So they made a record on bronze tablets and put it upon pillars on Mount Zion: Good News Bible has this sentence as part of the previous verse, which we do not recommend. However, Good News Bible‘s paragraph breaks in this verse and the previous one are helpful. For made a record, Good News Bible says “recorded this.” Contemporary English Version is clearer with “wrote … the things Simon had done.” For bronze tablets, see the comments on 1Macc 8.22. These tablets were evidently placed on top of the pillars, so Good News Bible renders put it upon as “set them up on.” We may also say “fastened them to the top of.” The tablets were mounted on top of the vertical columns at a height that made it possible for the people to read them. The pillars were probably made of stone as Contemporary English Version suggests, and translators may add this information if they wish.
This is a copy of what they wrote: This clause introduces the inscription that was written on the bronze tablets, which follows in verses 27b-47. We do not have to say that the following is a copy; that is rather evident. Good News Bible indents the text of the inscription, which other languages may find helpful. Here is an alternative model for this clause and the previous sentence: “So the people had bronze tablets mounted on top of [or, fixed to] stone columns [or, pillars] on Mount Zion. They inscribed these words on the tablets:….”
On the eighteenth day of Elul in the one hundred and seventy-second year, which is the third year of Simon the great high priest: Elul is the sixth month of the Jewish calendar. The eighteenth day of Elul would have been at the beginning of September. The one hundred and seventy-second year corresponds to 140 b.c. (see the comments on 1Macc 1.10). The Jews were now numbering years by their own system as well as the Greek, counting the years of their own ruler (the third year of Simon). In many languages it will be helpful to put the information about Simon’s third year in parentheses; for example, the beginning of the inscription may be rendered “On the eighteenth day of the month of Elul in the year 172 of the Syrian Kingdom (the third year that Simon the great high priest ruled) ….”
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.