Did the Septuagint’s Account of the Life of Abraham in Gen 12–25 Serve as a Model for the Description of Mattathias’ Achievements in 1 Macc 2:1–70?

Abstract

By recording Mattathias’ final eulogy (1 Macc 2:49–68), the author of 1 Maccabees presented the main character as encouraging his sons to imitate faithfully their ancestors (2:51). The fighting insurgents were to take this example for their behaviour in specific, difficult life situations. In this way, the successively mentioned fathers were to become both models and support in the struggle for the religious and political freedom of the Jews in the Seleucid period. It is very likely that the main character himself – the patriarch of the Maccabean family – was described as a faithful follower of Abraham, the first patriarch of all Israel. The article shows possible connections between these two figures on the basis of situational and literary associations, to answer the question whether this could have been the hagiographer’s intended intention or it is just an accidental similarity. Intertextual exegesis seems to be most suitable tool for studying this problem.

Keywords

• Septuagint
• First Book of the Maccabees
• biblical theology
• Abraham
• Mattathias
• intertextuality