MACCABEES, THE FIFTH BOOK OF, an im portant chronicle of Jewish affairs, which was for the first time printed in Arabic in the Paris Poly glott (1645), and was thence copied into the Lon don Polyglott (1657).
I. Title of the Book-The name, the fifth book of Maccabees, has been given to this production by Cotton, who placed it as fifth in his order of the books of Maccabees. According to the remark at the end of ch. xvi, the first part of this book, i. e., ch. i. I--xvi. 26, is entitled, The second book of Maccabees according to the translation of the He brews, whilst the second part, i. e., ch. xvii. ' Ex. 96, is simply called The second book f Macca. bees. The fact that this second part gives the his tory of John Hyrcanus (xx.) has led Calmet (Dic tionary of the Bible, s. v. Maccabees) and others to suppose that it is the same as the so-called fourth book of Maccabees, a unique MS. of which, written in Greek, Sixtus Senensis saw in MS. in the Library of Sanctes Pagninus, at Lyons, and which was after wards destroyed by fire, so that the fifth of Mac cabees is sometimes also called the fourth.' 2. Contents of the Book.—This book contains the history of the Jews from Heliodorus's attempt to plunder the treasury at Jerusalem till the time when Herod revelled in the noblest blood of the Jews, and completed the tragedy of the Maccabean princes, by slaughtering his own wife Mariamne, her mother Alexandra, and his own two sons Alex ander and Aristobulus, i. e., 184-86 B. c., thus em bracing a period of 178 years. The following is the parallelism between the narrative recorded in this book, and the accounts contained in 1 and z of Maccab. and the works of Josephus 3. Historical and Religions Character of the Book. —It will be seen from the preceding analysis, that the first part of this production (i.-xix.), which embraces the Maccabean period, is to a great extent parallel with I and 2 Maccab., whilst the second part, which records the post-Maccabean history down to the birth of Christ (xx. -lix.), is parallel with Josephus, Antig. xiii. 15–xvi. 17 ; 7ewish Wars, i. 3-17. The historical worth of 5 Maccab. is therefore easily ascertained by corn• paring its narrative with that of I and 2 Maccab., and with the corresponding portions of Josephus. Now, by a careful comparison of 5 Maccab. with these documents, it will be seen that, notwithstand ing its several historical and chronological blunders (comp. 5 Maccab. x. 16, 17, with 2 Maccab. x. 29; 5 Maccab. ix. with I Maccab. vii. 7; 5 Mac cab. viii. 1-8, with I Maccab. ix. 73, xii. 48; Joseph. Antiq. xiii. IT; 5 Maccab. xx. 17, with Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 15; 5 Maccab. xxi, 17, with Joseph. Antic. vii. 12), especially when recording foreign history (comp. 5 Maccab. xii.), it is a trustworthy and valuable narrative. There can be no question that some of its blinders are owing to mistakes committed by transcribers (e. g., the name Felix, which stands five times for three different persons, 5 Maccab. iii. 14, vii. 8, 34, with I Mac cab. iii. 10 ; 2 Maccab. v. 22; viii. 33 ; the name Gorgias, 5 Maccab. x., is a mistake for 7fnzotheus, as is evident from 2 Maccab. x. ; Joseph. Antiq. xii. II; so also two for nine, 5 Maccab. xix. 8), and that, as a whole, it is far more simple and natural, and far less blundering and miraculous, and therefore more credible than 2 Maccab. As to its religious character, the book shows most dis tinctly that the Jews of those days firmly believed in the survival of the soul after the death of the body, in a general resurrection of the dead, and in a future judgment (v. 12, 13, 17, 43, 48-51; lix. 14, etc.) 4. Author, Date, and Original Language of the Book.-This book is a compilation, made in He brew, by a Jew who lived after the destruction of Jerusalem, from ancient Hebrew memoirs or chron icles, which were written shortly after the events transpired. This is evident from the whole com plexion of the document, even in the transla tion-for the original has not as yet come to light-as may be seen from the few features here offered for consideration :-I. When speaking of the dead (xv. I I, 15 ; xii. 1 ; xxi. 17) the compiler uses the well-known euphemisms, God be merciful to him ; to whom be pace = WbV1r111, which came into vogue among the Jews in the Talmudic period (comp. Tosifta Chul lin too, a; Zunz, Zur Geschichte, p. 338), and are used among the Jews to the present day-thus showing that the compiler was a Jew, and lived after the destruction of the Temple. 2. He calls
the Hebrew Scriptures (iii. 3, 9) the twenty-four books =1,111N1 C'1V11, a name which is thoroughly Jewish, and came into use long after the close of the Hebrew canon ; leaves Tora (i Iilli), the He brew name for the Pentateuch, untranslated (xxi. 9), in accordance with the Jewish custom ; speaks of the deity as the great and good God=110 11in (i. 8, 13, 15 ; V. 27 ; vii. 21, 22 ; viii. 5, I I ; ix. 4 ; x. 15 ; xi. S ; xii. I ; xv. 4 ; xvi. 24 ; xxviii. 4 ; xxxv. 9 • xlviii. ; lvii. 35 ; lix. 58) ; names Jerusalem the city of the holy house (xx. 17 ; xxi. 1; 5 • xxviii. 23, 34, 37 ; xxx. 8 ; xxxv. 4, 33 ; xxxvi. 6, 38, 39 ; xxxvii. 3, 5 ; xxxviii. 5 ; lii. 7, 24 ; lix. 68) ; city of the holy house of God (xxxi. TO) ; or simply holy city (xvi. I 17 ; xx. 18 ; xxi. 26 ; xxxiv. 7 ; xxxv. 32 ; xxxvi. 9, 19, 25 ; xxxviii. 3; xli. 15 ; xliii. 12 ; xlix. 5 ; 1. 16 ; liv. 13, 26 ; lv. 27 ; lvii. 22 ; lix. 2) ; holy house (xx. 7, 17 ; xxiii. 3 ; xxxvi. 35 ; 1. 8 ; lii. 19 ; liii. 6 ; lvi. 17, 44 ; lix. 35, 63) ; house of God (vii. 21 ; ix. 7 ; 7 ; xv. 14 ; xvi. 16, 17 ; xxi. I I ; xxvii. 4 ; xxxiv. to; li. 5 ; lii. 31; liv. 13 ; lv. 2o) ; the Temple he calls the house of the sanctuary=t71pnil (viii. II), in accordance with the later Hebrew idiom. 3. This later date of the compilation of the book is corroborated by the fact that the compiler refers to the destruction of Jerusalem (xxi. 3o), and to the period of the second Temple, as something past (xxii. 9). 4. He speaks of the original author of the book as a distinct person (xxv. 5 ; lv. 25), and explains the original writer's allusions (lvi. 45). 5. The original writer of the work must have lived before the destruction of Jerusalem, for he termi nates his narrative six years before this catastrophe, and does not know of any of the calamities which befel his brethren after the conquest of Palestine by Titus. He must therefore have written about five years before the Christian era. His name is un known ; all that we can gather from this book is, that he is also the author of other historical works which are now lost, as he himself refers to them (lix. 96), and, judging from his terse and experi enced style, it is not at all improbable that he was the public chronographer. The book is entirely devoid of the Hagadic legends which form a very striking characteristic of the Jewish productions of a later age. Dr. Graetz (Geschichte der juden, v. 281) identifies it with an Arabic chronicle written about A.D. 900, entitled TORICH AL MAKKABAIN, JuS SUFF IBN G'oRG'oN, History of the Maccabees, or Yoseph b. Gorion, a part of which he says is printed in the London Polyglott under the title of Arabic Book of Maccabees, and the whole of which, extend ing to the time of Titus, is in two Bodleian MSS. (Uri, Nos. 782, 829). He moreover tells us, that it is this work which the well-known Hebrew chro nicler called [JOSIPPON B. GORION] trans lated into Hebrew, and supplemented, and this he has promised to prove at some future time. We must confess, that after a careful comparison of 5 Maccabees with the Hebrew Josippon, we are unable to trace the identity, and we are all the more astonished at Dr. Davidson's confident asser tion, that `it is another form or recension of our book [i, e. , 5 Maccab.] which exists in the work of Joseph ben Gorion or Josippon, a legendary Jewish history' (Introduction to the O. T., iii. p. 466). However, we must wait for the promised treatise upon this subject from Dr. Graetz.
5. Versions and Literature.-Though this book is in our estimation as important as 2 Maccab., yet there has hardly anything been done to elucidate its narrative. In the absence of the original He brew, the Arabic versions of it, printed in the Paris and London Polyglotts, is the text upon which we must rely. The editors of this version have not even given any account of the MS. from which it has been taken. A Latin translation of it by Ga briel Sionita is given in both Polyglotts ; a French translation is given in the appendix to De Sacy's Bible ; another French translation, by M. Baubrun, is given in vol. iii. of Le Maitre's Bible ; and Calmet translated chapters xx.-xxvi., containing the history of John Hyrcanus, which he thought Sixtus Senen sis had taken for the legitimate 4 Maccab. The only English version of it, as far as we know, is that by Cotton, The Five Books of Maccabees, Ox ford 1832.-C. D. G.