TY  - CHAP
A1  - Schmitz, Barbara
T1  - King and God : conceptions of rule and God in 3 Maccabees
T2  - Figures who shape scriptures, scriptures that shape figures
N2  - In 3 Maccabees, kingship as a form of rule is addressed on two levels: On the political level the question about a good king is addressed against the background of Hellenistic understandings of kingship, using the example of Ptolemy IV Philopator. This king is portrayed at the beginning of 3 Maccabees as a successful, positive, Hellenistic ruler, but one whose good rule goes off the rails. This analysis of the ideal of Hellenistic rule (cf. 3 Macc. 3:12-29; 6:24-28; 7:1-9) is then taken to a theological level: the God of Israel is portrayed as the true good king, the Soter who saves his people in their time of greatest trial (6:29, 32; 7:16). By these means the many divine epithets that are a striking feature of 3 Maccabees are incorporated into the narrative (cf. 2:2-3). Thereby 3 Maccabees not only thematises the conflict with a Hellenistic king who exploits his power in diverse ways but also focuses in a concentrated way the notion of a good (Hellenistic) king into the notion of God as king and ruler.
KW  - Maccabees
KW  - Hellenistic kingship
KW  - Xenophon
KW  - Cyropaidia
KW  - Isocrates
KW  - God in 3 Macc
Y1  - 2018
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/20514
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-205149
ER  -