The Deuterocanon
Martyrs and miracles, seven brothers, a faithful mother, and prayer for the fallen.
Not a sequel but a parallel account, covering a shorter span in a hotter style. Where 1 Maccabees is restrained, this book is full of heavenly horsemen, vivid martyrdoms, and open theological argument. Its account of a mother and her seven sons tortured to death rather than eat pork became one of the most influential martyrdom narratives in both Jewish and Christian tradition. It is also theologically consequential well beyond its length: it contains the clearest statement of creation out of nothing in the Jewish scriptures, an explicit hope of bodily resurrection, and a passage about prayer and offerings for the dead that became central to the later Catholic doctrine of purgatory and a flashpoint at the Reformation.
If you remember one thing
Its account of the seven brothers and their mother is one of the earliest clear statements of bodily resurrection in Jewish literature, and its reference to prayer for the dead is a text Catholics and Protestants read very differently.
“The King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.”
2 Maccabees 7:9
2 Maccabees 12:43-45
Offerings made for the dead, cited by Catholics for purgatory and by Protestants as a reason the book is not Scripture. A genuine flashpoint of the Reformation.
2 Maccabees 7:28
God made them out of things that did not exist, the clearest statement of creation from nothing in the Jewish scriptures.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Scripture for Catholic and Orthodox churches; among the Apocrypha in Protestant traditions.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
The Greek king who tried to abolish Jewish worship: he outlawed the Sabbath and circumcision, plundered the temple, and set up a pagan altar on it. The revolt that answered him is what Hanukkah remembers. He called himself Epiphanes, meaning God manifest, and his critics called him Epimanes, the madman.
The priest Mattathias and his sons, who revolted when Antiochus IV banned the practice of Judaism and installed a pagan altar in the temple. Judas, nicknamed Maccabeus, probably the hammer, retook Jerusalem and rededicated the temple, which is the origin of Hanukkah.
When Alexander died his generals carved up the empire, and two of the resulting dynasties fought over Judea for a century and a half: the Ptolemies from Egypt and the Seleucids from Syria. Several kings and generals of both, named Demetrius, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Tryphon, Lysias, and Bacchides, move through the Maccabean books.
The commanders sent against Judas Maccabeus. Nicanor was defeated and killed at Adasa, and the anniversary was kept as a feast day for a time. Apollonius, Timotheus, and Gorgias lead other campaigns across 1 and 2 Maccabees.
The men who held or bought the high priesthood in the years around the Maccabean crisis. Onias III was respected and was deposed by his brother Jason, who purchased the office and built a gymnasium in Jerusalem. Menelaus then outbid Jason, and Alcimus later took the post with Seleucid backing.
A quiz for 2 Maccabees is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
