Though the strictly historical character of the book precludes any description of the religious and theological notions of the day, so that no mention is made in it of a coming Messiah or a future state, even in the dying
speech of Mattathias, wherein he exhorts his sons to sac- rifice their lives for the law of God and the covenant of their fathers, and recounts the faith and rewards of Abra- ham, Joseph, Phinehas, Joshua, Caleb, David, Elijah, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, and Daniel (ii, 49-60), yet the whole is permeated with the true spirit of religion and piety. The writer mentions the time from which '• a prophet was not seen among them" (1 JIacc. ix, 27) as a marked epoch ; and twice he anticipates the future coming of a prophet as of one who should make a direct revelation of the will of God to his people (iv, 46), and supersede the temporary arrangements of a merely civil dynasty (xiv, 41). God is throughout acknowledged as overruling all the machinations of the enemy, and prayer is offered up to him for success after all the preparations are made for battle, and before the faithful host en- counter their deadly enemies (iii, 18, 19, 44, 48, 53, 60 ; iv, 10, etc., 24, 25, 30, etc. ; v, 34, 54 ; vii, 36-38, 41, 42 ; ix, 45, etc.) ; and even the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes is made to acknowledge in his dying hour that he is punished for profaning the Temple and destroying the inhabitants of Judaea (vi, 8-13). The absence of even the remotest allusion to a future state in the hour of death, or to a resurrection of the dead, it must be con- fessed, rather favors the conclusion of the ingenious but daring critic. Dr. Geiger, rabbi at Breslau, that the au- thor of this book was a Sadducee (comp. Urschrift und Uebersetzung der Bibel, p. 216 sq.).
IV. Author, Date, and Original Language. — All that can be said with certainty about the author of this book is that he was a Palestinian Jew. This is mdicated by the whole spirit which pervades the book, by the lively sympathies which the writer manifests for the heroes whom he describes, and by his intimate acquaintance with the localities of Palestine.
Not so certain, however, is its date. Prideaux, Mi- chaelis, Hengstenberg, Bertheau, Welte, Scholtz, Keil, and others, though discarding the notion of Lapide, Huet, etc., that John Hyrcanus was the author, are yet of opinion that the concluding words, ra \onra tojv \6- yoju'lojavvov Kal tojv TroXsf.iwv avTov . . . l(}ov ravra yiypairrai itri I3ij3\i<i) in-iipiov cipxtepo}(Tvvrig avrov, af' oil tyevt]^)] dpxKpii'Q /JtTa tuv Trarepa avrov (xvi, 24), plainly show that the book was written during the government of this high-priest, perhaps about B.C. 120- 106, inasmuch as this passage only gives the terminus a quo of the high-priesthood of John, without the tei-- minus ad quern, thiia indicating that John was still living, and that his pontificate was not as yet terminated. Af- ter the close of the priesthood, or after the death of John, this remark would be superfluous, because no reader could take the words, ^' diary of his jmesthood," in any other sense than that they denote a chronicle of the whole duration of it from the beginning to the end. Nor can the words 'iujg t))c »'/juf pac ravrijg, in xiii. 30, be adduced as implying a later date ; for it was some- thing remarkable that, in those days of war and devas- tation, the sepulchre which Simon made for his family in Modin remained between twenty and thirty years unhurt. Eichhorn, Bertholdt, De Wette, Ewald, Grimm, and others, however, maintain that the book was writ- ten after the death of John Hyrcanus, oscillating be- tween B.C. 105 and 64.
The language of the book does not present any strik- ing peculiarities. Both in diction and structure it is generally simple and unaffected, with a marked and yet not harsh Hebraistic character. The number of pecul- iar words is not very considerable, especially when com- pared with those in 2 Maccabees. Some of these are late forms, as \poytm {\poyiZw}, xi, 5, 11; i^ovceviuaig, i,39; o:r\o^or£a>, xiv, 32; d(T7riCiaKi],iv,^7 ; ditXooiitai, iv, 8, 21; v, 4; xvi,6; bjuj;pa, viii, 7 ; ix, 63, etc. ; d(pai- pt/xa, XV, 5 ; rsXwviia^ai, xiii, 39 ; t^ovrridi^ia^ai, x, 70; or compounds, such as a7ro(TKop7ri'^a<,xi, 55; imavc- -pf0w, xiv, 44; c!6j\o;//?ixoc, viii, 15; xvi, 5; (povoKTO- via, i, 24. Other words are used in new or strange senses, as dcpvvit), viii, 14; Trapdffracric, xv, 32; Sia-
MACCABEES, BOOKS OF 608 MACCABEES, BOOKS OF
<TTo\i'],y'in,7. Some phrases clearly express a Shemitic idiom (ii, 48, Sovrai icipai; ti^ ii^ci^t. vi, 23; x, 62; xii, 23), an<l the influence of the Sept. is continually per- ce[)til)le (o. g. i, 54; ii, 03 ; vii, 17; ix, 23 ; xiv, 9). Jo- sephus undoubtedly made use of the Greek text (.1 nt. xii, 5 sq.).
That this book, however, was originally written in Hebrew is not only attested by Origen, who gives the Hebrew title of it (see above, § i), and by St. Jerome, who saw it ('"MaccabaBonim primum librum Hebraicum reperi" — Prol. Gal. ad Libr. Reg.), but is evident from the many Hebraisms which are literal translations of the Hebrew (comp. Kai j'/roijuaffS?; i) lia(J^Ktia = '{ZT\^ r.'zh'n, i, 16, with Sept. 1 Sam. xx, 31 ; 1 Kings ii, 12 ; t'lQ Su'ij^oXov ■!roi'i]puv — 2!~\ "IjII;?, i, 36; iv r^p iXiift avToii —'lI'D'n'Z, ii, 57, with Jer. ii, 2; dnoWvixivovi; =D'''lSX, iii, 9; utto yivovg tiiq /3a(Ti\6iae = SltlS n-lb'':il, iii, 32, with Jer. xii, 1), as well as from the difficulties in the Greek text, which disappear on the supposition of mistakes made by the translator (com- pare /c«( tntia^tj I'l yij tni roi'C KaroiKoiirag avTi]v = rr'n'iJIi hv "{'"iXn Ujynni, i, 28 ; iyiviTo uvaucav- 7/}c wf avijp atio5oc = i^t23 U3"^XD nri"'2, i. e. Hn'^D nT23 CX n'^n3,ii,8; see also ii, 34 ; iii, 3; iv, 19,24, etc.). The Hebrew of this book, however, like that of the later canonical writings of the O. T., had a consid- erable admixture of Aramaic expressions (compare i, 5 ; iv, 19; viii, 5; xi, 28; and Grimm's Comment, on these passages).