xiv, 17, 18
i, 9
xvi
vii,3
xiv, XV
xii, 7
xlvi
xiv, 19
1,9
xvii
ix, 1-22
xii, 18, 19
xlvii
xiv, 19, 20
i, 9
xviii
ix, 2S-72
xiii, 1-10
Xlviii
xiv, 22, 23
1,10
xix
xiii, 11-14
xlix
xiv, 24, 25
i, 11
XX
xiii, 15
1
xiv, 26, 27
i, 11,12
^xli
xiii, 16, 17 xiii, 17 xiii, 18
Ii
Iii liii
xiv, 27 xiv, 27
XV, r
i, 12 i, 13 1,13
xxiii xxiv
xiii, 8, 20 dii, 9; xvii, 3;
liv Iv
XV, 1,2,9 XV, 2, 3
XXV
xviii, 2
Ivi
XV, 6-8
1,14
[H-ar,ii,7]
Ivii
XV, 9, 10
i, 15
xxvi
xiii, 18 [»ar,i, 3]
Iviii lix
XV, 11
xvi, 1,2,6, 7, 8, 11, 12,16,17
i, 17 i, 17
period, is to a great extent parallel with 1 and 2 Mace, whilst the second part, which records the post-Macca- biean history down to the birth of Christ (xx-lix), is parallel with Josephus, .4?;/. xiii, 15-xvi, 17 ; War, i, 3- 17. The historical worth of 5 Mace, is therefore easily ascertained by comparing its narrative with that of 1 and 2 Mace, and with the corresponding portions of Jose- phus. By this means it will be seen that, notwith- standing its several historical and chronological blun- ders (compare 5 j\Iacc. x, 16, 17, with 2 Mace, x, 29 ; 5 Mace, ix, with 1 Mace, vii, 7 ; 5 Mace, viii, 1-8, with 1 Slacc. ix, 73 ; xii, -IS ; Joseph. Ant. xiii, 11 ; 5 Mace, xx, 17, with Ant. xiii, 15; 5 Mace, xxi, 17, with Ant. vii, 12), especially when recording foreign history (comp. 5 Mace, xii), it is a trustworthy and valuable narrative. There can be no question that some of its blunders are owing to mistakes committed by transcribers (e. g. the name Felix, which stands fire times for i/wee different persons, 5 Mace, iii, 14; vii, 8, 34, comp. with 1 Mace, iii, 10 ; 2 Mace, v, 22 ; viii, 33 ; the name Gorgias, 5 ]\Iacc. X, is a mistake for Timotheus, as is evident from 2 Mace, x; Joseph. Ant. xii, 11; so also two for nine, 5 Mace, xix, 8) ; and that, as a whole, it is far more sim- ple and natural, and far less blundering and miraculous, and therefore more credible than 2 Mace. As to its re- ligious character, the book .shows most distincth^ that the Jews of those days firmly believed in the survival of the soul after the death of the body, in a general res- urrection of the dead, and in a future judgment (v. 12, 13,17, 22, 43, 48-51 ; lix, 14, etc.).
IV. Author, Date, and Original Language — This book is a compilation, made in Hebrew, by a Jew who lived after the destruction of Jerusalem, from ancient Hebrew memoirs or chronicles, which were written shortly after the events transpired. This is evident from the whole complexion of the document, even in the translation — for the original has not as yet come to light — as may be seen from the few features here offered for considera- tion : 1. When speaking of the dead (xv, 11, 15 ; xii, 1 ; xxi, 17) the compiler uses the well-known euphemisms, Godbe me>Tiful to /iim — '\'^T>^ tflT^ Q'^'nhH; to wliom 6epf«ce = D1P"jn I'^bS', which came into vogue among the Jews in the Talmudic period (comp. Tosiphta Chul- lin, 100, a; Zimz, Zu?- Geschidite, p. 338), and are used among the Jews to the present day, thus showing that the compiler was a Jew, and lived after the destruction of the Temple. 2. He calls the Hebrew Scriptures (iii, 3, 9) the twenty-four hooks = "nxi Ci"i w", a name which is thoroughly Jewish, and came into use long af- ter the close of the Hebrew canon ; leaves Torah (inmn), the Hebrew name for the Pentateuch, mitranslated (xxi,
615 MACCABEES, FESTiyAL OF THE
9), in accordance with the Jewish custom ; speaks of the deity as the great and good God = SIUI h'ili, hn (i, 8, 13, 15 ; V, 27 ; vii, 21, 22 ; viii, 5, 11 ; ix, 4 ; x, 15 ; xi, 8 ; xii, 1 ; xv, 4 ; xvi, 24 ; xxviii, 4 ; xxxv, 9 ; xlviii, 14; Ivii, 35; lix, 58); and names Jerusalem the city of the holy house (xx, 17 ; xxi, 1 ; xxiii, 5 ; xxviii, 23, 34, 37 ; XXX, 8 ; xxxv, 4, 33 ; xxxvi, 6, 38, 39 ; xxxvii, 3, 5; xxxviii, 5; Iii, 7, 24; lix, 68) ; city of the holy house of God (xxxi, 10) ; or simply holy city (xvi, 11, 17 ; xx, 18; xxi, 26; xxxiv, 7; xxxv, 32; xxxvi, 9, 19, 25; xxxviii, 3 ; xii, 15 ; xliii, 12 ; xlix, 5 ; 1, 16 ; liv, 13, 26 ; Iv, 27 ; Ivii, 22 ; lix, 2) ; holy home (xx, 7, 17 ; xxiii, 3 ; xxxvi, 35 ; 1, 8 ; Iii, 19 ; liii, 6 ; Ivi, 17, 44 ; lix, 35, 68) ; house of God (vii, 21 ; ix, 7; xi, 7; xv, 14; xvi, 16, 17; xxi, 11; xxvii, 4; xxxiv, 10; Ii, 5; Iii, 81; liv, 13; Iv, 20); the Temple he calls the house of the sanctuary=^ lU'lp/ari JT^S (viii, 11), in accordance with the later Hebrew idiom. 3. This later date of the compilation of the book is corroborated by the fact that the compiler refers to the destruction of Jerusalem (xxi, 30), and to the period of the second Temple, as something past (xxii, 9). 4. He speaks of the original author of the book as a distinct person (xxv, 5; Iv, 25), and explains the original writer's allusions (Ivi, 45). 5. The original writer of the work must have lived before the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, for he terminates his narrative six years before this catastrophe, and does not know of any of the calamities which befel his brethren after the con- quest of Palestine by Titus. His name is unkno\vn ; all that we can gather from this book is that he is also the author of other historical v/orks which are now lost, as he himself refers to them (lix, 96), and, judging from his terse and experienced style, it is not at all improbable that he was the public chronographer. The book is en- tirely devoid oithe Hagadic legends which form a very striking characteristic of the Jewish productions of a later age. Grittz {Geschichte der Juden, v, 281) identi- fies it with an Arabic chronicle written about A.D. 900, entitled "Torich al Makkabain, Jussuff Ibn-G'org'on," History of the Maccabees, or Joseph b.-Gorion, a part of which he says is printed in the London Polyglot under the title of Ai-abic Booh of Maccabees, and the whole of which, extendmg to the time of Titus, is in two Bodleian MSS. (Uri, Xos. 782, 829). He moreover tells us that it is this work which the weU-known Hebrew chronicler called Josippon [see Josippon ben-Gorion] translated into Hebrew, and .supplemented, and this he has prom- ised to prove at some future time. We must confess that we are miable to trace the identity ; and we are aston- ished at Dr. Davidson's confident assertion that " it is another form or recension of our book [i. e. 5 Mace] which exists in the work of Joseph ben-Gorion or Josip- pon, a legendary .Jewish historj'" {Introduction to the Old Testament, iii, 466).