Alexander

The name Alexander attaches to several distinct figures in the UPDV. First Maccabees opens with Alexander the Great, then narrates the rise and assassination of a later Seleucid claimant, Alexander Balas. The Gospel and the Pauline letters then introduce three more men of the same name: a son of Simon of Cyrene, a Hymenaean partner handed over to Satan, and an Ephesian coppersmith who opposed Paul. The umbrella holds these together not by any single biblical thread but by a shared name attached to very different lives.

Alexander the Great

The Macedonian king is the first named figure in the canonical books past Malachi. First Maccabees opens by describing his march out of Kittim, his defeat of Darius, and his rule "first over Greece" (1Ma 1:1). The summary that follows is a compressed biography of conquest:

"He fought many battles, and took strongholds, and slew the kings of the earth" (1Ma 1:2). "And he went through even to the ends of the earth, and took the spoils of many nations, and the earth was quiet before him" (1Ma 1:3).

The fourth verse names what the previous three implied. Having "gathered a very strong army," Alexander's "heart was exalted and lifted up; and he ruled over countries of nations, and tyrants: and they became tributaries to him" (1Ma 1:4). The arc is unmistakable: cumulative victory hardening into pride.

The figure recurs at the start of the Antiochus-Epiphanes episode. When Antiochus learns of a Persian temple stocked with "coverings of gold, and breastplates, and shields which King Alexander, the [son] of Philip the Macedonian who reigned first in Greece, had left there" (1Ma 6:2), the spoils of Macedonian conquest become the prize a later Seleucid king tries to seize.

The Diadochi and Antiochus Epiphanes

Alexander's death is reported with stark brevity: "And Alexander reigned twelve years, and he died. And his servants took power, every one in his place" (1Ma 1:7-8). The author then steps back to summarize the consequence:

"And they all put crowns upon themselves after his death, and their sons after them, many years; and evils were multiplied in the earth" (1Ma 1:9).

The crowns of the Diadochi are not neutral inheritance. The next verse explicitly names what those multiplied evils brought forth: "And there came out of them a wicked root, Antiochus Epiphanes, the son of King Antiochus, who had been a hostage at Rome: and he reigned in the hundred and thirty-seventh year of the kingdom of the Greeks" (1Ma 1:10). The account treats Antiochus as the moral product of the post-Alexandrian partition, with the Maccabean crisis flowing directly out of the empire Alexander built and his servants split. The Egyptian campaign that follows — "And they took the strong cities in the land of Egypt: and he took the spoils of the land of Egypt" (1Ma 1:19) — extends the same chain of conquest and plunder.

Alexander Balas, the Seleucid Pretender

A second Alexander dominates 1 Maccabees 10-11. He is introduced as a rival to Demetrius: "Now in the hundred and sixtieth year, Alexander, the [son] of Antiochus, [surnamed] Epiphanes, came up and took Ptolemais, and they received him, and he reigned there" (1Ma 10:1). The civil war turns on his side when "the battle was hard fought until the sun went down: and Demetrius was slain that day" (1Ma 10:50).

His relationship with the Maccabean leadership is one of formal alliance. The letter is brief and direct: "King Alexander to his brother Jonathan: Greetings" (1Ma 10:18). The political marriage to Ptolemy's daughter follows: "And King Alexander met him, and he gave him his daughter Cleopatra: and he celebrated her marriage at Ptolemais, with great glory, after the manner of kings" (1Ma 10:58).

The alliance does not hold. "And King Ptolemy got the dominion of the cities by the seaside, even to Seleucia, and he devised evil designs against Alexander" (1Ma 11:8). The treachery is then made explicit: "And he sent ambassadors to Demetrius, saying: Come, let's make a covenant between us, and I will give you my daughter whom Alexander has, and you will reign in the kingdom of your father" (1Ma 11:9). Trouble inside Alexander's own territory compounds the threat — "Now King Alexander was in Cilicia at that time: because those who were in those places had rebelled" (1Ma 11:14) — and the chapter closes with his murder: "And Zabdiel the Arabian took off Alexander's head, and sent it to Ptolemy" (1Ma 11:17). The same act is named both as murder and as betrayal.

Alexander, Son of Simon of Cyrene

The first New Testament Alexander is identified only as a son. Mark notes the family detail in passing as the Roman soldiers conscript a passerby: "And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go [with them], that he might bear his cross" (Mark 15:21). The text does not narrate anything Alexander himself does; he appears as a name his father is known by.

Alexander Handed to Satan

Paul's first letter to Timothy names an Alexander among those who suffered apostolic discipline: "of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme" (1Tim 1:20). The discipline is corrective rather than terminal — its stated purpose is that the two be "taught not to blaspheme."

Alexander the Coppersmith

The closing chapter of 2 Timothy names an Alexander who actively opposed Paul: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord will render to him according to his works" (2Tim 4:14). Paul attaches a warning for Timothy: "of whom you also beware; for he greatly withstood our words" (2Tim 4:15). Whether this is the same man as the Hymenaean Alexander of 1 Timothy is not stated; the trade designation ("the coppersmith") and the localized warning suggest a specific identification known to Timothy himself. The judgment is left with the Lord rather than carried out by Paul.