In 2 Maccabees 12:40, we learn that "under the tunic of each one of the dead they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear" (NRSV). The term translated as "sacred tokens" is ιερωμα. Some (not all) Catholics claim that these amulets were more good-luck charms than something sacred dedicated to a false god, so the soldiers did not die in idolatry (which is a mortal sin in Catholic theology). However, this (rare) word, when used in Josephus, refers to an amulet or something else dedicated to a God, whether they have ontological existence or not:
But as to the plan of Shinar, in the country
of Babylonia, Hestiaeus mentions it, when he says thus:--``Such of the priests
as were saved, took the sacred vessels (ἱέρωμα) of Jupiter, (Enyalius,) or
conqueror and came to Shinar of Babylonia.'' (Antiquities of the Jews, 1:119)
But then, as to the sacred images (ἱέρωμα),
he bade him search for them; and when Laban accepted the offer, Rachel, being
informed of it, put those images into that camel's saddle on which she rode,
and sat upon it; and said, that her time of the month hindered her rising up:
(Antiquities of the Jews, 1:322)
The
apologetic that the amulets were good luck charms and not idols does not hold
up, especially in light of what is said in 2 Maccabees 12:42, where we read
that the people
. . . turned to supplication, praying that
the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out. The noble Judas
exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with
their own eyes what had happened as the result of the sin of those who had
fallen. (NRSV)
In light of
this, ἱέρωμα in v. 40 is a reference to an "idol, amulet"
(Liddell-Scott)
