15 Jan 19
“...he tore out his [own] entrails
and taking them in both hands
flung them down on the crowd...”
--2 Maccabees 14:46
This seems to me the strangest story in all of
scripture. Unwilling to fall into the
hands of his enemies, a man attempts to throw himself upon his sword and misses
the mark (cf
14:37-46). Next, bleeding,
but still alive, he rushes to the top of a high tower which the enemies have surrounded.
From there our hero throws himself off –thinking to land on his enemies and
possibly do them some harm. However,
they simply step aside and let him hit the ground. Then, blood “spurting in all directions,” and
still not dead yet, he gets up and still has the strength and
intestinal fortitude to run to the top of some rocks where he –as we read
above—tears out his own entrails and flings them down on his would-be killers[1]. Certainly, this is at least one of the oddest
story in the Bible[2]. It reads like a mash-up of a John Carpenter
movie, a Greek tragedy and a Monty Python sketch. But why? What is the author trying to tell us
with this decidedly gruesome and strangely comical death scene[3]?
So much of Maccabees (1 & 2)
dwells on the suppression of the Jews, their rebellion and retaliation. Together these two books tell the story of Israel,
returned from exile, and ruled by an oppressive foreign power. And much of the narrative is taken up by
political machinations and military conflicts. But there are moments that
transcend any normal historical or narrative constraints, and this is
definitely one of them.
The man in question is named
Razis. He shows up at 2 Maccabees 14:37
and is dead 10 verses later. But what a
death! And because it is described in
such a graphic and gruesome manner, we are left to ask: why? What was the author’s intention; both the
human author and the Divine?
And so I have been contemplating this
passage and –like some kind of ancient
Mariner—stopping everyone I know and asking them: Have you read 2 Maccabees? Chapter 14? About the guy
who tries to kill himself multiple times and finally flings his guts at people?
And most of my listeners look at me as
if I am crazy. That can’t be in the
Bible!
But it is.
And I am still wondering what it
means? What it tells me? About Razis? About the Maccabees? Ancient Israel? About
life? And about God?
One thing I keep returning to is that
story from 1st Maccabees about the people in the desert who submitto their death, rather than defend themselves.
Rather than fight back or even build a barricade, they choose to let
heaven and earth bear witness to their innocence. That is the first vision of martyrdom we get
in this story. And here near the end of 2nd
Maccabees we get our final vision of martyrdom.
In both cases the victims accept their role willingly. In the case of Razis, he even inflicts it
upon himself. So far, so good... but still, I wonder: why
such a brutal depiction of self-destructive behavior? And why placed at the end of these two
volumes about the heroic Maccabees and their courageous defense of the Temple?
And that makes my literary mind
wonder whether there is something lurking beneath the surface of this grizzly
tale. Something profound. Perhaps a
comment on all the battles and destruction that have come before it. Is it possible that the story of Razis (whether
based on an actual event or not) is an allegory of what happens to us when our
society, our community, our lives, sink into a state of constant war; constant attack
and retaliation? It seems to me a horrific vision of the dehumanizing nature of
living in a state of constant violence, fear and conflict. Think about that
vision of a man bent on his own destruction, bent on destroying himself before
someone else can, with such an urgency that he tries to kill himself, fails,
tries again, fails again and finally –his blood spraying out, he flings tears
out his own entrails and flings them at the world. That is a nightmare vision of life in an “occupied”
land. Razis is a good man, but the wicked
Nicanor sends 500 men to arrest and execute him. He has no power to defend himself or defeat
these overwhelming forces, so he asserts his own autonomy through his effort to
destroy himself before they can arrest him. And then there is that final vision
of his flesh and blood spraying out onto his enemies; what does that explosion
of flesh and blood call to mind but the horror of a suicide bombing. The killer feels so helpless and so desperate
that they feel no choice. What else can they do?
Here in these two bookends, the non-violent
martyrs of 1 Maccabees 2 and the self-destructive desperation of a good man in
2 Maccabees 14, we are presented with two alternatives to the horror of violence
and hatred. Powerless in the face of
insurmountable odds, one chooses non-violence and places themselves in the hands
of God. They will let Heaven and earth bear witness to their innocence. They will not choose evil even if it means death. The other succumbs to a kind of desperation
that drives him mad with rage and helplessness. The second makes of himself something
monstrous, a thing in search of its own destruction –as if hungering for death.
In this day and age when so many of
us feel powerless and unheard, who will we become?
[1]
All the while asking God to give his entrails back to him one day; a possible
nod toward bodily resurrection.
[2] Of
course, 1-2 Maccabees are not in everyone’s scripture. In Protestant Bibles, if
they are present at all, they are
included with the apocryphal books.
In the Roman Catholic Bible they are with the historical books and come
right after Esther, and just before the Wisdom books.
[3] Before
I get too far, let me say something about 1 & 2 Maccabees. The main concern
of these two books is Israel’s post exile struggles against an oppressive Greek
rule (Antiochus IV Epiphanes). So much
of what we get in both of them is accounts of battles and for the most part
victories as the good guys defend Israel and the Temple, and the bad guys make
deals with their oppressors. However,
they are not (as might be expected) two volumes of one continuous story. Part I
covers the period of 175-134 BCE and in it we meet Judas Maccabeus (the Hammer)
who, in defense of the Temple, leads a revolt and defends Israel until he is
killed; then his brother Jonathan becomes the defender of Israel and after a
few chapters he dies, and finally we see their younger brother Simon taking
charge; all of them fighting to defend their faith, their traditions, and the
Temple. While, 2 Maccabees covers a much shorter period of time, focusing
mainly on Judas (180-161 BCE). However, through its more focused view we get to
see some very interesting characters who suffer very violent martyrdoms.
