Font Size
2 Maccabees 4:5-7
New Catholic Bible
2 Maccabees 4:5-7
New Catholic Bible
5 Therefore, he appealed to the king, not to accuse his compatriots but rather as one who had at heart the best interests, both public and private, of all the people. 6 He saw that, unless the king intervened, public order could not exist and that Simon would persist in his madness.
Hellenism in Jerusalem.[a] 7 When Seleucus[b] died and Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, succeeded him on the throne, Jason, the brother of Onias, obtained the high priesthood by corrupt means.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Maccabees 4:7 Joshua, who writes his name according to the Greek, Jason, gathers around him the partisans of Hellenism and encourages and favors pagan ways, in particular, games with nude athletes. The author describes some aspects of these new ways of life: the gymnasium, center of physical as well as cultural education, ensures the athletic and military formation of youth; those who are most outstanding also wear the Greek hat, the wide-brimmed hat of Hermes, the pagan god of athletic events.
- 2 Maccabees 4:7 Seleucus IV Philopator was killed in 175 B.C. by his minister Heliodorus, the same person who had been sent to confiscate the goods of the temple. Antiochus IV, Seleucus’s younger brother, heard of it while he was in Athens and returned to his country. With the aid of the Romans, he eliminated Heliodorus and took control of the government, trampling on the rights of his brother Demetrius, who was then being held at Rome as a hostage in the wake of the Battle of Magnesia in which Antiochus III the Great had been defeated by the Romans (see 1 Mac 7:1).
