Sourced narrative
Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.
3 statements
Statements for this event
In 161 BCE Judah defeated Nicanor, the Seleucid general who had vowed to tear down the Temple. The narrative of 2 Maccabees closes with this victory. Judah fell in battle; the struggle continued under his brothers, first Jonathan and, after Jonathan's death, Simon.
Context
2 Maccabees is the abridgment of a five-volume work, now lost, by one Jason of Cyrene. Although it sets Judaism against Hellenism, it was written in Greek and imitates Greek literature: the problem, as 2 Maccabees 4:13 puts it, was 'Hellenization carried to an extreme', that is, Greek practices contrary to the laws of Moses.
§ 01Geography
Where it happened
§ 02Museum
Objects and images
§ 04Network
Connections
§ 05Bibliography
Further reading
No specific reading recorded for this event.
§ 06Apparatus
Sources on this page
- 01Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 76inspect
- 02Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 76inspect
- 03Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 78; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 79inspect
- Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
- Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
- Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
- Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
- Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.