MACCABEES, Book of the, a name given to several Apocryphal books of the Old Testa ment. Of •the four or five thus termed, two were declared canonical by the Council of Trent (1546), are contained in the Vulgate, and among the Apocrypha of the English Bible. The three other books may be summarized: Book III is found in the Septuagint but not in the Vulgate, Book IV is included in some manuscripts of the Septuagint and of Josephus. Book V is merely a Syriac reproduction of the sixth book of Josephus' War> and is of no historical value.
First Book was the record of 40 years from the accession of Antiochus (175 ac.) to the death of Simon (135 a.c.), and is composed after the model of the Old Testament historical style, terse, simple, and at times poetic and impas sioned. The narrative is written with due proportion and in sympathetic tone. All events are dated in terms of the Seleucid era. It is generally admitted that the original was in a Semitic language, most probably Hebrew, to which both Origen and Jerome bear testimony. However, it is not impossible that they were ac quainted with an Aramaic version or para phrase. The Greek translation of the Hebrew was made at an early date and has alone sur vived. It bears all the marks of a literal translation, preserving the Semitic and at times the Hebrew idiom. The author, to judge from the book itself, was a pious and patriotic Jew: a Palestinian, to infer from his evident familiarity with the Holy Land and his want of knowledge as to the foreign lands men tioned. An admirer of the Maccabees and their military skill, he shows the influences of his day by omitting the words "God" and "Lore as in the book of Esther, substituting '
Second Book, has a peculiar opening — two letters written by Jews of Palestine to brethren in Egypt, held by some to be spurious. The work itself, an abridgment of five books written by Jason of Cyrene, covers Jewish his tory from a period a year earlier (176 ac.) than its predecessor to the death of Nicanor (161 a.c.). It is of special interest as picturing the situations in Palestine before the revolt of Mattathias and furnishing other data that are lacking in the First Book. The author, prob ably a Hellenistic Jew, writes largely from the religious point of view, is a Pharisee, with a direct partisan tendency. Greek was the
original language. Its exact or approximate date cannot be fixed. Among its characteris tics are allusions to angels and spirits, to res urrection and immortality — that the book concludes with the victory of Judas over Nicanor, indicates its aim — to arouse the Jew to observe the two Maccabean feasts, that of Dedication and of Nicanor. The incident of the mother and her seven sons, and other stories of martyrdom have given the book a value and power of its own, which appealed with special force to the Christians of the first four cen turies, as Bevan states in his
Third Book describes the escape of the Jews from martyrdom in Alexandria in the reign of Ptolemy IV, Philopator (222-204 Etc.). It has no relation to the Maccabees, but doubtless its title was given later when all who suffered for the olden faith were called by that name. It was written by an Alexandrian Jew to give courage and endurance to his brethren in Egypt. In view of the fact that early Jewish settlements in the Fajum have been discovered. Both I. Abrahams and A. Biichler claim the book has distinct reference to a persecution in the Fajum — a theory that is disputed.
Fourth Book has been aptly described by Freudenthal (Breslau 1869) as a homily de livered probably on the Feast of Dedication to a Greek-speaking Jewish community. It is ser mon not history, to prove how the passions can he controlled by the reason, by which term he means reason enlightened by re ligion and the Mosaic Law. This thesis is illustrated by many examples, notably from the Maccabean struggle. A Hellenist to a certain extent, he was nevertheless an earnest, loyal Jew, eloquent and convincing. His precise date is unknown. He supplied the model for similar homilies by Christian writers in the early centuries, with their thrilling martyrdoms. In •the Church the book was at tributed to Josephus and added to his writings, with whose style and language it is wholly in compatible.
Without historical value is the so-called Fifth Book which Cotton gives in his 'Five Books of the Maccabees' (1832), and known also as the Arabic 'Book of Maccabees' which claims to be the history of the Jews from 186 B.C. to the end of Herod's reign, but which in reality is nothing but a compilation from First and Second Books of Maccabees and Josephus. The manuscript of a 'Fifth Book> which Sixtus Senensis (1566) states that he saw in Lyons and which was subsequently lost by fire, is char acterized by Schfirer as a "reproduction of Josephus, the style being changed for a pur pose?' Bibliography.— Abrahams, I., 'J. Q. R.> (1896-97, IX, 39) ; Biichler, A., and Oniaden' (Vienna 1899) ; Fairweather and Black, (First Book of Macc. in Cambridge Bible Texts); Grimm in zu den Apokry phen) ; Kacutzsch, Schilrer, of the Jewish People.'