Books of the Maccabees

Overview and Contents

The Books of the Maccabees are a group of writings dealing with Jewish history during the intertestamental period. "Maccabee" was the nickname of Judas, a leader of the revolt. It is commonly interpreted as meaning "hammer," though this explanation is not settled.

1 Maccabees

The book opens with the Seleucid king Antiochus IV defiling the Temple in Jerusalem and outlawing the Jewish law (chapter 1). It goes on to record the uprising led by the priest Mattathias (chapter 2), the recapture and rededication of the Temple by his son Judas (chapter 4), and the rule of Judas's brothers Jonathan and Simon. The book is thought to have been written originally in Hebrew, but only a Greek translation survives.

2 Maccabees

The book describes itself as an abridgment of a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene (2 Maccabees 2:23). It is best known for its accounts of the martyrdom of the aged Eleazar (chapter 6) and of seven sons and their mother (chapter 7). Chapter 7 clearly expresses the hope of the resurrection, that the dead will live again.

3 and 4 Maccabees

3 Maccabees deals with a persecution suffered by the Jews of Egypt and has no direct connection with the Maccabean period. 4 Maccabees is a philosophical discourse arguing that reason masters the passions (emotions and desires), and it cites the martyrs of 2 Maccabees 7 as examples.

The Question of Canon and Denominational Views

• The Catholic Church accepts the first two books as deuterocanonical (books included in the Old Testament canon at a later stage).
• The Orthodox Church accepts the books through 3 Maccabees and often includes 4 Maccabees as an appendix.
• Protestantism classifies these books as Apocrypha on the grounds that they are not found in the Hebrew Old Testament. Martin Luther included the Apocrypha in his Bible but set them apart as books "not equal to Scripture, yet profitable to read." The Westminster Confession of Faith states that the Apocrypha are not divinely inspired and have no authority in the church. The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England direct that the Apocrypha be read for example of life and instruction of manners, but not be used to establish any doctrine.

Relationship to the Bible as a Whole

Judas's rededication of the Temple is the origin of the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). John 10:22 depicts Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem during this feast. Many scholars read the description in Daniel 11 as referring to Antiochus IV. They also regard those in Hebrews 11:33–38 who "were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Hebrews 11:35) as an allusion to the martyrs of 2 Maccabees 7.

Points of Interpretation

2 Maccabees 12:43–45 records that Judas had a sin offering made on behalf of soldiers who had fallen in battle. The Catholic Church cites this passage as one of the grounds for prayer for the dead and the doctrine of purgatory. Because Protestants do not recognize the book as canonical, they do not accept this passage as a basis for doctrine.

The story that the oil in the Hanukkah lamp burned for eight days is not found in the Books of the Maccabees; it is preserved in later Jewish literature (the Talmud).

In Korean Churches

In Korean Bible translations, the Korean Common Translation titles the first two books "1 and 2 Maccabees," and the Korean Catholic Bible renders them as "The Book of Maccabees, First and Second Volumes."

The Books of the Maccabees are not included in the New Korean Revised Version, the translation most widely used among Korean Protestants. For this reason, they are rarely used as sermon texts in Korean Protestant churches. They are, however, often introduced as historical sources when teaching about the intertestamental period or explaining the Feast of Dedication.