The Second Book of Maccabees is a text contained in the LXX and the Catholic Bible but not longer accepted in the Hebrew Bible after Council of Jamnia like the other Deuterocanonical Books. It is a summary composed directly in greek shortly after 124 BC, perhaps in Alexandria, of a work by a certain Jason of Cyrene, composed shortly after 160 BC.
It consists of 15 chapters and describes the struggle for the independence of Judea of the Maccabean brothers (Judas, Jonathan, Simon) against the Seleucid kings of Syria, narrating events that occurred between 180 BC and 161 BC.
Contents[]
The second book of the Maccabees is not a continuation of the first; it reports, for the most part, the same events and organizes them in a different and sometimes discordant way. However, the theological reading of the facts is the same. The contents deal with a shorter period of time: from the unsuccessful assault on the temple treasury, carried out at the time of Seleucus IV (187-175 BC), to the struggles for the high priesthood and the religious persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, up to the story of the Maccabean revolt and Judas' victory over Nicanor (160); in total, fifteen years of history (175-160). It is an important book for understanding the historical moment in which Hellenism penetrated Judea and Jerusalem and the struggles that followed between the different Jewish groups, for or against Hellenization.
Characteristics[]
The book is complex and heterogeneous from a literary point of view. It presents itself as the summary of a work in five books by a certain Jason of Cyrene, of whom we have no news elsewhere, and contains at the beginning two letters in which the Jews of Egypt are invited to celebrate, together with the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea, the feast of the Dedication of the Temple. The historical argument is discontinuous, the material varied: next to the story of the wars we find official documents, legendary episodes and the so-called manifestations, that is, sudden and prodigious interventions of God in favor of the Jews. All this has given rise to talk of a historiography of the marvelous, or pathetic historiography, and has harmed, in the past, the historical credibility of the work. Today it is revalued, both in reference to the description of the institutions of the Syrian monarchy, and because most of the documents reported in the book are considered authentic. The religious ideas are clear and important. The author's focus is on the temple and its glory, which will be reconstituted in any case. God is close to the Jews: he punishes them with persecution for the impiety of the high priests and because many of them have forgotten the traditions of their fathers, but he is constantly at the side of Judas, the man called to fight against the wicked. Of particular note is the trust, expressed in the episodes of martyrdom, in the existence of a life after death, of a resurrection to eternal life, which is also corporeal. This life can also be obtained thanks to the prayers of intercession of the living.
[[Category:Old Testament ]