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LYSIMACHUS

(Gk. Lysímachos)

1. One of the generals of Alexander the Great (the Diadochi: Ptolemy Lagus, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Antigonus Monophthalmus). He gained control of Phrygia and the Hellespont after the death of Alexander (cf. Josephus Ant. 12.1.1). The generals are symbolized by wings, heads, horns, and winds at Dan. 7:6; 8:8, 22; 11:4.

2. A brother both of Simon the administrator of the temple and of Menelaus, the first non-Zadokite high priest appointed by the Tobiads. Menelaus appointed Lysimachus as deputy high priest during his absence from Jerusalem ca. 171 b.c.e. (2 Macc. 4:29). In collusion with Menelaus, he gradually pilfered the temple treasury. When the people of Jerusalem learned of this they became riotous, and Lysimachus sent 300 troops against them. The people routed the troops and killed Lysimachus (2 Macc. 4:39-42).

3. A son of Ptolemy of Jerusalem, known only from the colophon (unique to all other biblical manuscript traditions) found on some manuscripts of the Greek Esther (Add. Esth. F 11:1). He translated Esther into Greek sometime before 114-77 b.c.e. (depending upon the Alexander and Cleopatra to which the colophon refers), when it was taken to Alexandria by the priest Dositheus and his son Ptolemy as a “festal letter for Purim.” His translation contains additions to Esther such as an interpreted dream and prayers (which also make direct reference to God), a greater distinction between Jews and Gentiles, reference to Haman as a “Macedonian,” and the downplaying of the marriage of Esther to a non-Jewish king.

4. The author of an anti-Semitic history, who Josephus claimed wrote that the Jews were descendants of lepers and other such people who were expelled from Egypt, and that they were led by Moses to Judea where they called their city Hierosyla (“temple robbery”) because they robbed temples, but later changed it to Hierosolyma to avoid disgrace (Ag. Ap. 1.34-35).

Bibliography. M. Goodman, “Jewish Literature Composed in Greek,” in E. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 b.c.–a.d. 135), rev. ed., 3/1 (Edinburgh, 1986), 505-6, 600-1; F. F. Bruce, “Tacitus on Jewish History,” JSS 29 (1984): 33-44.

R. Glenn Wooden

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LYSIMACHUS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)