Fixing the Name, Shaping the Saint: The Mother of the Maccabees in Jewish and Christian Reception
Fixing the Name, Shaping the Saint: The Mother of the Maccabees in Jewish and Christian Reception

Summary/Abstract: The Mother of the Seven Maccabean Martyrs offers a striking case of interreligious transformation in Late Antiquity. Anonymous in 2 Maccabees 7 and philosophically expanded in 4 Maccabees, she became a powerful symbolic figure in both Jewish and Christian traditions. This paper traces her reception from deliberate anonymity in Greek patristic texts – where she functions typologically as martyr, image of the Church, and Marian prefiguration – to the Syriac tradition, where she acquires the name Shamuni and a fully articulated martyrdom. Byzantine liturgy and art later stabilize the name Salomone, reflecting processes of saintly individualization and canonization. Meanwhile, Jewish adaptations in Midrash Lamentations Rabbah and b. Gittin reframe her story within post-Temple discourse, even renaming her Miriam in a context shaped by Marian devotion. Her evolving name and role reveal a dynamic field of entangled Jewish-Christian traditions in which martyrdom, motherhood, and identity are continuously renegotiated.

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