Mauzzim

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MAUZZIM.—The Heb. phrase ’ĕlôah mâ’uzzîm (Dan_11:38) has been very variously understood. We need not discuss the different renderings that have been proposed, as there is now practical agreement to tr. [Note: translate or translation.] with RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘god of fortresses,’ and ‘fortresses’ for mâ’uzzim again in v. 38. It is not so easy to decide which god is intended. Antiochus Epiphanes is the king referred to. He had begun to build a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus in Antioch (Livy, xli. 20). Holtzmann (Guthe’s Bibelwbrterbuch, s.v.), and others, therefore, conclude that he is the god meant. But Antiochus also sent ‘an old man from Athens’ to ‘pollute the temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius’ (2Ma_6:2). Hence some have claimed consideration for the Olympian Jupiter. On the available data, no certain decision is possible.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Margin, Dan_11:38, "the god of forces," rather "of fortresses." The reference may be to the fact that Antiochus Epiphanes erected a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus at Antioch, and dedicated Jehovah's temple at Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius (Livy 41:20; 2Ma_6:2). Furst suggests Melkart the Hercules of Tyre, "the fortress" or "stronghold (ma'oz) of the sea." New Tyre was on a rock surrounded by the sea (Isa_23:4).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Mauzzim. (fortresses). The marginal note to the Authorized Version of Dan_11:38, "the god of forces," gives as the equivalent of the last word, "Mauzzim, or gods protectors, or munitions." There can be little doubt that mauzzim is to be taken in its literal sense of "fortresses," just as in Dan_11:19; Dan_11:39; "the god of fortresses" being then, the deity who presided over strongholds. The opinion of Gesenius is that "the god of fortresses" was Jupiter Capitolinus, for whom Antiochus built a temple at Antioch. Liv. xli. 20.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

moz?ēm, mots?ēm (מעזּים, mā‛uzzı̄m, ?places of strength,? ?fortress?): Many conjectures as to the meaning of this word and its context (Dan_11:38; compare Dan_11:19, Dan_11:39) have been made. The Septuagint (uncertainly), Theodotion, and the Geneva Version render it as a proper name. Theodoret adopted Theodotion's reading and explained it as ?Antichrist?! Grotius thought it a corruption of ?Ἄζιζος, Ázizos, the Phoenician war-god, while Calvin saw in it the ?god of wealth?! Perhaps the buzz of conjectures about the phrase is owing to the fact that in the first passage cited the word is preceded by 'Elōah, meaning God. The context of the passage seems clearly to make the words refer to Antiochus Epiphanes, and on this account some have thought that the god Mars - whose figure appears on a coin of Antiochus - is here referred to. All this is, however, little better than guesswork, and the Revised Version (British and American) translation, by setting the mind upon the general idea that the monarch referred to would trust in mere force, gives us, at any rate, the general sense, though it does not exclude the possibility of a reference to a particular deity. In Dan_11:19 and Dan_11:39, the word ?Mauzzim? is simply translated ?fortresses,? and the idea conveyed is that the mental obsession of fortresses is equivalent to deifying them. A conjecture of Layard's (Nineveh, II, 456, note), is, at any rate, worth referring to.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Mauzzim
מָעֻזַּיםSept. Μαωζείμ v. r. Μαωζεί, Vulg. Maozim). The marginal note to the A. V. of Dan_11:38, “the God of forces," gives, as the equivalent of the last word, “Mauzzim, or gods protectors, or munitions.” The Geneva version renders the Hebrew as a proper name both in Dan_11:38-39, where the word occurs again (marg. of A. V. “munitions”). In the Greek version of Theodotion, given above, it is treated as a proper name, as well as in the Vulgate. The Sept., as at present printed, is evidently corrupt in this passage, but ἰσχυρά (Dan_11:37) appears to represent the word in question. In Jerome's time the reading was different, and he gives “Deum fortissimum” for the Latin translation of it, and “Deum fortitudinum” for that of Aquila. He ridicules the interpretation of Porphyry, who, ignorant of Hebrew, understood by “the god of Mauzzim" the statue of Jupiter set up in Modin, the city of Mattathias and his sons, by the generals of Antiochs, who compelled the Jews to sacrifice to it, “the god of Modin.” Theodoret retains the reading of Theodotion (Μαζωείμ being evidently for Μαωζείμ), and explains it of Antichrist, “a god strong and powerful.” The Peshito-Syriac has “the strong god,” and Junius and Tremellius render it “Deum summi roboris,” considering the Hebrew plural as intensive, and interpreting it of the God of Israel. There can be little doubt that “Mauzzim” is to be taken in its literal sense of “fortresses,” just as in Dan_11:19; Dan_11:39, “the god of fortresses” being then the deity who presided over strongholds. But beyond this it is scarcely possible to connect an appellation so general with any special object of idolatrous worship. Grotius conjectured that Mauzzim was a modification of the name ῎Αζιζος, the war-god of the Phoenicians, mentioned in Julian's hymn to the sun (Beyer, Addit. ad Seldenii "De Dea Syria," p. 275). Calvin suggested that it denoted “money,” the strongest of all powers. By others it has been supposed to be Mars, the tutelary deity of Antiochus Epiphanes, who is the subject of allusion. The only authority for this supposition exists in two coins struck at Laodicea, which are believed to have on the obverse the head of Antiochus with a radiated crown, and on the reverse the figure of Mars with a spear. But it is asserted, on the contrary, that all known coins of Antiochus Epiphanes bear his name, and that it is mere conjecture which attributes these to him; and, further, that there is no ancient authority to show that a temple to Mars was built by Antiochus at Laodicea. The opinion of Gesenius is more probable, that “the god of fortresses” was Jupiter Capitolinus, for whom Antiochus built a temple at Antioch (Livy, 41:20). By others it is referred to Jupiter Olympius, to whom Antiochus dedicated the Temple at Jerusalem (2Ma_6:2). SEE JUPITER.
Furst (Handw. s.v.), comparing Isa_33:4, where the reference is to Tyre, “the fortress of the sea,” makes מָעֻזַּים equivalent to מָעוֹז הִיָּם, or even proposes to read for the former מָעֹז יָם, the god of the “stronghold of the sea,” i.e. Melkart, the Tyrian Hercules. A suggestion made by Mr. Layard (Nineveh, 2:456, note) is worthy of being recorded, as being at least as well founded as any already mentioned. After describing Hera, the Assyrian Venus, as “standing erect on a lion, and crowned with a tower or mural coronet, which, we learn from Lucian, was peculiar to the Shemitic figure of the goddess,” he adds in a note, “May she be connected with the ‘El Maozem,' the deity presiding over bulwarks and fortresses, the ‘god of forces,' of Dan_11:38?” Pfeiffer (Dub. Vex. cent. 4, loc. 72) will only see in it “the idol of the mass!"

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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