Questions About Maccabees?

[thephilosopher6]

In the two books of Maccabees, we are told that the Spartans are descendants of Abraham and thus related to the Jews (1 Maccabees 12:20-23, 2 Maccabees 5:9). How exactly is this? What was their exact genealogy in relation to the Jewish people?

Also in 2 Maccabees we read about a young Jew and his family being tortured, and he says to his enemies,

It is my choice to die at the hands of mortals with the hope that God will restore me to life; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life. - 2 Maccabees 7:14

What was exactly meant by this? As Catholics, we believe in a universal resurrection.

 

[Vico]

In the two books of Maccabees, we are told that the Spartans are descendants of Abraham and thus related to the Jews (1 Maccabees 12:20-23, 2 Maccabees 5:9). How exactly is this? What was their exact genealogy in relation to the Jewish people?

Also in 2 Maccabees we read about a young Jew and his family being tortured, and he says to his enemies,

It is my choice to die at the hands of mortals with the hope that God will restore me to life; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life. - 2 Maccabees 7:14

There is a resurrection of life and a resurrection of condemnation.

John 5:28-29

28 [a]Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.

Sparta

Although the relationship of the two peoples may well be called in question, there is no proof that the documents are not authentic — everything indicates the contrary, as the coexistence of the King Arius and the high-priest Onias, and the fact that under Jonathan the Bible does not speak of kings of Sparta, as in fact the last tyrant Nabis died in 192 B.C. We see again towards the year 170 B.C. the high priest Jason took advantage of the bonds of relationship of the Jews with Sparta to take refuge there — where he died (2 Maccabees 5:9). In 139 B.C. the Romans addressed to Sparta, and likewise to other kingdoms and cities a circular in favour of the Jews (1 Maccabees 15:23); this would seem to prove that there was already a Jewish community established in this city. The belief in the consanguinity of the two peoples existed even in the time of Josephus (Bel. Jud., I, xxvi, 1), and Sparta participated in the generosities of Herod the Great (Bel. Jud., I, xxi, 11), perhaps because he had there a Jewish community.

Vailhé, S. (1912). Sparta. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14209b.htm