REVIEWS AND NOTICES 101

Errors mar the pages. Some are typographical errors that can mislead, such as
31 CE for Gaius’s demand for veneration, rather than 41. Others may have
ideological ramifications, as in the claim that Ignatius advocates apostolic
succession (67) or the dubious assertion that Maximilla and Priscilla left their
husbands to become prophets. The most serious errors occur in her presentation
of Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. He was not, so far as is known, a member of the
emperor Marcus’s circle. The assertion that Met. 9.14 is anti-Christian polemic
is unsubstantiated. The ground of Pagels’s case thus vanishes. In addition, the
description of Lucius’s initiation in Metamorphoses 11 contains important
misstatements.
One of Athanasius’s failures was the securing of a firm place for Revelation
in the Greek bible. Although generally accepted in the West, the Apocalypse
was rejected by various Eastern theologians for centuries and is absent from
many manuscripts. Revelation did not gain a place in the Western Sunday
lectionary until the reforms associated with Vatican II. A survey of the vast
range of religious and spiritual literature read today among Christians alone
suggests that Pagels’s dream has been fulfilled. Official approval is relatively
unimportant just now. (Moreover, to canonize everything is to canonize
nothing.) Pagels’s latest work is an appealing book with a message that is not
entirely clear.
— Richard I. Pervo

2 Maccabees: A Critical Commentary٠ By Robert Doran. Edited by Harold w.

Attridge. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012. xxvi + 359 pages. $65.

The depiction in 2 Maccabees of the formation of a Jewish religious identity

establishes its importance. This book is no less central to an understanding of
Christian origins. Here appears a portrait of the suffering righteous, the major
model for the depiction of Jesus’s passion. Related to that portrait is a theology
of martyrdom, with resurrection as proper recompense for the victims. This
product of Hellenistic Judaism further served as a prototype for early Christian
narrative. Those who wish to understand the Gospels and Acts will do well to
engage 2 Maccabees.
That engagement is considerably enhanced by this learned and judicious
commentary. 2 Maccabees is more of a battleground for establishing one’s view
ofjudean history than a transparent source of that history. Robert Doran argues
ably for his views while noting the alternatives‫ ؟‬when he is uncertain, as in date
and place of composition (14-17), he sets out the evidence and hypotheses.
102 SEWANEE THEOLOGICAL REVIEW

Other strengths include a high level of linguistic competence. The Greek of

2 Maccabees is ornate and occasionally vexatious. Doran’s work will aid readers
unfamiliar with florid rhetorical prose while pointing out the various figures
(over)employed by the author. He also makes fruitful use of Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Syriac.
Background materials are introduced with skill. Doran is equally comfortable
with Greek municipal inscriptions and the Dead Sea Scrolls. A concise
discussion of market regulation (80) ranges from Plato to Greek papyri and the
Temple Scroll He offers essential information about gymnasia (10102).
Beginners can learn much from this book (although it is not quite so scrupulous
about translating foreign languages as some volumes in the Hermeneia series).
Doran wisely engages substantial units of the text, avoiding the atomizing
tendency endemic to commentaries.
The history of interpretation and subsequent influence hold no apparent
attraction for Doran. Although the story ofHeliodorus (ch. 3) is an important
text for understanding Acts 9:19 (the “conversion” of Paul), Doran does not
allude to the latter. According to 2:23 the text is a one^volume abridgment of
Jason of Cyrene’s five-book history. Doran seems to assume that readers are
familiar with the issue. Even casual readers will doubt that the aforementioned
chapter three abbreviates a much longer account or that the martyrdom stories
in 6:18-7:42 look like summaries. Doran does not refer to studies of the subject
like that of Ilona opelt (“Epitome,” in Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum
5:944'73). The question relates to genre‫ ؛‬if the author abbreviated a military-
political narrative to allow the epiphanies and martyrdoms to stand out and thus
highlight his theology, then form merits consideration. Doran restricts the
discussion to conventional historiography, not even mentioning Lawrence
Wills’s case for viewing 2 Maccabees as historical novel (Thejewish Novel in the
Ancient World [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995], 193-201). Yet Doran
does note close parallels to Esther and 3 Maccabees (14, etc.). Further, 232‫؛‬24‫׳‬
and 15:38-39 bracket 2 Maccabees under the rubric of “profit with delight,”
a combination touted by poets and novelists but given reviews ranging from
lukewarm to hostile by historians. With that rubric the author couples imagery
from drinking parties—no enhancement to a sober reception of his condensed
edification. Doran might have paid a bit more attention to instructive enter-
tainment and a drop less to Polybius, but he has produced a commentary that
will serve a generation, bringing profit to its readers and delight to the hearts
of philologists.
Richard 1. Pervo
 ATLV

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