The Five Books of Maccabees in English

the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The Books of the Maccabees, of which there are five deal in large part with ancient Jewish history, though none are in the Hebrew Bible. All, however, appear in some manuscripts of the Septuagint. The first two books are part of canonical scripture in the Septuagint and the Vulgate (hence are canonical to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) and are included in the Protestant Apocrypha. I Maccabees presents a historical account of political, military, and diplomatic events from the time of Judaea’s relationship with Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria (reigned 175-164/163 bce) to the death (135/134 bce) of Simon Maccabeus, high priest in Jerusalem.

II Maccabees focuses on the Jews’ revolt against Antiochus and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 bce by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. In general, its chronology coheres with that of I Maccabees.

III Maccabees has no relation to the other three books of Maccabees, all of which deal with the revolt of Judaea against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It purports to be a historical account of the repression and miraculous salvation of Egyptian Jewry during the reign (221-205 bce) of Ptolemy IV Philopator.

IV Maccabees has scanty historical information and belongs to the Maccabees series only because it deals with the beginning of the persecution of Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It possibly was written during the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula (37-41 ce). Throughout the early Christian period, IV Maccabees was wrongly attributed to Josephus.

V Maccabees chronicles the events from Heliodorus’ attempt to rob the Temple treasury in 186 BC to the death of Herod the Great’s two sons about 6 BC. Similar to other Books of the Maccabees, this work aims at consoling Jews in their sufferings and encouraging them to be steadfast in their devotion to the Mosaic law.