ספר חשמונאים ג' כמקור היסטורי מתקופת אוגוסטוס

The Third Book of the Maccabees is not an historical source true to the incidents recorded therein, but may be regarded as an important source for the study of the period in which it was composed. Chapter I. In III Macc. one may distinguish between the following parts: 1) Historical sources from the period of Ptolemaios IV Philopator (I, 1-7 as well as a short passage II, 28-29 if one were to cancel the mention of Jews); 2) the legend of the visit of Ptolemaios Philopator to Jerusalem (I, 8–II, 24); 3) the story of the persecution of the Jews in Egypt in the days of Ptolemaios VIII Euergetes II (II, 25 until the end). The author included the latter story among the stories about Philopator, together with supplements of his own (documents and prayers). The compilation of this heterogeneous material was not always successful, hence for the numerous contradictions in the book. One of the most outstanding of such contradictions is that between the story of the census of the Jews and the story of their annihilation. The motif of annihilation was found by the author in his original sources while the motif of the census is an interpolation of his own. Chapter II. The census mentioned four times in the book allows us to fix the time of composition. The author employs the term "laographia" which was current in Egypt at the end of the Ptolemaic period in the sense of "census of the people" and in the Roman period in the sense of "poll-tax." From the context it is evident that the author has in mind not one of the numerous censuses in vogue under the Ptolemies but some extraordinary census which seriously infringed on the civic status of the Jews of Egypt (the author sees in the census a token of slavery). Such description is applicable to the census taken in the time of Augustus, which was intended to establish the number of payers of the poll-tax. As a result of the census the Jews were liable to lose their prestige in Greek society (citizens of Greek towns did not pay the poll-tax) and to be reduced to the rank of the common people who were bereft of all franchise. Hence for the author's bitter tone when speaking of the census. Chapter III. Although the author of III Macc. wrote the book in Greek, and under the influence and in the style, of Greek historiography, his Greek cultural back ground appears to be very poor. He regards the Jewish people and the Gentiles as two opposed worlds. The pursuit of the Jews after civic rights in Alexandria is regarded as nothing short of a betrayal of Jewish interests. Since according to his account the King was at the head of the persecution, the Jews could fall back on nothing else but trust in God. As opposed to the author of The Letter of Aristeas who seeks a compromise with the Greek world, the author of III Macc. professes nothing but hatred for the Gentiles. There can be no doubt that he is writing under the influence of the spirit of national revolt that arose at the time in Palestine. Although the book does not evince any definite plan of political action, the direction in which the author tried to lead his readers, namely, hatred for Rome and its leaders, is fully apparent.