MACCABEES, THE FOURTH Booic OF, though not given in the Roman Vulgate, and therefore not inserted in the Apocrypha contained in the Bibles translated by the Reformers, yet exists in Greek in two leading texts. One, which, on account of its more extensive circulation, may be called the re ceived or common text, is contained in the early edition of the Sept. printed at Strasburg 1526, Basel 1545 and 155o, Frankfurt 1597, Basel 1582, and in the editions of Josephus's work, and is given in its purest form in Bekker's edition of Josephus, six volumes, Leipzig 1855-56. The other is the Alex andrian or that of the Codex Alexandrinus, and is the more ancient and preferable one ; it is con tained in the editions of the Sept. by Grabe and Breitin'er, and is adopted with some few altera tions after the common text in Apel's edition of the Apocrypha, Leipzig 1837.
1. Title of the Book.-This book is called 4 Mac cab. (Marocapalto 3' 7j Tcra' prei TWY 11latocai3aiks;3r )3113Xos) in the various MSS. in the Codex Alex andrinus, by Philostorgius and Syncellus (p. 529, 4, and 530, 17, ed. Dind.) ; in Cod. Paris. A, it is denominated 4 Maccab., a Treatise on Reason (Max-Imps:4)v TerpaTOS rep!. atiNtspovos Xorcrizol,), by Eusebius (Hist. .Ecclesiast., iii. so, b) and Jerome (Catal. Sctipt. Ecclesiast.) it is called, On the Supre macy of Reason (1-epl throkpthropos Xcrytcrno11), and in the editions of Josephus's works, Treatise on the Maccabees (4'Nap. 'Ionshrou els Maxmagalovsls.6-yos).
2. Design, Division, and Contents of the Book. The design of this book is to encourage the Jews, who-being surrounded by a philosophical heathen. ism, and taunted by its moral and devout followers with the trivial nature and apparent absurdity of some of the Mosaic precepts-were in danger of being led astray from their faith, to abide faithfully by the Mosaic law, and to stimulate them to observe in every way their ancestral religion, by convincing them of the reasonableness of their divine law, and its unparalleled power to control the human pas sions (comp. xviii. 2). To carry out this design the book is divided into two parts, opening with an introduction, as follows The introduction, comprising ch. i. I.I2, con tains the resume of the whole book, and the grand problem for discussion-viz., whether the rational will, permeated and regulated by true piety, has perfect mastery over the passions (ore airroalowark [aerroisspdrcop] Y I. The first part, comprising ch. i. 13-iii. 19, con tains a philosophical disquisition on this problem, giving a definition of reason, or the rational will, and of the wisdom which is to be gained by study ing the Mosaic law, and which shows itself in the four cardinal virtues-discernment, justice, pm Bence, and fortitude ; describes the different pas sions, and shows that reason, pervaded by piety, has the mastery over them all, except forgetfulness and ignorance.
ii. The second part, comprising ch. iii. 20-xviii. 20, demonstrates the proposition, that sanctified reason has the mastery over the passions, by giving a summary of the Maccabean martyrdoms (iii. 20 iv. 26) narrated in z Maccab. iii., iv. 7-17, v. I vi. I1 ; describes the martyrdom of Eleazar (v.
19) and the seven brothers (viii. 1-xii. 16), with moral reflections on it (xiii. I-xiv. to), as well as the noble conduct and death of their mother (xiv. I I-xvii. 6), and then deduces the lessons to be learned from the character and conduct of these martyrs (xvii. 7-xviii. 2), showing that the Israelites alone are invincible in their struggles for virtue (5n raiZes 'E(palwv inrep ripe.* elno dpitorrot). Ch. xviii. 21-23 is evidently a later addition.
3. Author, Date, and Original Language of the Book.- In harmony with the general tradition, Eusebius (H. E., iii. so), Jerome (Catal. Script. Eccles., s. v. Josephus, ad Pal. ii.), Photius (ap. Philostorg. , H. E., i.), Suidas (s. v. 'Id/corn-os), many MSS., and the early editions of the Septuagint (Strasburg 1526 ; Basel 1545 ; Frankfurt 1595), as well as the editions of Josephus' works, ascribe the authorship of this hook to the celebrated Jewish historian Flavius yosephus. But this is utterly at variance with the style and structure of the book itself, and has most probably arisen from a confu sion of names, as the work may have been written by some one of the name of Josephus, or from the fact that it was regarded as supplementing this histo rian, and hence was appended to them. Not only is the language quite different from that of Jose phus's writings ; but-I. In 4 Maccab. all the pro per names in the Bible, except 'Iepocratwa and are retained in their Hebrew form, and treated as indeclinable (e. NW' e), whereas Josephus gives them a Greek termination. 2. Fourth of Maccab. derives its historical matter from 2 Maccab., as we have seen in the preceding section, or perhaps from the original work of Jason, whilst Josephus manifests utter ignorance about the existence of this work. 3. The historical blunders contained in this book (iv. 15, 26 ; v. I ; xvii. 22, 23, etc.) are such as Josephus would never have committed : and, 4. The form and tone of the book unquestionably show that the writer was an Alex andrian Jew, who resided in Egypt or somewhere far away from the Holy Land-camp. iv. 5, 20, etc., where the writer speaks of ourfatherland,' i. e., the Holy Land far away. From this and other passages in which the Temple is spoken of as still existing, and from the fact that xiv. 9 speaks of the Egyptian Jews as having enjoyed external peace and security at the time when this book was written, Grimm dates it before the fall of Jerusalem and the persecutions of the Egyptian Jews by Caligula, i. e., 39 or 40 B. C. That the Greek is the original lan guage of the book requires no proof. The style is very pompous, flowing, vigorous, and truly Greek. The author's eloquence, however, is not the spontaneous outburst of a heart inspired with the grandeur of the divine theme (dalgaa) upon which he discourses, but is produced artificially by resorting to exclamations and apostrophes (v. 33, etc. ; vii. 6, 9, to, 15 ; viii. 15, 16 ; xi. 14, etc.), dialogues and monologues (viii. 16-19 ; xvi. 5-To), far-fetched figures and comparisons I, etc. ; xiii. 6 ; xvii. 3, 5, 7), and he abounds in tiva4 Xey6gEva (i. 27, 29 ; ii. 9 ; iv. 18 ; vi. 6, 17 ; vii.