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===Second Maccabees and the Early Church===

===Second Maccabees and the Early Church===

Although this book began to be excluded by the rabbis from the canon of Hebrew Scriptures after the rise of Christianity at the end of A.D. the 1st century—apparently because it was written in Greek, and after the time of Ezra and Malachi, and not in Israel or Judah—it had been included in the earlier rabbinical Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint used by the Jews of the Diaspora. The early Christians used the same Septuagint to preach the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire, where Greek was the lingua franca, and thus from the very beginning of Christianity the Second Book of Maccabees was already a part of the Bible of the apostles, and it has been so retained in the Old Testament of the Greek Bible since the 1st century. As has already been mentioned above, there are many theological and eschatological points of contact between 2 Maccabees and the beliefs of the early Christians. The early Church could point to 2 Maccabees 5:19 as support for their belief that the Temple had been supeceded by the risen Messiah. They could also see the close resemblance between the words of the Maccabean Martyrs in 2 Maccabees 7 and the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:28, an understanding which is part of the ancient Christian traditional reading of these texts.

Although this book began to be excluded by the rabbis from the canon of Hebrew Scriptures after the rise of Christianity at the end of A.D. the 1st century—apparently because it was written in Greek, and after the time of Ezra and Malachi, and not in Israel or Judah—it had been included in the earlier rabbinical Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint used by the Jews of the Diaspora. The early Christians used the same Septuagint to preach the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire, where Greek was the lingua franca, and thus from the very beginning of Christianity the Second Book of Maccabees was already a part of the Bible of the apostles, and it has been so retained in the Old Testament of the Greek Bible since the 1st century. As has already been mentioned above, there are many theological and eschatological points of contact between 2 Maccabees and the beliefs of the early Christians. The early Church could point to 2 Maccabees 5:19 as support for their belief that the Temple had been superceded by the risen Messiah. They could also see the close resemblance between the words of the Maccabean Martyrs in 2 Maccabees 7 and the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:28, an understanding which is part of the ancient Christian traditional reading of these texts.

The practice of offering sacrifices for, praying for, and willingly submitting to suffering on behalf of sinners—both for sinners who are still alive and for sinners who are already dead—is  another point of continuity of doctrine between 2 Maccabees and Christianity. But this practice has its deeper roots in the days of Abraham, as can be seen in Genesis 18:23-32 and 20:7, and is mentioned with approval in 2 Maccabees 3:31-33; 7:38; and 12:40-46, and it may be found even today in Orthodox Judaism and most of Christianity. For some students of history and of the Bible the Apostle Paul also seems to allude to this practice in 1 Corinthians 15:29, where he mentions Christians undergoing penitential "baptisms" on behalf of the dead, interpreting these in the sense of Mark 10:38, and Colossians 1:24, as meaning self-sacrificial suffering fully united to the single unique atonement of Christ himself suffering for and with and in them as his body, rather than literal water baptisms. However, other readings of this text see in it the practice of an intercessory and substitutionary water baptism of salvation for the souls of those who had died without being able to receive it, as a divinely ordained legal procedure on their behalf, which is the reading of members of [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]].

The practice of offering sacrifices for, praying for, and willingly submitting to suffering on behalf of sinners—both for sinners who are still alive and for sinners who are already dead—is  another point of continuity of doctrine between 2 Maccabees and Christianity. But this practice has its deeper roots in the days of Abraham, as can be seen in Genesis 18:23-32 and 20:7, and is mentioned with approval in 2 Maccabees 3:31-33; 7:38; and 12:40-46, and it may be found even today in Orthodox Judaism and most of Christianity. For some students of history and of the Bible the Apostle Paul also seems to allude to this practice in 1 Corinthians 15:29, where he mentions Christians undergoing penitential "baptisms" on behalf of the dead, interpreting these in the sense of Mark 10:38, and Colossians 1:24, as meaning self-sacrificial suffering fully united to the single unique atonement of Christ himself suffering for and with and in them as his body, rather than literal water baptisms. However, other readings of this text see in it the practice of an intercessory and substitutionary water baptism of salvation for the souls of those who had died without being able to receive it, as a divinely ordained legal procedure on their behalf, which is the reading of members of [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]].