Letter of Antiochus VII

15 Anti′ochus, the son of Deme′trius the king, sent a letter from the islands of the sea to Simon, the priest and ethnarch of the Jews, and to all the nation; ² its contents were as follows: “King Anti′ochus to Simon the high priest and ethnarch and to the nation of the Jews, greeting. ³ Whereas certain pestilent men have gained control of the kingdom of our fathers, and I intend to lay claim to the kingdom so that I may restore it as it formerly was, and have recruited a host of mercenary troops and have equipped warships, ⁴ and intend to make a landing in the country so that I may proceed against those who have destroyed our country and those who have devastated many cities in my kingdom, ⁵ now therefore I confirm to you all the tax remissions that the kings before me have granted you, and release from all the other payments from which they have released you. ⁶ I permit you to mint your own coinage as money for your country, ⁷ and I grant freedom to Jerusalem and the sanctuary. All the weapons which you have prepared and the strongholds which you have built and now hold shall remain yours. ⁸ Every debt you owe to the royal treasury and any such future debts shall be canceled for you from henceforth and for all time. ⁹ When we gain control of our kingdom, we will bestow great honor upon you and your nation and the temple, so that your glory will become manifest in all the earth.”

¹⁰ In the one hundred and seventy-fourth year^[a] Anti′ochus set out and invaded the land of his fathers. All the troops rallied to him, so that there were few with Trypho. ¹¹ Anti′ochus pursued him, and he came in his flight to Dor, which is by the sea; ¹² for he knew that troubles had converged upon him, and his troops had deserted him. ¹³ So Anti′ochus encamped against Dor, and with him were a hundred and twenty thousand warriors and eight thousand cavalry. ¹⁴ He surrounded the city, and the ships joined battle from the sea; he pressed the city hard from land and sea, and permitted no one to leave or enter it.

Rome Supports the Jews

¹⁵ Then Nume′nius and his companions arrived from Rome, with letters to the kings and countries, in which the following was written: ¹⁶ “Lucius, consul of the Romans, to King Ptol′emy, greeting. ¹⁷ The envoys of the Jews have come to us as our friends and allies to renew our ancient friendship and alliance. They had been sent by Simon the high priest and by the people of the Jews, ¹⁸ and have brought a gold shield weighing a thousand minas. ¹⁹ We therefore have decided to write to the kings and countries that they should not seek their harm or make war against them and their cities and their country, or make alliance with those who war against them. ²⁰ And it has seemed good to us to accept the shield from them. ²¹ Therefore if any pestilent men have fled to you from their country, hand them over to Simon the high priest, that he may punish them according to their law.”

²² The consul^[b] wrote the same thing to Deme′trius the king and to At′talus and Ariar′athes and Ar′saces, ²³ and to all the countries, and to Sam′psames,^[c] and to the Spartans, and to Delos, and to Myndos, and to Sic′yon, and to Ca′ria, and to Samos, and to Pamphyl′ia, and to Lyc′ia, and to Halicarnas′sus, and to Rhodes, and to Phase′lis, and to Cos, and to Side, and to Ar′adus and Gorty′na and Cnidus and Cyprus and Cyre′ne. ²⁴ They also sent a copy of these things to Simon the high priest.

Antiochus VII Threatens Simon

²⁵ Anti′ochus the king besieged Dor anew,^[d] continually throwing his forces against it and making engines of war; and he shut Trypho up and kept him from going out or in. ²⁶ And Simon sent to Anti′ochus two thousand picked men, to fight for him, and silver and gold and much military equipment. ²⁷ But he refused to receive them, and he broke all the agreements he formerly had made with Simon,^[e] and became estranged from him. ²⁸ He sent to him Athenob′ius, one of his friends, to confer with him, saying, “You hold control of Joppa and Gazar′a and the citadel in Jerusalem; they are cities of my kingdom. ²⁹ You have devastated their territory, you have done great damage in the land, and you have taken possession of many places in my kingdom. ³⁰ Now then, hand over the cities which you have seized and the tribute money of the places which you have conquered outside the borders of Judea; ³¹ or else give me for them five hundred talents of silver, and for the destruction that you have caused and the tribute money of the cities, five hundred talents more. Otherwise we will come and conquer you.”

³² So Athenob′ius the friend of the king came to Jerusalem, and when he saw the splendor of Simon, and the sideboard with its gold and silver plate, and his great magnificence, he was amazed. He reported to him the words of the king, ³³ but Simon gave him this reply: “We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our fathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. ³⁴ Now that we have the opportunity, we are firmly holding the inheritance of our fathers. ³⁵ As for Joppa and Gazar′a, which you demand, they were causing great damage among the people and to our land; for them we will give a hundred talents.” Athenob′ius^[f] did not answer him a word, ³⁶ but returned in wrath to the king and reported to him these words and the splendor of Simon and all that he had seen. And the king was greatly angered.

Victory over Cendebeus

³⁷ Now Trypho embarked on a ship and escaped to Ortho′sia. ³⁸ Then the king made Cendebe′us commander-in-chief of the coastal country, and gave him troops of infantry and cavalry. ³⁹ He commanded him to encamp against Judea, and commanded him to build up Kedron and fortify its gates, and to make war on the people; but the king pursued Trypho. ⁴⁰ So Cendebe′us came to Jam′nia and began to provoke the people and invade Judea and take the people captive and kill them. ⁴¹ He built up Kedron and stationed there horsemen and troops, so that they might go out and make raids along the highways of Judea, as the king had ordered him.

16 John went up from Gazar′a and reported to Simon his father what Cendebe′us had done. ² And Simon called in his two older sons Judas and John, and said to them: “I and my brothers and the house of my father have fought the wars of Israel from our youth until this day, and things have prospered in our hands so that we have delivered Israel many times. ³ But now I have grown old, and you by His mercy are mature in years. Take my place and my brother’s, and go out and fight for our nation, and may the help which comes from Heaven be with you.”

⁴ So John^[g] chose out of the country twenty thousand warriors and horsemen, and they marched against Cendebe′us and camped for the night in Mo′de-in. ⁵ Early in the morning they arose and marched into the plain, and behold, a large force of infantry and horsemen was coming to meet them; and a stream lay between them. ⁶ Then he and his army lined up against them. And he saw that the soldiers were afraid to cross the stream, so he crossed over first; and when his men saw him, they crossed over after him. ⁷ Then he divided the army and placed the horsemen in the midst of the infantry, for the cavalry of the enemy were very numerous. ⁸ And they sounded the trumpets, and Cendebe′us and his army were put to flight, and many of them were wounded and fell; the rest fled into the stronghold. ⁹ At that time Judas the brother of John was wounded, but John pursued them until Cendebe′us^[h] reached Kedron, which he had built. ¹⁰ They also fled into the towers that were in the fields of Azo′tus, and John^[i] burned it with fire, and about two thousand of them fell. And he returned to Judea safely.

Murder of Simon and His Sons

¹¹ Now Ptol′emy the son of Abu′bus had been appointed governor over the plain of Jericho, and he had much silver and gold, ¹² for he was son-in-law of the high priest. ¹³ His heart was lifted up; he determined to get control of the country, and made treacherous plans against Simon and his sons, to do away with them. ¹⁴ Now Simon was visiting the cities of the country and attending to their needs, and he went down to Jericho with Mattathi′as and Judas his sons, in the one hundred and seventy-seventh year,^[j] in the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat. ¹⁵ The son of Abu′bus received them treacherously in the little stronghold called Dok, which he had built; he gave them a great banquet, and hid men there. ¹⁶ When Simon and his sons were drunk, Ptol′emy and his men rose up, took their weapons, and rushed in against Simon in the banquet hall, and they killed him and his two sons and some of his servants. ¹⁷ So he committed an act of great treachery and returned evil for good.

John Succeeds Simon

¹⁸ Then Ptol′emy wrote a report about these things and sent it to the king, asking him to send troops to aid him and to turn over to him the cities and the country. ¹⁹ He sent other men to Gazar′a to do away with John; he sent letters to the captains asking them to come to him so that he might give them silver and gold and gifts; ²⁰ and he sent other men to take possession of Jerusalem and the temple hill. ²¹ But some one ran ahead and reported to John at Gazar′a that his father and brothers had perished, and that “he has sent men to kill you also.” ²² When he heard this, he was greatly shocked; and he seized the men who came to destroy him and killed them, for he had found out that they were seeking to destroy him.

²³ The rest of the acts of John and his wars and the brave deeds which he did, and the building of the walls which he built, and his achievements, ²⁴ behold, they are written in the chronicles of his high priesthood, from the time that he became high priest after his father.

Exhortation to Uprightness

Life as the Ungodly See It

True Blessedness

²⁷ As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” ²⁸ But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹ When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nin′eveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation. ³¹ The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. ³² The men of Nin′eveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

The Light of the Body

³³ “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel, but on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵ Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. ³⁶ If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Jesus Denounces Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷ While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him; so he went in and sat at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹ And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you.

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! for you love the best seat in the synagogues and salutations in the market places. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! for you are like graves which are not seen, and men walk over them without knowing it.”

⁴⁵ One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you reproach us also.” ⁴⁶ And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! for you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ⁴⁷ Woe to you! for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechari′ah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of this generation. ⁵² Woe to you lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, ⁵⁴ lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say.