And also some money of Hyrcanus, son of Tobias, a man of very prominent position: Hyrcanus was the half-brother of Simon (verse 4), and favored the Egyptians over the Syrians. Son of Tobias here means he was from the Tobias family group (see the comments on 1Macc 5.13); according to Josephus, his father was named Joseph. Hyrcanus had evidently left some money in the Temple treasury for safekeeping. We may render this clause as “There is also some money that we are keeping for Hyrcanus, a very important man of the Tobias family” or “Some of the money belongs to Hyrcanus, a very important man of the family of Tobias.”

To such an extent the impious Simon had misrepresented the facts: This sentence, which Revised Standard Version places at the close of the verse, actually comes at this point in the Greek and in our opinion makes better sense here. It is not a comment made by the writer to the reader; it is part of what the High Priest told Heliodorus. Good News Bible renders impious as “that devil of a man,” which is too strong. Better models for this sentence are “That evil man Simon was deliberately lying to you” and “Simon is an evil man, and he has deliberately lied to you.”

And that it totaled in all four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold: For the value of the “talent,” see the comments on 1Macc 11.28. Four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold are approximately “13,600 kilograms [30,000 pounds] of silver and 6,800 kilograms [15,000 pounds] of gold.” Good News Bible gives the impression that Onias represented the total sum to be less than Simon had indicated by saying “the total amount was only….” This would make good sense except that the amount of money mentioned is so enormous that it makes the statement sound a bit funny. We suggest placing this statement in parentheses to indicate it was made by the writer to the reader, not by Onias to Heliodorus; for example, it may be rendered “(The total amount was about 13,600 kilograms [or, 30,000 pounds] of silver and 6,800 kilograms [or, 15,000 pounds] of gold).” The text itself does not indicate clearly whether Onias was trying to make the amount in the Temple sound small, whether he was admitting the true amount, or whether he was evading the issue. In languages that do not use parentheses, translators must find some other means to separate this information from the main text.

An alternative model for verses 10-11 is:

• 10~Onias explained, “There is some money in the Temple treasury that is to be given to [or, that we keep to give to] widows and orphans. 11~There is also some money that we are keeping for Hyrcanus, a very important man from the Tobias family. Simon is an evil man, and he has deliberately lied to you.” (The total amount was about 30,000 pounds of silver and 15,000 pounds of gold.)

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.