Septuagint - Maccabees

Four books of Maccabees were ultimately added to the Septuagint, three in the 1?? century BC, and the 4?? as an appendix in the 1?? century AD. No trace of these books have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they are generally thought to have been written in Greek. 1?? and 2n? Maccabees do include several Aramaic loanwords that support an Aramaic source text. Two versions of a different book of Maccabees has survived in the Arabic and Hebrew languages. Three additional books of Maccabees have survived in the Ge'ez language in Ethiopia and are generally considered translations from either Syriac or Arabian sources. 1?? Maccabees tells the story of the Maccabean Revolt against the rule of the Seleucid Empire in the 2n? century BC. The content of 1?? Maccabees appears to be a Sadducee text, as it clearly gives all credit to the self-declared high-priests that led the rebellion against the Greeks, and barely mentioned the sky-god Shamayim, or the earth-goddess Eretz. It also omits the names of the other gods that 2n? Maccabees and 3?? Maccabees mentions the Judeans worshiping, such as Dionysus, which supports its authorship in the Hasmonean Dynasty, when the other gods were no longer tolerated. 2n? Maccabees claims to be an abridged version of Jason of Cyrene's now lost five-volume version of Maccabees. Jason's books of the Maccabees were likely composed earlier than 1?? Maccabees, as the story ends decades earlier, and contains many references to Sabaoth, translated into Greek as Dionysus, which are missing from the 1?? Maccabees. While 1?? Maccabees is a very secular version of the events that led to the creation of the Hasmonean kingdom, and was, therefore, almost certainly composed by a Sadducee, 2n? Maccabees claims that Judas the Hammer, the protagonist of both 1?? and 2n? Maccabees was a Hasidean, suggesting that either Jason of Cyrene, or whoever abridged his work, was a Hasidean. 1?? Maccabees mentioned the Hasideans joining Judas' forces, but did not claim he was one. 4?? Maccabees is a philosophical interpretation of 2n? Maccabees. It was added to the Septuagint in the 1??-century AD, however, it could have been written anywhere between circa 100 BC and 100 AD. This text includes more details regarding the torture of the Hebrew youths from 2n? Maccabees, which may have come from Jason of Cyrene's original five-volume version of Maccabees. The author of 4?? Maccabees accepts the flying horsemen of 2n? Maccabees as sky messengers, which implies the Phrygian imagery was widely accepted by Jews at the time and supports the Greek and Roman records that indicate the Phrygians and Hebrews worshiped the same god. Unlike 2n? and 3?? Maccabees, 4?? Maccabees does not mention the god Dionysus/Sabaoth, indicating that the book was written in Hasmonean Dynasty or later. 4?? Maccabees also does not have any Aramaic loanwords, indicating it was almost certainly written in Greek.

• | Author: Scriptural Research Institute
• | Publisher: NA
• | Publication Date: Mar 11, 2024
• | Number of Pages: NA pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 199828865X
• | ISBN-13: 9781998288656