The Maccabees

Jewish history, between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, falls into two divisions, the Grecian and the Roman. The Maccabees were heroes of the first of these periods.

Greek influence was brought into Judaea by Alexander.

After Alexander's death his power was divided among his generals. The centre of one wing was Alexandria in Egypt: the centre of the other was Antioch in Syria. They who ruled at Alexandria were the Ptolemies; they who ruled at Antioch were the Seleucidae; Judaea lay midway between.

Thus the Grecian period of Jewish history between the Testaments also falls into two divisions. The Ptolemies ruled first: the Maccabees lived and fought in the days of the Seleucidae.

The chief among the Greek kings of Syria, the Seleucidae, was Antiochus.

Antioohus is known by two names,--"Epiphanes," which means "The Brilliant," and "Epimanes," which means "The Madman." These names describe his character.

It was the aim of Antiochus to bring Greek customs into Judaea.

In accordance with this, the keeping of the Sabbath, the rite of circumcision, and the distinctions between clean and unclean food, were strictly forbidden.

The king emphasized his laws by the capture of the Holy City, and the pollution of the altars of the temple.

Altars were everywhere built, on which Jews were required to sacrifice to Greek gods. Among the faithful Jews who preferred to die rather than to blaspheme God, was a family bearing the name of Asmon. The father of the family was Mattathias. He had five sons,--John, Simon, Judas, Eleazar, and Jonathan. The men of this family were those whom we know as the "Maccabees." The name "Maccab" is the Hebrew word for hammer.

The Maccabees were the hammer of the Greeks, even as Charles Martel was afterward given the same name of hammer,--"Martel," the hammer of the Moors.

Led by their father, this brave family headed a popular revolt. Weak in numbers, but strong in indomitable zeal, and brave in the help of the Lord, they conquered the multitudes of the enemy in several battles, and recaptured Jerusalem.

The festival of the new consecration of the restored temple under Judas Maccabaeus was annually observed among the Jews, and was that feast of the dedication to which our Lord went at Jerusalem.

The greatest victory of Judas was over the Syrian general, Nicanor.

The hand of Nicanor was nailed to "The Beautiful Gate" of the temple.

In the oratorio of "Judas Maccabaeus," written to celebrate the return of the Duke of Cumberland from the battle of Culloden in 1745, occurred the chorus "See the Conquering Hero Comes:" it was the hymn of victory over the conquest of Nicanor.

Judas was killed in battle.

Eleazar also died fighting, being crushed by an elephant, which he had stabbed, thinking that the Syrian general was on his back.

Jonathan and Simon carried on the conflict. Simon coined the first national Jewish money. The sons of Simon kept the leadership until the time of Hyrcanus II., whose granddaughter, Mariamne, became the unhappy wife of Herod the Great: thenceforth the ruling family was Herodian.

Among the Old-Testament apocryphal books are four books of the Maccabees. Only the first two books were received in the Vulgate, and declared canonical by the councils of Florence and Trent. They were translated by Jerome.

The third and fourth books seem to have been altogether unknown to the Western Church, while the fifth is considered spurious. The accepted apocryphal books of the Old Testament were written during the four hundred years intervening between the Old and New Testaments; but most, if not all, of them bear internal evidence of having been composed as late as the first and second centuries B.C. The word Apocrypha originally meant secret or concealed, and in the early Christian centuries was applied with different signification to a variety of writings. Sometimes it was applied to writings whose authorship was unknown; sometimes to writings containing a hidden meaning; sometimes to those whose public use was unadvisable.

Since the time of Jerome (A.D. 340-420) the term has been applied to sacred writings which the Greek or Septuagint version of the Bible had circulated among Christians, but whose inspired authority was considered doubtful. The Greek Church at the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 360) excluded them from the canon of Scripture. The Latin Church at the Council of Trent (1545-63) placed them on an equality with the rest of the Old Testament. The Church of England uses them in part for edification, but not for the "establishment of doctrine." All other Protestant churches in England and America reject their use in public worship. The precise origin of all these writings can never, perhaps, be fully ascertained.

There are fourteen Old-Testament apocryphal books.

The New-Testament apocryphal writings are not without interest and instruction. They throw light upon the workings of the early Christian Church; and, above all, both the Old and the New enable us to appreciate the great superiority of those Scriptures which have canonical authority.