2 Maccabees 15: Onias and Jeremiah pray for the people

Intercession source · Departed righteous praying · Book composed in the 2nd century BCE; scene set in Judas’ campaign

About this date: A broad attributed range; literary setting is not historical verification.

In Judas Maccabeus’s dream or vision, Onias and Jeremiah appear; Jeremiah is described as praying for the people and holy city. Judas does not invoke Jeremiah in this passage. Catholic and Orthodox churches receive 2 Maccabees as Scripture; Protestant canons generally do not.

Reception

additional

Scripture

2 Maccabees 15:12–16 — The narrative identifies Onias and Jeremiah within Judas’ dream. It reports their prayer for the people; Judas does not invoke them in this passage.

Sources and further reading

2 Maccabees 15 (primary)
Catholic English text and notes for the vision.
Westminster: biblical canon (primary)
Named Reformed canon and Apocrypha status.
2 Maccabees: A Critical Commentary (secondary)
Critical commentary dates composition broadly to the 2nd c. BCE.
Ethiopian Orthodox biblical books (secondary)
Names a particular community’s canon; do not conflate Meqabyan with Greek Maccabees.
OCA: Canon of Scripture (secondary)
Institutional account of Eastern Orthodox reception.

Related records

Only one mediator? (Objection to invocation of saints)
Can the departed pray or hear? (Objection to invocation of saints)
Angels and departed humans are distinct (Objection to invocation of saints)
Does invocation cross a biblical prohibition? (Objection to invocation of saints)
How could a saint know a request? (Objection to invocation of saints)
Does resemblance establish an origin? (Objection to invocation of saints)
Where is the warrant to invoke? (Objection to invocation of saints)
Prayer is not automatically invocation (Intercession of the Saints · Learning check)

Open Intercession of the Saints in the interactive atlas

All records