And while the sacrifice was being consumed, the priests offered prayer—the priests and every one. Jonathan led, and the rest responded, as did Nehemiah: Good News Bible translates the connector And as “Then” to introduce the next event. Translators need to use the most natural connector in their language. For while the sacrifice was being consumed, Good News Bible‘s model is helpful for translators who do not have a passive voice in their language. It is better to place the clause the priests offered prayer—the priests and every one later in the verse (so Good News Bible, Contemporary English Version; see also the model below). Good News Bible identifies Jonathan as “the High Priest,” while Contemporary English Version says he is “a priest.” But this is not said in the Greek text and it is far from certain. The High Priest at the time of Nehemiah was Eliashib (Neh 3.1; 13.4). In Neh 12.11 a Jonathan is mentioned as being in the family line of High Priests, and while it is possible that the letter writer is thinking of this person, it is not clear. So far as we know, the High Priest did not lead in the kind of prayers involved here. This would be done by the Temple singers (Goldstein). Jonathan was a common name. It is better to leave him unidentified here (as the letter writer does) than to raise unnecessary problems. We could translate “a man named Jonathan.” Jonathan led, and the rest responded probably means Jonathan sang or chanted a line of the prayer, and everyone else then repeated it.

The following may serve as a model for this verse:

• Then, while the fire was consuming the sacrifice, a man named Jonathan led the priests and everyone else in prayer. Nehemiah and all the people would repeat the words as Jonathan sang them [or, while Jonathan was singing them].

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.