Full title
Rediscoveries in Judaism: The Temple and the Return to Israel in 2 Macc 1:10–2:18
Updated By
Research notes
SHS/not checked/14/11/2019
Reference type
Editor(s)
Nuria Calduch-Benages
Michael W. Duggan
Dalia Marx
Year
2019
Journal / Book Title || Series Title
On Wings of Prayer: Sources of Jewish Worship; Essays in Honor of Professor Stefan C. Reif on the Occasion of his Seventy-fifth Birthday
Issue / Series Volume
44
Series Title
Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies
Publisher
de Gruyter
Place of Publication
Berlin/Boston
Pages
83-100
Work type
Label
09/12/2019
Abstract
The second festal letter in 2 Maccabees elaborates on the significance of the temple cleansing in the epitome by rewriting the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and recasting the profile of Judas Maccabeus. Imaginative storytelling unfolds the history of the temple as a continuum that runs from the exodus to the Hasmonean era. The contemplation of the past opens up to the future with the prospect of all Jews returning to Israel. Playful narrative techniques about finding what had been hidden invite the audience to anticipate the future as they orient their gaze toward Jerusalem and celebrate the festival of temple cleansing.