Second Book of Maccabees 1

¹ Greetings to their brothers, the Jews in Egypt, from their brothers, the Jews in Jerusalem and in the country of Judaea, and prosperity and peace.

² May God prosper you, remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants.

³ May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a generous mind and a willing spirit.

⁴ May he open your hearts to his Law and his precepts, and give you peace.

⁵ May he hear your prayers and be reconciled with you, and not abandon you in time of evil.

⁶ Here we are now praying for you.

⁷ When Demetrius was king, in the year one hundred and sixty-nine, we Jews wrote to you as follows, ‘in the desperate affliction that has come on us in these years since Jason and his associates betrayed the Holy Land and the kingdom,

⁸ they burned the Temple gateway and shed innocent blood. Then we prayed to the Lord and were heard; we offered a sacrifice with wheat-flour, kindled the lamps and set out the loaves’.

⁹ And we now recommend you to keep the feast of Tabernacles of the month of Chislev. In the year one hundred and eighty-eight[*a].

¹⁰ The people of Jerusalem and of Judaea, the senate and Judas[*c], to Aristobulus, tutor to King Ptolemy and one of the family of the anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt, greetings and good health.

¹¹ Since we have been rescued by God from great dangers, we give him great thanks for championing our cause against the king,

¹² for it was He who drove out those who had taken up arms against the Holy City.

¹³ For when their leader reached Persia with his seemingly irresistible army, he was cut to pieces in the temple of Nanaea[*d], as the result of a ruse employed by the priests who served that goddess.

¹⁴ On the pretext of making a marriage with Nanaea, Antiochus came to the place with his friends, intending to take its many treasures as a dowry.

¹⁵ The priests of Nanaea had put these on display, and he entered the sacred is precincts with a small retinue. As soon as Antiochus was inside they closed the temple,

¹⁶ opened the secret door in the ceiling and struck down the leader and his party by hurling stones like thunderbolts. They then dismembered them, cut off their heads and flung them to those outside.

¹⁷ Blessed in all things be our God, who has given the godless their deserts!

¹⁸ As we shall be celebrating the purification of the Temple on the twenty-fifth of Chislev, we consider it proper to notify you, so that you may celebrate the feast of Tabernacles and of the fire that appeared when Nehemiah, the builder of the Temple and the altar, offered sacrifice.

¹⁹ For when our ancestors were being deported to Persia the devout priests of the time took some of the fire from the altar and hid it secretly in the hollow of a dry well, where they concealed it in such a way that the place was unknown to anyone.

²⁰ When some years had elapsed, in God’s good time, Nehemiah, commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to recover it; but they notified us that they had found not fire but a thick liquid. Nehemiah ordered them to draw some out and bring it back.

²¹ When the materials for the sacrifice had been set out, Nehemiah ordered the priests to pour the liquid over the wood and what lay on it.

²² When this had been done, and when in due course the sun, which had previously been clouded over, shone out, a great fire flared up, to the astonishment of all.

²³ While the sacrifice was being burned, the priests and all those present with the priests offered prayer, Jonathan intoning and the rest responding with Nehemiah.

²⁴ The prayer took this form: ‘Lord, Lord God, creator of all things, dreadful, strong, just, merciful, the only king and benefactor,

²⁵ the only provider, who alone are just, almighty and everlasting, the deliverer of Israel from every evil, who made our fathers your chosen ones and sanctified them,

²⁶ accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel, and protect your heritage and consecrate it.

²⁷ Bring together those of us who are dispersed, set free those in slavery among the heathen, look favourably on those held in contempt or abhorrence, and let the heathen know that you are our God.

²⁸ Punish those who oppress us and affront us by their insolence,

²⁹ and plant your people firmly in your Holy Place, as Moses promised.’

³⁰ The priests then chanted hymns.

³¹ When the sacrifice was all burned, Nehemiah ordered the remaining liquid to be poured over large stones,

³² and when this was done a flame flared up, to be absorbed in the corresponding blaze of light from the altar.

³³ When the matter became known and the king of the Persians heard that in the place where the exiled priests had hidden the fire a liquid had appeared, with which Nehemiah and his people had purified the materials of the sacrifice,

³⁴ the king after verifying the facts, had the place enclosed and pronounced sacred.

³⁵ The king exchanged many valuable presents with those who enjoyed his favour.

³⁶ Nehemiah and his people termed this stuff ‘nephtar’, which means ‘purification’, but it is generally called ‘naphtha’.