MACCABEES, two apocryphal books of scripture, containing the history of Judas and his brothers, and Maccabees, their wars against the Syrian kings in defence of their religion and liberties, so called from Judas Mattathias, farnamed Maccabæus, as some say from the word מַכְבֵי, formed of the initials of מַכְבֵי אֲדֹנָי, q. d. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the Gods; which was the motto of his standard; whence those who fought under his standard were called Maccabees, and the name was generally applied to all who suffered in the cause of the true religion, under the Egyptian or Syrian kings. The first book of the Maccabees is an excellent history, and comes nearest to the style and manner of the sacred historians of any extant. It was written originally in the Chaldee language, of the Jerusalem dialect, and was extant in this language in the time of Jerom. From the Chaldee it was translated into Greek, from the Greek into Latin. It is supposed to have been written by John Hyrcanus the son of Simon, who was prince and high priest of the Jews near 30 years, and began his government at the time where this history ends. It contains the history of 40 years, from the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes to the death of Simon the hig