21. The second book of Maccabees. This book opens with two letters purporting to have been written by the Jews of Palestine to their brethren in Egypt, in which the former invite the latter to join with them in the celebration of “the feast of tabernacles in the month Caslen,” that is, the feast of dedication established to commemorate the purification of the temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes.  To the latter of these is appended an epitome of the five books of Jason of Cyrene, containing the history of the Maccabean struggle, beginning with Heliodorus’ attempt to plunder the temple, about B.C. 180, and ending with the victory of Judas Maccabeus over Nicanor, B.C. 161.  Both of the letters are regarded as spurious.  The second of them abounds in marvellous legends—­how, upon the destruction of the first temple, the sacred fire of the altar was hid in a hollow pit without water; how, at the close of the captivity, it was found in the form of thick water, which being by the command of Nehemiah sprinkled on the wood of the altar and the sacrifices, there was kindled, when the sun shone upon it, a great fire, so that all men marvelled; how Jeremiah, at God’s command, carried the tabernacle, the ark, and the altar of incense to the mountain “which Moses ascended and saw the heritage of God,” that is, mount Nebo (Deut. 34:1), and hid them there in a hollow cave, where they are to remain until the time that God shall gather his people together again, and be gracious to them.

The epitome of Jason’s history begins some five years earlier than the history contained in the first book, and covers a period of about nineteen years; so that it is partly anterior to that history, partly supplementary, and partly parallel.  Alexander’s Kitto, Art.  Maccabees.  The two books are entirely independent in their sources of information; and although the second cannot lay claim to the same degree of trustworthiness as the first, yet the general judgment of biblical scholars is that it is, in its main facts, authentic.  But these are set forth with embellishments and exaggerations, in which the author manifests his love for the marvellous.  Where the history of the two books is parallel, it agrees in its general outlines, but the details are almost always different, and sometimes they present irreconcilable discrepancies.  In its religious aspect this book is very interesting.  In the account of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons for their refusal to eat swine’s flesh (chap. 7) the doctrine of the resurrection is plainly announced:  “It is a thing to be desired,” says the fourth son to the king Antiochus, “that one being put to death by men should wait for the hope of God that he shall be again raised up by him; but for thee there is no resurrection unto life” (v. 14).  Where Jason composed his work cannot be determined.  He cannot have lived long after the events which he describes, else he would have taken notice of the important events that followed.  The author of the epitome contained in this book is believed to have been a Hellenistic Jew living in Palestine, who probably wrote in the first century before Christ.