This one comes with blurb. From the "Lesser Known Bible Story" threadAnd upon the beasts [elephants] were there strong towers of wood, which covered every one of them, and were girt fast unto them with devices: there were also upon every one two and thirty strong men, that fought upon them, beside the Indian that ruled him. - 1 Maccabees 6:37:
viewtopic.php?t=69006
Action packed bad**sery from start to finish! The Hebrew hammer smashes the armies of Alexander the Great... Cleopatra's g g g g grandmother is there!.
That time the Jews made an alliance with Sparta and determined that the Spartans were descendants of Abraham.[1 Macc. 7]
Intro
1 Maccabees is the outstanding historical book in the western Apocrypha. It has had huge cultural influence (see Handel's piece in replies), and possibly Tolkien (those massive elephant-like beasts... which you'll have seen in the films). Soccer fans may also be aware of the various clubs in the state of Israel called Maccabi. The book may not appear in Jewish Bibles but the history remains part of Jewish legend.
On another note, i have seen a Christian say it is a useful link between the Old and New Testament. Instead of the Romans appearing "out of nowhere", their presence is given a historical context. The Greeks invaded the area, and the Romans followed them in. The Greeks had attempted to make their empire Greek-speaking and pagan. Ironically 1 Maccabees is known mainly from the Greek language. The Septuagint (LXX) or Greek language Old Testament was also translated in this period, includes the book and is an influence on the New Testament. (There is internal evidence that the book was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic.)
During the Crusades, Pope Urban II and other church leaders used 1 Maccabees 2 to justify the concept of holy war against the Muslim kingdoms controlling Jerusalem.
Name
This book is normally called 1 Maccabees or First Maccabees. In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canon, there are three other books of Maccabees with varying relevance to the first one. There are also several Ethiopian books of Maccabees. The Jewish Encyclopedia claims that only the first is a reliable historical source.
The word "Maccabee" is believed to mean "hammer" since Judas/Judah and his family hammer the Greek pagans.
Wikipedia
SummaryAccording to Jewish folklore the name Maccabee is an acronym of the verse Mi kamokha ba'elim Adonai, "Who among the gods is like you, O Adonai?", the Maccabean battle-cry to motivate troops. (Exodus 15:11). Some scholars maintain that the name is a shortened form of the Hebrew maqqab-Yahu (from naqab, "to mark, to designate"), meaning "the one designated by Yahweh". Although originally the surname Maccabee was exclusive to Judah (his brothers had different surnames), at a later date it came to signify all the Hasmoneans who fought during the Maccabean Revolt.
The Jerusalem Bible (Roman Catholic divides the book into five sections:
* Chapter 1: Introduction
* Chapter 2: Mattathias and the Holy War
* 3:1 to 9:22, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus
* 9:23 to 12:53, under the leadership of Jonathan
* Chapters 13–16, under the leadership of Simon
The LDS Bible dictionary gives a good summary. I'll provide other information in the replies.
https://www.abibleaday.com/bible-books/1-maccabees/The First Book of the Maccabees. (See Maccabees.) The importance of this work for our knowledge of Jewish history in the 2nd century B.C. can hardly be surpassed. It recounts with great minuteness the whole narrative of the Maccabean movement from the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes (175) to the death of Simon (135). The persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes and the national rising led by the aged priest Mattathias, the heroic war of independence under the lead of Judas the Maccabee, and the recovery of religious freedom and political independence under Jonathan (160–143) and Simon (143–135) mark the chief divisions of the stirring period that the book chronicles.
Relevance to the futureFirst Maccabees is labeled as an historical book, but it possesses both historical and literary value. It is a book of stoic faith.
First Maccabees gives details of the political scene and the military situation in the area of Israel circa the second century BC.
Though the initial focus is on the military leadership and bold exploits of Judas (Maccabeus), for whom the book is named, it also covers the feats of his four brothers: Eleazar, John, Jonathan, and Simon.
Judas Maccabeus was seen as a Messiah in his time although obviously he was not the one. Was he a foreshadowing of Christ like David, Moses or Abraham? Maybe. Arguable.
The Greek invasion and desecration of the Temple foreshadows the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. It may also be a foreshadowing of the Antichrist who is said to go to the Jerusalem Temple to commence his blasphemous mission.
Discussing the changes to the LDS endowment, forum regular Subcomandante writes:
viewtopic.php?p=1337573&hilit=Maccabees#p1337573Subcomandante wrote: ↑January 6th, 2023, 3:51 pm When one reads Daniel we can see in history that this indeed did happen. A king came out of Greece and conquered Judah, then proceeded to profane the temple fortress, putting up an idol to Jupiter and sacrificing a pig on the altar. This is recorded in the annals of history and in the relations concerning the Maccabees that can be found in the Deuterocanon.
Said things will happen again in the near future, though the ruler that will come in will do similar things.
Elizabeth, another forum regular quotes a passage describing Assideans, possibly the first mention of the Pharisees in the scriptures...
viewtopic.php?p=1307794Elizabeth wrote: ↑October 3rd, 2022, 1:22 pm The origin of the Pharisees is not fixed by undisputed authority as to either time or circumstance; though it is probably that the sect or party had a beginning in connection with the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. New ideas and added conceptions of the meaning of the law were promulgated by Jews who had imbibed of the spirit of Babylon; and the resulting innovations were accepted by some and rejected by others. The name “Pharisee” does not occur in the Old Testament, nor in the Apocrypha, though it is probable that the Assideans mentioned in the books of the Maccabees were the original Pharisees. By derivation the name expresses the thought of separatism; the Pharisee, in the estimation of his class, was distinctively set apart from the common people, to whom he considered himself as truly superior as the Jews regarded themselves in contrast with other nations. Pharisees and scribes were one in all essentials of profession, and rabbinism was specifically their doctrine."
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... 6?lang=eng
==
1 Maccabees audiobook (KJV), 2 hours 36 minutes. Includes read-along text
This is part of my ongoing series on Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical works:
1 Esdras inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1343974
2 Esdras (the most relevant book in the Apocrypha?) inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1344302
2 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?p=1347024
3 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69496
4 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?p=1348046
Book of Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy/Jeremiah
viewtopic.php?t=69433
Book of Tobit inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1341501
Apocryphal additions to Esther inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1343414
Bel and the Dragon (quoted in full, KJV; inc audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?t=69261
Prayer of Azarias and Hymn of the Three Children (quoted in full KJV, inc. audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?p=1341611
Book of Judith and the Book of Mormon, inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?t=69402
Book of Susanna inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?t=69386
Wisdom of Solomon
viewtopic.php?t=69469
Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
viewtopic.php?t=69412
Prayer of Mannases (aka Mannaseh; quoted in full KJV, inc. audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?t=69263
Psalm 151 (quoted in full, NRSV)
viewtopic.php?t=63875
Epistle to the Laodiceans (NT, quoted in full Wycliffe's translation, )
viewtopic.php?t=64025
The Book of Odes - this is an Eastern Orthodox work of limited interest, but included for the sake of completeness.
viewtopic.php?t=69470
Outside the Western and Eastern Orthodox Canon...
The Ethiopian canon. This includes brief info on the books of Sinodos, Ethiopian Clement, Ethiopian Covenant, and Didascalia as well as a list of other works in the canon.
viewtopic.php?t=69540
The Book of Jubilees aka Leptogenesis or Little Genesis
viewtopic.php?p=1348962