Recent Research in 2 Maccabees

Abstract

This article discusses the study of 2 Maccabees since c. 1975, focusing on issues pertaining to chronology; the unity, structure and purpose of the book; the date and provenance of the book; and literary criticism. Because 2 Mac cabees stresses the role of the supernatural in relating history, scholars have considered the book to be inferior to 1 Maccabees as a historical source. Recent scholarship, however, is more nuanced in its view of both books: 1 Maccabees is more theological and concerned with literary structuring than previous generations of scholars thought; and 2 Maccabees is more historical and trustworthy than scholars have long considered it to be.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 9 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.