Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction -- The content and character of Second Maccabees -- The sources of First Maccabees and the abridged history -- The historical methods of Jason of Cyrene -- When were the histories written and how are they interrelated? -- What really happened: the civic and religious policies of Antiochus IV -- What really happened: chronological table -- The witnesses to the text -- Selected Bibliography -- Translation and notes -- Epistle 1: A call to the Jews of Egypt to repent and observe the Festival of Tabernacles in the Month of Kislev (1:1-10a) -- Epistle 2: A forged letter to the Egyptian Jews purporting to have been written in 164 B.C.E. (1:10b--2:18) -- The abridger's preface (2:19-32) -- The miraculous thwarting of Heliodorus (3:1-40) -- The atrocious sins of the Hellenizing usurpers (4:1-50) -- How Jason rebelled and Antiochus punished Jerusalem (5:1-27) -- The imposed cult and the persecution (6:1-17) -- The martyrdom of Eleazar (6:18-31) -- The martyrdom of the mother and her seven sons (7:1-42) -- Judas' first victories (8:1-36) -- The death of Antiochus IV (9:1-29) -- The festival of purification (10:1-8) -- Troubles early in the reign of Antiochus V (10:9-38) -- The first expedition of Lysias and the end of the persecution (11:1-38) -- Local wars (12:1-45) -- The expedition of Antiochus V and Lysias (13:1-26) -- The reign of Demetrius I: The high priest Alcimus and the career and fall of the Governor Nicanor (14:1--15:36) -- The abridger's epilogue (15:37-39).