Texts in Conversation
When a foreign official threatens the temple in 2 Maccabees, the young women normally kept indoors rush into the streets to pray. 3 Maccabees describes the women of Jerusalem the same way as the Egyptian king Philopator threatens the sanctuary.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Maccabees 3:19
Deuterocanon
18 Those who were in the houses rushed out in crowds to make a universal supplication, because the place was about to come into dishonor. 19 The women, wearing sackcloth under their breasts, thronged the streets. The virgins who were kept indoors ran together, some to the gates, others to the walls, and some looked out through the windows. 20 All, stretching out their hands toward heaven, made their solemn supplication.
Date: 160–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
3 Maccabees 1:18
Deuterocanon
17 then those who had been left behind in the city were scared, and rushed out, uncertain of the event. 18 Virgins, who had been shut up within their chambers, came out with their mothers, scattering dust and ashes on their heads, and filling the streets with outcries. 19 Women who had recently been arrayed for marriage left their bridal chambers, left the reserve that befitted them, and ran around the city in a disorderly manner.
Date: 100 BCE – 70 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... in the parallel accounts of the reactions of the city to the plans of Philopator and Heliodorus, each narrative portrays how the people 'hurry out' (ἐκπεδάω) of their houses in order to pray for the deliverance of the temple (2 Maccabees 3:18 || 3 Maccabees 1:17). Both stories also include a notice that certain 'women who were kept inside' (2 Maccabees 3:19 – αἱ κατάκλειστοι τῶν παρθένων || 3 Maccabees 1:18 – αἵ τε κατάκλειστοι παρθένοι) came out in order to pray for the divine protection of the temple. During their prayers, either women (2 Maccabees 3:20) or Simon (3 Maccabees 2:1) stretch out their arms (προτείνω τὰς χεῖρας). ...
Jonathan Robert Trotter, The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora: Jewish Practice and Thought during the Second Temple Period, JSJSup 192 (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 184–185.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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