V. Versions and Exe;/itical Helps. — The book was translated into SjTiac, the JIS. of which is in tlie Am-
brosian Library of MUan ; into Latin, but loosely, by- Erasmus; and again, greatly improved, by Combetis, BibliotheccB Grcecorum patrum auciorium 7iovissimum (pars i, Paris, 1672). This version is in the editions of Josephus by Havercamp, Oberthiir, and Dindorf. Both a Latin and French version are given by Calmet, Com- ment, literal, in Scripturam V. et A". Test, iii, 702 sq. ; a very loose English version was first published by L'Es- trange in his Translation of Josephus (Lond. 1702); and an improved translation is given by Cotton, The Five Bool-s of Maccabees (Oxford, 1832).
Of exegetical helps we mention Eeutlinger, These d'exeffese sur le iv livre des Maccabees (Strasburg, 1826) ; Gfrorer, Philo u. d. A lex.-Theosophie, ii, 175 sq. ; Diihne, Jud.-A lex. Reliff.-Philos. ii, 190 sq. ; Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, iv, 554 sq. ; the elaborate commentary of Grimm, KiLrzgefasstes exeffetisches Ilandb. z. d. Apoh: d. A . T. (pt. iv, Leips. 1857), p. 285 sq. ; Keil, Einleitung ind.A.T. (1859), p. 69 b, sq.
MACCABEES, the FOURTH Book of (h).— Though it is certain that the foregoing book is that which old writers described, Sixtus Senensis {Bihlia Sancta, p. 37, ed. 1575) gives a very interesting account of another fourth book of Maccabees which he saw in a library at Lyons, which was afterwards burnt. It was in Greek, and contained the liistorj' of John Hyrcanus, continuing the narrative directly after the close of the first book. Sixtus quotes the first words: Kni /itrd to ctTTOKravBrivai tIv "S-imova tyevijS')] 'Ituaj/Jjc v'lig av- ToiJ c'tpxisptvc avT avToi', but this is the only fragment which remains of it. The history, he says, was nearly the same as that in Josephus, A nt. xiii, though the style was very different from his, abounding in Hebrew idioms. The testimony is so exact and explicit that we can see no reason for questioning its accuracy, and still less for supposing (with Calmet) that Sixtus saw only the so- called fifth book, which is at present preserved in Arabic. See IVLvccAEEES, Fifth Book of.
MACCABEES, the FIFTH Book of, an important chronicle of Jewish affairs, which was for the first time printed in Arabic in the Paris Polyglot (1645), and was thence copied into the London Polyglot (1657).
I. Title. — The name, theffth book of Maccabees, has been given to this production by Cotton, who placed it as ff/h in his order of the books of Maccabees. Ac- cording to the remark at the end of chap, xvi, the first part of this book, i. e. chap, i, 1-xvi, 26, is entitled The second Book of Maccabees according to the Translation of the Ilebreics, while the second part, i. e. chap, xvii, 1- lix, ^G, is simph' called The second Book of Maccabees. The fact that this second part gives the liistory of John Hyrcanus (ch. xx) has led Calmet {Diet, of the Bible, s. V. Maccabees) and others to suppose that it is the same as the so-caUedyo»r//; book of Maccabees, a unique MS. of which, written in Greek, Sixtus Senensis saw in the library of Sanctes Pagninus, at Lyons, and which was afterwards destroyed by fire, so that tlie fifth of Macca- bees is sometimes also called the fourth. The descrip- tion of the MS. given by Sixtus Senensis {Bibl. Sancta, lib. i, sec. 3) has been printed in English by Whiston {Authentic Records, i, 206, etc.) and Cotton, The five, Books of Maccabees, Introd. p. xxxviii, etc. See IMac- CABEES, Fourth Book of (b).
II. Contents. — This book contains the history of the Jews from Heliodorus's attempt to plunder the treasury at Jerusalem till the time when Herod revelled in the noblest blood of the Jews, and completed the tragedy of the Maccabivan princes by slaughtering his own wife jMariamne, her mother Alexandra, and his own two sons Alexander and Aristobuliis, i. e. B.C. 184 to B.C. 6, thus embracing a period of 178 years. The subjoined table shows the parallelism between tlie narrative recorded in this book and the accounts contained in 1 and 2 Mace, and the works of Josephus.
III. Historical and Belifjious Character. — It will lie seen from the annexed table that the first ]iart of this production (i-xix). which embraces the Maccakvau
MACCABEES
i
i
1
"§-2"
«
Josep
1U9.
S
s
S
s
AtUiij.
War.
T
iii
xxvii
xiii, 19
i, 3
ii
xii, 2
xxviii
xiii, 20, 21
i, 3
iii
i
V
xii, 6,7
xxix
xiii, 21, 22
i, 3
iv
vi, 18-31
[4 Mace. V, vi]
xxxi
xiii, 23 xiii, 24
hi
y
vii
[4 Mace, viii-x.
xxxii
xiii, 24
>>4
12; XV, 13-23]
xxxiv
xiii, 24 xiv, 1
i. 4 5,5
vi
"
xii, 8 [War, i, 2]
XXXV
xxxvi
xiv, 2, 3 xiv, 4-S
1,5 i, 5
Tii
ii, 49-iv
viii
xii, 8-11
xxxvii
xiv, 8
i, 5
viii
vi
ix
xii, 13
xxxviii
xiv, 9, 10
i, 6
ii
iv, 36, etc.
X
xii, 11
XXX ix
xiv, 10
1,6
X
xii, 13
xl
xiv, 11
1,6,7
xi
xi, xii
xii
xiv, 12
xiii
xiv, 14, 15
i, '
viii, 24, etc.
xii, 17
xliii
xiv, 15
i, 8
xiv
xii, 32-37
xliv
xiv, 16, n
XV
vi
xiii
•xii, U
xiv