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The Books of Maccabees are important historical sources, composed in the 2nd century BCE, covering the period of the 2nd Temple and up till the Bar Kochba revolt of 132-5 CE. They form part of the Apocrypha, non-canonical Jewish literature. I Maccabees, (1st Book of the Hasmoneans), was written in Hebrew. It tells the history of the Hasmonean family from the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes to John Hyrcanus's reign. It is clearly written by an admirer of the Hasmoneans. The original Hebrew version was lost after the 4th Century CE but the Greek translation survives in the Septuagint. II Maccabees was written in Greek by Jason of Cyrene, a Hellenistic Jew, and is an abbreviated version of the 1st book. It centres on Judas the Maccabee and describes various miracles but also contains authentic historical documents. III Maccabees is a fable on the rescue of Egypt's Jews from persecutions by an evil King. IV Maccabees is a Greek oration commemorating Jewish martyrs at the time of Antiochus. |