The previously mentioned Simon, who had informed about the money against his own country, slandered Onias: For Simon see 2Macc 3.4-6, 11. Who had informed about the money against his own country is literally “who had informed about the money and his own country.” Good News Bible expresses this well as “who informed Apollonius about the money and brought trouble on the nation.” Simon … slandered Onias means he told vicious lies about Onias in order to damage his reputation. Good News Bible places most of the information here about Simon within parentheses, leaving the main part of the sentence clear: “But Simon … also lied about Onias.” This is one way to handle it. But there are many languages that do not use parentheses. In such cases translators may follow Contemporary English Version, which has “I have already told you that Simon caused a lot of trouble for our country by telling Apollonius about the money in the temple. Then later, Simon lied and blamed Onias.” Good News Bible and Contemporary English Version insert “Apollonius” not only to remind the reader of 2Macc 3.5, but also to make the sentence clearer. Another possible model is “I have already told you that Simon betrayed his own country by telling Apollonius about the money in the Temple. Later he told lies about Onias.”

Saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus and had been the real cause of the misfortune describes how Simon slandered Onias. The pronoun he refers to Onias. The Greek expression rendered who had incited Heliodorus and had been the real cause of the misfortune can be interpreted either of two ways: (1)~It may mean that Onias had caused the whole trouble by threatening Heliodorus, and forcing him to take the action he did (so Revised Standard Version). (2)~It may mean that Onias had caused all the trouble by attacking Heliodorus (so Good News Bible). We favor Revised Standard Version, and suggest that translators follow it. An alternative model for this last half of the verse is “claiming that he [Onias] had caused all the trouble [or, terrible things] by threatening Heliodorus.”

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.