1 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which was written by a Jewish (pre-Christian) author, probably about 100 BC, after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom. It is accepted in the Catholic and Orthodox canons. Protestants and Jews regard it as generally reliable history, but not a part of Scripture. Some Protestants consequently regard 1 Maccabees as part of the Apocrypha, useful for reading in the church. Note: Judaism uses the term Tanakh instead of Old Testament, because it does not recognize the New Testament as being part of the Biblical canon. ... This article is about Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). ... Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), and Christian Old Testament. ... Leviticus is the third book of the Hebrew Bible, also the third book in the Torah (five books of Moses). ... The Book of Numbers is the fourth of the books of the Pentateuch, called in the Hebrew ba-midbar במדבר, i. ... Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. ... The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... Book of Judges (Hebrew: ספר שופטים) is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. ... The Book of Ruth is a book in the Hebrew Bible known to Jews as the Tanakh and to Christians as the Old Testament. ... The Books of Samuel, also referred to as [The Book of] Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל), are (two) books in the Hebrew Bible (Judaisms Tanakh and originally written in Hebrew) and the Old Testament of Christianity. ... The Books of Samuel, also referred to as [The Book of] Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל), are (two) books in the Hebrew Bible (Judaisms Tanakh and originally written in Hebrew) and the Old Testament of Christianity. ... The Books of Kings (also known as [The Book of] Kings in Hebrew: Sefer Melachim מלכים) is a part of Judaisms Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. ... The Books of Kings (also known as [The Book of] Kings in Hebrew: Sefer Melachim מלכים) is a part of Judaisms Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. ... The Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible (also see Old Testament). ... The Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible (also see Old Testament). ... The Book of Ezra is a book of the Bible in the Old Testament and Hebrew Tanakh. ... The Book of Esther is a book of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and of the Old Testament. ... The Book of Job (איוב, Standard Hebrew Iyyov, Tiberian Hebrew ʾIyyôḇ; Arabic أيّوب ʾAyyÅ«b) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, and is also one of the books of the Christian Old Testament. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible, known to Jews as the Tanakh and to Christians as the Old Testament. ... The Book of Proverbs is a book of the Tanakh/Old Testament. ... Ecclesiastes, Kohelet in Hebrew, is a book of the Hebrew Bible. ... Song of Solomon is also the title of a novel by Toni Morrison. ... Isaiah (Hebrew ישׁעיהו Yeshayahu or Yəša‘ăyāhû) is a book of the Jewish Hebrew Bible as well as the Christian Old Testament, containing prophecies attributed to Isaiah. ... For jer, an alternate spelling for the reduced vowels in Common Slavic, see yer. ... The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew מגילת איכה) is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. ... This article is about the Book of Ezekiel. ... This article is about the Biblical book. ... The Book of Hosea is a book of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament written by Hosea. ... // Overview of Contents The book of Adam Bacher is part of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, and also the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... // Who wrote it? Amos was a prophet during the reign of Jeroboam ben Joash (Jeroboam II), ruler of Israel from 793 BCE to 753 BCE, and the reign of Uzziah, King of Judah, at a time when both kingdoms (Israel in the North and Judah in the South) were peaking... // Overview of Contents The Book of Obadiah is found in both the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, where it is the shortest book. ... In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Jonah is the 5th book in a series of books called the Minor Prophets (itself a subsection of the Nevi’im or Prophets). ... // Who wrote it? Micah wrote the book in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, roughly 735-700 BC Few Old Testament scholars today would defend Micahs authorship of the entire book. ... The book of Nahum is a book in the Bibles Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. ... // The Prophet There is not much biographical information on the prophet Habakkuk; in fact less is known about this prophet than any other. ... // Who wrote it? The superscription of the Book of Zephaniah attributes its authorship to “Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah” (1:1, NRSV). ... The Book of Haggai is a book in the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh, written by the prophet Haggai. ... Zechariah or Zecharya (זְכַרְיָה Renowned/Remembered of/is the LORD, Standard Hebrew Zəḫarya, Tiberian Hebrew Zəḵaryāh) was a person in the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. ... Malachi (or Malachias, מַלְאָכִי, Malʾaḫi, Málakhî) is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh, written by the prophet Malachi. ... The Book of Tobit is a book of scripture that is part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon, pronounced canonical by the Council of Carthage of 397 and confirmed for Roman Catholics by the Council of Trent (1546). ... Judith with the Head of Holophernes, by Christophano Allori, 1613 (Pitti Palace, Florence The Book of Judith is a parable, or perhaps the first historical novel according to Jewish authorities, who do not place it among the writings of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. ... 2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which focuses on the Jews revolt against Antiochus and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. ... Wisdom, also known as the Wisdom of Solomon, is one of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible that are not translations of Hebrew originals. ... The Wisdom of Ben Sira, (or The Wisdom of Yeshua Ben Sira or merely Sirach), called Ecclesiasticus by Christians, is a book written circa 180–175 BCE. The author, Yeshua ben Sira, was a Jew who had been living in Jerusalem, who may in fact have established his school and... The Book of Baruch is a deuterocanonical book, found in the Greek Bible (LXX) and in the Vulgate Bible, but not in the Hebrew Bible, although it was included in Theodotions version¹. ... Letter of Jeremiah is an Apocryphal book consisting of a letter ascribed to Jeremiah to the Jews in exile in Babylon warning them against idolatry by demonstrating its unreasonableness. ... 1 Esdras is a deuterocanonical book accepted by most Orthodox, but rejected as Jews, Catholics and Protestants. ... The Biblical book 3 Maccabees is found in most Orthodox Bibles as a part of the deuterocanonical books. ... Odes is the title of an album of Greek Folk Songs by Vangelis and Irene Papas. ... Psalm 151 is the name given colloquially to a short psalm which is found in most copies of the Septuagint but not in the Masoretic text. ... 2 Esdras is a Jewish Christian apocalypse written toward the end of the first century AD. It is not accepted as scriptural by most Christians; therefore, they count it among the apocrypha. ... The Book of Jubilees expands and reworks material found in Genesis to Exodus 15. ... The Book of Enoch refers to several ancient works attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. ... The deuterocanonical books are the books that Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Ethiopian Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy include in the Old Testament that were not part of the Jewish Tanakh. ... The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, The Word, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, is the classical name for the Hebrew Bible of Judaism or the combination of the Old Testament and New Testament of Christianity (The Bible actually refers to at least two... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC - 100s BC - 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC Years: 105 BC 104 BC 103 BC 102 BC 101 BC - 100 BC - 99 BC 98 BC 97 BC 96 BC 95... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי transliterated: Yehudi) is used in many ways but generally refers to a follower of Judaism, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. ... Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ... Protestantism is a movement within Christianity, representing a split from within the Roman Catholic Church during the mid-to-late Renaissance in Europe —a period known as the Protestant Reformation. ... Apocrypha is a Greek word (απόκρυφα, neuter plural of απόκρυφος), from αποκρυπτειν, to hide away. ...

Contents

The setting of the book is about a century after the conquest of Judea by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, after Alexander's empire has been divided so that Judea was part of the Greek Seleucid Empire. The book tells how the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Ephiphanes attempted to suppress the practice of basic Jewish religious law, resulting in a Jewish revolt against Seleucid rule. The book covers the whole of the revolt, from 175 to 134 BC and highlights how the salvation of the Jewish people in this crisis came from God through Mattathias' family, particularly his sons Judas, Jonathan and Simon, and his grandson John Hyrcanus. The doctrine expressed in the book reflects traditional Jewish teaching, without later doctrines found in, for example, 2 Maccabees. Desert hills in southern Judea, looking east from the town of Arad Judea or Judaea (יהודה Praise, Standard Hebrew , Tiberian Hebrew , Greek: Ιουδαία, Russian: Иудея) is a term used for the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael), an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank... Alexander the Great fighting the Persian king Darius (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ... The Seleucid Empire was one of several political states founded after the death of Alexander the Great, whose generals squabbled over the division of Alexanders empire. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC - 170s BC - 150s BC140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC Years: 180 BC 179 BC 178 BC 177 BC 176 BC - 175 BC - 174 BC 173 BC 172... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC 140s BC - 130s BC - 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC Years: 139 BC 138 BC 137 BC 136 BC 135 BC - 134 BC - 133 BC 132 BC... John Hyrcanus (Yohanan Girhan) (reigned 134 BC - 104 BC, died 104 BC) was a Hasmonean (Maccabeean) leader of the 2nd century BC. Apparently the name Hyrcanus was taken by him as a reignal name upon his accession to power. ... 2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which focuses on the Jews revolt against Antiochus and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. ...

In the first chapter, Alexander the Great conquers the territory of Judea, only to be eventually succeeded by the Seleucid Antiochus Epiphanes. After successfully invading the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt (apparently without Jewish support), Antiochus IV captures Jerusalem and removes the sacred objects from the Jerusalem temple, slaughtering many Jews. He then imposes a tax and establishes a fortress in Jerusalem. The Seleucid Empire was one of several political states founded after the death of Alexander the Great, whose generals squabbled over the division of Alexanders empire. ... Coin of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reigned 175 - 163 BC). ...

Antiochus then tries to suppress public observance of Jewish laws, apparently in an attempt to secure control over the Jews. He desecrates the Temple by setting up a "horrible abomination" (an idol). Antiochus forbids both circumcision and possession of Jewish scriptures on pain of death. He also forbids observance of the sabbath and the offering of sacrifices at the Jerusalem temple. He even requires Jewish leaders to sacrifice to idols. While enforcement may be targeting only Jewish leaders, some Jews (and even children) are killed as a warning to others. Antiochus also introduces practices of Hellenistic culture, such as gymnasiums into Jerusalem. This discouraged the forbidden Jewish practice of circumcision, since it would not be hidden in the gymnasium. Drawing of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great A stone (2. ... The word culture, from the Latin colere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... The gymnasium of the Greeks originally functioned as the school where competitors in the public games received their training, and was so named from the circumstance that these competitors exercised naked (gymnos). ...

Mattathias calls the people forth to holy war against the invaders, and his three sons begin a military campaign against them. There is one complete loss of a thousand Jews (men, women and children) to Antiochus when the Jewish defenders refuse to fight on the Sabbath. The other Jews then reason that they must fight even on the sabbath when attacked. In 165 BC the Temple is freed and reconsecrated, so that ritual sacrifices may begin again. Judas seeks an alliance with the Roman Republic to remove the Greeks. He is "succeeded" by his brother Jonathan, who becomes high priest and also seeks alliance with Rome and Sparta. Simon follows them, receiving the double office of high priest and prince of Israel. (Simon and his successors form the Hasmonean dynasty, which is not always considered a valid kingship by the Jews, since they were not of the lineage of David.) Simon leads the people in peace and prosperity, until he is murdered by agents of Ptolemy, who had been named governor of the region by the Greeks. He is succeeded by his son, John Hyrcanus. This article concerns the Sabbath in Christianity. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC - 160s BC - 150s BC140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC Years: 170 BC 169 BC 168 BC 167 BC 166 BC - 165 BC - 164 BC 163 BC 162... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... Sparta (Greek: Σπάρτη) was a city in ancient Greece, whose territory included, in Classical times, all Laconia and Messenia, and which was the most powerful state of the Peloponnesus. ... The Hasmonean Kingdom (pronunciation) in ancient Judea and its ruling dynasty from 140 BC to 37 BC was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after Judah the Maccabee defeated the Seleucid army in 165 BC. Origin of the Hasmonean dynasty The origin of the Hasmonean dynasty is... Michelangelos David. ...

The name Maccabee probably means "hammer" and is properly applied only to the first leader of the revolt, Judas, third son of the priest Mattathias. The name Maccabee also might derived from the battle cry of the revolt, Me Kumocha B'elim, (Hashem) ("Who is like you among the heavenly powers, HASHEM!" - Exodus ch. 15:11). In Hebrew, the first letters of this four word slogan form the acronym MKBY (Mem, Kaf, Bet and Yud). This became synonymous with the revolt. Its most famous warrior was Judah the Maccabee. The name came to be used for his brothers as well, which accounts for the title of the book. Scholars infer that in the original Hebrew, the term used for "horrible abomination" would have sounded similar to "Lord of heaven", so that this term might refer to an image or altar of Zeus. Exodus is the second book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and also the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), and Christian Old Testament. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ...

Form

The narrative is primarily prose text, but is interrupted by seven poetic sections, which imitate classical Hebrew poetry. These include four laments and three hymns of praise.

The history presented is very good, comparing favorably to pagan historians such as Livy or Tacitus. The author exhibits a personal interest in the events, but presents them accurately. Josephus most likely used some form of this text (very likely the Hebrew original) in writing his account of the Maccabean revolt. Bust of Livy Titus Livius (around 59 BC - 17 AD), known as Livy in English, wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab urbe condita, from its founding (traditionally dated to 753 BC). ... Gaius Cornelius Tacitus Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. ... Josephus (c. ...

Transmission, language and author

The text comes to us in three codices of the Septuagint, the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Venetus, as well as some cursives. The Septuagint (LXX) is the name commonly given in the West to the Koine Greek Alexandrine text of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) produced some time between the third to first century BC. The Septuagint Bible includes additional books of the old Jewish canon beyond those contained in the...

Though the original book was written in Hebrew, as can be deduced by a number of Hebrew idioms in the text, the original has been lost and the version which comes down to us is a pre-Christian Greek translation. Some authors date the original Hebrew text even closer to the events covered, while a few suggest a date even later. Because of the accuracy of the historical account, if the later date is taken, the author would have to have had access to first-hand reports of the events or other primary sources. Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 7 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 7 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ...

Origen and Jerome give testimony to having seen the original Hebrew text, though many scholars suggest that they may have actually had access to a Biblical Aramaic paraphrase of the work -- most Christian scholars of the time did not distinguish between Hebrew and Aramaic. In either case, only the Greek text has survived. Origen ( 182– 251) was a Christian scholar and theologian and one of the most distinguished of the Fathers of the early Christian Church. ... , by Albrecht Dürer Jerome (ca. ... Biblical Aramaic is the form of the Aramaic language that is used in the books of Daniel, Ezra and a few other places in the Hebrew Bible. ...

The book's author is unknown, but is assumed to have been a devout Jew from the Holy Land who may or may not have directly taken part in the events described in the book. He shows intimate and detailed geographical knowledge of the Holy Land, but is inaccurate in his information about foreign countries. The author interprets the events not as a miraculous intervention by God, but rather God's using the instrument of the military genius of the Maccabees to achieve his ends. The words "God" and "Lord" never occur in the text, always being replaced by "Heaven" or "He".

External references

The Book of First Maccabees Full text from http://St-Takla.org (also available in Arabic)