2 Maccabees

🏛️ Historical context

Written in Greek to encourage the Jews of Alexandria to stay united with Jerusalem and its temple, in a time of persecution and Hellenization.

🔙 Background

It opens with letters to the Jews of Egypt and the story of Heliodorus, who tries to plunder the temple treasury.

🧭 Structure of the book

⭐ Key events and teachings

1. 1The elderly Eleazar chooses death rather than pretend apostasy (ch. 6)
2. 2Martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons with faith in the resurrection (ch. 7)
3. 3God created everything "out of nothing" (7:28)
4. 4Prayer and sacrifice for the dead (12:43-46)
5. 5Victory over Nicanor (ch. 15)

🏷️ Main themes

📖 Verses to memorize

• 2 Maccabees 6:31Thus did this man die, leaving not only to young men, but also to the whole nation, the memory of his death, for an example of virtue and fortitude.
• 2 Maccabees 7:9And when he was at the last gasp, he said thus: Thou indeed, O most wicked man, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life.
• 2 Maccabees 7:28I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also:
• 2 Maccabees 12:45And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them.
• 2 Maccabees 15:12Now the vision was in this manner. Onias, who had been high priest, a good and virtuous man, modest in his looks, gentle in his manners, and graceful in speech, and who from a child was exercised in virtues holding up his hands, prayed for all the people of the Jews:

💭 For reflection

• Why does the Church pray for the dead (2 Macc 12:46)?
• What does the mother of the seven brothers teach me about hope?

It presents the same events from another angle, with accounts of martyrdom such as Eleazar's and that of the mother and her seven sons. It bears witness to faith in the resurrection and to prayer for the dead.