Maccabees, Martyrs, Rabbis

The 4 Books of the Maccabees—Jewish texts prized by classical Christianity— form a vital link between the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. Vital parts of Jewish history, they were included in the Septuagint, the Jewish translation of Hebrew texts into Greek. They are part of the Bible of Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and were originally included as “worthy of study” in early Protestant Bibles, but were left out of the Tanach, authoritative Hebrew Bible when its canon was finalized after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.  

The Maccabean Revolt against the Greek king of Syria, Antiochus IV gave birth or new strength to developments in early, post-exile Judaism: the rise of the Pharisees, a stronger belief in the the last  judgment and resurrection of the dead, prayers for the dead, prayers of the saints, as well as the holiness of a martyr’s death—all part of the background…