Various were the supplications of those gathered there: The Greek word translated Various is used to describe things that are composed of different materials or of different colors. Here the apparent meaning is people were praying individually, each person in a different way, creating an overall picture of confusion. A possible model for this clause is “At the Temple people were making desperate prayers to God [or, desperately pleading with God].”
Because of what the king was profanely plotting refers, of course, to his plan to go into the sanctuary of the Temple, which would be considered a profane, or unholy, act, and it may be so specified here by saying “because of the unholy [or, bad/taboo] thing that Philopator was planning to do.”
Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on 3-4 Maccabees. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2018. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.