2 Maccabees — Introduction

There are four books that are called "Maccabees." Two of them are part of the apocrypha; the other two are apocalypses and are part of the pseudepigrapha. None of them is part of Scripture. Although 1 Maccabees appears to be relatively factual, all the other books have a strong quality of history that has been doctored or spun to fit later circumstances.

As with Kings and Chronicles, you don't need to have read one in order to understand the others, and also as with Kings and Chronicles, they cover some of the same material for different reasons. But the similarity ends there. For one thing, at 15 chapters 2 Maccabees is relatively short for a history. But it's revivalist and revisionist history. Where 1 Maccabees is straightforward, matter-of-fact and accused of being dry (and therefore held up as one of the most truthful and reliable books in the collection), 2 Maccabees is focused on the beloved temple and the author tends to magnify spiritual things, especially miracles. (3 Maccabees is primarily an anti-Hellenistic propaganda letter dealing with events that happened much later).

In 2:19-23, the author will explain that he is actually condensing another massive work of five volumes by Jason of Cyrene. The opening verses are two letters (1:1–9 and 1:10–2:18) written from Jerusalem by Jews as a prologue to Egyptian Jews in Alexandria.