Books Jesus Read

Chapter 6 The Spirit of the Martyrs – 2 Maccabees

Background Why is there a 2 Maccabees and why is it included here? While the author of 2 Maccabees addresses the same subject as 1 Maccabees—the corruption of the Jerusalem temple and the subsequent Maccabean Revolt—he writes from a very different perspective and for a different audience. So, while 1 Maccabees was originally written in Hebrew for the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea, 2 Maccabees was composed in Greek for the Jews in the Diaspora. 1 Even casual readers cannot fail to notice the prominence of dramatic narrative in 2 Maccabees! There are descriptions of angels and visions in the heavens, teachings about a resurrection and afterlife, an atoning sacrifice and prayer on behalf of the dead, and a frank admission of the Jews’ own culpability in the many disasters that befall them.

1 Jews in the Diaspora – Jewish communities outside of Judea.

131