Catholic Commentary
Judas Avenges the Massacres at Joppa and Jamnia
3Men of Joppa perpetrated this great impiety: they invited the Jews who lived among them to go with their wives and children into the boats which they had provided, as though they had no ill will toward them.4When the Jews, relying on the public vote of the city, accepted the invitation, as men desiring to live in peace and suspecting nothing, they took them out to sea and drowned not less than two hundred of them.5When Judas heard of the cruelty done to his fellow-countrymen, giving command to the men that were with him6and calling upon God the righteous Judge, he came against the murderers of his kindred, and set the harbor on fire at night, burned the boats, and put to the sword those who had fled there.7But when the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come again to root out the whole community of the men of Joppa.8But learning that the men of Jamnia intended to do the same thing to the Jews who lived among them,9he attacked the Jamnites at night, and set fire to the harbor together with the fleet, so that the glare of the light was seen at Jerusalem, two hundred forty furlongs distant.
2 Maccabees 12:3–9 recounts how the men of Joppa treacherously drowned over two hundred Jews whom they had invited aboard boats, then describes Judas Maccabeus's retaliatory strike at their harbor and his preemptive action against Jamnia to prevent a similar massacre. The narrative frames these events as divine justice administered through a righteous military commander invoking God as judge.
When institutional betrayal drowns the innocent, righteous anger becomes an instrument of justice—not revenge—when it first calls upon God as Judge.
Commentary
2 Maccabees 12:3 — The Treachery at Joppa The passage opens with a studied contrast between apparent goodwill and calculated murder. The men of Joppa extend what looks like a civic invitation — boats, presumably for a journey or celebration — to their Jewish neighbors "with their wives and children." The detail of families underscores the totality of the deception: this is not an ambush of soldiers but the annihilation of an entire community. The word "impiety" (Greek: asebeian) is theologically loaded; the author frames the crime not merely as political violence but as an offense against the divine moral order. The violation of xenia — the sacred law of hospitality — would have struck both Jewish and Hellenistic readers as deeply scandalous.
2 Maccabees 12:4 — The Drowning of Two Hundred The Jews accept the invitation "relying on the public vote of the city" — that is, on a formal civic resolution, a legal guarantee of safe passage. Their trust is explicitly described as the trust of "men desiring to live in peace and suspecting nothing." The author is careful to establish their innocence and the legal, almost constitutional, character of Joppa's betrayal. The number — "not less than two hundred" — is given with the precision of testimony, suggesting the author draws on a reliable source or tradition. Drowning carries a particular horror in the Jewish imagination; it evokes the fate of Pharaoh's armies in the Red Sea (Exodus 14), but here inverted: it is the innocent who are cast into the deep.
Verses 5–6 — Judas Invokes God the Righteous Judge The narrative pivot is Judas's prayer. Before any military action, he "calls upon God the righteous Judge" (ton dikaion kriten). This is not a battle cry but a theological act — a formal invocation that places his coming violence within the framework of divine justice rather than human revenge. The title "righteous Judge" (iudex iustus) is significant; it will echo through Christian liturgical tradition, appearing in St. Paul (2 Tim 4:8) and the Dies Irae. Judas does not act as a vigilante but as an agent petitioning the heavenly tribunal to act through him. He then attacks at night — a detail that emphasizes strategic cunning — burning the boats and killing those who had fled to the harbor for safety. The harbor itself, instrument of the crime, becomes the site of judgment.
2 Maccabees 12:7 — Tactical Restraint That Judas withdraws when the town gates are shut is narratively important. This is not a berserker rampage; he is a disciplined commander who strikes surgically at the guilty and defers the fuller reckoning. The phrase "intending to come again to root out the whole community" indicates that Judas views the entire civic body of Joppa as complicit in the massacre — a corporate guilt that flows from the public vote of verse 4.
Verses 8–9 — Preemptive Justice at Jamnia Intelligence about Jamnia's intentions introduces the concept of preemptive action in defense of the innocent — a theme with significant later development in Catholic just-war tradition. Judas does not wait for a second massacre; he strikes at night, again burning the harbor and fleet. The vivid closing detail — the glare visible from Jerusalem, 240 furlongs (roughly 30 miles) away — is more than dramatic color. It signals divine vindication made manifest, a beacon visible to the holy city itself. The light in the darkness resonates with the prophetic tradition in which divine justice illuminates the night.
Catholic Commentary
From a Catholic perspective, this passage raises and illuminates several interconnected doctrines.
Just War and Legitimate Defense. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require… that all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective" (CCC 2309). Judas's action fits this template: the killing of innocents has already occurred, the perpetrators remain armed and in place, and a second atrocity is being planned. His conduct — targeted, proportionate to the specific criminal act, preceded by invocation of divine justice — is a paradigmatic instance of what later Catholic theology would call bellum iustum. Augustine (Contra Faustum 22.74) argued that war waged under divine authorization for the protection of the innocent is not a violation of the commandment against killing, and Judas's explicit appeal to God as judge before striking reflects exactly this theological framing.
Corporate and Social Sin. The civic vote of Joppa that authorized the massacre introduces the concept of social or structural sin, treated extensively in Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (John Paul II, 1984, §16). The author of 2 Maccabees holds the entire community accountable for what was a public, legally sanctioned act. This prefigures Catholic social teaching's insistence that communities, not only individuals, bear moral responsibility.
God as Righteous Judge. St. Ambrose (De Officiis 1.27) and St. Thomas Aquinas (ST II-II, q.40) both treat the invocation of divine justice before combat as a mark of legitimate rather than merely passionate violence. The title iudex iustus applied to God in verse 6 anticipates the New Testament portrait of God as eschatological Judge (Rom 2:5–6; 2 Tim 4:8) and grounds Judas's act in the covenant framework of retributive and restorative justice.
The Deuterocanonical Value of 2 Maccabees. The Council of Trent (Session IV, 1546) definitively affirmed 2 Maccabees as canonical Scripture. Its inclusion provides the Church with a uniquely rich narrative theology of martyrdom, just warfare, resurrection, and intercessory prayer that the Protestant canon, having excluded it, lacks access to as Scripture.
For Today
The treachery at Joppa confronts the contemporary Catholic with a discomforting question: what is the proper response when institutional structures — a "public vote," a legal process, an official invitation — are weaponized to destroy the innocent? In an age when injustice is often laundered through bureaucratic legitimacy, Judas's insistence on naming the act for what it is (asebeian — impiety, not merely "policy") and appealing directly to God as judge is bracing.
For Catholics engaged in public life, this passage argues against a passive quietism that mistakes civil compliance for moral responsibility. The Catechism is explicit: "Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace" (CCC 2310).
Practically, the passage also models the right ordering of action: Judas prays first, naming God as Judge before he draws a sword. For any Catholic facing conflict — whether in defense of the vulnerable, in legal advocacy, or in institutional resistance to injustice — the sequence matters: theological clarity and prayerful discernment must precede action, lest righteous anger slide into mere revenge.
Cross-References