Maccabees, Wojciech Stattler, 1842. National Museum Kraków. Wikimedia
2 and 4 Maccabees: Evolving Responses to Hellenism
2 Maccabees (ca. 1st cent. B.C.E) presents Judaism as the antithesis to Hellenism. A century or so later, however, 4 Maccabees uses Hellenistic ideas to encourage Jews to hold fast to their ancestral faith.
Published: November 29, 2018
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
For a broad treatment of the topics in this essay, see: David A. deSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context, and Significance (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002); Sylvie Honigman, Tales of High Priests and Taxes: The Books of the Maccabees and the Judean Rebellion against Antiochus IV (University of California Press, 2014); Michael E. Stone (ed.), Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1984).
Editor’s note: See discussion in, Martin Lockshin, “Chanukah: The Greek Influence of Martyrdom,” TheTorah.com (2017); Devorah Dimant, “The Valley of Dry Bones and the Resurrection of the Dead,” TheTorah.com (2017).
Editor’s note: For more on this story and how it developed, see Malka Simkovich, “The Faith of the Martyred Mother and Her Seven Sons,” TheTorah.com (2015).
