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2 Maccabees 11: What the Passage Says

97 claims across 38 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 2 Maccabees 11 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Lysias, the king's guardian and kinsman, is angry about what has happened and comes against the Jews with a large army and eighty elephants, laying siege to Bethsura. Maccabeus and the people pray for a good angel; a rider in white appears in front of them, and they kill eleven thousand foot soldiers and sixteen hundred horsemen and put the rest to flight. Lysias then sends to make terms, and Maccabeus agrees. The rest of the chapter gives four letters: one from Lysias to the Jews, one from King Antiochus to Lysias, one from the king to the Jewish nation, and one from two Roman ambassadors.

Claim by Claim

  1. 11:1
    • A short time later, Lysias, the king's guardian and kinsman, who also managed the affairs of state, was greatly displeased at what had happened.
  2. 11:2
    • Lysias gathered about eighty thousand foot soldiers.
    • Lysias gathered all his cavalry.
    • Lysias marched against the Jews.
    • Lysias intended to make the city a dwelling place for Greeks.
  3. 11:3
    • Lysias intended to exact revenue from the temple, as from the other sacred places of the nations.
    • Lysias intended to put the high priesthood up for sale every year.
  4. 11:4
    • Lysias took no account of the power of God.
    • Lysias was puffed up with his tens of thousands of foot soldiers, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants.
  5. 11:5
    • Lysias came into Judea.
    • Lysias approached Bethsura.
    • Bethsura was a strong place.
    • Bethsura was about five stadia distant from Jerusalem.
    • Lysias pressed the siege hard against Bethsura.
  6. 11:6
    • Those with Maccabeus learned that Lysias was besieging the strongholds.
    • They and all the people entreated the Lord with lamentation and tears.
    • They asked the Lord to send a good angel to deliver Israel.
  7. 11:7
    • Maccabeus himself was the first to take up weapons.
    • Maccabeus urged the others to risk themselves along with him to help their brethren.
    • They went out together with him eagerly.
  8. 11:8
    • While they were at Jerusalem, a horseman appeared before them.
    • The horseman was clothed in white.
    • The horseman was brandishing golden armour.
  9. 11:9
    • They all together praised the merciful God.
    • They were strengthened in heart.
    • They were ready to fight not only men but the fiercest beasts.
    • They were ready to pierce through walls of iron.
  10. 11:10
    • They advanced in formation in their armour.
    • They had a helper from heaven.
    • The Lord was merciful to them.
  11. 11:11
    • They charged upon their enemies like lions.
    • They killed eleven thousand foot soldiers.
    • They killed sixteen hundred cavalry.
    • They put all the rest to flight.
  12. 11:12
    • Many of the enemy escaped wounded and stripped.
    • Lysias himself fled away shamefully.
    • Lysias escaped.
  13. 11:13
    • Lysias was a man of understanding.
    • Lysias reckoned with himself the loss he had suffered.
    • Lysias considered that the Hebrews could not be overcome.
    • Lysias considered that the Hebrews could not be overcome because the Almighty God helped them.
    • Lysias sent a message to them.
  14. 11:14
    • Lysias persuaded them to agree to all just conditions.
    • Lysias promised that he would persuade the king to be a friend to them.
  15. 11:15
    • Maccabeus consented to everything Lysias proposed.
    • Maccabeus was concerned for the common good.
    • Whatever Maccabeus wrote to Lysias concerning the Jews, the king granted.
  16. 11:16
    • There were letters written to the Jews from Lysias.
    • The letter read: Lysias to the people of the Jews, greeting.
  17. 11:17
    • John and Absalom were sent from the Jews.
    • John and Absalom delivered to Lysias the document written below.
    • John and Absalom made request concerning the things written in it.
  18. 11:18
    • Lysias declared to the king whatever matters needed to be reported to him.
    • The king granted as much as was possible.
  19. 11:19
    • Lysias wrote that if they keep their good will toward the government, he will also endeavour in the future to work for their good.
  20. 11:20
    • Lysias wrote that he had given orders about the details both to these men and to those sent from him, to confer with the Jews.
  21. 11:21
    • Lysias wrote: Fare well.
    • The letter was dated the one hundred and forty-eighth year.
    • The letter was dated the twenty-fourth day of the month Dioscorinthius.
  22. 11:22
    • The king's letter contained these words.
    • The letter read: King Antiochus to his brother Lysias, greeting.
  23. 11:23
    • The king wrote that their father had passed over to the gods.
    • The king wrote that his will is that those in his kingdom live undisturbed.
    • The king wrote that his will is that each attend to his own affairs.
  24. 11:24
    • The king wrote that he had heard the Jews did not consent to their father's purpose to bring them over to the customs of the Greeks.
    • The king wrote that the Jews preferred to keep their own way of living.
    • The king wrote that the Jews therefore request to be allowed to live by their own laws.
  25. 11:25
    • The king wrote that his mind is that this nation should be free from disturbance.
    • The king decreed that their temple be restored to them.
    • The king decreed that they may live according to the customs of their forefathers.
  26. 11:26
    • The king wrote that Lysias would do well to send to the Jews and grant them peace.
    • The king wrote that when the Jews know his mind they may be of good cheer.
    • The king wrote that the Jews may gladly go about their own affairs.
  27. 11:27
    • The king's letter to the nation of the Jews was as follows.
    • The letter read: King Antiochus to the council of the Jews and to the rest of the Jews, greeting.
  28. 11:28
    • The king wrote that if they are well, it is as he desires.
    • The king wrote that he himself is also in good health.
  29. 11:29
    • The king wrote that Menelaus had informed him that their desire was to return home and attend to their own business.
  30. 11:30
    • The king granted safe conduct to those who depart up to the thirtieth day of Xanthicus.
    • Those departing are granted security.
  31. 11:31
    • The Jews shall use their own kinds of food and observe their own laws, as before.
    • None of them shall be molested in any way for things done in ignorance.
  32. 11:32
    • The king wrote that he has also sent Menelaus.
    • The king wrote that Menelaus is sent to comfort them.
  33. 11:33
    • The king wrote: Fare well.
    • The letter was dated the one hundred and forty-eighth year.
    • The letter was dated the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus.
  34. 11:34
    • The Romans also sent the Jews a letter containing these words.
    • The letter read: Quintus Memmius and Titus Manlius, ambassadors of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greeting.
  35. 11:35
    • The Romans wrote that whatever Lysias the king's kinsman granted, they also consent to.
  36. 11:36
    • The Romans wrote that concerning the matters Lysias judged should be referred to the king, the Jews should consider them and send someone at once.
    • The Romans wrote that they may then declare what is fitting for the Jews.
    • The Romans wrote that they are on their way to Antioch.
  37. 11:37
    • The Romans wrote that the Jews should send someone quickly, so that they may know what the Jews' mind is.
  38. 11:38
    • The Romans wrote: Farewell.
    • The letter was dated the one hundred and forty-eighth year.
    • The letter was dated the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

11:1
Lysias was the chief minister of the Seleucid kingdom, the Greek-ruled empire centered in Syria that controlled Judea. "The king's protector" means regent: he governed on behalf of the king and had charge of the king's young son. "Cousin" translates a formal rank at the Seleucid court, roughly "kinsman of the king," an honorary title given to top officials rather than a statement about family.
11:2
"The city" is Jerusalem. "Gentiles" is the standard King James word for non-Jews; here it means Greek settlers. Planting a Greek population in a conquered city was normal imperial practice, and it would have ended Jerusalem's character as a Jewish city.
11:3
Hellenistic kings routinely drew revenue from the temples in their territories, treating them as taxable property; "chapels" in the King James means temples or shrines, not small side chapels. The high priesthood in Jewish law was held for life and passed within one family. Auctioning it off annually to the highest bidder, which Seleucid kings had begun doing, made the highest religious office a piece of royal patronage.
11:4
War elephants were the heavy shock weapon of Hellenistic armies, imported from India and used to break infantry lines. "Footmen" means foot soldiers. "Fourscore" is eighty.
11:5
Bethsura (Beth-zur) guarded the southern approach to Jerusalem. A "furlong" here translates the Greek stadion, about two hundred yards, so five furlongs would be barely half a mile. Beth-zur in fact lay some twenty miles south of Jerusalem, and the number in the manuscripts is generally thought to be corrupt.
11:6
"Maccabeus" is Judas Maccabeus, leader of the Jewish revolt. The Greek word behind "angel" simply means messenger, a being sent to act on God's behalf. "Besought" means begged.
11:7
Here brothers means the other Jews, not boys from the same family. People often called their own people brothers.
11:8
Appearances of a shining heavenly horseman at a moment of crisis are a recurring feature of 2 Maccabees, which reports several of them. "Shaking his armour of gold" means brandishing golden weapons.
11:10
The Greek says they advanced in formation, that is, in ordered battle ranks; the King James "in their armour" points to the same picture of an army drawn up for battle.
11:12
"Naked" in the King James does not mean unclothed. It means stripped of armor and equipment, the standard picture of a soldier who has thrown away his gear to run faster.
11:13
Hebrews is another name for the Jews. Almighty means stronger than anyone else.
11:16
The rest of this chapter copies out four real letters. People kept letters like these, and the writer put them in his book.
11:17
John and Absalom are otherwise unknown; they act here as the negotiating delegation sent by the Jewish side. "The petition subscribed" means the written petition attached below.
11:19
"Loyal to the state" translates a phrase meaning goodwill toward the royal government. Lysias is offering protection in exchange for the Jews staying out of further revolt.
11:21
Dates in this period are given in the Seleucid era, counted from the founding of the dynasty in 312 BC, so year 148 is roughly 164 BC. "Dioscorinthius" is a month name found nowhere else and is probably a garbled form of a Macedonian month; the Seleucid administration used the Macedonian calendar.
11:22
"Brother" is another Seleucid court title for a senior official, not a family relationship. Which Antiochus wrote this letter is disputed: since it speaks of "our father" as already dead, it reads as a letter of the boy king Antiochus V, while the letter in verses 27 to 33 appears to come from his father Antiochus IV while he was still alive. The four documents in this chapter are not in chronological order.
11:23
"Translated unto the gods" is the ordinary Greek court formula for a king's death; Hellenistic rulers were officially declared divine when they died. Antiochus IV had taken the title Epiphanes, "God made manifest."
11:24
Antiochus IV had tried to force Jewish practice into line with Greek religion and customs, banning the Sabbath, circumcision and the Jewish law. The request here is for that policy to be reversed.
11:25
The temple in Jerusalem had been seized in 167 BC and used for Greek worship. "Restore them their temple" means handing the building back for Jewish use.
11:27
"The council" is the gerousia, the body of elders that governed Jewish internal affairs in Jerusalem under foreign rule.
11:28
The opening of this letter follows the standard Greek letter formula of the period, a set exchange of courtesies about health rather than a personal remark.
11:29
Menelaus had bought the high priesthood from Antiochus IV and backed the king's Greek reforms, which makes him the government's man rather than a neutral messenger. "Return home" refers to Jews who had fled Jerusalem during the persecution and fighting.
11:30
Xanthicus is a month in the Macedonian calendar used by the Seleucid administration, falling roughly in March and April. The offer is a dated amnesty: those who come in by the deadline are safe.
11:31
"Meats" in the King James means food of any kind, not flesh in particular. The point is the Jewish dietary laws, which the persecution had forbidden. "Things ignorantly done" is legal language for offenses committed without full knowledge, the usual basis for an official pardon.
11:33
Year 148 of the Seleucid era, about 164 BC. This letter is dated to the fifteenth of Xanthicus, which falls before the twenty-fourth of Dioscorinthius in verse 21 if the two calendars line up, another sign that the documents have been copied into the book out of sequence.
11:34
Rome was by this time the dominant power in the eastern Mediterranean and dealt directly with subject peoples of the Seleucid kingdom. The second envoy's name appears as Manius in some manuscripts and Manlius in others.
11:36
Antioch, on the Orontes river in Syria, was the capital of the Seleucid kingdom. "That we may declare as it is convenient for you" means so that we can put the terms in a form that suits your case.

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