(2) The Second Book of Maccabees (the third in order of time) is a work of very inferior character to the first. It is an abridgment of a more ancient work, written by a Jew named Ja son, who lived at Cyrene in Africa, comprising the principal transactions of the Jews which oc curred during the reigns of Seleucus IV, An tiochus Epiphanes, and Antiochus Eupator. It partly goes over the same ground with the first book, but commences ten or twelve years earlier, and embraces in all a period of fifteen years. It does not appear that the author of either saw the other's work. The second book of Maccabees is divided into two unconnected parts. It com mences with a letter from the citizens of Jerusa lem and JudTa to the Greek Jews in Egypt', writ ten B. C. 123 (which refers to a former letter written to the.same, B. C. 143, acquainting them of their sufferings), and informs them that their worship was now restored, and that they were celebrating the Feast of Dedication. The second part (ii :IS) contains a still more ancient letter, written B. C. 139, to the priest Aristobulus, the tutor of king Ptolemy, recounting, besides some curious matter, the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. The third part contains the preface, in which the author states that he is about to epitomize the five books of Jason. The work commences with the attack of Heliodorus on the Temple, and closes with the death of Nicanor, a period of fifteen years. The history supplies some blanks in the first book; but the letters prefixed to it contra dict some of the facts recorded in the body of the work, and are consequently supposed to have been added by another hand. Neither are the letters themselves considered genuine, and they were probably written lona after the death of Nicanor, and even of John Hyrcanus. This book gives a different account of the place and manner of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes from that contained in the first book.
The narrative abounds in miraculous adven tures, historical and chronological errors, extra ordinary and arbitrary embellishments, affected descriptions, and moralizing reflections.
(a) Author ond Age. \Ve are not aware when either Jason himself or his epitomizer lived. Jahn refers the age of the epitomizer to some time previous to the middle of the last century before the birth of Christ, and De Wette main tains that Jason must have written a considerable time after the year B. C. 161.
(b) Language and Versions. Jerome (Prolog. Galeat.) observes that the phraseology of this book evinces a Greek original. The elegance and purity of the style have misled some persons into the supposition that its author was Josephus.
(3) The Third Book of Maccabees, still read in the Greek church, and contained in the Alexandrian and Vatican MSS. (A. & B.) is. as has been already observed, the first in order of time. It contains an account of the persecution of the Egyptian Jews hy Ptolemy Philopator, who is said to have proceeded to Jerusalem after his victory at Raphia over Antiochus the Great, B. C. 217, and after sacrificing in the Temple, to have attempted to force his way into the Holy of Holies, when he was prostrated and rendered motionless by an invisible hand. Upon his re turn to Egypt, he revenged himself by shutting up the Jews in the Hippodrome, and exposing them to be crushed beneath the feet of elephants. This book contains an account of their deliver ance by Divine interposition. It is anterior in point of date to the Maccabman period, and has received its designation from a general resem blance to the first two books in the heroic char acter of the actions which it describes. Calmet (Commentary) observes that this book is rejected as apocryphal in the Latin church; not, however, as not containing a true history, but as not being inspired, as he considers the first two books to be.
It is nevertheless regarded by De Wette as a tasteless fable, and notwithstanding the relation which it contains of an annual festival, con sidered by him as most probably destitute of any historical foundation. Dr. Milman (Hist. of the Jews) describes it as a 'romantic story.' Author, Age, and Versions. The author is un known. Dr. Allix (Judgment of the Jewish Church) considers it to have been written B. C. zoo, and by the author of Ecclesiasticus. There is. a Syriac version in the Polyglots, but no an cient Latin translation has come down to us.
(4) The Fourth Book of Maccabees, which is also found in the Alexandrian and Vatican manuscripts, is generally supposed to be the same as the Supremacy of Reason, attributed to Jo sephus, with which it for the most part accords. It consists of an inflated amplification of the history of the martyrdom of Eleazar, and of the seven brothers, whose torments and death, with that of their mother, form the subject of 2 Macc. chapters vi, vii.
CaInlet (Preface to the Fourth Book of Mac cabees) has pointed out several contradictions between this and the second book, as well as the books of Moses, together with some opinions derived from the Stoics, such as the equality of crimes; which, Ile supposes, together with its tedious descriptions, have consigned it to the rank of an Apocryphal book.
(5) Fifth Book of Maccabees. What has been called the Fifth Book of Maccabees is now extant only in the Arabic and Syriac languages.
Author, Age, and Suoject. lt is impossible to ascertain the author, who could scarcely have been Josephus, as he disagrees in many things with that historian (Calmet's Preface).
The work consists of a history of Jewish af fairs, commencing with the attempt on the treas ury at Jerusalem by Heliodorns, and ending with the tragic fate of the last of the AsmonTan princes, and with the inhuman execution by He rod of his noble and virtuous wife Mariamne, and of his two sons. This history thus fills up the chasm to the birth of Christ.
Dr. Cotton has pointed out among the 're markable peculiarities' found in this book the phra;-,es, 'Peace be unto thee,' and 'God be merci ful to them,' showing that the practice of prayer for the dead was at this time prevalent. But the most remarkable passage in reference to this subject is 2 Macc. xii:40-45. where Judas for wards to Jerusalem 2,000, or according to the Syriac 3,000, and according to the Villgate 12, 000, drachmas of silver, to make a sin-offering for the Jews slain in action on whose persons were found things consecrated to idols, which they had sacrilegiously plundered in violation of the law of Moses (Deut. vii :25, 26). The author of the book remarks that it was a holy and good thought to pray for the dead, which, hc observes, would have bcen superfluous had therc becn no resurrection. Calmet observes that, according to the notions of the Jews and some of the Christian Fathers, the pains of hell for those who died in mortal sin (as appears to have been the case of these Jews) were alleviated by the prayers and alms of the living (Augustine, De Fide, Spe, et Charitate, ch. I to), if not entirely removed; and cites a passage from a very ancient Christian liturgy to the same effect. This learned com mentator supposcs that the ancient and Catholic practice of prayer for the dead had its origin in this usage of the Jews, although he admits it to be a distinct thing from the doctrine of purgatory as held in the Roman Church.