Key Verse Spotlight
2 Maccabees 12:44 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" For if he wasn’t expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would be superfluous and idle to pray for the dead. "
2 Maccabees 12:44
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
42 turned themselves to supplication, praying that the sin committed might be wholly blotted out. The noble Judas exhorted the multitude to keep themselves from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.
43 When he had made a collection man by man to the sum of two thousand drachmas of silver, he sent to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice for sin, doing very well and honorably in this, in that he took thought for the resurrection.
44 For if he wasn’t expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would be superfluous and idle to pray for the dead.
45 But if he was looking forward to an honorable memorial of gratitude laid up for those who die in godliness, then the thought was holy and godly. Therefore he made the atoning sacrifice for those who had died, that they might be released from their sin.
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2 Maccabees 12:1
"So when this agreement had been made, Lysias departed to the king, and the Jews went about their farming."
2 Maccabees 12:2
"But some of the governors of districts, Timotheus and Apollonius the son of Gennaeus, and also Hieronymus and Demophon, and beside them Nicanor the governor of Cyprus, would not allow them to enjoy tranquillity and live in peace."
2 Maccabees 12:3
"Men of Joppa perpetrated this great impiety: they invited the Jews who lived among them to go with their wives and children into the boats which they had provided, as though they had no ill will toward them."
2 Maccabees 12:4
"When the Jews, relying on the public vote of the city, accepted the invitation, as men desiring to live in peace and suspecting nothing, they took them out to sea and drowned not less than two hundred of them."
2 Maccabees 12:5
"When Judas heard of the cruelty done to his fellow countrymen, giving command to the men that were with him"
2 Maccabees 12:6
"and calling upon God the righteous Judge, he came against the murderers of his kindred, and set the harbor on fire at night, burned the boats, and put to the sword those who had fled there."
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