Font Size
2 Maccabees 6:2-4
New Catholic Bible
2 Maccabees 6:2-4
New Catholic Bible
2 He was also instructed to profane the temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus,[a] and to dedicate the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim to Zeus the Hospitable, as had been requested by the people who inhabited that place.
3 This evil onslaught harshly intensified the grievous distress of the people. 4 The Gentiles made the temple a center of debauchery and licentious revelry, as they used the sacred precincts for immoral pleasures with prostitutes and intercourse with women.[b] They also brought into the temple sacrificial offerings that were forbidden,
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Maccabees 6:2 Olympian Zeus: he had his counterpart in the Syrian Baal-shomem (“the Lord of the heavens”), which the Jews translated as “the abomination that causes desolation” (1 Mac 1:54; Dan 11:31; 12:11).
- 2 Maccabees 6:4 The temple became the locale for immoral pursuits common to the fertility cults of the ancient Near East.
