Background and History

The chapters above are the King James Apocrypha. This essay is the setting of 2 Maccabees: who is said to have written it, when and where the book places the story, what happens in it, which copies have been found, and why the Protestant canon does not include it.

Canon and Authorship

Jerome’s prologue says the second book of Maccabees is Greek. Westminster Confession 1.3 , under Church Lists, says the books commonly called Apocrypha are no part of the canon. The New Testament section does not cite a sentence that names Maccabees as Scripture.

2 Maccabees 2:23 says Jason of Cyrene declared these things in five books, and that the present writer abridges them in one volume. 2 Maccabees 15:38 is that writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

At a Glance

Author	The writer says he is abridging Jason of Cyrene’s five books. He does not give his own name.
Date	The events are the same revolt the Catholic Encyclopedia dates from 174 B.C. to Judas’s death in 161 B.C. A date for the abridgment itself was not taken from a page opened for this essay.
Place	Judea and the cities named in the campaigns. Jason is called Jason of Cyrene. A modern district for Cyrene was not added.
Genre	An abridgment of a longer history, with letters, martyr stories, and a closing disclaimer.
Chapters	15
Verses	555 in this King James Apocrypha
Key verse	2 Maccabees 12:45 Apocrypha Not part of the 66-book Protestant canon. Catholic and Orthodox churches accept these books as deuterocanonical. And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.2 Maccabees 12:45 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source

Setting

2 Maccabees 2:23

All these things, I say, being declared by Jason of Cyrene in five books, we will assay to abridge in one volume.2 Maccabees 2:23 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says Jason of Cyrene declared these things in five books, and that the writer will assay to abridge them in one volume. The story covers the same persecution and the campaigns of Judas that 1 Maccabees tells, including the deaths of Eleazar and of the seven brothers.

The Text

The abridgment is the book’s own account of what it is. 2 Maccabees 15:38

And if I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I desired: but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto.2 Maccabees 15:38 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source closes it: if the writer has done well, and as is fitting the story, that is what he desired; if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain unto.

Manuscripts

A catalog of Greek copies of 2 Maccabees was not opened for this essay. Jerome’s prologue, quoted under Church Lists, says the second book of Maccabees is Greek.

Structure and Themes

The Catholic Encyclopedia uses 2 Maccabees for the martyrdoms and for battles it also finds in 1 Maccabees, and it dates Judas’s command from 166 to 161 B.C. 2 Maccabees 12:44

For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.2 Maccabees 12:44 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says that if Judas had not hoped that those who were slain should rise again, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. 2 Maccabees 12:45 And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.2 Maccabees 12:45 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source calls that an holy and good thought, and says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.

Rulers at the Time

The dates in the 1 Maccabees essay are the encyclopedia’s dates for this revolt: Jason in 174 B.C., the persecution in 168 B.C., Mattathias’s death in 166 B.C., the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 B.C., and Judas’s death in 161 B.C. They are not repeated as a second table.

Issues With This Book

This King James text has no verse 12:46. The reconciliation for the dead is the second half of 2 Maccabees 12:45

And also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and good thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.2 Maccabees 12:45 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes that footnote and the churches that argue from it, and it does not pick a side. 2 Maccabees 15:38 And if I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I desired: but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto.2 Maccabees 15:38 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source is the writer’s own limit on the work. The New Testament section states that these pages do not cite a sentence that names Maccabees as Scripture.

On This Site

These articles quote the church lists and the passages that those lists argue from. They link back to this collection.

Church Lists

The Council of Trent, session 4 (1546), receives Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with Jeremiah, Daniel, and two books of Maccabees, and it anathematizes a knowing refusal. That decree’s first and second books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah, not the books titled 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras in this King James Apocrypha. The decree does not name the Prayer of Manasseh as its own book. The English of the decree is quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120 says the Church discerned the canon by apostolic Tradition and counts 46 Old Testament books, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Confession of Dositheus, from the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, answers “What Books do you call Sacred Scripture?” by naming, among the books Cyril Lucaris had called Apocrypha, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” “Judith,” “Tobit,” “The History of the Dragon,” “The History of Susanna,” “The Maccabees,” and “The Wisdom of Sirach,” and it says “we judge these also to be with the other genuine Books of Divine Scripture genuine parts of Scripture.” That sentence, on the English hosted by CRI/Voice, does not name 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, or the Prayer of Manasseh. The host says the English is adapted from J. N. W. B. Robertson’s 1899 translation. The brackets around “Bel and the Dragon” on that page are the editor’s.

Anglican Article VI says the other books, “as Hierome saith,” the Church “doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The article’s other books include the Third and Fourth of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, the rest of Esther, Wisdom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the First and Second of Maccabees. Its canonical First and Second of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The sentence is on the Articles of Religion and on What Do Anglicans Believe?

The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

That is Westminster Confession 1.3, as printed by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What Do Protestants Believe? quotes the same paragraph.

The Lutherhaus Wittenberg records a complete German Bible of 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, titled Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. A Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek record of a 1536 Lufft Apocrypha title page reads “Apocrypha. Das sind Bücher: so nicht der heiligen Schrifft gleich gehalten: und doch nützlich und gut zu lesen sind.” Bruce Metzger, writing in Christianity Today in 1957, says the 1534 edition gathered the books between the Old and New Testaments under that heading and did not include 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened for this page.

The New Testament and These Books

These pages do not cite a sentence in the New Testament that names Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or Maccabees as Scripture. Jude 14 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, and the next verse continues that prophecy. First Enoch is not one of the fourteen books in this King James Apocrypha.

1 Maccabees 9:27 says there was great affliction in Israel, “the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.” 2 Maccabees 15:38 is the writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

2 Maccabees 12:44 says that if Judas had not hoped the slain would rise, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Verse 45 says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. This King James text has no verse 12:46. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46 for that reconciliation. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes the churches on that dispute and does not decide it.

Tobit 12:9 says alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. Sirach 3:30 says water quenches a flaming fire and alms make an atonement for sins. Those sentences are what the pages that discuss almsgiving and atonement are quoting. This site does not have a separate article whose only subject is alms.

Jewish Lists

Josephus, Against Apion 1.8 (William Whiston’s translation), says the Jews have “only twenty two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine,” five of them Moses, thirteen the prophets after Moses through Artaxerxes, and four hymns and precepts. History written since Artaxerxes “hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time.”

Jerome’s prologue to Kings, the Prologus Galeatus, in Kevin P. Edgecomb’s public-domain translation, counts twenty-two books and says “whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha.” He names Wisdom, “the book of Jesus son of Sirach,” Judith, and Tobias as not in the canon, and he says the first book of Maccabees is Hebrew and the second is Greek. The translation is at tertullian.org.

Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), counts twenty-two Old Testament books and includes “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book. He then names Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit as “not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read.” The English is the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text on New Advent.

Melito of Sardis, quoted by Eusebius in Church History 4.26.14, lists the Old Testament books he learned in the East. The list includes “Wisdom also” and does not name Tobit, Judith, Sirach, or the books of Maccabees.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Bible Canon,” says the Jewish canon is twenty-four books: the five of the Law, eight of the Prophets, and eleven Writings. It summarizes the baraita in Bava Batra 14b as Law; Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets); and Writings (Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles). That summary does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch as its own book, or Maccabees. The English of the Talmud on Sefaria is copyrighted, so this page does not reprint it.

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151 are not in this King James text.

2 Maccabees