When many acts of sacrilege had been committed in the city by Lysimachus with the connivance of Menelaus: The events of this section took place at the same time as those of the previous section, so Good News Bible begins with “Meanwhile,” which is helpful. Contemporary English Version is similar with “In the meantime.” Since the city is Jerusalem, a good beginning for this verse is “Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem….” Many acts of sacrilege had been committed refers specifically to thefts of a sacrilegious nature. Good News Bible expresses this as “had on numerous occasions robbed the Jerusalem Temple,” perhaps because the word sacrilege is a rather high-level word in English and there is no good equivalent at a lower level. Some translators may find the idea of sacrilege—an offense against what is holy—easily expressed; others may follow Good News Bible. At any rate, it should be made clear that the acts of sacrilege are robberies. Good News Bible joins this clause with the last one of the verse about the theft of gold vessels. This is a good idea, but there may be a better way of arranging the material (see the model below).

And when report of them had spread abroad, the populace gathered against Lysimachus: In this context the Greek word translated abroad almost certainly means “outside the city.” Good News Bible renders and when report of them had spread abroad as “When word of this spread around,” which is not good; it suggests that the news was circulating only in the city. Goldstein translates “When reports of the matter spread to the countryside,” which is better. It is not actually a matter of Jerusalem and its countryside, but of Jerusalem and other parts of the land of Judah, yet probably most of the people that came to the city on this occasion were from rural areas nearby. The populace refers not only to residents of Jerusalem, but to Jews from other parts of the country as well. The populace gathered against Lysimachus means a crowd gathered in Jerusalem and was threatening Lysimachus. So we may say “a crowd gathered to threaten Lysimachus.”

Because many of the gold vessels had already been stolen renders a participial clause in Greek; the connector because is added. Goldstein offers a better way of dealing with this clause, saying “By that time many gold vessels had already been sent abroad,” that is, sent out of the country. We recommend this and suggest rearranging the whole verse as follows:

• Meanwhile, word had reached Jews in the countryside [or, Jews in the countryside heard] that Lysimachus, with the approval of Menelaus, had stolen many sacred objects from the Temple, and that many of its gold objects were already out of the country. Crowds were gathering against Lysimachus in Jerusalem to protest this….

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 1-2 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.