The Jewish Message of Maccabees and the Gospels by slaveofone
Second Maccabees is a book not about the Maccabees but about the God of Israel defending his temple.
Judgment and restoration begin in the House of YHWH. In 1st and 2nd Maccabees, the purity and holiness of the People of God (and by extension, the mission of this People to purify and make holy the unclean and unholy nations) was being compromised. The temple was being overthrown and defiled. Yahweh is presented as working through his Remnant (the Maccabeen revolters) and its Head (Judas Maccabeus) to bring the temple back to life and restore his People to a right relationship with Him. This temple is, of course, an actual temple, and the restoration would take place in it through sacrifice that was the same as ancient days: animal. So it was that a new ceremony and celebration focused on the temple itself (Hannukah) would become definitive of Israel.
The gospels are also an attempt to show the God of Israel defending his temple. In that case, however, the temple is something other than a building of rock. This time, it is living stone, a tabernacle of flesh. Just as the former temple underwent a baptism of fire and was vindicated in rebirth, so Yeshua is stricken and destroyed, but brought back to life (resurrected) in vindication of the new dwelling-place of YHWH. The gospels also, in like manner, proclaim Israel’s God working through a Head (Yeshua of Nazareth) and a Remnant (Yeshua’s disciples), to restore and purify His People (and by extension, the nations). The sacrifice, this time, is not animal, it is human. It is a willingness of the People to give up their own life (as exemplified by Yeshua) to bring all things into right relationship with YHWH. Instead of being accomplished in Zerubabel’s temple as Maccabees would have it, this is now done in Yeshua. Like before, there is a new ceremony and celebration focused on the temple (Communion) that would become definitive of Israel.
The literatures present two ways meant to lead to the same result. Both present these as the way, the truth, and the life. And, perhaps, both were equally ordained. Instead of being mutually exclusive, these ways can be mutually beneficent in history. There cannot, of course, be two temples, which is why the one was raised and the other thrown down. But in the proper seasons, the People of God were being regathered and reorganized as YHWH moved through Her. In such ways, Maccabees and the Gospels are a witness.