"O woman, who alone gave birth to such complete devotion!" Some remarks on the materfamilias and other women of 1-4 Maccabees

Abstract

The four books of the Maccabees narrate an understated account of the performativity of the women who, along with their husbands, faced increasing threats with the rise of Hellenism. This article examines the role and impact of women in these writings, focusing respectively on the four books of the Maccabees. Much attention is given to the function of the materfamilias. In 1 Maccabees, the image of Jerusalem as the typos for the suffering mother is presented, with the purity of her body, the temple, violated and restored by the Maccabees. The images of the suffering mothers in 2 and 3 Maccabees are examined, which provides a Diaspora perspective on the problem of Hellenization. Finally, the interpretation of the martyr-mother of 2 Maccabees 7 in 4 Maccabees is discussed, followed by a synthesis of the results which concludes the study.