| OLD TESTAMENT | NEW TESTAMENT | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 7 Books | Old Testament History | Wisdom Books | Major Prophets | Minor Prophets | NT History | Epistles of St. Paul | General Writings | |||
| Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuter. Joshua Judges | Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chron. 2 Chron. | Ezra Nehem. Tobit Judith Esther 1 Macc. 2 Macc. | Job Psalms Proverbs Eccles. Songs Wisdom Sirach | Isaiah Jeremiah Lament. Baruch Ezekiel Daniel | Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah | Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi | Matthew Mark Luke John Acts | Romans 1 Corinth. 2 Corinth. Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians | 1 Thess. 2 Thess. 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews | James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation |
| 1 |
1 To their brethren, the Jews of Egypt, those of Jerusalem and Judaea send brotherly greeting and good health.[1] 2 God speed you well, the covenant he made with his true worshippers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, never forgetting; 3 reverent hearts may he give to all of you, brave and generous to perform his will; 4 with law and precept of his enlarge your thoughts, and send you happiness; 5 may he listen to your prayer, and be gracious, and in the hour of peril never forsake you! 6 Take courage, then; we in this land are praying for you. 7 Time was, in the hundred and sixty-ninth year, when Demetrius was a-reigning, we ourselves were writing to you in the midst of suffering and alarms. Much had we to undergo, when Jason would betray his own country, his own people; 8 here was the gateway burnt to the ground, here were innocent lives forfeited. Cried we upon the Lord, and all our prayers were answered; burnt-sacrifice and bloodless offering were made, lamps lighted, and loaves set forth in the temple as of old! 9 Look to it, then, you make bowers and keep holiday in this month of Casleu.[2] 10 Written in the hundred and eighty-eighth year. The common folk of Jerusalem and Judaea,[3] their council of elders, and I, Judas, to Aristobulus, of the anointed priestly race, that was master of king Ptolemy, and to the Jews of Egypt, greeting and health. 11 Great thanks we owe to God, that from the extreme of peril has delivered us; ay, though we had such a king for our adversary, 12 as could bring in hordes of men from Persia, both us and our holy city to subdue.[4] |
1 Fratribus qui sunt per Ægyptum Judæis, salutem dicunt fratres qui sunt in Jerosolymis Judæi, et qui in regione Judææ, et pacem bonam. 2 Benefaciat vobis Deus, et meminerit testamenti sui, quod locutus est ad Abraham, et Isaac, et Jacob servorum suorum fidelium: 3 et det vobis cor omnibus ut colatis eum, et faciatis ejus voluntatem, corde magno et animo volenti. 4 Adaperiat cor vestrum in lege sua, et in præceptis suis, et faciat pacem. 5 Exaudiat orationes vestras, et reconcilietur vobis, nec vos deserat in tempore malo. 6 Et nunc hic sumus orantes pro vobis. 7 Regnante Demetrio, anno centesimo sexagesimo nono, nos Judæi scripsimus vobis in tribulatione et impetu qui supervenit nobis in istis annis, ex quo recessit Jason a sancta terra, et a regno. 8 Portam succenderunt, et effuderunt sanguinem innocentem: et oravimus ad Dominum, et exauditi sumus, et obtulimus sacrificium et similaginem, et accendimus lucernas, et proposuimus panes. 9 Et nunc frequentate dies scenopegiæ mensis Casleu. 10 Anno centesimo octogesimo octavo, populus qui est Jerosolymis et in Judæa, senatusque et Judas, Aristobolo magistro Ptolemæi regis, qui est de genere christorum sacerdotum, et his qui in Ægypto sunt Judæis, salutem et sanitatem. 11 De magnis periculis a Deo liberati, magnifice gratias agimus ipsi, utpote qui adversus talem regem dimicavimus. 12 Ipse enim ebullire fecit de Perside eos qui pugnaverunt contra nos et sanctam civitatem. |
| 13 |
13 What became of him, think you, the general that marched away into Persia with a countless army at his heels?[5] He met his end in the temple of Nanea, through guile of the priests that served it. 14 Thither Antiochus had come with his friends, putting it about that he would wed the goddess, and laying claim to a great part of her treasures under the title of dowry. 15 The priests, then, had the money laid out in readiness; into the precincts he came, with a meagre retinue, and they, now that Antiochus was within, shut the temple gates. 16 Thereupon, letting themselves in by their secret door, they killed the general and his company with throwing of stones, cut them limb from limb, and threw them down headless to the populace without. 17 Blessed, upon every account, be this God of ours, that denies protection to the sinner! 18 We, then, on this twenty-fifth day of Casleu, mean to solemnize the purification of the temple, and hold ourselves bound to notify you of it, so that you too may keep holiday, with making of bowers. … … And of the fire imparted to us, when Nehemias offered sacrifice at the re-building of temple and altar.[6] 19 Long ago, when our fathers were being carried off into the Persian country, such priests of the true God as held office in those days took away the fire from the altar, and hid it down in the valley, in a pit both deep and dry, so well guarding their secret that none might know where it was to be found. 20 Years passed, and God’s will was that Nehemias should come back, holding the Persian king’s warrant. Nehemias it was that had search made for the fire, and by the grandsons of those very priests that hid it; but they made report, fire they could find none, only a puddle of water.[7] 21 And what did Nehemias? He would have some of the water drawn and fetched to him; with this water, once the sacrifice was laid on the altar, both the wood and the offerings themselves must be sprinkled. 22 Sprinkled they were, and when the sun shone out, that till now was hidden by a cloud, all at once a great fire blazed up, astonishing the beholders. |
13 Nam cum in Perside esset dux ipse, et cum ipso immensus exercitus, cecidit in templo Naneæ, consilio deceptus sacerdotum Naneæ. 14 Etenim cum ea habitaturus venit ad locum Antiochus et amici ejus, et ut acciperet pecunias multas dotis nomine. 15 Cumque proposuissent eas sacerdotes Naneæ, et ipse cum paucis ingressus esset intra ambitum fani, clauserunt templum, 16 cum intrasset Antiochus: apertoque occulto aditu templi, mittentes lapides percusserunt ducem et eos qui cum eo erant: et diviserunt membratim, et capitibus amputatis foras projecerunt. 17 Per omnia benedictus Deus, qui tradidit impios. 18 Facturi igitur quinta et vigesima die mensis Casleu purificationem templi, necessarium duximus significare vobis: ut et vos quoque agatis diem scenopegiæ, et diem ignis, qui datus est quando Nehemias ædificato templo et altari obtulit sacrificia. 19 Nam cum in Persidem ducerentur patres nostri, sacerdotes qui tunc cultores Dei erant, acceptum ignem de altari occulte absconderunt in valle, ubi erat puteus altus et siccus, et in eo contutati sunt eum, ita ut omnibus ignotus esset locus. 20 Cum autem præterissent anni multi, et placuit Deo ut mitteretur Nehemias a rege Persidis, nepotes sacerdotum illorum qui absconderant, misit ad requirendum ignem: et sicut narraverunt nobis, non invenerunt ignem, sed aquam crassam. 21 Et jussit eos haurire, et afferre sibi: et sacrificia quæ imposita erant, jussit sacerdos Nehemias aspergi ipsa aqua: et ligna, et quæ erant superposita. 22 Utque hoc factum est, et tempus affuit quo sol refulsit, qui prius erat in nubilo, accensus est ignis magnus, ita ut omnes mirarentur. |
| 23 προσευχὴ |
23 To prayer fell the priests all around, while sacrifice was done, Jonathan to lead them,[8] and the rest answering; 24 to prayer fell Nehemias, and this was the manner of his praying: Lord God, that all things madest, the terrible, the strong, the just, the merciful, King gracious as none else; 25 none else so kindly, none else so just, as thou, the almighty, the eternal! Israel from all peril thou deliverest, thou didst make choice of our fathers, and set them apart for thyself. 26 For the whole nation of Israel receive our sacrifice; all are thine; thy own domain keep inviolate. 27 Bring home the exiles; captives of the heathen conquer or set free; to the despised, the outcast grant redress; let the world know what a God is ours! 28 Crush the oppressor, the tyrant that so mishandles us, 29 and to thy own sanctuary, as Moses foretold, thy own people restore! | 23 Orationem autem faciebant omnes sacerdotes, dum consummaretur sacrificium, Jonatha inchoante, ceteris autem respondentibus. 24 Et Nehemiæ erat oratio hunc habens modum: Domine Deus omnium creator, terribilis et fortis, justus et misericors, qui solus est bonus rex, 25 solus præstans, solus justus et omnipotens et æternus, qui liberas Israël de omni malo; qui fecisti patres electos, et sanctificasti eos: 26 accipe sacrificium pro universo populo tuo Israël, et custodi partem tuam, et sanctifica. 27 Congrega dispersionem nostram, libera eos qui serviunt gentibus, et contemptos et abominatos respice, ut sciant gentes quia tu es Deus noster. 28 Afflige opprimentes nos, et contumeliam facientes in superbia. 29 Constitue populum tuum in loco sancto tuo, sicut dixit Moyses. |
| 30 |
30 Then, till the sacrifice was consumed, the priests went on with their singing of hymns; 31 and when all was finished, Nehemias would have them drench great stones with the water that was left. 32 Thereupon, a flame broke out from them, but died away when the altar fires blazed up again over yonder.[9] 33 The news travelled, till the Persian king himself was told how water appeared where exiled priests had hidden the fire, how, with this water, Nehemias and his company had bathed the sacrifice. 34 Good heed he gave to the matter, and after due examination fenced the ground in with a shrine, in witness of what befell there. 35 Largesse the priests had, and many were the gifts passed from hand to hand, when the truth of the matter was proved.[10] 36 As for the place, Nehemias himself called it Nephthar, which means Purification; but the vulgar call it Nephi. | 30 Sacerdotes autem psallebant hymnos usquequo consumptum esset sacrificium. 31 Cum autem consumptum esset sacrificium, ex residua aqua Nehemias jussit lapides majores perfundi. 32 Quod ut factum est, ex eis flamma accensa est: sed ex lumine quod refulsit ab altari, consumpta est. 33 Ut vero manifestata est res, renuntiatum est regi Persarum quod in loco in quo ignem absconderent hi qui translati fuerant sacerdotes, aqua apparuit, de qua Nehemias, et qui cum eo erant, purificaverunt sacrificia. 34 Considerans autem rex, et rem diligenter examinans, fecit ei templum, ut probaret quod factum erat: 35 et cum probasset, sacerdotibus donavit multa bona, et alia atque alia munera: et accipiens manu sua, tribuebat eis. 36 Appellavit autem Nehemias hunc locum Nephthar, quod interpretatur Purificatio: vocatur autem apud plures Nephi. |
[1] vv. 1-9. The first, it would seem, of a series of fragments prefixed to the book proper. If the date given at the end belongs to it, it must have been written about the year 125 before Christ, after the death of Simon.
[2] Here and in verse 18 the feast alluded to is not the feast of Tent-dwelling (Lev. 23.34), but that of the Dedication (I Mac. 4.59, Jn. 10.22) at which it appears that the same ceremonies were used.
[3] vv. 10-18. The date mentioned in verse 10 probably belongs to the earlier fragment, since the ancients usually dated their letters at the end, cf. 11.21, 33, 38 below. If so, this second fragment, undated, will have been written by Judas Machabaeus to Aristobulus, tutor of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philometor, some forty years earlier than verses 1-9.
[4] vv. 11, 12. The Latin here seems designed to make sense of a passage untranslatable, and probably corrupt, in the Greek text.
[5] vv. 13-16. If Antiochus Epiphanes is meant, the description of him as ‘the general’ is highly suspicious. It seems possible that no name was mentioned in the original, and that the word ‘Antiochus’ was twice introduced by a copyist, mistakenly anxious to identify the unnamed figure. If so, the fate we are concerned with is that of some general in command of Antiochus’s army; his own is described, quite differently, in 9.5 below.
[6] The Latin makes a single sentence of the whole verse, but by dint of concealing what is evidently a gap in the Greek text. The end of the second fragment seems to have been lost; and also the beginning of a third fragment, which occupies the rest of the chapter. The identity of Nehemias seems doubtful; the well-known governor of that name restored the walls of Jerusalem nearly a century after the rebuilding of the Temple. But a Nehemias is mentioned in I Esd. 2.2, Neh. 7.7, among the exiles who returned with Zorobabel. The description ‘Nehemias the priest’ in verse 21 is probably due to an error in our present Latin text.
[7] The ‘fire’ hidden in the pit was presumably a smouldering log, such as might be buried away at night to be re-lit in the morning. The ‘puddle of water’ (literally, ‘thick water’) found on the site was evidently something different, and there is no reason to think that its properties, natural or supernatural, belonged to the ‘fire’ originally deposited there.
[8] Jonathan was not the high priest, but the leader of a course of priests (Neh. 12.14).
[9] vv. 31, 32. The Greek text here is very doubtful, and perhaps indicates, not that the water was poured out on stones, but that stones were used to block up the hidden pool.
[10] In the Greek text, no mention is made of the priests; the Persian king exchanged gifts with his favourites, by way of celebrating the event (cf. Apoc. 11.10).
Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd
