Date of composition

• Sometime after 1 Maccabees, perhaps 50 years later, c. 125 BC.

Type of book

• Deuterocanonical (means "secondary or less sacred scripture") for Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and some Anglican and Lutheran churches.
• Apocrypha for most Protestant churches.
• Although it is not in the Hebrew Bible, Jews regard it as a primary historical source for recapturing Israel from the Seleucids around 170 BC.

Length

• 55 double-spaced pages with 15 chapters.

Summary

• Whereas 1 Maccabees is mainly an historical account of the Jews's actions in reclaiming their land in the second century BC, 2 Maccabees analyzes different parts of that history. 2 Maccabees is more of an appendix that provides additional details about the events described in 1 Maccabees. It is clear that the author wrote this to aswer questions people had after reading 1 Maccabees.

Noteworthy from the book

• This book includes verses that Catholics believe support the idea of Purgatory. The backstory to these verses is that the Jews fought a battle in which some Jewish soldiers were killed. I will pick up the story at II Maccabees 12:39-46:
• (39) On the following day, since the task had now become urgent, Judas and his companions went to gather up the bodies of the fallen and bury them with their kindred in their ancestral tombs. (40) But under the tunic of each of the dead they found amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. So it was clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. (41) They all therefore praised the ways of the Lord, the just judge who brings to light the things that are hidden. (42) Turning to supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. (43) He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; (44) for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. (45) But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. (46) Thus, he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.
• This is the earliest report of Jews praying for the dead. This idea was later carried over into the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church as prayers for the dead and Purgatory.
• We learn a little about the formation of Hanukkah c. 164 BC from 10:6-8. However, only that it was eight days long and was established as an ongoing festival: "And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts. Therefore, they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them success in cleansing his place. They ordained also by a common statute and decree, that every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews."
• We learn more from the Talmud, which retained oral teaching and commentary until it was written down beginning in the AD 200s: "Then the hand of the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) was made strong and they defeated the Greeks, they check [in the Temple] and only found one jar of oil sealed with the mark of the High Priest which remained undefiled. Though there was only enough in it to light it for one day, a miracle occurred through it, and they lit the Temple lamps from it for eight days. The following year, they decreed these to be eight days of celebration."
• Therefore, Hanukah is also known as the "Festival of Lights."