Farewell. The one hundred and forty-eighth year, Dioscorinthius twenty-fourth: Lysias adds Farewell as a formal ending to the letter, and then dates it. The one hundred and forty-eighth year corresponds to 164 b.c. The month of Dioscorinthius corresponds to February, but it is not known from whose calendar this name comes. There is considerable doubt in the manuscripts concerning the name Dioscorinthius, and it cannot be determined for certain. Some manuscripts have “Dioscorus.” That is certainly shorter and easier to deal with; translators are welcome to use it. We suggest that translators follow Good News Bible in rendering Dioscorinthius in such a way that readers recognize this strange name as the name of a month.

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.