments, a bowl of manna, and Aaron’s rod/staff that was blossoming with almond blossoms

• So there are three things that are attached to that Ark of the Covenant

• Well, the Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BC

• BUT…

• Jeremiah said, “We have to take the Ark of the Covenant out of there and we have to hide this before the Babylonians come.”

• AND THEY DID!!

• In 2 Maccabees Ch 2 we have the description of this

• They took the Ark, the most precious of all furniture, and they hid it in a cave

• One of the guys said, “We are going to cover this up and after 70 years of exile we will come back here. Let’s put a little marker on it and we’ll see that little green flag and know it’s here.”

• Jeremiah said, “No, we are not going to do that. This place will remain a mystery UNTIL God has gathered all of his people back together and revealed his MERCY.”

• SO…

• We have to ask ourselves the question, “When is the next time that God is going to bring all of his people back together and REVEAL HIS MERCY?”

• THAT IS IN THE BIRTH OF JESUS!!

• We all should meditate on this…

• MARY IS THE NEW ARK OF THE COVENANT!!

• OUT OF HER WOMB COMES THE WORD OF GOD

• OUT OF HER WOMB COMES THE MANNA FROM HEAVEN, THE EUCHARIST

• OUT OF HER WOMB COMES JESUS, THE GREAT HIGH PRIEST

• So we have ANOTHER connection to the Blessed Virgin Mary here, just like we did with the mother with her seven sons

• Here in 2 Maccabees Ch 2 we have the connection to the NEW ARK OF THE COVENANT

• So that really brings us to more of a POLITICAL TRANSITION NOW TO JESUS THE MESSIAH!!

• THIS IS A MASSIVE BRIDGE!!

• While Jeff Cavins was away from the Catholic Church, for him there was 400 years of silence when all there was for him was WAITING AND PROMISE (after The Return era)

• BUT…

• What is the action happening here?

• What is God doing with his people in the meantime?

• This is all setting up the Eat A Big Purple GRape

• Now we are getting past the Greeks to the Romans

• We are following along and this is how God is walking with his people

• He is inviting them back into Covenant faithfulness all through this time and setting the stage for the Messiah, for JESUS HIMSELF to FULFILL THOSE PROMISES THAT WE HAVE BEEN HEARING FOR 281 DAYS!!

• This history of the Greeks moving into the Romans is one of the most POWERFUL and EYE-OPENING TRANSITIONS that we have gone through so far in the Bible

• It is a transition that sets the table for THE MESSIAH

• YESHUA

• HAMASCHIA

• JESUS THE MESSIAH

• Here’s how it goes, my friends

• If you can get this and keep this in your thinking, then not only will Maccabees be POWERFUL

• BUT…

• THE GOSPELS WILL JUST BLOW UP WITH MEANING FOR YOU!!

• We know that after Alexander the Great, after the Ptolemies, after the Seleucids, we are going to have a CHANGE IN POWER which is going to be to the ROMANS

• The very famous leader, Julius Caesar, was a part of what was called the First Triumvirate in the Roman Republic

• Julius Caesar adopts a young man named Octavian 

• You might forget the name Octavian but you WON’T FORGET WHAT HIS NAME BECAME

• He was a part of the Second Triumvirate of the Roman Republic

• So it meant a country that is lead by three people

• Octavian, the son of Julius Caesar was part of the second one

• Julius Caesar proclaimed himself to be GOD

• But on the Ides of March, he was assassinated in the senate

• Before that, he adopted Octavian, one member of the Triumvirate

• Octavian wanted to be THE leader, not one of three

• But he had to go against another guy in the Triumvirate named MARC ANTONY

• NOT J-LO’S EX HUSBAND!!

• THIS IS A DIFFERENT MARC ANTONY

• So Octavian ended up going out to sea and defeating Marc Antony in the Battle of Actium

• Now watch this…

• Octavian comes back and he enters Rome as the SOLE LEADER and the senate gives him the honorary name, CAESAR AUGUSTUS

• He ruled the Roman Empire for a long time

• Here is the kicker...

• In the city of Corinth, there were some archaeological finds that said, “That never before, during, or after will anybody eclipse the glory and the power of Caesar Augustus who is the prince of peace. He is the one who ushered in peace. He is the son of god, the son of Julius Caesar, and he has ushered in the euangelion (good news of the world).”

• NOW THINK ABOUT THAT...

• Caesar Augustus is known as the SON OF GOD, the PRINCE OF PEACE, and the one who USHERED IN THE GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD

• Have we heard this before? 🤔

• THOSE TERMS SOUND SO FAMILIAR!!

• This is the stage that is set now for a baby to be born in Bethlehem who IS THE SON OF GOD

• WHO IS THE PRINCE OF PEACE

• WHO IS GOING TO USHER IN THE GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD

• THIS IS WHERE WE ARE AT RIGHT NOW!!

• THIS IS THE TRANSITION!!

• THIS IS WHY MACCABEES IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!

• THAT IS SO AMAZING!!

• Connecting the far apart dots and connecting the close together dots and be able to open up the entire New Testament

• The Lord has set the stage by giving us these books of 1 and 2 Maccabees

• This is the context now in which God himself breaks into the world in this COMPLETELY NEW WAY

• THAT IS PHENOMENAL!!

• Oh of course, Jesus is the King of Kings

• Jesus is the Prince of Peace

• Jesus is the Son of God

• Jesus brings the good news

• Those terms had a context when they were first written

• We recognize here is one of the ways that Christianity could be seen as a threat because those terms no longer apply to the Roman Emperor, but they belong to the GOD WE ARE FOLLOWING

• BUT…

• THIS HAS ALSO COME TO CHANGE THE WORLD IN A REMARKABLE WAY

• THIS WORLD THAT HAS BEEN ENTERED BY GOD

• THIS WORLD HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR JESUS

• BUT IN SOME WAYS THIS WORLD IS NOT READY FOR JESUS

• ALL OF OUR HEARTS HAVE TO BE TRANSFORMED FOR THAT TO HAPPEN!!

• JUST PHENOMENAL!!

• We are living in difficult times right now

• There are two things that people are really desiring

• We are listening to this podcast because WE ARE HUNGRY

• WE WANT TO KNOW GOD

• WE WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWERS TO LIFE

• WE WANT TO KNOW THE BIG STORY AND HOW WE FIT INTO IT

• It can be very confusing

• People are looking for a BRIGHTER FUTURE

• People are looking for SOMEONE TO TRUST

• THAT IS HARD TO COME BY TODAY

• We might see difficult things going on in politics as they did back then with the Greeks and the Romans

• It didn’t look like this story was really going anywhere

• BUT…

• THE TRUTH IS THAT WE WERE JUST ON THE EDGE OF THIS STORY GOING EVERYWHERE

• DO NOT LOSE HOPE!!

• Even though politics might not look like what you want it to be

• Social issues might not be exactly where you want them

• KNOW THIS…

• GOD HAS A PLAN OF SHEER GOODNESS (CCC 1)

• If we stay with that plan and his faithfulness, we are going to see that GOD WILL PREVAIL

• DO NOT GIVE UP!!

• AMEN TO THAT!!

• Here are the people wandering in darkness, they have seen a great light

• BUT…

• Before they see that GREAT LIGHT, they are wandering in darkness just clinging on to the promises of God all through this time

• Without seeing the fruit of their faithfulness

• Without seeing the fruit of what they were fighting for

• God himself had CHOSEN THEM

• He entered into relationship WITH THEM

• He made a PROMISE TO THEM

• How is God going to do it?

• No one could have predicted how, even with all the prophecies we have heard

• We don’t know if anyone could have predicted the way in which God would make right ALL THAT HAD GONE WRONG

• This is so true for our lives

• “Oh my gosh, what could God do with this?”

• We can NEVER predict the way in which God can make RIGHT all the stuff that has gone WRONG with us

• We are grateful for this time period, the final one before we launch into the last Gospel we haven’t read yet, The Gospel of Luke, and the Era of the Church

• So any last thoughts, Jeff Cavins? 🤔

• If this book is foreign to you, approach it with an OPEN HEART and ask God to ILLUMINATE THE TRUTH HERE and what is happening in terms of the entire plan of Salvation History

• Just say, “Lord, give me an open heart to understand what is happening here.”

• During this reading of Maccabees, keep in mind what is going on in the world today

• Just keep in mind that Fr. Mike and Jeff Cavins have both read the END OF THE BIBLE

• HERE IS A SPOILER: WE WIN!!

• WE WIN!!

• We are not ending just yet though

• We are still working our way

• We are still walking with the Lord

• We are still allowing God to shape our hearts...

• We are still allowing God to shape our vision...

• We are still allowing God to shape our worldview…

• So that we can recognize OUR STORY in HIS STORY

• We do have a couple more eras to get to

• Messianic Fulfillment

• The Church

• We are not home yet

• BUT…

• We are SO FAR from where we have started

• SO PHENOMENAL!!

• If you have reached this day, you have a lot to be proud of

• We have so much to be grateful for

• WE NEED EACH OTHER

• FR. MIKE IS PRAYING FOR YOU

• JEFF CAVINS IS PRAYING FOR YOU

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE AND JEFF CAVINS

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER