Abstract
The martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 have been explored in various ways. In their commentaries on 2 Maccabees, Jan Willem van Henten and Daniel Schwartz proposed that the deaths of the martyrs should be seen as human sacrifices to please the deity. This idea has either been challenged or supported by scholars. This article supported the idea of human sacrifice, and applied the view of Richard DeMaris of the martyr’s deaths as exit rite to the above-mentioned texts. In essence this amounts to ritual critique. The results were surprising, and proved the model of DeMaris as a useful tool to examine rituals. The conclusion was reached that 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 is indeed an exit rite.
Highlights
Ritual critique has seen a dynamic development over the past ten years in the study of both the Old Testament and New Testament
On the external level the agencies or agents are emissary, substitute, vicarious and surrogate, while the effects are apotropaic, deflection, diversion and appeasement; this in turn leads to devotio as the deity is served in the correct manner
Especially the curative exit rite as proposed by Richard DeMaris, has proved to be a worthwhile way to review the significance of the martyrs of 2 Maccabees 6 and 7
Summary
Schwartz (2008), in his commentary on 2 Maccabees, follows Van Henten’s approach of ten years earlier Both of these scholars argue quite convincingly from various texts in the Old Testament that the idea of sacrificial atonement was not unusual to Judaism and that it had a firm grounding in Greek culture. Many ritual similarities between the martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 and the curative exit rite of Jesus of Nazareth can be indicated Both stem from the ritual world of the ancient Mediterranean, both are carried out to rescue communities from threatening situations, and both sacrifices are presented to a deity with the desire to rectify a situation that has gone wrong in the devotion to the deity. It would be a worthwhile experiment to apply a model of ritual critique to the death of the martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 in order to establish if there might be any links
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