Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Empires 2 ▾
Hasmonean Kingdom c. 140-37 BC 1 Seleucid Empire c. 312-63 BC 9
Manuscript witnesses 1 ▾
Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is 2 Maccabees 10 about?

Judas and his men recover the temple, cleanse it of its defilement, and rededicate the altar, keeping eight days of joyful celebration that they ordain should be observed yearly, the feast that recalls the sanctuary restored. With the death of Antiochus, his young son Eupator takes the throne under the regent Lysias, and the fighting continues against the Idumeans and the forces of Timothy. God's help appears in these battles through heavenly horsemen who lead and shield the faithful, and Timothy is at last captured and killed. The chapter matters as the reward of perseverance, joining the purification of the temple to fresh deliverances and showing the worship of God restored and defended together.

Historical backdrop

When Alexander's empire broke apart among his generals, Judea passed from the Ptolemies of Egypt to the Seleucid kings ruling from Antioch, and Greek became the language of power in the eastern Mediterranean. Under Antiochus IV Epiphanes a gymnasium rose within sight of the temple, priests took Greek names and left the altar for the wrestling ground, and the king's officers came to plunder the sanctuary and outlaw the Law itself. This is the Hellenistic age at full pressure: Seleucid coin in the markets, war elephants and the drilled phalanx on the battlefield, and a small nation forced to choose between the customs of the Greeks and the covenant of its fathers. Written in Greek for the Jews of Egypt and Judea, the book remembers that struggle from inside the very world of Hellenism it resisted.

The Church Fathers on 2 Maccabees 10
Deuterocanon (Catholic & Orthodox) · Accepted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the original 1611 KJV (between the Old and New Testaments). Not in the Protestant 66-book canon. Read with the same care you bring to other Scripture, conscious that Protestants and Catholics weigh its authority differently.

2 Maccabees 10

2 Maccabees Chapter 10
10
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What is 2 Maccabees 10 about?

Judas and his men recover the temple, cleanse it of its defilement, and rededicate the altar, keeping eight days of joyful celebration that they ordain should be observed yearly, the feast that recalls the sanctuary restored. With the death of Antiochus, his young son Eupator takes the throne under the regent Lysias, and the fighting continues against the Idumeans and the forces of Timothy. God's help appears in these battles through heavenly horsemen who lead and shield the faithful, and Timothy is at last captured and killed. The chapter matters as the reward of perseverance, joining the purification of the temple to fresh deliverances and showing the worship of God restored and defended together.