1 Maccabees: Encyclopedia - 1 Maccabees

1 Maccabees

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.

1 Maccabees - 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.

1 Maccabees - 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.

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.

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.

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".

1 Maccabees - External references

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

Categories: Deuterocanonical books | Jewish texts | Hasmoneans

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