The Deaths of Antiochus IV

The first two books of Maccabees and Flavius Josephus dedicate several pages to King Antiochus Epiphanes and they constitute the sources for a reconstruction of the history of the relationships between Antiochus and the Jews, but they are marked by a pronounced ideological perspective. The death of the king is recounted in three different ways in the two books of Maccabees. Those who are intent on historical reconstruction limit themselves to considering as worthy of trust only the elements shared by all three accounts. Those who are interested in the message examine, rather, the differences among these texts that claim to report the same event. In this paper the three accounts are first compared with extra-biblical sources. The identification of a conventional model to account for the king’s death raises a question: What is the story’s function in the overall narrative? The death of Antiochus has a strategic placement in the narrative. The literary and ideological aspect of the story emerges from this analysis. Finally, it is emphasized that even modern interpretations are conditioned by ideology.