2 Maccabees

File:Maccabeean-martyrs.jpg

Franz Joseph Hermann: The martyrdom of the seven Maccabean brothers and their mother (1771)

2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which focuses on the Jews' revolt against Antiochus IV and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 B.C.E. by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. It differs from 1 Maccabees in that it starts at an earlier point in the history of this struggle and concludes before the death of Judas, while 2 Maccabees goes on to tell the story of Judas' demise, as well as the reigns of his successors Jonathan and Simon, concluding with the accession of Simon's son, John Hycanus.

2 Maccabees was written in Greek, probably in Alexandria, Egypt in the late second century B.C.E. and is an avowedly abridged account of a longer work by a certain Jason. It also differs from 1 Maccabees in by including several miraculous account in contrast to 1 Maccabees' more straightforward history and adding material from the Pharisaic tradition, notably regarding the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, including a prayer for the dead and a vision in which the prophet Jeremiah speaks to Judas Maccabeus to urge him to action.

Catholics and Orthodox consider the work to be canonical and part of the Bible, while Protestants and Jews do not. Some Protestants include 2 Maccabees as part of the Apocrypha, useful for reading in the church. Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England defines it as useful but not the basis of doctrine and not necessary for salvation.

Author and date

The author of 2 Maccabees is not identified, but admits to be abridging a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene. This longer work is not preserved. The author, a skilled an self-conscious narrator, apparent wrote in Greek for a diasporan Jewish audience, as there is no internal or external evidence of an earlier Hebrew version. A few sections of the book, such as the preface, epilogue, and various reflections given by the writer in the first person are generally assumed to come from the author, not from Jason.

The beginning of the book includes two letters supposedly sent by Jews in Jerusalem to Jews of the diaspora in Egypt concerning the two recently-instituted Maccabean holidays: the feast day set up to celebrate the purification of the temple (Hanukkah) and the feast to celebrate the defeat of Nicanor by Judas Maccabeaus. The date of the second letter is 124 B.C.E. Some commentators hold that these letters were a later addition, while others consider them to have been inserted by the author as the the basis for the work: namely to urge the Alexandrian Jews to adopted the Maccabean festivals. Catholic scholars tend toward a dating in the last years of the second century B.C.E., while the consensus among Jewish scholars places it in the second half of the first century B.C.E., due in part to its Pharisaic outlook.

Contents

2 Maccabees covers the period from the high priest Onias III and King Seleucus IV (180 B.C.E.) to the defeat of General Nicanor by Judas Maccabeus in 161.

Judas Maccabeus

In general, the chronology of the book coheres with that of 1 Maccabees, and it has historical value in supplementing 1 Maccabees, especially in providing a few apparently authentic historical documents. However, the author seems primarily interested in providing a theological interpretation of the events. Unlike in 1 Maccabees, the author overtly describes God's direct and sometimes miraculous interventions direct the course of events, rather than implying God's unseen hand through historical occurrences. The Greek style of the writer is very educated, and he seems well-informed about Greek customs.

After the two letters to the Jews of Egype, the author writes a preface to his work, explaining his abridgment of Jason's longer book, explain his writing as: "The story of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, and the purification of the great temple, and the dedication of the altar, and further the wars against Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator (2 Macc 2:19-32)." In fact, the author hardly mentions Judas' brothers and appears completely ignorant of the heroic story of their father Mattathias.

He then the attempt of Heliodorus, the agent of Seleucus IV to profane the Temple of Jerusalem and rob its treasury. A miraculous vision intervenes to prevent him and the high priest Onias offers sacrifice to atone for his sin. Helidorius returns to the king and testifies to the power of God. (3:1-40)

Hellenizied Jews conspired to gain favor with the Greeks, and when Antiochus IV succeeds to the kingship, Onias' brother usurps the high priesthood through bribery. Jason builds a gymnasium and institutes various other Hellenizing reforms. Things become even worse when Menelaus and his brother Lysimachus serve as high priest, and Onias is assassinated for exposing their corruption. Jason attempts to seize the Temple by force but fails, and Antiochus the enters the holy sanctuary with Menelaus by his side and plunders it. Fed up with Jewish resistance, he determines to force the Jews to accept Greek culture. He dedicates the Temple to the worship of Zeus and bans the Jewish religion, instituting harsh punishments against those who resist. The suffering of Jewish martyrs are described in touching detail (2 Macc 4:1-7:42).

Judas Maccabeus emerges as a heroic figure, resisting Antiochus and harshly punishing any Jews who cooperate with his policy. Antiochus IV dies after campaigning in Persia, and Judas succeeds it taking Jerusalem and rededicating the Temple. (8:1-10:8)

Renewed persecution and warfare breaks out under the young Antiochus Eupator and his and his regent Lysias, resisted by Maccabeus with God's miraculous aid. Rival Greek rulers also attack the Jews. One of these, Demetrius, appoints the powerful general Nicanor to attack Jerusalem, but Judas receives a vision in which the spirits of the old high priest Onias and the prophet Jeremiah commission him to ride out to attack this mighty force. The enemy is routed and Judas orders the head and right arm of Nicanor hung from the citadel of Jerusalem as a remind to those who would oppose God. A new holiday is initiated in celebration of this victory (2 Macc 10:9-15:36).

Doctrine

2 Maccabees is notable for several points of advanced doctrine deriving from Pharisaic Judaism. Doctrinal issues that are raised in 2 Maccabees include:

• Prayer and sacrificial offerings on behalf of the dead
• The merits of the martyrs
• Resurrection from the dead
• An emphasis on the vulnerability of the priesthood to corruption

These points tended to distinguish the Pharisees from the Sadducees during the late first century B.C.E., with the Pharisees honoring the initial Maccabean revolt but criticizing its later compromises with Greek and Roman authorities.

In addition to the above ideas, Judas' vision of Onias and Jeremiah seems to imply a doctrine of the intercession of the saints (15:11-17). This, together with, the long descriptions of the martyrdoms of Eleazer and of a mother with her seven sons (2 Macc 6:18–7:42) caught the imagination of medieval Christians. Several churches are dedicated to the "Maccabeean martyrs," and they are among the very few pre-Christian figures to appear on the Catholic calendar of saints' days. In this sense, the book is considered to be a model for the later stories of the Christian martyrs.

Canonicity

Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox regard 2 Maccabees as canonical. Jews and Protestants do not. 2 Maccabees, along with 1 and 3 Maccabees, appeared in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible completed by the Jews of Alexandria in the fist century B.C.E.

During the Jamnia c 90 and after, rabbinical authorities rejected the Septuagint, thus excluding the deuterocanonical works such as 2 Maccabees. This had little immediate impact on Christians, however, since most Christians did not know Hebrew and were familiar with the Hebrew Bible only through the Greek Septuagint text. When the texts were translated into Latin in the early fifth century by Saint Jerome, he noticed that they were absent in the Hebrew but, not wanting to remove them from the canon entirely, coined the term deuterocanon (Greek second canon) for them. In the early 1520s, reformers such as Martin Luther found much of the contents of the deuterocanon doctrinally disagreeable and removed them on the grounds that they were absent from the Masoretic text. 2 Maccabees' support for the doctrine of offering prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the dead was particularly disturbing to Luther, who said: "I am so great an enemy to the second book of the Maccabees... that I wish they had not come to us at all."

External links

• Text of 2 Maccabees
• Jewish Encyclopedia: II Maccabees

Preceded by: 1 Maccabees

Books of the Bible

Succeeded by: Job in the Roman Catholic OT 3 Maccabees in the Eastern OT

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