8:3. “… stood at the altar, having a golden censer….”

2 Maccabees 2:4-8: “It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God.  And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance.  Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it.  When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: ‘The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy.  And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated.”

 

Note on 2 Maccabees 2:4: “Solomon brought the tent to Jerusalem with the ark (1 Kg.8.4).  there is no further record in the Old Testament of the tent, but the ark was kept in the first temple; according to a later tradition Jeremiah concealed the ark after the temple was destroyed in 587-6 B.C….” (OAA p. 265).  See also 11:19 below.

 

John the Revelator sees that the altar of incense is disclosed, meaning that God has gathered His people, in Christ.

 

8:5. “Fire”.

                 2 Maccabees 2:1: “One finds in the records that Jeremiah the prophet ordered those who were being deported to take some of the fire….”

 

8:5. “…and there were peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

2 Esdras 3:19: “And thy glory passed through the four gates of fire and earthquake and wind and ice, to give the law to the descendants of Jacob, and thy commandment to the posterity of Israel.”

 

2 Esdras 6:15-16: “…while the voice is speaking, do not be terrified; because the word concerns the end, and the foundations of the earth will understand that the speech concerns them.  They will tremble and be shaken, for they know that their end must be changed.”

 

2 Esdras 9:1-6: “Measure carefully in your mind, and when you see that a certain part of the predicted signs are past, then you will know that it is the very time when the Most High is about to visit the world which he has made.  So when there shall appear in the world earthquakes, tumult of peoples, intrigues of nations, wavering of leaders, confusion of princes, then you will know that it was of these that the Most High spoke from the days that were of old, from the beginning.

 

“For just as with everything that has occurred in the world, the beginning is evident, and the end manifest; so also are the times of the Most High: the beginnings are manifest in wonders and mighty works, and the end in requital (note f “effects”) and in signs.”

 

Sirach 39:29: “Fire and hail and famine and pestilence, all these have been created for vengeance….”

 

2 Maccabees 1:18-9 mentions the feast of the fire.  Note on these verses: “…. The feast of the fire …Fire and light are associated with Hanukkah, which is celebrated with a nine-branched candlestick.  A Talmudic tradition tells of a small amount of oil that burned miraculously for a long time till new oil could be consecrated.” (OAA p. 264).

 

8:8. “Sea became blood”

2 Maccabees 12:16: “They took the city by the will of God, and slaughtered untold numbers, so that the adjoining lake, a quarter of a mile wide, appeared to be running over with blood.”