First and Second Maccabees

First and Second Maccabees are two deuterocanonical books that cover the period of Israel’s history from 167 BC to 100 BC. These books are included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, but not in Protestant or Jewish Bibles.

The books are named after Judas Maccabeus, who started the Jewish revolt against Rome in 166 BC. The importance of these books is that they provide historical accounts of Israel’s struggles during the time between Malachi (the last book of the Old Testament) and the time of Christ (6/5 BC–AD 30).

Like 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, this work was written to record a “spiritual” history of the nation. The difference is that 1 Maccabees exclusively describes the Maccabean period up to 100 BC. The unknown author used some genuine literary sources, although parts of the work may not be historical.

This book is written around 100 BC. It focuses more on theology than 1 Maccabees. 1 Maccabees seeks to present a reasonably objective account of the Hasmoneans while 2 Maccabees is a rhetorical summary of a considerably larger work on the subject of the Maccabean era.

See Maccabean Period.