2 Maccabees 1:9-18
New Catholic Bible
9 We now exhort you to observe the Feast of Booths in the month of Chislev. 10 Dated in the year one hundred and eighty-eight.
The Second Letter (164 B.C.)[a]
Tragic End of the Persecutor. The people of Jerusalem and Judea, the senate, and Judas send greetings and the wish for good health to Aristobulus,[b] the tutor to King Ptolemy and a member of the family of anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt. 11 Since we have been rescued by God from grave dangers, we offer him our profuse thanks for championing our cause against the king,[c] 12 for it was he himself who drove out those who fought against the holy city.
13 When their leader marched into Persia with a force that was apparently invincible, they were decimated in the temple of the goddess Nanea[d] as the result of a deceitful scheme engineered by the priests of Nanea. 14 [e]On the pretext of intending to marry the goddess, Antiochus had come to the place together with his Friends, with the purpose of securing its many treasures as a dowry. 15 When the priests of Nanea had placed the treasures on display, Antiochus with a few attendants arrived at the temple precincts. As soon as he entered the temple, the priests locked him inside. 16 After opening a secret trap door in the ceiling, they hurled stones at the leader and his companions and struck them down. Then they dismembered their bodies and cut off their heads, throwing them to the people outside.
17 Blessed in all respects be our God who has delivered the godless to death.
18 The Legend of the Sacred Fire.[f] We shall be celebrating the purification of the temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev, and thus we thought it proper to give you some information so that you too may celebrate the Feast of Booths and the feast of the fire[g] that appeared when Nehemiah offered sacrifices after he had rebuilt the temple and the altar.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Maccabees 1:10 This much longer letter was in reality to precede the first one because it was written in 164 B.C., a little before the temple was purified. It is addressed to Aristobulus, a Jew of Alexandria renowned for his commentary on the first five Books of the Bible and for his defense of Judaism. The document is complex and intermingles in the history of the time the legend that arose almost contemporaneously with the event. The author of the Second Book of Maccabees had no reason to exclude this amplification, which corresponded with the taste of his readers, who loved to find allegories either in history or in legend. He wished above all to invite them to celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the year 164 B.C. (2 Mac 10:1-8; 1 Mac 4:36-59).
- 2 Maccabees 1:10 Aristobulus: a Jewish so-called philosopher of Alexandria, who was said to be a tutor of Ptolemy VI Philometor (180–145 B.C.) because he dedicated a book to the king showing that the Law and the Prophets were the source of the Greeks’ wisdom and philosophy. King Ptolemy: Ptolemy VI Philometor, who is mentioned in 1 Mac 1:18; 10:51-59.
- 2 Maccabees 1:11 The king: Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria, the persecutor of the Jews. He perished in 164 B.C. while leading a Persian invasion.
- 2 Maccabees 1:13 Nanea: an oriental goddess who is similar to the Greek goddess Artemis.
- 2 Maccabees 1:14 The death of Antiochus IV is depicted in a different way in 2 Mac 9:1-29 and in still another way in 1 Mac 6:1-16. The writer of this letter seems to have written it immediately after hearing a rumor of the king’s death—hence in 164 B.C.
- 2 Maccabees 1:18 The thick water that becomes fire is none other than unrefined petroleum (naphtha, v. 36). The Persians were familiar with it and used it to celebrate fire, which played a great part in their worship. Inspired by the reminders of the Exodus, this legendary anecdote wished to attest that the worship rendered to God in the temple of Jerusalem was to remain the legitimate liturgy established by Moses and by Solomon because it would allow the sacred fire to be miraculously kept burning (Lev 6:12-13).
- 2 Maccabees 1:18 The feast of the fire: fire and light are connected with the Feast of Hanukkah, which is celebrated with a nine-branched candlestick. There is a Talmudic tradition that a small amount of oil burned miraculously for a long time until new oil could be consecrated. Nehemiah: in reality, it was not Nehemiah who rebuilt the altar and the temple but Zerubbabel (see Ezr 3:2; 5:2); but the importance of Nehemiah’s work was so great that tradition attributed to him everything that took place after the return of the first exiles.
