Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

> I'm pretty sure Mattathias didn't exist. The first ha-Shm`wn was the father
> of John Hyrcanus. You'll note the constrast between 2Macc and 1Macc on this
> subject. 2Macc doesn't know anything about Mattathias and has Judas and
> friends leaving Jerusalem, but 1Macc has converted that into an ancestor,
> Mattathias, and sons leaving Jerusalem. In 2Macc Judas has different
> brothers from 1Macc.

Rather circumstantial reasoning and quite unnecessarily so. You could argue 
the other way
around, too -- that Mattathias left Jerusalem, but this was later converted 
to Judas and
friends. Therefore, Judas and friends didn't actually exist.

The differences in the narratives do not negate the existence of Mattathias 
or any of his
sons and descendants.

Best regards,
George Athas
 Dept of Semitic Studies,
 University of Sydney
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