Chronicle
of the rise of the Hasmonean
dynasty from about 175-130 BCE.
It was probably composed in Hebrew ca. 110
BCE to bolster
Johanan Hyrcanus against sectarian
opponents. But it survives only in the Greek translation included in
the Septuagint. It is not in the Hebrew
Bible but was accepted by Christians as one of the apocryphal
scriptures.
The fact that this work was not preserved
in Hebrew has led to a long scholarly debate over the etymology of the
name "Maccabee" & its proper application. In primary
narratives the term is used in the singular as a nickname to
refer to the Judean priest Judah
ben Mattatyahu alone. The use of the plural form by later Greek &
Latin Christian writers [e.g., Origen & Jerome] to refer to
various books that narrate the exploits of Judah & his brothers
[i.e., "the first book of (the) Maccabees" and "the second
book of (the) Maccabees"] led to the widespread mistaken use of
"Maccabees" to refer to the whole family itself. While
"Maccabees" & "Maccabean" remain convenient modern
designations for the Jewish fight against foreign
political & cultural dominance in the mid 2nd c. BCE,
there is no ancient textual support for using this name to refer to individual members
of the family of Mattathias of
Modein other than his son Judah.
Other resources
on line:
[Edition used: Rahlfs, Alfred,
ed. Septuaginta. Stuttgart: Deutsche Biblestiftung, 1935].
Perspective on the
World of Jesus 