All right, well this Bible study on the books of Maccabees is going to be a good one. We're going to do this in five lessons and you have your syllabus and suggested reading. They're available to you in the audio library. You can see the sequence of lessons and the suggested commentaries that we use pretty much for all the other books of the Bible here in the Old Testament that we're going through.
And they'll be very, very enriching and I always curate what I feel are the best commentaries putting it together for you. So lesson one is always a introduction. We want to introduce the books of Maccabees, look at the various introductory topics like title, authorship, language, dating, historical context, key themes, all that kind of stuff. It is very important to do that.
Just spend a little bit of time setting a foundation, some groundwork before it jumps straight into the chapters which we're going to do in the next lessons, next four lessons. So I'm going to do that part one of this particular lecture is looking at those introductory topics. And because First and Second Maccabees is part of what is known as the Deuterocanonical books or sometimes Protestants, I'm not Catholic so call them the apocryphal works, I want to be able to address that. So the last page of the notes here for about 15 minutes or so, I want to talk about First and Second Maccabees in the context of the Deuterocanonical debates.
Are they included in the Catholic Bible rightly? Why do Protestants take them out? I'm going to briefly discuss all of that stuff. I will always point to you, I spent a whole hour on this topic in Scripture 101, lesson six where you look at the canon, its development and inspiration of the Deuterocanonical books.
I think since we're talking about First and Second Maccabees, it's going to be worthwhile to touch upon that. So without any further ado, then let's look at this introduction to the First and Second books of Maccabees. There are actually four Maccabees if you didn't know that and only one into are inspired. But let's look at this.
So the first, the title of the Maccabees. I want to begin with just a little quotation here from your Catholic introduction. Excuse me, your, Amityus Catholic study Bible. I says the title of Maccabees derived from the nickname of Judas Maccabees usually thought to mean the hammer does not appear in the plural form within either of the two books themselves.
It's a two-agent manuscript, carried the title of Maccabion of the Maccabees, which corresponds with the early Christian attestation. In quotes, so this is an interesting thing. A lot of people, they take a book of the Maccabees and they're going through First and Second Maccabees and really the word isn't there or at least it's certainly not applied to the whole family. It really only is applied to just Judas.
Judas, all the sons of Mattathias have nicknames. I'm going to get into that in the next lesson for you. The nickname here, like this quote said, is the hammer. And that's important because Judas is the very first, very important principle commander of this movement to retake Jewish land, to reclaim the temple, to consecrate it, to fight against the Greeks.
He is an incredible military commander and military genius. God gave him great talents and he is filled with humility and trust in God. So he does amazing. He does amazing fighting for his people.
Then his brothers, First Jonathan and Simon, are going to continue the mission. Really, their father started it all. It's going to see you really, really soon. So Maccabees really just applies to Judas.
I actually affectionately call him the Big Mac, right? So if you, anyone who's gone to McDonald's knows there's the Big Mac and so I call Judas the Big Mac because he starts it all. He does some incredible work, especially the reclaiming of the Jerusalem temple. So the whole family gets the nickname by extension, but really to be more accurate, just applies to him.
So a little footnote here, footnote number one for you. One of these resources I found explains how the term kind of develops from Hebrew, Macabeth, into Greek, Macabayo, into Latin, Macabayus, into English, Macabees. So you're interested in that. You can't see it's all very similar progression through these different languages here.
So that's what it means. Macabayus, Macabees means the hammer. It applies to him first and secondarily to the family. Alright, so that's enough about the title, pretty straightforward.
So in terms of authorship, language, and dating, these are all very related. So I connected and clumped them together to address this. So first and second Macabees, we have to understand first and foremost, they're not chronological. If you go and read, first and second Samuel, first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, they all have a chronologically successive story.
You know, what happens at the end of first Samuel continues at the beginning of second Samuel and the same as true for Kings and Chronicles. But that's not the same thing here uniquely with first and second Macabees. They independently cover the exact same time period, very much like the Gospels do. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they're all looking at the biography of Jesus, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the son of David.
They all have their different little perspectives. Of course, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Sonoptic Gospels. They see the life of Christ in a very similar way, so they have the most overlap. But John, of course, is very, very different.
Well, that's kind of what's going on here with first and second Macabees. I'm going to explain here in just a second what these two books cover and how they overlap a little bit. All right, so they're not chronological. And as far as authorship is concerned, both of them are truly anonymous.
We really don't know who wrote them. We have a couple of hints maybe here or there, of what kind of person might have written them. But we have no real clear internal evidence of, it doesn't say I, Nick Liebisch, wrote, you know, this book of Macabees, doesn't say anything like that. And externally, we just don't know as well.
So they are anonymous. Now, let's look at them individually, beginning with the first book, of course. So first Macabees was written in Hebrew. There's a lot of consensus about this.
It was written in Hebrew. There's a lot of semitism in there, meaning there are Hebrew expressions or word choices or terms of phrase, stuff like that. That makes sense only in Hebrew. You check out commentaries for all the nitty-gritty details.
I don't want to go too much in the weeds. But it was written in Hebrew for a Palestinian audience, so meaning for those people who lived in the Holy Land. Sometime between 134 and 63 B.C. So within 70 years, give or take, somebody wrote this book in Hebrew.
And we know it was in Hebrew, not just because of the semitism, but as I have a footnote here, people like Saint Jerome and Origin and others have seen the document in Hebrew and they attest to its Hebrew authenticity and originality. So that's really interesting as far as external evidence is concerned. But even though who did it? Someone who clearly understood Hebrew, someone who clearly understood the Holy Land and the geography and all that stuff.
But that's about all we have. All right. So why do we say it's written between 134 and 63 B.C.? Well, here's a little quote for you.
It says that these endpoints, 134 and 63, are set by the latter part of John here, Connes' high priesthood, which began in 134, under whose leadership the book closes. And Pompey, the Roman general Pompey, his conquest of Judea in 63 B.C., after which the positive portrayal of the Romans in 1st Maccabees 8 would unlikely to have been written. All right. So what we're going to do here is that 1st Maccabees ends with the beginning of the high priesthood of John here, Connes.
We'll talk about who that is, what's going on. We'll talk about all that in lesson three. All right. But John here Connes, a significant person, his high priesthood begins in 134 and that's exactly where the book ends.
So clearly the book has to be around sometime, at least after that. And it has to be before 63 B.C. because that's when Rome came into town in general Pompey, comes to Jerusalem and sacks the temple and he's a very much a bad boy. He's very clearly a baddie and a villain.
And so after that point, the Jews would not have any positive feelings towards the Romans at all. However, before then, they are constantly making treaties at least three different times. They're got treaties with the Romans. So before Pompey comes into town, things seem to be pretty good with Rome, right?
They're making treaties with Rome. They're buddies with Rome, helping them fight against the Greeks. So that's why the dating has to be sometime between 134. That's where the book ends.
And 63, when the Romans turn on the Jews and in the book, they have a positive view of the Romans, and 63, that positive view stops. So hopefully that makes sense for you. All right. That kind of explains a little bit about the dating and the authorship, the language you'd say, excuse me, and authorship.
But what does it cover now? Well, the book of 1st Maccabees is the broad view, the wide-angle view of the entire story, the the history of the Maccabian revolt. So think of it as a wide lens. And 2nd Maccabees by extension is going to zoom in, which I'll explain to you in just a second, but it's the wide-angle view of this book.
So it's a very historical, it recounts in a very matter-of-fact, straightforward way, the historical events of this Maccabian story, which goes roughly from 175, 135, you can probably back it up a little bit, 180 to 134 a little bit. But in any case, it's just all the historical names, dates, places, events. It seems to me like real pure history. Of course, it's theology behind it, but it's pure history, and it covers the rise of Greece with Alexander, Jewish persecution under Antiochus IV, which was horribly brutal.
The revolt of the Maccabian family starting with Metathias and his sons, the cleansing of the temple and the feast of the Great Feast of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, talks about the origins of the Hasmonean dynasty with the brother Simon and his son John Hircontus, who starts the Hasmonean dynasty. So basically all of that stuff, the cause and effect is all right here in 1st Maccabees. So think of 1st Maccabees as a history textbook, if you want to think of it that way. Because 2nd Maccabees is a little bit different.
Alright, so there's the highlights of 1st Maccabees. 2nd Maccabees was not written in Hebrew, it was written in Greek, because again, you have a lot of the internal evidence of the language, and there's clearly original Greek greekisms, like so there are sematisms, Jewish modes of expression, it turns as a phrase in 1st Maccabees. Well you have Greekisms, Greek modes of expression, ways of writing and expressing things in 2nd Maccabees. So that's really interesting.
1st Maccabees was originally in Hebrew, 2nd Maccabees was originally in Greek, that's an interesting contrast. So originally in Greek, and it was written sometime in a much more narrow time frame here, between 124 and 63 BC. And it was written to the Jews that lived in Egypt, specifically probably in Alexandria, to encourage them to observe the Feast of Hanukkah. Because remember, Hanukkah, and I'll explain this more in next lesson, Hanukkah was not one of the seven divinely instituted feasts in the Book of the Bintitude of the Books of Moses, specifically Leviticus.
It came much later, came at this particular point, just some less than 200 years before the life of Christ. So it's the most recent feast that the Jews celebrated before the coming of Jesus, and they still celebrate it today. Perim, by the way, we talked about this in our Bible study on Esther, Perim, it's also another feast that's very special, but it wasn't divinely instituted, but nevertheless they celebrate it, and it's beautiful. That's the celebration of the Feast of Lotts, if you remember from that Bible study, go check it out if you haven't.
Alright, so the author here is writing to the Jews living in Egypt and Alexandria. Why? A quick little background here, because there is a massive Jewish population living there. After Nebuchadnezzar squished the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and burned it to a crisp and plundered everything, the Jews shattered.
And you've got this exile of Jews to go, some go into Babylon, but many of them took off and went back to Egypt, which they were never told to do. So they go back to Egypt and time goes on and they reproduce and have families and live and they became very, very prosperous, which is very ironic to study all of that in context, because they delivered them from Egypt and then they went back to Egypt, which is very bad. So over the course of time, they became a very large population, and by some accounts, it was just as large and influential as the population in Jerusalem. So that's why.
By the way, those Jews who lived in Alexandria did not suffer to the same extent as the Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea under Antiochus. So the author here is writing to those Jews living in Egypt saying, you must elaborate Hanukkah, we've got this right annual feast. It's the deliverance, our deliverance from Egypt, it's the rededication of the temple and so on and so forth. Alright, so why do we say 124 to 63 BC?
Why the authorship between those two dates? Well, because the book pretty much just more or less tells us that, at least the 124 when it began. Here's another quote for you. So these end points are set by two passages in the book.
The first letter appended to the book in chapter 1 verses 1 through 9 is usually dated to 124 BC, meaning the canonical form of the book could not have appeared before this date. And then there's a remark in chapter 1537 at the end that Jerusalem was still in possession of the Hebrews at the time of writing, suggesting that the book appeared before the Roman conquest of Judea in 63 BC. The stating schema is widely accepted. Alright, so that makes sense.
I mean, you go to the beginning of 2nd Maccabees, chapter 1, and verses 1 through 9, it gives this historical context. And it says, by the way, we don't know who wrote this, but it says that they're relying on this multi-volume set from some dude named Jason, and we had no idea who that is or we lost those original volumes, but he's relying on this dude named Jason and he is writing this particular year with scholars say it's 124. And then it probably had to have been before 63 BC for the same reasons I just said a moment ago. That's when Rome came in and conquered Jerusalem.
And so it had to have been before that point because the book ends with the Jews still having possession of Jerusalem. So this is pretty interesting. There's not a lot of debate about this. So far as I can tell, of course, I don't write every single commentary on Maccabees, but you get the sense like, okay, this is pretty much accepted, which is really interesting.
So right between 124 and 63, unknown author in Greek, and it is really high Greek. I don't know where I picked this up, could have been from one of the commentaries, I didn't actually apologize, but the Greek is so, so good. There's a little trivia point here that there are 26 words found in second Maccabees that are not found in any other ancient documents or literature in the ancient world in Greek. That is really, really interesting.
Could you imagine 26 words found only in second Maccabees that are not found anywhere else in ancient Greek literature? That's really, really interesting, I think. Okay, so there you go. Oh, right.
So if first Maccabees is very matter of fact, straightforward history, the events covered in second Maccabees zero in. Remember, I said think of that first Maccabees as a wide angle of lens looking at the entire history from really what rise of Greece going all the way to the rise of the Hasmonean dynasty with John Der Kannus, that's over 40 years. Well, much more than that if you include Alexander, but basically the 40 years of the revolt. Second Maccabees zooms in and just looks at the events that were covered in first Maccabees, chapters one through seven.
So first Maccabees one through seven are now going to be hyper-focused on in second Maccabees. So it's really only about a 20 year period here and it goes a little bit slower, a little bit more detail, a little bit more drama, and there's a lot more theological, religious, and doctrinal material, which makes it really interesting. I'm very much looking forward to sharing second Maccabees with you. Because first Maccabees is great, obviously, but it's pure history.
I think, you know, there's some, of course, main themes. I'm going to share that with you as we get to the section of main themes here. The second Maccabees is special. It covers all kinds of great stuff, but we will get there soon enough.
So hold on tight. We'll talk about the key themes in both books in a little bit. So hopefully you have this appreciation as we're moving into these books. First Maccabees, again, just quick, quick recap now.
First Maccabees written in Hebrew for a Palestinian audience and it was covering the main historical points from the entire story. Second Maccabees written in Greek to the Jews in Alexandria and it covers some of the initial events in more detail, but with more theological religious content. Okay. So that should pretty much cover that topic right there.
Now let's look here at the manuscript tradition or some couple, just a couple of things about the manuscripts, which is really fascinating and it's inspiration. First point, exactly that, I kind of already said it, the inspiration of these books. They've always been accepted as scripture within the Catholic Church, within the church fathers, the church, early church community, because they're included in the Septuagint. Now the Septuagint is the Greek Old Testament.
I will talk more about that when we get to the second section of this lesson towards the end. We'll talk about what the Septuagint is if you don't know and some details regarding that. All right. So it's always accepted as scripture in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
But on this point, I put a little footnote on the bottom for you. The Eastern Orthodox also accept third Maccabees as scripture. All right. Now actually, there are four and there's a longer footnote for you here.
You could read that for yourself if you get a second there. I just wanted to clarify. So it's really strange. Hebrew scriptures and the Protestant Bible do not have first and second Maccabees.
Eastern Orthodox do, but they have third Maccabees as well, which is really important because when we come back to the issue of who decides what's inspired and what's not, you need an authority, that is the Catholic Church. And so really you've got these two extremes, either rejecting it entirely or even accepting it and adding more. And that's a fascinating debate we'll talk about just a little bit. All right.
So the Bible is a great, great scripture because it came to us through the Greek Septuagint. And then also depending on which Catholic Bible you have now, I should say, if you're flipping through your Bible, following this Bible study and you can't find Maccabees, it might be because you have a Protestant Bible. So you got to be careful about that. Make sure your Bible is Catholic and then you'll find it in one of two places.
So sometimes Bibles will place at the end of the Old Testament. That is following the Latin Vulgate tradition. So the Duay Reams has at the end the Bible that I have the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, Second Catholic Edition has that in the back of the Bible or the Old Testament. Why?
Well, because the two books that follow are precede the New Testament, obviously. It's right before the time of Christ. Okay. Other Bibles like the New American Bible, for example, will place these books at the end of the historical section if you want to look at it that way, right?
Because there are like certain sections of scripture in the Old Testament you got the Pentateuch, the historical books and the writings. That's the Tanakh in the Hebrew Bible. So it's the Torim, the Ketuim and the Nediim. So it's actually a reversal, excuse me, Torah, the Nediim and the Ketuim, which are the the Law Moses, the historical books, and then you've got the prophets I should say, using the prophets and then the writings.
Anyways, I'm on a tangent right there. But the point is those little grouping of the historical books, first and second Maccabees is placed right there at the end, well, because they fit the category, right? They're historical books, so they're placed right after Esther in the chronological succession. And there is of course a rhyme and a reason to that as well.
So they're opening up your Catholic Bible and it's not at the very end of the Old Testament, well, it's going to be after Esther. And if you open up to the, and that's because it's following the Greek Septuagint tradition. But if you open up your Bible and first and second Maccabees is at the end of the Old Testament, well, then that's following the Latin Vulgate tradition. So that explains the method of the man is about that one.
And I can tell you many stories of teaching this with students and they can't find, they can't find first and second Maccabees. Sometimes it's because they don't have a Catholic Bible, right? So you're never going to find it, but it depends on your translation. It's either in the middle or it's at the end.
So hopefully that helps you there and it helps to explain why they're placed in two different locations, it's just the tradition, whether it's the Latin or the Greek. Alright, now the historical context of first and second Maccabees is a lot of fun. I'm going to talk more about this in the next lesson, but I want to give you an overview here of what's going on historically speaking in the transition of power between Persia and Greece leading up to Rome. It's a really, really important time period.
It's really too bad because a lot of non-Catholics or social Protestant Christians don't read first and second Maccabees because they don't consider it scripture. And the Catholics don't read first and second Maccabees because it's in scripture, right? And we got it. We have to know these books because they explain so much.
There's time period explained so much as to what is going on and why in the time period of Jesus Christ. Herod married into the Hasmonean family. And then we have the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Zellitz, and all of that is a direct result of this time period in the period of Maccabees. Hey, this is Doc Neck.
Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at ScriptureandTradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much, God bless you, and keep setting your vinyl.