1. The name given later times to the Asmonaeans, a family of Jewish patriots, who headed a religious revolt in the reign of Antiochus IV., 168-161 B. C., which led to a period of freedom for Israel.
2. The name of two ancient historical books, which give accounts of Jewish affairs in or about the time of the Maccabean princes, and which are received as canonical books in the Roman Catholic Church, but are included in the Apocrypha by Protestants. Also applied to three books, two of which are found in some MSS. of the Septuagint.
MACCABEES. The name Maccabee (Mακκαβα7os) is properly and originally the distinguishing surname of Judas, son of Mattathias, the first great hero of the Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes. The source of the name is uncertain, but it is most natural to connect it with 2^0, “hammer,” and so the Syriac writes the name with p not 3. Ewald (Gesch., iv. 403) is doubtless right in arguing from 1 Mac. vi. 43, &c., that the surnames of the sons of Mattathias were simply distinguishing epithets which they bore in ordinary life, and in this light “hammerman” appears as a natural surname enough, the occasion of which it would be vain to inquire into. 1 From Judas the name was in later times extended to the whole family, or to the party it represented, or even, as in the title of 3 Maccabees, to other contenders or sufferers for the faith of Israel in the Greek period. The more correct name of the family was Hasmoneans, ’ Aσ[σ]α∕Λo>vαΓoι, ΓP3 (Tgm. Jon. on 1 Sam. ii. 4). According to Josephus, Ant., xii, 6, § 1, this name is taken from Asamonaeus, the grandfather of Mattathias. Modern writers have suggested a connexion with the townHeshmon (Josh. XV. 27) or with D'30t^∏ j magnates, in Psalm lxviii. 31 [32]. The history of the Hasmoneans is given in Israel (vol. xiii. p. 421 sq.) ; in the appendedgenealogical tables (after Schürer) the dates are those of the death of each individual in years b.c.
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The chief authorities are 1 and 2 Maccabees (see next article) and Josephus. For details as to other sources see Schiirer’s Neutestα-meηtliche Zeitgeschichte, which gives also a good summary of the history. Of other works subsequent to Ewald’s Geschichte, vol. iv., it is enough to name.Derenbourg, Histoire de la Palestine (1867), and Wellhausen’s Pharisäer and Sadducäer (1874). For the coins of the Hasmoneans see Madden, Coins of the Jews, 1881.
MACCABEES, Books of. Two books of this name are included among the Apocrypha of the English Bible, as they had formerly been in the Vulgate, and were accepted as canonical by the council of Trent. A third book is usually included in editions of the Septuagint, and is found in common with books iv. and v. in the Syriac, but never took a place in Latin Bibles; a fourth is found in some MSS. of the Septuagint (including the Sinaitic and Alexandrian—the Vatican does not contain the Maccabee books) and also in MSS. of Josephus, and has been printed in both connexions.
1 Maccabees was originally written in Hebrew, as appears, not only from the testimony of Jerome {Prol. Calf, who had seen the Hebrew text, but from internal evidence. Josephus, however, already used the Greek, 2 and no trace of the Semitic original survives except the problematical title recorded by Origen {ap. Eus., H. E., vi. 25). 3
The book gives the history of the national movement in Judaea from the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes (175 b.c. ) to the murder of Simon (135 b.c.), in a plain and honest style, and evidently from good information. When the book was written there already existed a history of the reign or high priesthood of John Hyrcanus, to which the author refers for the continuation of his narrative. On the other hand, the friendly tone in which he always speaks of the Romans seems to justify the inference that he wrote before 63 b.c. 4
2 Maccabees, covering the history from 176 b.c. to the victory over Nicanor (160 b.c.), is much inferior in value. It begins with two epistles which are certainly forgeries, and then proceeds to the task of summarizing in one book the five books of a certain Jason of Cyrene on the war of liberation against Antiochus Epiphanes. The narrative is a useful supplement to that in the first book, but is not nearly so trustworthy, and can never claim the preference where the two are in conflict. Geiger has shown that in 2 Maccabees the history is coloured and distorted by sympathy with the Pharisees, who became the bitter enemies of the Hasmoneans {Urschrift und Uebers., book i. § 4).
3 Maccabees records a persecution of the Alexandrian Jews by Ptolemy IV. Philopator, with the ultimate repentance of the tyrant. It is quite unliistorical, and the local feast of the Alexandrian Jews, of which it professes to explain the origin (vi. 36), is connected by Josephus {Cont. Ap., ii. 5) with an event that took place under Ptolemy Physcon. Ewald’s conjecture that the story contains a hidden reference to the emperor Caius {Gesch,, iv. 611 sq.~) has found considerable favour. It seems strange that this book should ever have found entrance in Christian circles. It had, however, considerable acceptance in the Eastern Church.
4 Maccabees, also known by the title τr∈pt αντοκράτορος λογlσμοv, “on the sovereignty of reason,” was ascribed to Josephus by Eusebius and Jerome. This opinion is now given up, and nothing certain can be said of its origin. It is a not uninteresting specimen of a Jewish philosophical theme composed under Stoic influence. The author illustrates the sovereignty of pious reason over the passions by historical examples, and is thus led to give anecdotes from the time of the Maccabees.
.Fritzsche’s edition of the Apocrypha (1871) is the best, and contains the four books of Maccabees. Grimm’s commentary on 1 Mac. appeared in 1853, on the other three books in 1857. There is also a commentary on 1 Mac. by Keil, 1875. On 4 Mac. there is an elaborate study by Freudenthal, Die Fl. Josephus beigelegte Schrift Ueber die Herrschaft der Vernunft, Breslau, 1869. For further literature see Schürer, NTliche Zeitgeschichte (1874), pp. 19, 650 sg., and his excellent article “Apokryphen” in Herzog-Plitt, BE., vol. i. An Arabic “Book of Maccabees,” giving a compend of Jewish history from the affair of Heliodorus to the last part of Herod’s reign, is printed in the Paris and London Polyglotts. A so-called “Fifth Book of Maccabees” is also contained in the great AmbrosianPeshito. It is in fact the sixth book of Josephus De Bello Judaico.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 15, p. 130 [333 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]
two apocryphal books of Scripture, containing the history of Judas and his brothers, and their wars against the Syrian kings in defence of their religion and liberties, so called from Judas, the son of Mattathias, surnamed Maccabæus, as some authors say, from the word מכבי, formed of the initials of מי-כמכה באלים יהוה, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?” Exod. xv, 11, which was the motto of his standard; whence those who fought under his standard were called Maccabees, and the name was generally applied to all who suffered in the cause of true religion, under the Egyptian or Syrian kings. This name, formed by abbreviation according to the common practice of the Jews, distinguished Judas Maccabæus by way of eminence, as he succeeded his father, B. C. 166, in the command of those forces which he had with him at his death; and, being joined by his brothers, and all others that were zealous for the law, he erected his standard, on which he inscribed the above mentioned motto. Those, also, who suffered under Ptolemy Philopater of Alexandria, fifty years before this period, were afterward called Maccabees; and so were Eleazar, and the mother and her seven sons, though they suffered before Judas erected his standard with the motto from which the appellation originated. And therefore, as these books which contain the history of Judas and his brothers, and their wars against the Syrian kings, in defence of their religion and liberties, are called the first and second books of the Maccabees; so that book which gives us the history of those who, in the like cause, under Ptolemy Philopater, were exposed to his elephants at Alexandria, is called the third book of the Maccabees; and that which is written by Josephus, of the martyrdom of Eleazar, and ...the seven brothers and their mother, is called the fourth book of the Maccabees.
The first book of the Maccabees is an excellent history, and comes nearest to the style and manner of the sacred historians of any extant. It was written originally in the Chaldee language, of the Jerusalem dialect, and was extant in this language in the time of Jerom, who bad seen it. From the Chaldee it was translated into Greek, from the Greek into Latin. Theodotion is conjectured to have translated it into Greek; but this version was probably more ancient, as we may infer from its use by ancient authors, as Tertullian, Origen, and others. It is supposed to have been written by John Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, who was prince and high priest of the Jews near thirty years, and began his government at the time where this history ends. It contains the history of forty years, from the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes to the death of Simon, the high priest; that is, from the year of the world 3829 to the year 3869, B. C. 131. The second book of the Maccabees begins with two epistles sent from the Jews of Jerusalem to the Jews of Egypt and Alexandria, to exhort them to observe the feast of the dedication of the new altar erected by Judas, on his purifying the temple. The first was written in the 169th year of the era of the Seleucidæ, that is, B. C. 144; and the second, in the 188th year of the same era, or B. C. 125; and both appear to be spurious. After these epistles follows the preface of the author to his history, which is an abridgment of a larger work, composed by one Jason, a Jew of Cyrene, who wrote in Greek the history of Judas Maccabæus, and his brethren, and the wars against Antiochus Epiphanes, and Eupator his son. The two last chapters contain events under the reign of Demetrius Soter, the successor of Antiochus Eupator, and contain such varieties in their style, as render it doubtful whether they had the same author as the rest of the work. This second book does not by any means equal the accuracy and excellency of the first. It contains a history of about fifteen years, from the execution of Heliodorus’s commission, who was sent by Seleucus to fetch away the treasures of the temple, to the victory obtained by Judas Maccabæus over Nicanor; that is, from the year of the world 3828 to the year 3843, B. C. 157.
There are in the Polyglott Bibles, both of Paris and London, Syriac versions of both these books; but they, as well as the English versions which we have among the apocryphal writers in our Bibles, are derived from the Greek. For a farther account of Judas Maccabæus, and of his brothers, whose history is recorded in the first and second books of the Maccabees, and also by Josephus, we refer to the article JEWS. The third book of the Maccabees contains the history of the persecution of Ptolemy Philopater against the Jews in Egypt, and their sufferings under it; and seems to have been written by some AlexandrianJew in the Greek language, not long after the time of Siracides. This book, with regard to its subject, ought to be called the first, as the things which are related in it occurred before the Maccabees, whose history is recorded in the first and second books; but as it is of less authority and repute than the other two, it is reckoned after them. It is extant in Syriac, though the translator did not seem to have well understood the Greek language. It is in most of the ancient manuscript copies of the Greek Septuagint, particularly in the Alexandrian and Vatican, but was never inserted into the vulgar Latin version of the Bible, nor, consequently, into any of our English copies. The first authentic mention we have of this book is in Eusebius’s _Chronicon_.” It is also named with two other books of the Maccabees in the eighty-fifth of the apostolic canons. But it is uncertain when that canon was added. Grotius thinks that this book was written after the two first books, and shortly after the book of Ecclesiasticus, from which circumstance it was called the third book of Maccabees. Moreover, Josephus’s history of the martyrs that suffered under Antiochus Epiphanes, is found in some manuscript Greek Bibles, under the name of the fourth book of the Maccabees. This book, ascribed to Josephus, occurs under the title, Concerning the Empire or Government of Reason;” but learned men have expressed a doubt whether this was the book known to the ancients as the fourth book of the Maccabees.
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