The First Book of Machabees (1 Maccabees)

The First Book of Machabees takes up the history of God's people where the prophets fall silent. Some two and a half centuries after Nehemias (2 Esdras), a Greek king tries to abolish the Law of Moses by force; an old priest and his five sons refuse, and in some thirty years of war they cleanse the Temple, restore the sacrifice and win Judea its freedom. Every chapter can be read below in the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims, starting with 1 Machabees 1.

What is the Book of Machabees?

The Catholic Bible contains two Books of Machabees, two distinct works rather than one story in two volumes. The First Book is a continuous history of the years 175 to 135 BC, from the accession of Antiochus IV Epiphanes to the death of Simon, the last of the sons of Mathathias. The Second Book of Machabees, by another author, is an abridgment of a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene: it covers roughly the years of Judas in a more homiletic style, with the martyrdom of the seven brothers and their mother and the prayer for the dead of chapter 12.

Bishop Challoner's preface gives the reason for the name: "These books are so called, because they contain the history of the people of God under the command of Judas Machabeus and his brethren." Machabeus was at first the surname of Judas alone, the third son of Mathathias (1 Machabees 2:4), and was later extended to his whole family and to all who fought with them. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia derives it most probably from the Aramaic maqqaba, "hammer", Judas "the Hammer". Challoner records an older explanation: that Judas carried on his standards the words of Exodus 15:11, "Who is like to thee, among the strong, O Lord?", whose Hebrew initials give the letters M. C. B. E. I.

Who wrote the Book of Machabees?

The Church has never attached a name to the book. Challoner says plainly: "It is not known who is the author of these books," and the Catholic Encyclopedia judges the names that have been proposed to rest on "groundless conjecture."

The book itself shows him to have been a Jew of Palestine who knew the land intimately, a devout servant of the Law, and a warm admirer of the Machabean house. He wrote in Hebrew: St Jerome, in the preface to the Books of Kings known as the Prologus Galeatus, says "Machabaeorum primum librum Hebraicum repperi" ("I have found the First Book of Machabees in Hebrew"), and Origen, quoted by Eusebius (Church History VI, 25), gives its Semitic title as Sarbeth Sarbanaiel. The Hebrew is lost; the Church received the book in the Greek of the Septuagint, and St Jerome left its Old Latin version untouched in the Latin Vulgate Bible.

The Pontifical Biblical Commission issued no decision on the authorship of Machabees. Modern scholars, too, leave the author unnamed; the names some have proposed remain conjecture.

When was it written?

The book ends by referring to the acts of John Hyrcanus, Simon's son, as "written in the book of the days of his priesthood" (1 Machabees 16:24). It was therefore written after Hyrcanus became high priest in 135 BC, probably after his death, and before Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BC, for it speaks of Rome only as Israel's faithful friend. The Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that it was written "within the last years of the second century B.C."; most modern scholars likewise place it around 100 BC.

The author dates events by the "kingdom of the Greeks", the Seleucid era that began in 312 BC: Antiochus reigns from year 137 (1 Machabees 1:11), the altar is profaned in 145, rededicated in 148, and Simon dies in 177. Such precision is one reason the Catholic Encyclopedia could write that "modern scholars of all schools, even the most extreme, admit that the book is a historical document of the highest value."

What is the Book of 1 Maccabees about? A summary

The Greek kings and the persecution (chapter 1)

The book opens with the death of Alexander the Great and the division of his empire, "and evils were multiplied in the earth." From his successors comes "a wicked root, Antiochus the Illustrious." Apostate Jews build a gymnasium in Jerusalem; Antiochus plunders the Temple and decrees that "all the people should be one: and every one should leave his own law." On the fifteenth of Casleu, in the year 145, he sets up "the abominable idol of desolation upon the altar of God." The books of the Law are burnt, mothers who circumcise their children are put to death, and many "chose rather to die, than to be defiled with unclean meats." Read it all in 1 Machabees chapter 1.

Mathathias raises the revolt (chapter 2)

At Modin the king's officers demand that the priest Mathathias sacrifice first. He answers: "I and my sons, and my brethren will obey the law of our fathers," kills the apostate who comes to offer on the pagan altar, and cries, "Every one that hath zeal for the law, and maintaineth the testament, let him follow me." The faithful flee to the desert; after a thousand are slaughtered for refusing to fight on the sabbath, the rest resolve to defend themselves even on that day. Dying, Mathathias recalls the fidelity of Abraham, Joseph, Phinees, David, Elias and Daniel, and names Judas captain of the army (1 Machabees 2).

Judas Machabeus and the rededication of the Temple (chapters 3-9)

Judas, "like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey," defeats the Syrian generals Apollonius, Seron, Gorgias and Lysias with small forces, trusting that "the success of war is not in the multitude of the army, but strength cometh from heaven" (1 Machabees 3). In chapter 4 he purifies the Temple, builds a new altar of whole stones, and on 25 Casleu of the year 148, three years to the day after the profanation, offers sacrifice again, keeping the dedication eight days. Chapter 5 relates his campaigns to rescue the Jews of Galaad and Galilee.

In chapter 6 Antiochus dies in Persia, confessing, "I remember the evils that I did in Jerusalem," and Eleazar gives his life beneath a war elephant. Judas defeats Nicanor on 13 Adar (chapter 7), makes a treaty with Rome (chapter 8), and falls at Laisa against Bacchides, refusing to flee: "if our time be come, let us die manfully for our brethren" (chapter 9).

Jonathan, leader and high priest (chapters 9-12)

Jonathan is chosen to take command after his brother's death (1 Machabees 9:30). Courted by rival claimants to the Syrian throne (chapter 11 follows their intrigues), he is named high priest by Alexander Balas, and he first puts on the holy vestment at the feast of Tabernacles in the year 160 (1 Machabees 10). He renews the friendship with Rome and with Sparta, writing that the Jews need no such alliances, "having for our comfort the holy books that are in our hands" (1 Machabees 12), before being taken by treachery by Tryphon.

Simon and the freedom of Israel (chapters 13-16)

Simon, the last surviving brother, rallies the people (1 Machabees 13): "In the year one hundred and seventy, the yoke of the Gentiles was taken off from Israel." He builds the family tomb at Modin with seven pyramids and takes the citadel of Jerusalem. Chapter 14 is a hymn to his peace, "every man sat under his vine, and under his fig tree," and records the decree making him prince and high priest. After a new quarrel with Antiochus VII (chapter 15), Simon is murdered at a banquet near Jericho by his son-in-law Ptolemee, and his son John Hyrcanus succeeds him (1 Machabees 16).

Themes and the Catholic reading

Fidelity to the Law unto death. The whole book turns on Mathathias's choice to obey God rather than an apostate king. St Augustine says the Church received these books "on account of the extreme and wonderful sufferings of certain martyrs, who, before Christ had come in the flesh, contended for the law of God even unto death" (City of God XVIII, 36). The roll of the fathers in Mathathias's farewell, "Ananias and Azarias and Misael, by believing, were delivered out of the flame. Daniel, in his innocency, was delivered out of the mouth of the lions," is echoed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, whose saints "stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire... became valiant in battle, put to flight the armies of foreigners."

Courage as a virtue. St Ambrose, in On the Duties of the Clergy (Book I, 40-41), holds up the Machabees as models of fortitude: the decision to fight on the sabbath, Eleazar slaying the elephant, Jonathan restoring a lost battle with two men, and Judas refusing to flee lest he "leave... any stain upon our glory."

The fulfilment of Daniel. The book records as history what the Book of Daniel foretold: a king out of Alexander's divided empire whose forces "shall defile the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation" (Daniel 11:31). Our Lord takes up the same words for the last times in Matthew 24:15, and St Jerome, in his Commentary on Daniel, reads Antiochus as a figure of the Antichrist.

The Dedication and Christ. The eight-day feast decreed in chapter 4 is the feast our Lord attended in the Temple: "And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: and it was winter" (John 10:22). It was then, as the Gospel of St John records, that He declared, "I and the Father are one."

Awaiting the prophet. Three times the book notes that no prophet was then in Israel: the defiled altar stones are laid aside "till there should come a prophet" (4:46), the tribulation is the greatest "since the day, that there was no prophet seen in Israel" (9:27), and Simon is made high priest "till there should arise a faithful prophet" (14:41). The book closes the Old Testament in expectation.

Famous chapters and verses of 1 Maccabees

1 Maccabees 1. The most searched chapter, from Alexander to the persecution. Its Douay numbering differs slightly from the King James Apocrypha: the "abominable idol of desolation" is 1 Machabees 1:57 in the Douay (1:54 in many modern Bibles), and the chapter runs to verse 67 rather than 64.

1 Maccabees 2:15-29. The scene at Modin, ending in the flight to the desert: "Then many that sought after judgment, and justice, went down into the desert" (1 Machabees 2). Verses 49-70 give Mathathias's last counsel: "be ye zealous for the law, and give your lives for the covenant of your fathers."

1 Maccabees 3:48. Before the battle of Emmaus, the people fast at Maspha, "and they laid open the books of the law, in which the Gentiles searched for the likeness of their idols" (1 Machabees 3).

1 Maccabees 4:36-59. The cleansing of the Temple and the rededication of the altar on 25 Casleu, kept "from year to year for eight days... with joy and gladness" (1 Machabees 4:59). This is the origin of the feast the Jews call Hanukkah, the only account of it in Scripture.

1 Maccabees 6:1-16. The death of Antiochus Epiphanes, who recognizes his punishment: "I know, therefore, that for this cause these evils have found me" (1 Machabees 6).

1 Maccabees 9:21-22. The lament for Judas: "How is the mighty man fallen, that saved the people of Israel!" (1 Machabees 9), recalling David's lament for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Kings 1 (2 Samuel 1).

1 Maccabees 13:51. Simon enters the citadel of Jerusalem "with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees... because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel" (1 Machabees 13).

Its place in the canon

In the Catholic Bible, 1 and 2 Machabees close the Old Testament, after the twelve minor prophets, as they did in the Clementine Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims Bible. They belong to the seven deuterocanonical books, received with the Septuagint, the Greek Bible used by the Apostles and the early Church.

The Church listed "two books of Machabees" in the canon of the Council of Rome under Pope St Damasus (382), the Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), and the letter of Pope St Innocent I to Exsuperius (405). The Council of Florence repeated the list in its Decree for the Jacobites (1442), and the Council of Trent defined it in Session IV (8 April 1546), naming "two of Machabees, the first and the second," and anathematizing anyone who does not receive these books "entire with all their parts" as sacred and canonical. As Challoner writes, the Church, "in settling her canon of the scriptures, chose rather to be directed by the tradition she had received from the apostles of Christ, than by that of the scribes and Pharisees."

Why was it removed from Protestant Bibles? The rabbinic canon of the Palestinian Jews did not include the Books of Machabees, and the Reformers chose that narrower canon. Luther printed them in an appendix of "Apocrypha," books "not held equal to Holy Scripture" though "useful and good to read," and later Protestant editions dropped even the appendix. The book was never removed from the Catholic Bible, whose canon of 73 books is the one Trent received from the ancient councils.

The Eastern Orthodox churches also read 1 Machabees, with 2 and 3 Maccabees. The Ethiopian Orthodox canon has three books called Meqabyan, which are distinct works and not the 1 Machabees of the Catholic Bible.

In the liturgy. In the Roman Breviary the Books of Machabees are the Scripture of Matins through October, from the first Sunday of the month, after Job, Tobias (Tobit), Judith and Esther in September and before Ezechiel and the prophets in November, a cycle explained in our article on the Breviary. You can follow these lessons in our online Breviary and find the season on the liturgical calendar.

How to read 1 Machabees

Read it as history, with a map of Judea at hand, keeping the four leaders in order: Mathathias, Judas, Jonathan, Simon. Chapters 1-2 set the scene; chapters 3-9 follow Judas and read well in one or two sittings; chapters 10-16, dense with Syrian kings and letters, repay patience. Then read 2 Machabees, which retells the years of Judas with the martyrs and the prayer for the dead that underlies the Church's teaching on purgatory. The place of these books among the English versions is set out in What Bible Do Catholics Use?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Book of Maccabees?

The Books of Machabees (Maccabees) are two historical books at the end of the Catholic Old Testament. The First Book tells how Mathathias and his sons Judas, Jonathan and Simon resisted the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes, who tried to abolish the Law of Moses, and how they cleansed the Temple and won the independence of Judea between 175 and 135 BC.

Who wrote the Book of Maccabees?

The author of 1 Machabees is unknown, as Bishop Challoner notes in his preface. The book shows that he was a devout Palestinian Jew, writing soon after the events, who wrote in Hebrew; St Jerome says he found the book in Hebrew.

When was the Book of Maccabees written?

1 Machabees was written after John Hyrcanus became high priest in 135 BC, since its last verses refer to the record of his priesthood, and before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BC. The Catholic Encyclopedia places it in the last years of the second century BC.

Why was the Book of Maccabees removed from the Bible?

It was never removed from the Catholic Bible. The Protestant Reformers adopted the shorter canon of the Palestinian rabbis, which lacked the deuterocanonical books, and placed Machabees among the "Apocrypha." The Church received both books at the Councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), and Trent defined them as canonical in 1546.

Is the Book of Maccabees in the King James Bible?

The original King James Bible of 1611 printed 1 and 2 Maccabees in its Apocrypha section, between the Old and New Testaments, but not as part of the Protestant canon. Most later editions leave it out; in Catholic Bibles such as the Douay-Rheims they are full books of the Old Testament.

How many books of Maccabees are there?

The Catholic Bible has two: 1 and 2 Machabees, both declared canonical by the Council of Trent. Greek Orthodox Bibles add a 3 Maccabees (with 4 Maccabees in some appendices), which the Church does not receive as Scripture.

How many chapters are in 1 Maccabees?

1 Machabees has 16 chapters. Chapters 1-2 tell of the persecution and the revolt of Mathathias, chapters 3-9 the wars of Judas, chapters 9-12 Jonathan, and chapters 13-16 Simon.

Are the books of Maccabees historically accurate?

Even critical historians regard the First Book as a source of the first order for the second century BC, with precise dates and many official documents. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia answers the few objections to particular details, noting that some figures suffered in copying.

Read the whole First Book of Machabees verse by verse, in Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, with Bishop Challoner's preface to the Books of Machabees; the Latin Vulgate (Clementine); St Jerome, Prologus Galeatus and Commentary on Daniel; Origen in Eusebius, Church History VI, 25; St Augustine, City of God XVIII, 36; St Ambrose, On the Duties of the Clergy I, 40-41; Council of Florence, Decree for the Jacobites (1442); Council of Trent, Session IV (1546); Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Machabees, The Books of" and "The Machabees."