Ah. Thanks for the explanation.
[15] When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. [16] Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: [17] And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: [18] And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. [19] And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. [20] But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath. |
And forthwith they went out towards them, and made war against them on the sabbath day, [33] And they said to them: Do you still resist? come forth, and do according to the edict of king Antiochus, and you shall live. [34] And they said: We will not come forth, neither will we obey the king's edict, to profane the sabbath day.
[35] And they made haste to give them battle.
[36] But they answered them not, neither did they cast a stone at them, nor stopped up the secret places,
[37] Saying: Let us all die in our innocency: and heaven and earth shall be witnesses for us, that you put us to death wrongfully.
[38] So they gave them battle on the sabbath: and they were slain with their wives, and their children, and their cattle, to the number of a thousand persons
one of Seleucus' descendents, Antiochus IV Epiphanes was determined to impose hellenic religion and civilization on the Jews. He wanted to (and DID) put an idol in the Temple on Jerusalem.
Maccabees tells about how the Jews struggled for decades against an all-powerful enemy, how they came close to being destroyed forever
These books were included in Martin Luther's German Bible and in the first King James Version (1611) and the Gutenberg Bible (15th century). They were included in nearly all Bibles until removed by the Edinburgh Committee in 1825
These books are referred to in the NT, for example, in Hebrews 11:35
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection |