Why do the letters invite Egyptian Jews to the dedication observance?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The letters recall deliverance, restored worship and the remembered fire account while requesting common observance.

Chapter breakdown

Jerusalem’s and Judea’s Jews greet their brethren throughout Egypt with health and peace. They pray for God’s grace and remembrance of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; willing hearts to worship and do his will; understanding of law and commandments; peace, heard prayers, reconciliation and help in evil times. They say they pray for them. Recalling their letter during Demetrius’s reign in year 169, they describe trouble after Jason left the holy land and kingdom: a burned gate and innocent blood, followed by prayer heard, sacrifices, fine flour, lamps and loaves. They urge Casleu’s Scenopegia observance. The note identifies this as the altar dedication, or Encenia, called Tabernacles because of similar solemnity.

A greeting dated year 188 names Jerusalem and Judea’s people, senate and Judas, addressing Aristobolus, Ptolemee’s preceptor of anointed priestly stock, and Egypt’s Jews. They thank God for deliverance from dangers and war with a king. The edition identifies that king as Antiochus Sidetes, recalling war during Simon’s life and Jerusalem’s siege under John Hircanus. It explicitly excludes Judas Machabeus as the named Judas, stating he had died before 188 and giving 146 with cross-references. It proposes either John Hircanus’s eldest son Judas or Judas the Essene, known for prophecy. These are the annotation’s identifications and alternatives, not a silently settled identity.

The letter describes men coming from Persia against them and the holy city, then the leader’s fall in Nanea’s temple through her priests’ counsel. The note calls Nanea a Persian goddess identified by some with Diana and others Venus; Juno is absent. Antiochus and friends approach as though to marry her and obtain money as dowry. The priests display it; he enters with a small company. They close the temple, open a secret entrance, throw stones, kill and dismember the leader and companions, and cast out their severed heads. No ceiling opening or invincible army is specified. The writers bless God for delivering up the wicked; this reported killing is not generalized into a guarantee that every impious ruler meets immediate ruin.

They announce temple purification on Casleu 25 and invite observance of Scenopegia and the fire given when Nehemias offered sacrifice after altar and temple construction. Their remembered account says that at the fathers’ removal to Persia, priests secretly hid altar fire in a deep dry valley pit unknown to other people. The note explains Persia here as Babylonia, later part of Persia’s empire. Many years afterward, Nehemias, sent by Persia’s king, sends the priests’ descendants to search. They reportedly find thick water instead of fire. He orders it drawn and the laid sacrifices, wood and other things sprinkled. When the sun emerges from cloud, a great fire kindles, astonishing all. The text supplies this sequence without chemical properties or a claim that sunlight alone establishes a repeatable reaction.

While the sacrifice burns, priests pray with Jonathan beginning and the rest answering. Nehemias’s prayer calls God creator, dreadful and strong, just, merciful, gracious, almighty and eternal, the good king who delivers Israel and chose and sanctified the fathers. It asks acceptance of Israel’s sacrifice and preservation and sanctification of his portion; gathering of the scattered, liberation of Gentile-held slaves and regard for the despised; recognition of Israel’s God, punishment of proud oppressors and establishment in the holy place as Moses said. Hymns continue until consumption of the sacrifice.

Nehemias then orders the remaining water over great stones. A flame rises but is consumed by the altar’s light. The public report reaches Persia’s king, who examines the matter and makes a temple for it to prove what occurred. The annotation explains an enclosure or wall around the place where fire was hidden, separating it from profane use; a spring is not specified. After proving the matter he gives priests goods and presents with his own hand. Nehemias calls the place Nephthar, interpreted purification; many call it Nephi.

The story inside

The fire story is given as a remembered account in a letter: descendants report thick water where hidden fire had been sought. Nehemias orders sprinkling, and the sun’s appearance precedes the fire. Prayer, hymns, the remaining water and the king’s inquiry follow. Preserving that narration does not supply a physical mechanism or turn the miracle into a reproducible instruction.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The edition’s alternatives for Judas’s identity are retained; Judas Machabeus is expressly excluded in that note.
2
Nanea’s note names Diana and Venus, while the killing uses a secret entrance rather than a specified ceiling.
3
The prayer’s requests include slaves, scattered people, oppressors and the holy place; a brief ingathering paraphrase alone omits them.

Test your recall

Who begins the priests’ prayer while the sacrifice burns?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 107955–107995
1:10. In the year one hundred and eighty-eight, the people that is at Jerusalem, and in Judea, and the senate, and Judas, to Aristobolus, the preceptor of king Ptolemee, who is of the stock of the anointed priests, and to the Jews that are in Egypt, health and welfare. 1:11. Having been delivered by God out of great dangers, we give him great thanks, forasmuch as we have been in war with such a king. Such a king.... Viz., Antiochus Sidetes, who began to make war upon the Jews, whilst Simon was yet alive. 1 Mac. 15.39. And afterwards besieged Jerusalem under John Hircanus. So that the Judas here mentioned, ver. 10, is not Judas Machabeus, who was dead long before the year 188 of the kingdom of the Greeks, for he died in the year 146 of that epoch, (see above 1 Mac. chap. 2., ver. 70, also the note on chap. 1, ver. 2,) but either Judas the eldest son of John Hircanus, or Judas the Essene, renowned for the gift of prophecy, who flourished about that time. 1:12. For he made numbers of men swarm out of Persia, that have fought against us, and the holy city. 1:13. For when the leader himself was in Persia, and with him a very great army, he fell in the temple of Nanea, being deceived by the counsel of the priests of Nanea. Nanea.... A Persian goddess, which some have taken for Diana, others for Venus. 1:14. For Antiochus, with his friends, came to the place as though he would marry her, and that he might receive great sums of money under the title of a dowry. 1:15. And when the priests of Nanea had set it forth, and he with a small company had entered into the compass of the temple, they shut the temple, 1:16. When Antiochus was come in: and opening a secret entrance of the temple, they cast stones and slew the leader, and them that were with him, and hewed them in pieces; and cutting off their heads, they threw them forth. 1:17. Blessed be God in all things, who hath delivered up the wicked.
Lines 108025–108073
1:23. And all the priests made prayer, while the sacrifice was consuming, Jonathan beginning, and the rest answering. 1:24. And the prayer of Nehemias was after this manner: O Lord God, Creator of all things, dreadful and strong, just and merciful, who alone art the good king, 1:25. Who alone art gracious, who alone art just, and almighty, and eternal, who deliverest Israel from all evil, who didst choose the fathers, and didst sanctify them: 1:26. Receive the sacrifice for all thy people Israel, and preserve thy own portion, and sanctify it. 1:27. Gather together our scattered people, deliver them that are slaves to the Gentiles, and look upon them that are despised and abhorred: that the Gentiles may know that thou art our God. 1:28. Punish them that oppress us, and that treat us injuriously with pride. 1:29. Establish thy people in thy holy place, as Moses hath spoken. 1:30. And the priests sung hymns till the sacrifice was consumed. 1:31. And when the sacrifice was consumed, Nehemias commanded the water that was left to be poured out upon the great stones. 1:32. Which being done, there was kindled a flame from them: but it was consumed by the light that shined from the altar. 1:33. And when this matter became public, it was told to the king of Persia, that in the place where the priests that were led away, had hid the fire, there appeared water, with which Nehemias and they that were with him had purified the sacrifices. 1:34. And the king considering, and diligently examining the matter, made a temple for it, that he might prove what had happened. A temple.... That is, an enclosure, or a wall round about the place where the fire was hid, to separate it from profane uses, to the end that it might be respected as a holy place. 1:35. And when he had proved it, he gave the priests many goods, and divers presents, and he took and distributed them to them with his own hand. 1:36. And Nehemias called this place Nephthar, which is interpreted purification. But many call it Nephi.