6 Maccabees, or the Sixth Book of Maccabees,[1] is an anonymous Classical Syriac narrative poem about the martyrdom of Eleazar and the woman with seven sons under Antiochus IV as described in the prose Greek works 2 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees.[2] 6 Maccabees is a conventional title based on the theory that it is an Old Testament pseudepigraphal work of Jewish origin.[3]

6 Maccabees was originally written in Syriac and only a Syriac text is known, preserved in at least three manuscripts.[2] The whereabouts of only one of these is currently known: Bodleian, Or. 624 (Syr. 134), an 18th- or 19th-century copy in Nestorian script from the Christian community of Malabar in India.[4] The manuscript tradition and the final form of the text are certainly Christian.[5] The work itself may be of a very late date. Sebastian Brock proposed the 12th or 13th century.[2] Sigrid Peterson, on the other hand, argues that the earliest, unembellished form of the text must be earlier than 4 Maccabees (1st–2nd century).[5] The text as we have it, however, makes reference to 4 Maccabees when it says that Josephus wrote the martyrs' history, since 4 Maccabees was commonly if erroneously attributed to Josephus.[6]

6 Maccabees contains 678 lines of verse.[1] Its use of rhyme is indicative of a medieval, as opposed to ancient, origin. Its dodecasyllabic metre is strongly associated with Jacob of Serugh (died 521).[2] The genre of the piece, mēmrē, is that of a homily in narrative verse,[5] with characteristics of a dramatic dialogue and perhaps even of Jewish piyyutim.[7] Much of it consists of the speeches given by the woman, Martha Shamoni (Marty Shmuni), before the execution of each of her sons.[4] The names of the sons in 6 Maccabees are Gadday, Maqqbay, Tarsay, Hebron, Hebson, Bakkos and Yonadab, which are the names known in both the East and West Syriac traditions.[6]

The content of 6 Maccabees is a mix of Jewish and Christian. There is an emphasis on keeping the Jewish law,[5] but also references to Jesus, Paul and Stephen, to the intercession of saints and to the construction of churches commemorating the Maccabean martyrs.[2] Although forceful arguments have been made for a Jewish original in Syriac, there is no clear evidence of the use of that literary language among Jews.[2]

The Syriac text with an English translation was published by Robert Lubbock Bensly in 1895.[8] A revised translation can be found in Peterson's dissertation.[9]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Peterson 2006, p. 2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Minov 2019, p. 122.
  3. ↑ Minov 2019, p. 122, and Peterson 2006, p. 2, but Witakowski 1994, p. 161, calls it On the Maccabees.
  4. 1 2 Bensly & Barnes 1895, pp. xxiv–xxv.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Peterson 2006, p. 3.
  6. 1 2 Witakowski 1994, pp. 161–162.
  7. ↑ Peterson 2006, pp. 5–6.
  8. ↑ Bensly & Barnes 1895, pp. 125–154 (Syriac) and xlviii–lxxii (English).
  9. ↑ Peterson 2006.

References

  • Bensly, R. L.; Barnes, W. E., eds. (1895). The Fourth Book of Maccabees and Kindred Documents in Syriac. Cambridge University Press.
  • Minov, Sergey (2019). "Syriac". In Alexander Kulik; Gabriele Boccaccini; Lorenzo DiTommaso; David Hamidovic; Michael Stone (eds.). A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission. Oxford University Press. pp. 95–138.
  • Peterson, Sigrid (2006). Martha Shamoni: A Jewish Syriac Rhymed Liturgical Poem about the Maccabean Martyrdoms (Sixth Maccabees) (PhD dissertation). University of Pennsylvania. ProQuest 3267127
  • Witakowski, Witold (1994). "Mart(y) Shmuni, the Mother of the Maccabean Martyrs, in Syriac Tradition". In R. Lavenant (ed.). VI Symposium Syriacum 1992: University of Cambridge, Faculty of Divinity, 30 August – 2 September 1992. PIOS. pp. 153–168.
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