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Second Book of Maccabees 7

SECOND BOOK OF MACCABEES 7: EXPLANATORY NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; CM: Cursor mundi; CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; DBTEL: A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, ed. Jeffrey; HS: Peter Comestor, Historia Scholastica, cited by book and chapter, followed by Patrologia Latina column in parentheses; K: Kalén-Ohlander edition; MED: Middle English Dictionary; NOAB: New Oxford Annotated Bible; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; OFP: Old French Paraphrase, British Library, MS Egerton 2710, cited by folio and column; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases; York: York Plays, ed. Beadle. For other abbreviations, see Textual Notes.

It is an open question whether the poet paraphrases so little of the books of Maccabees because he lacks the sources to do otherwise (that is, he had only fragments of the books to work with), or because he deliberately chooses to highlight these particular passages. The cohesive specificity of the stories he provides — the most best-known martyrdoms of the Old Testament and the death of the pagan emperor to blame for them — argues for the latter position, though it does not necessitate it. It is also worth observing the length he devotes to these subjects despite their brevity in the Bible. On some of the many implications of these Jewish stories for the poet’s presumably Christian audience, see the explanatory notes (especially that to lines 17761–62), below.

17750 in forme Faders is fayre to rede. The stories of the “Maccabean martyrs” — the martyrdom of the Jewish mother and her seven sons, told here, and that of the priest Eleazar, told subsequently — are “so powerful . . . that they served the church fathers as a paradigm for Christian martyrdom” (Patterson, “‘Living Witnesses,’” p. 522, who cites Frend, Martyrdom, pp. 22–57); they thus appear, for example, in the writings of John Chrysostom, Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine. For a thorough discussion of the medieval reception and propagation of these stories, see Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, “Maccabean Martyrs.”

17754 swylk marters may make uus mede. It is unclear whether the Paraphrase-poet here reinforces the principles of devotional reading or the doctrine of the intercession of saints — whether it is reading about the martyrs that will do his audience good or whether it is the martyrs themselves, called upon to intercede on the reader’s behalf.

17761–62 we sall sum marters nevyn / that wroyght with Moyses wyll all way. The poet’s statement that the Maccabean martyrs were Jews all way, though easily passed over, is nonetheless loaded with implications. Their story had captivated Christians from an early date (see note to line 17750), causing the martyrs to shift, as Joslyn-Siemiatkoski puts it, “from being liminal figures in late antiquity, whose Christian authenticity had to be proven, to being standard elements of the medieval Christian narrative of biblical and salvation history” (“Maccabean Martyrs,” p. 10). Indeed, they became central enough to the life of the Church that they were eventually included in the calendar of the saints, with a feast day alongside the Christian martyrs. The fact of their Jewish faith, however, was a lingering concern. Bernard of Clairvaux, for instance, dwells at some length on why, “alone of all the righteous men of the old Law,” these particular Jewish martyrs are so honored, especially given that, as Jews, Christian doctrine dictated that they were denied heavenly reward upon the instant of their martyrdom (Evans, Bernard, p. 73). Bernard, among others, ultimately argues that they were “Christian in spirit from a carnal Israel,” a typological, supersessionist understanding of their tale that ultimately led Christian exegetes, Comestor among them, to argue “that the fullest meaning of their martyrdom is found by the light of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Thus the value of dying for the Law of Moses is superseded by the value of dying for the Gospel. In this way, Christian historical exegesis of 2 Maccabees 7 presents the Church as the true Israel in contrast to contemporary Judaism” (Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, “Maccabean Martyrs,” pp. 10–11). For more on the Christian cult of the Maccabean martyrs, see also Rouwhorst, “Cult.”

17763–64 Of aght then is yt ordand evyn / in Holy Chyrch to syng and say. Until the twentieth-century suppression of the feast, the Maccabean martyrs were celebrated on the Roman Catholic calendar of the saints (1 August). The poet’s reference to their number as eight is technically accurate, insofar as he refers now specifically to the martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother in 2 Maccabees 7, though many Christian writings omit the mother in their reckoning, referring to them collectively as the “Seven Maccabees.” For many exegetes, this was particularly fitting given the fact that, as Caxton writes in his translation of Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, “the church maketh solemnities of the Maccabees, howbeit that they descended into hell” (4.153). Among the other reasons Caxton provides to explain this discrepancy, he observes their association with “the representation of the mystery,” because “the number of seven is universal and general.” Thus, “in these seven is done reverence to them all. For as it is said by the number of seven is assigned an university.”

17801–03 How ye were bred in my body . . . God fosterd yow thore. The mother’s speech, which, like much in this discursive opening, has no biblical counterpart, here touches on a late medieval outgrowth of the Christian fascination with the Maccabean martyrs: “a typological connection between the mother who witnesses the death of her sons and the Virgin Mary, who keeps watch at the foot of the cross at the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ” (Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, “Maccabean Martyrs,” p. 11).

17804 in forme fre. The mother perhaps references the tradition that mankind is formed in God’s “noble” image (Genesis 1:26).

17888 with Hym to wun and wynly wake. While bodily resurrection is an evolving concept in the history of Judaism (see, too, the note to line 14501), it is firmly stated in the biblical passage here paraphrased (2 Maccabees 7:9), a fact that did not go unnoticed by Christian exegetes.

18240 thei have ther hame in Hevyn. The Paraphrase here stands against traditional exegetical understandings of the martyrs, which often place them, despite their sacrifices, in (at best) limbo. See the notes to lines 17761–62 and 17763–64, above.

18245–46 in ther blud thei were baptyst, / als Innocentes were sythyn seyn. The Paraphrase-poet, as is the case with many Christian exegetes, associates the dead children with the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem said in Matthew 2:16–18 to have been massacred by Herod the Great in his effort to kill the infant Jesus. Aside from the more ready and graphic meaning of baptism by blood, the poet’s focus on their blood in connection to the Innocents might have additional meaning: Christian martyrs were often characterized by the manner of their deaths. Regarding the Christmas feasts of the martyrs — St. Stephen, St. John of Patmos, and the Holy Innocents, whose feast days immediately follow the Nativity — Jacobus de Voragine summed up the exegetical position by observing that Stephen was a martyr by will and by blood (that is, he willingly shed his blood for Christ), John by will alone (he devoted his life to Christ, but died a natural death), and the Innocents by blood alone (though they did not know it, they shed their blood for Christ).