2 Maccabees

2 Maccabees describes a unique synergy between martyrs and militants that empowers the Jewish polity to wrest Jerusalem and its temple from Seleucid control. The dramatization of events between ca. 176 and 161 bce profiles the reactions to the Hellenization of Jerusalem by three segments of the Jewish populace: the priests who promote the initiative, the observant Jews who resist it at the cost of their lives, and the guerrilla force that defeats the Seleucids on the battlefield. The unfolding of events illustrates that adherence to the ancestral traditions is essential to shaping Jerusalem into a unique Jewish polis in the Hellenistic world. The refined Hellenistic texture of the narrative is designed to address an audience in the diaspora. The two prefatory letters invite Jews in Egypt to view the temple, Jerusalem, and Judea as the ultimate meeting ground for all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.