Books of (Gr. Μακκαβαίοι), a name usually supposed to have been calumniously derived from מַכְכָבִים (Makkabim), the initial letters of מַכְכָבִים יֵיהוָה ("who among the gods is like Jehovah?"), the motto on the Jewish standard in the war with the Syrians. The Books of Maccabees are the titles of certain Jewish histories, containing principally the details of the heroic exploits of the family of the Maccabees. (See Jews.)

There were in all four books (to which some add a fifth) known to the ancients, of which three are still read in the Eastern, and two in the Western Church. Of these the third is the first in order of time. We shall, however, to avoid confusion, speak of them in the order in which they are commonly enumerated.

The First Book of Maccabees (the second in order of time), contains a lucid and authentic history of the undertakings of Antiochus Epiphanes against the Jews, from the year B.C. 175 to the death of Simon Maccabaeus, B.C. 135. This history is confessedly of great value. Although its brevity, observes De Wette (see 1 Macc. i. 6; viii. 7; xiii.), renders it in some instances unsatisfactory, defective, and uncritical, and occasionally extravagant, it is, upon the whole, entitled to credit, chronologically accurate, and advantageously distinguished above all other historical productions of this period (Einleitung in die Apokryphe Bücher, § 299). There is little question that this book was written in Hebrew, although the original is now lost. The Greek version abounds in Hebraisms and errors of translation. Origen gives it a Hebrew title; and Jerome says that he had seen the Hebrew original. Of the author nothing is known; but he must have been a Palestinian Jew, who wrote some considerable time after the death of Simon Maccabaeus, and even of Hyrcanus, and made use of several written, although chiefly of traditionary, sources of information. At the same time, it is not impossible that the author was present at several of the events which he so graphically describes. The Greek text of the Alexandrine version is the original of all the others now extant. This text was that made use of by Josephus.

The Second Book of Maccabees (the third in order of time) is a work of very inferior character to the first. It is an abridgment of a more ancient work, written by a Jew named Jason, who lived at Cyrene, in Africa, comprising the principal transactions of the Jews which occurred during the reigns of Seleucus IV., Antiochus Epiphanes, and Antiochus Eupator. It partly goes over the same ground with the first book, but commences ten or twelve years earlier, and embraces in all a period of fifteen years. It does not appear that the author of either saw the other's work. It is often self-contradictory, and differs with the first book in the account of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes.

We are not aware when either Jason himself or his epitomiser lived. S. G. Hasse supposes it to have been written B.C. 150, by the author of the Book of Wisdom. Jerome (Prolog. Galeat.) observes that the phraseology of this Maccabean book evinces a Greek original. There have been two books of Maccabees found among the Chinese Jews; but whether they are the same with ours is doubtful.

The Third Book of Maccabees (the first in order of time) is still read in the Greek church, and is contained in the Alexandrian and Vatican MSS. (A. & B.). It contains an account of the persecution of the Egyptian Jews by Ptolemy Philopator, who is said to have proceeded to Jerusalem after his victory at Raphia over Antiochus the Great, B.C. 217, and after sacrificing in the temple, to have attempted to force his way into the Holy of Holies, when he was prostrated and rendered motionless by an invisible hand. Upon his return to Egypt, he revenged himself by shutting up the Jews in the Hippodrome, and exposing them to be crushed beneath the feet of elephants. This book contains an account of their deliverance by divine interposition. It is regarded by De Wette as a tasteless fable; and Dr Milman (Hist. of the Jews) describes it as a "romantic story." The author is unknown. Dr Allix (Judgment of the Jewish Church) considers it to have been written B.C. 200, and by the author of Ecclesiasticus. The work is first found in Latin in the edition of Frobenius (1538). It was translated into English by Walter Lynne (1550); by Whiston (Authentic Documents, 1719 and 1727); by Crutwell (Bible, 1785); and again by Dr Cotton (Five Books of Maccabees, 1832).

The Fourth Book of Maccabees, which is also found in the Alexandrian and Vatican MSS., is generally supposed to be the same with the Supremacy of Reason, attributed to Josephus, with which it for the most part accords. It consists of an inflated amplification of the history of the martyrdom of Eleazar and of the seven brothers, whose torments and death, with that of their mother, form the subject of 2 Macc. ch. vi. vii. It is found in the Greek Bible printed at Basle in 1545, and at Frankfort in 1597, where it is entitled The Book of Josippos (Josephus) on the Maccabees. It bears the same title in several other MSS. Calmet (Pref. to the Fourth Book of Macc.) has pointed out several contradictions between this and the second book, as well as the books of Moses, together with some opinions derived from the Stoics, such as the equality of crimes; which, he supposes, together with its tedious descriptions, have consigned it to the rank of an apocryphal book. The fourth book was printed by Dr Grabe from the Alexandrian MS. in the British Museum. There is a French translation by Calmet (Commentary), and an English one by Dr Cotton (Five Books of Maccabees, 1832).

What has been called the Fifth Book of Maccabees is now extant only in the Arabic and Syriac languages. It was first published, as the supposed Fourth Book, in the Paris Polyglott, with a Latin version, of which Dr Cotton has given a translation. It is impossible to ascertain the author, who could scarcely have been Josephus, as he disagrees in many things with that historian. The work consists of a history of Jewish affairs, commencing with the attempt on the treasury at Jerusalem by Heliodorus, and ending with the tragic fate of the last of the Asmonean princes, and with the inhuman execution by Herod of his noble and virtuous wife Mariamne, and of his two sons. This history thus fills up the chasm to the birth of Christ.

The first two books of Maccabees have been treated with a high degree of respect in the Christian church. Origen, professing to give a catalogue of the canonical books, adds, "besides, there are the Maccabees." In his preface to the Psalms he excludes the two books of Maccabees from the books of holy Scripture. The first councils which included them in the canonical Scriptures were those of Hippo and Carthage, and they were not received with the other books till the Council of Trent.