2 Maccabees

Daniel R. Schwartz

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9783110191189
• eBook ISBN: 9783110211207
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ancient Religion

2 Maccabees is a Jewish work composed during the 2nd century BCE and preserved by the Church. Written in Hellenistic Greek and told from a Jewish-Hellenistic perspective, 2 Maccabees narrates and interprets the ups and downs of events that took place in Jerusalem prior to and during the Maccabean revolt: institutionalized Hellenization and the foundation of Jerusalem as a polis; the persecution of Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, accompanied by famous martyrdoms; and the rebellion against Seleucid rule by Judas Maccabaeus. 2 Maccabees is an important source both for the events it describes and for the values and interests of the Judaism of the Hellenistic diaspora that it reflects - which are often quite different from those represented by its competitor, 1 Maccabees.

Table of contents

• Frontmatter
• Table of Contents
• I. Subject, Purpose and Date
• II. Sources and Development
• III. Historical Worth and Leading Ideas
• IV. Between the Bible and Greek Literature
• V. Language and Style
• VI. Reception and Text
• VII. Literature
• VIII. Abbreviations and Bibliography
• Introductory Letters (1:1–2:18)
• Author’s Preface (2:19–32)
• Chapter III
• Chapter IV
• Chapter V
• Chapter VI
• Chapter VII
• Chapter VIII
• Chapter IX
• Chapter X
• Chapter XI
• Chapter XII
• Chapter XIII
• Chapter XIV
• Chapter XV
• Appendix 1: On the Letters in Chapters 1–2
• Appendix 2: “to register the people of Jerusalem as Antiochenes” (4:9)
• Appendix 3: “his second invasion” (5:1)
• Appendix 4: “as the residents of the place requested” (6:2)
• Appendix 5: A Ptolemaic Account of Antiochus’ Decrees? (2 Macc 6:7)
• Appendix 6: “the tribute (still owed) to the Romans” (2 Macc 8:10, 36)
• Appendix 7: The Battle Against the Galatians (8:20)
• Appendix 8: “their own foods” (11:31)
• Appendix 9: “to be his successor” (14:26)
• Appendix 10: “the Syrian Language” (15:36)
• Appendix 11: “and ever since the city was taken over by the Hebrews it has been in their hands” (15:37)
• Backmatter