2 Maccabees 1 - New Catholic Bible (NCB)

Letters to the Jews in Egypt^[a]

Chapter 1

The First Letter (124 B.C.)^[b]

¹ The Jews in Jerusalem and those in the land of Judea send greetings to their Jewish kindred in Egypt and extend to them their best wishes for peace. ² May God grant you prosperity and continue to remember his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his faithful servants. ³ May he give to all of you a desire to worship him and to do his will with a courageous heart and a well disposed spirit. ⁴ May he open your mind to his law and his commandments and bring peace to your lives. ⁵ May he hear your prayers and be propitious to you, and never forsake you in a time of adversity. ⁶ Even at this very moment we are offering prayers for you here.

⁷ In the reign of Demetrius, in the year one hundred and sixty-nine, we Jews wrote to you during the period of persecution and crisis that befell us during those years after Jason and his followers had revolted against the holy land and the kingdom, ⁸ setting fire to the temple gate and shedding innocent blood. When we prayed to the Lord, our prayer was heard. Hence, we presented sacrifices and offerings of grain, and we lit the lamps and set out the loaves. 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.)^[c]

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,^[d] 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,^{[e] 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^[f] as the result of a deceitful scheme engineered by the priests of Nanea. ^{14 [g]}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.^[h] 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^[i] that appeared when Nehemiah offered sacrifices after he had rebuilt the temple and the altar.

¹⁹ For when our ancestors were being led in exile to Persia, the devout priests of that period took some of the fire from the altar and hid it secretly in the hollow of a dry cistern, taking the necessary precautions to ensure that the place of concealment was unknown to anyone. ²⁰ After many years had elapsed, in God’s good time Nehemiah, having been commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to search for it.

²¹ When they reported to us that they had not found fire but only a thick liquid, Nehemiah ordered them to draw some out and bring it to him. After the materials for the sacrifice had been prepared, Nehemiah instructed the priests to sprinkle the liquid on the wood and what lay on it. ²² When this had been done, and after the sun that had been clouded over for a while began to shine, a great fire blazed up to the astonishment of everyone. ²³ While the sacrifice was being burned, the priests and all present offered prayer—Jonathan leading, and the rest responding, led by Nehemiah.

²⁴ The prayer took the following form: “Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, awe-inspiring and mighty, just and merciful, the only true king and benefactor, ²⁵ you alone are gracious, just, almighty, and eternal, the deliverer of Israel from every evil, the one who designated our ancestors as your chosen ones and consecrated them. ²⁶ Accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel, and protect and sanctify your heritage. ²⁷ Gather together our dispersed people, set free those who have been enslaved by the Gentiles, look with favor on those who are despised and detested, and let the Gentiles realize that you are our God. ²⁸ Punish those who oppress us and treat us with arrogance. ²⁹ Plant your people in your holy place, as Moses promised.”

³⁰ Then the priests chanted hymns. ³¹ After the sacrifice had been consumed, Nehemiah ordered that the remaining liquid be poured upon large stones. ³² When this was done, a flame blazed up, but its light faded when confronted by the blazing light from the altar. ³³ When this occurrence became known, it was reported to the king of the Persians that, in the very place where the exiled priests had hidden the fire, a liquid had appeared that Nehemiah and his companions had used to burn the sacrificial offerings. ³⁴ After the king had verified this fact, he had the place enclosed and he declared it to be sacred^{[j] 35} and he distributed a goodly portion of the revenues he received from that place to the people he appointed as custodians. ³⁶ Nehemiah and his companions called the liquid “nephthar,” which means purification, but it is more commonly called “naphtha.”^[k]

Footnotes

1. 2 Maccabees 1:1 In the second century B.C., numerous Jews resided in Egypt where they formed characteristic communities. Greatly attached to Judaism, they maintained relations with Jerusalem. Two letters invite them to celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. This is the reason why these letters are found at the beginning of the Second Book of Maccabees, wholly composed to exalt the temple and make the meaning of this feast comprehensible.
2. 2 Maccabees 1:1 In 124 B.C., the Jews in Egypt were harassed by the authorities. The community of Jerusalem urged them to remain faithful, reminding them of the difficulties that they had experienced: trials at the time of Demetrius II (king of Syria, 145–139 B.C. and 129–125 B.C.) in 143 B.C. and apostasy of the high priest and persecutions between 174–164 B.C. From that time, the Feast of the Dedication (also called “Feast of Booths of December” because of its similarity with the Feast of Booths of October) was instituted by the leader of the Jewish resistance precisely when he had purified the temple of Jerusalem.
3. 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).
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 2 Maccabees 1:13 Nanea: an oriental goddess who is similar to the Greek goddess Artemis.
7. 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.
8. 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).
9. 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.
10. 2 Maccabees 1:34 Place enclosed . . . sacred: places where miracles occurred were enclosed as sacred. The Persians regarded fire as holy.
11. 2 Maccabees 1:36 The Greek word for petroleum (naphtha) is likened to a Semitic word that means “loosened” (probably nephthar).