The following is the results of your search for Maccabees, The Books of.
Maccabees, The Books of: There were originally five books of the Maccabees. The first contains a
history of the war of independence, commencing (B.C. 175) in a series
of patriotic struggles against the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, and
terminating B.C. 135) It became part of the Vulgate Version of the
Bible, and was thus retained among the Apocrypha. The second gives a
history of the Maccabees' struggle from B.C. 176 to B.C. 161 Its object
is to encourage and admonish the Jews to be faithful to the religion of
their fathers. The third does not hold a place in the Apocrypha, but is
read in the Greek Church. Its design is to comfort the Alexandrian
Jews in their persecution. Its writer was evidently an Alexandrian
Jew. The fourth was found in the Library of Lyons, but was afterwards
burned. The fifth contains a history of the Jews from B.C. 184 to B.C.
86 It is a compilation made by a Jew after the destruction of
Jerusalem, from ancient memoirs, to which he had access. It need
scarcely be added that none of these books has any divine authority.
