ii. The second part, of which Judas Maccabeus is the hero, comprises chap. iii. i-ix. 22 ; and de scribes the exploits and fame of this defender of the faith, 1E5-160 B.C.
iii. The third part, of which Jonathan the high priest, surnamed Apphus ('Arcbotis = untn, thesinzu later, the sly one), is the hero, comprises ch. ix. 23 xii. 53, and records the events which transpired during the period of his government, 160-143 B.C.
iv. The fourth part, of which Simon surnamed Mass/ the flourishing) is the hero, comprises ch. xiii. 1-xvi. 24, and records the events which occurred during his period of govern ment, 143-135 B.C.
3. Historical and Religious Character of th'e Book. —There is no book among all the Apocrypha which is distinguished by greater marks of trust worthiness than 1 Maccab. Simplicity, credibility, and candour, alike characterise its description of friends and foes, victories and defeats, hopes and fears. When the theme so animates the writer that he gives expression to his feelings in lyric effu sions (e. 1. 25-2S j 37-40 ; ii. 7-13 ; 49-68 ; 3-9 ; 18-22 ; iv. 8-11 ; 30-33, 38 ; vi. 10-13 ; vii. 37, 38, 41, 42), no poetic exaggerations and hyper boles deprive the description of its substantially historic character. When recording the victories of his heroes, struggling for their liberties and their religion, he wrests no laws of nature from their regular course to aid the handful of Jewish cham pions against the fearful odds of their heathen op pressors ; and, when speaking of the arch-enemy, Antiochus Epiphanes (i. to, etc.), he indulges in no unjust and passionate vituperations against him. Even the few historical and geographical inaccu racies in the description of foreign nations and countries, such as the foundation of the Greek empire in the East (I Maccab. i. 5-9), the power and constitution of Rome (viii. 1-16), the great city Elymaias in the country of Persia' (vi. I), etc., so far from impairing the general truthfulness of the narrative when it confines itself to home and the immediate past, only show how faithfully the writer has depicted the general notions of the time, and for this reason are of intrinsic value and in structive. That the writer used written sources, and important official documents, in his ' , is evident from viii. 2, etc. ; x. 18, etc. ; 25-45 ; xi. 30-37 ; xii. 5-23 ; xiii. 36-40 ; xiv. 25, etc. ; xv. 2-9 ; xvi. 23, 24 ; some of these passages being ex pressly described as copies Though its strictly historical character precludes any description of the religious and the theological notions of the day, so that no mention is made in it of a coming Messiah, or a future state, even in the dying speech of Mattathias, wherein he exhorts his sons to sacrifice their lives for the law of God and the covenant of their fathers, and recounts the faith and rewards of Abraham, Joseph, Phinehas, Joshua, Caleb, David, Elijah, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, and Daniel (ii. 49-60) ;* yet the whole book
is permeated with the true spirit of religion and piety. God is throughout acknowledged as over ruling all the machinations of the enemy, and prayer is offered up to him for success after all the preparations are made for battle, and before the faithful host encounter their deadly enemies (iii. 18, 19, 44, 48, 53, 60 ; iv. 10, etc., 24, 25, 30, etc. ; v. 34, 54 ; vii. 36-38, 41, 42 ; ix. 45, al.) ; and even the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes is made to acknowledge in his dying hour that he is punished for profaning the Temple and destroying the inhabitants of Juda (vi. 8-13).
4. Author, Date, and Original Language of the Book.—All that can be said with certainty about the author of this book is that he was a Palestinian Jew. This is indicated by the whole spirit which pervades the book, by the lively sympathies which the writer manifests for the heroes whom he de scribes, and by his intimate acquaintance with the localities of Palestine. Not so certain, however, is its date. .Prideaux, Michaelis, Hengstenberg, Bertheau, Welte, Scholtz, Keil, and others, though discarding the notion of Lapide, Huet, etc., that John Hyrcanus was the author, are yet of opinion that the concluding words, rb Xoora, X6-yow 'Icuctvvou Ka/ Tidy al3TOD .. . 13oa TauTa WYParrai tal goxiv dpxtepcoatins aarort, ciq,' byelt*n dpxtcpcits Aera ray rarepa arra° (xvi. 24), plainly show that the book was written during the government of this high-priest, perhaps about 120-106 B. C. ; inasmuch as this passage only gives the terminus a quo of the high-priesthood of John, without the terminus ad queen, thus indicating that John was still living and that his pontificate was not as yet terminated. After the close of the priesthood, or after the death of John, this remark would be superfluous ; because no reader could take the, words, 'diary of his priesthood,' in any other sense than that they denote a chronicle of the whole duration of it from beginning to the end. Nor can the words gws rijs 4/21pas rain-ns, in xiii. 30, be adduced as implying a later date; for it was something remarkable that, in those days of war and devastation, the sepulchre which Simon made for his family in Modin remained between twenty and thirty years unhurt. Eichhorn, Bertholdt, De Wette, Ewald, Grimm, and others, however, main tain that the book was written after the death of John Hyrcanus, oscillating between los and 64 B. c. That this book was originally written in Hebrew is not only attested by Origen, who gives the Hebrew title of it (vide supra, sec. r), and by St. Jerome, who saw it (Maccabaorum primmn librzon Hebrai cum reperi—Prol. Gal, ad Libr. Reg.), but is evi dent from the many Hebraisms which are literal translations of the Hebrew (comp. ,cal ficeollteia=rnD50 prn, i. 16, with Sept. I Sam.