But Menelaus, thinking he had obtained a suitable opportunity, stole some of the gold vessels of the temple and gave them to Andronicus: The connector But may be omitted. Menelaus believed that the king’s absence and Andronicus’ temporary rule afforded him a good chance to do something that would help him politically. He stole some of the gold objects from the Temple and gave them to Andronicus as a bribe, hoping for the support of this influential man. An alternative model for the first half of this verse is “Menelaus took this opportunity to steal some of the gold objects from the Temple in Jerusalem and gave them to Andronicus.”

Other vessels, as it happened, he had sold to Tyre and the neighboring cities: This sentence is best translated as a parenthetical expression. It gives important information, but interrupts the main narrative. As it happened is the author’s way of signaling this. The gift to Andronicus was not the first time Menelaus robbed the Temple. He had already taken some of its treasures and sold them to the people of foreign cities. Good News Bible makes it sound as if Tyre were a nearby city to Jerusalem, which it was not. Tyre was a city on the coast of ancient Phoenicia (see 1Macc 5.15). The neighboring cities refers to cities in the neighborhood of Tyre, not Jerusalem.

Here is a suggested model for this verse:

• Menelaus saw this as a good opportunity. He stole some of the gold objects from the Temple in Jerusalem and gave them to Andronicus. (In fact, he had already sold some to people in Tyre and other cities in that area.)

In languages that do not use parentheses, translators may say:

• Menelaus saw this as a good opportunity to take some of the gold objects from the Temple in Jerusalem, and he gave them to Andronicus. In fact, earlier he had sold other gold objects from the Temple to people in the city of Tyre and in other cities in that area.

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.