Epilepsy as Punishment from God: A Disability Reading of 2 and 3 Maccabees

A surprising consensus among scholars working on 3 Maccabees is that the story of Philopator’s supernatural intervention appears strikingly similar to an epileptic seizure. Likewise, the same observations have been made by others about Heliodorus’s episode in 2 Maccabees. Surprisingly, none of these scholars appear to be self-aware that this is a consensus, nor do any of them attempt to investigate either ancient perceptions of the medical phenomenon or the impact that the disease could have on the meaning of the stories. It is simply noted in passing and then promptly forgotten or ignored. Connecting the depictions of Philopator and Heliodorus to ancient descriptions of epilepsy, this paper attempts to flesh out an approach to the stories that focuses on interrogating the depictions of epilepsy as a divine punishment. This study then provides a way to better understand what some in early Judaism believed about the people with epilepsy living within their communities. It will be argued that the epileptic characterisation of both leader’s divine punishments serves to underscore and reinforce notions within the community that isolate and ostracise people with epilepsy in and around the early Jewish community.