…and beyond
3 Maccabees
Elephants in the hippodrome, a persecution turned festival, before the Maccabees at all.
Despite the name it has nothing to do with the Maccabees. It tells of Ptolemy IV of Egypt, prevented from entering the temple in Jerusalem, taking revenge on the Jews of Alexandria by having them herded into a hippodrome to be trampled by five hundred drunken elephants, an outcome averted by angelic intervention that turns the animals on the army instead. The story is thoroughly improbable and it preserves something real, which is the anxiety of a diaspora community whose safety depended entirely on the mood of a king. Canonical in Orthodox churches, absent from Catholic and Protestant Bibles alike.
If you remember one thing
The elephants sent to trample the Jews in the hippodrome turn on the army instead. Despite its name it has nothing to do with the Maccabees.
Who, when, and why
- Written
- Greek, from Alexandria, despite the name.
- First readers
- Egyptian Jews.
- Why it was written
- A persecution under Ptolemy IV, unrelated to the Maccabean revolt.
How it is shaped
- 1 to 2Ptolemy turned back from the temple
- 3 to 4Persecution of the Jews of Egypt
- 5 to 6The elephants, and deliverance
- 7Vindication and festival
What it keeps coming back to
A verse to carry
“King of great power, Almighty God Most High, governing all creation with mercy.”
3 Maccabees 2:2
Passages that trouble readers
Title and content
Nothing to do with the Maccabees despite the name, and the plot is thoroughly improbable. What it preserves is real: the anxiety of a diaspora community whose safety depended on a king's mood.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Who receives this book
In Orthodox Bibles; not in the Catholic canon; among the Apocrypha elsewhere.
No one from this book has a write-up yet. The hall is still filling.
A quiz for 3 Maccabees is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.