And carried him away: Good News Bible provides a good model here. In Greek verses 27-28 constitute one long and difficult sentence. We advise translators to break the text after this clause. Then they can use one or two more sentences in the rest of the verse (so Good News Bible; see also the models below).

This man who had just entered the aforesaid treasury with a great retinue and all his bodyguard but was now unable to help himself; and they recognized clearly the sovereign power of God: This grammatically complex partial sentence contains three important textual problems, but taken together, the three amount to two different readings. The one accepted by Revised Standard Version, Good News Bible, and most other versions is found in Rahlfs’ Greek text; the other is found in Kappler and Hanhart’s Greek text, and is accepted by Goldstein (and partially by New English Bible). It could be rendered rather literally “this man who had just entered the treasury with a large crowd and all his spear carriers but whom now no weapons could help, and he recognized clearly….” For several reasons this second reading of the text reads seems preferable: (1)~The word for “weapons,” absent in the other text, is found in some Greek manuscripts, and a similar-looking word meaning “rages” is found in other manuscripts. This seems to indicate that “weapons” was original, but that scribes had difficulty with the reason for it being there, so they either omitted it or substituted a word that resembled it. (2)~The second reading gives a remarkable structure to the whole long sentence in verses 27-28. Everything revolves around the single verb carried. (In Greek this is the only finite verb in the sentence. What appears as other finite verbs in the English versions are actually participles in Greek.) The first half of the sentence describes Heliodorus’ falling unconscious. The second half pictures him helpless. All the emphasis is on Heliodorus, not the men with him. He is the one who is helpless and he is the one who experienced the power of God. (3)~The Greek verb translated recognized is used in Greek literature of people who are punished by the gods. Since Heliodorus, not the men with him, was punished by God, he is probably the subject of this verb. (4)~Scribes may have been led to change the subject of recognized from “he” to they (referring to Heliodorus’ guards and those who followed him), since they anticipated the plural subject in the next sentence (verses 29-30), but the subject there is the Jews, not Heliodorus’ men.

We offer here models for this verse based on both texts. Translators may choose either one. We prefer the first model, which is based on the Greek text of Kappler and Hanhart, the one followed by most modern versions. The second one is based on Rahlfs’ Greek text.

• … and carried him out. Heliodorus was the man who shortly before had come to the treasury with all his bodyguards to protect him, along with many other men, but now no weapons could help him. Clearly, he had learned God’s mighty power!

• … and carried him out. Heliodorus was the man who shortly before had come to the treasury with all his bodyguards and many other men, but he could not help himself now. The men who took him away had clearly seen God’s mighty power.

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.