The Second Book of Maccabees
⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑
- Chapter 5 -
Wonderful signs are seen in the air. Jason’s wickedness and end. Antiochus takes Jerusalem, and plunders the temple.
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Footnotes
(a)5:14 Or, ‘and no less were sold.’(Conte)
(b)5:16 The Antichrist will enter into the principle Church, the center of worship of the Catholic faith, in Jerusalem, and he will take the holy vessels into his wicked hands. However, it is not true that he will ever be pope or even want to be pope. The Church will be entirely without a Pope during the nearly seven years of the Antichrist’s reign.(Conte)
(c)5:18 God permits the Antichrist to afflict the Church, partly because of the sins of Christians (and partly that they may suffer innocently, as Christ suffered).(Conte)
(d)5:19 Here is an example where word order in Latin is essential to the meaning of the sentence.(Conte)
(e)5:21
talents A talent is a unit of weight generally associated with silver and gold. One talent is just over 66 pounds in weight. Eighteen hundred talents is a vast amount of precious metals.(Conte)
(f)5:21
navigate ... ocean In other words, he thought that he might find a way to circumnavigate the globe by crossing the open ocean. The Romans and Greeks of that time knew that the world was a sphere. The word ‘terram’ in this context refers to ‘the earth,’ not merely to ‘the land.’ The word ‘pelagus’ refers to the open ocean, not merely to the Mediterranean or the coastal waters. There is no reference here to walking or traveling by foot; the text does not say that he wanted to make the sea passable on foot. It does not say that. The usual translation of this verse, that he wanted, in effect, to sail on land and walk on water applies to the eschatological meaning of the text: After conquering the king of the South and entering the great Sanctuary of the Faith, the Antichrist will be so elated that he will think to accomplish things beyond mere human ability, such will be the elation of his mind. On the other hand, in this more literal translation of the text, the historical person Antiochus did not think to sail on land or walk on water. The words ‘foot’ or ‘walk’ are not in the verse. Rather, he thought to circumnavigate the globe. The scholars of that time period did, in fact, know that the earth was a globe, and they could predict the dates of solar and lunar eclipses, and lunar phases.(Conte)
(g)5:24 The phrase ‘omnes perfectæ ætatis’ is here translated similarly to the Jerusalem Bible. This phrase clearly refers to the men only, as the end of the verse indicates, so the use of the word ‘men’ in the translation is justified. Also, the reason for killing all the fit men is that they might become soldiers or join in a rebellion against them. So they killed all the men of military age.(Conte)
(h)5:27
Was the tenth: That is, he had nine others in his company.(Challoner)