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]
^ abPeterson 2006, p. 2.
^ abcdefMinov 2019, p. 122.
^Minov 2019, p. 122, and Peterson 2006, p. 2, but Witakowski 1994, p. 161, calls it On the Maccabees.
^ abBensly & Barnes 1895, pp. xxiv–xxv.
^ abcdPeterson 2006, p. 3.
^ abWitakowski 1994, pp. 161–162.
^Peterson 2006, pp. 5–6.
^Bensly & Barnes 1895, pp. 125–154 (Syriac) and xlviii–lxxii (English).
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