The mother again emphasizes that God is the creator
of the cosmos, as can be seen by viewing heaven and earth. The mother states
that God fashioned the individual things from previously unformed matter. Note
that in LXX Jer 4:23, the Hebrew terms תהו
ובהו
(the same as in Gen 1:2) are translated by οὐθέν (“nothing”). The
Lucianic manuscripts have not οὐκ ἐξ ὄντων but ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων, which could be translated as “from things which
do not exist.” A parallel to this phrase is found in Xenophon: “parents made
[their children] to be from what did not exist [ἐκ μὲν οὐκ ὄντων)]” (Mem. 2.2.3). (Robert Doran, 2 Maccabees: A Critical Commentary
[Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis,
Minn.: Fortress Press, 2012], 161)
