The books of the Maccabees close the great historical library of the Old Testament. After the epic of entering the Promised Land — Joshua, the Judges, Samuel, the Kings — after the Exile and return recounted by Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, they tell the last great struggle of Israel before the coming of Christ: the revolt of a small faithful people against an empire that seeks to tear away their faith. We are in the 2nd century BC (reign of Antiochus IV: 175–164; revolt of Judas Maccabeus: 167–160, then Hasmonean Judea until the assassination of Simon in 134 (135 according to some chronologies[1])). The Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes profaned the Temple of Jerusalem, forbade the Law of Moses under penalty of death, and set up an idol on the altar of burnt offerings. Against him rose an old priest, Mattathias, and his sons — foremost among them Judas, nicknamed “the Hammer” (Maccabee), who would give his name to the entire saga.
But these two books are much more than a war chronicle. They are, in the whole Bible, the pages where four truths that Christianity holds central are expressed with the greatest force: the resurrection of the dead, the creation of the world from nothing, the efficacious prayer for the dead, and the intercession of the saints in Heaven. It is here that seven brothers and their mother face martyrdom confessing that “the King of the world will raise us up” (excerpt, 2 M 7:9); it is here that Judas Maccabeus offers a sacrifice for his fallen soldiers, “so that the dead may be freed from their sins” (excerpt, 2 M 12:46) — a verse the Church would cite for centuries to found its belief in purgatory.
It is also for this reason that the books of the Maccabees have been, since the Reformation, at the heart of a debate on the canon of Scripture: accepted by Catholics and Orthodox, they were removed from Protestant Bibles — precisely, in part, because they supported a doctrine the Reformers opposed. This article therefore presents: (1) the identity of these books — name, number, place, language; (2) the historical context of the Hellenistic crisis and Antiochus IV; (3) the first book, a sober gesture of the Hasmonean dynasty; (4) the second book, a theological drama of martyrdom; (5) the major doctrines that depend on them; (6) the canon question dividing Catholics and Protestants; (7) their spiritual reading and contemporary relevance. For the biblical collection as a whole, see The Bible and Old Testament; for the prophecy illuminating these events, see the book of Daniel.
Identity of the Books: Name, Number, and Language
A Name Derived from a War Nickname
The word “Maccabees” originally refers neither to an author nor a place, but to a man: Judas, the third son of Mattathias and the soul of the revolt. His nickname, Maqqaba in Hebrew, is most commonly interpreted as meaning “the hammer” — an image of the warrior who strikes and breaks enemy armies, like a hammer on an anvil[2]. From Judas, the nickname passed to his brothers, then to the entire family — also called the Hasmoneans, after an ancestor named Hashmon — and finally to the two books that recount their story. “The Maccabees” thus primarily designates a family of fighters for the faith, and by extension the books that celebrate their resistance.
Two Books — and Even Four
Tradition recognizes four books bearing this title, but only two belong to the Catholic Church’s canon[3]:
| Book | Catholic Status | Language | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Maccabees | Canonical (deuterocanonical) | Greek (original Hebrew lost) | Hasmonean revolt, from Mattathias to Simon (~175-134) |
| 2 Maccabees | Canonical (deuterocanonical) | Greek | Desecration, martyrs, victories of Judas (~180-161) |
| 3 Maccabees | Non-canonical | Greek | Persecution of Jews in Egypt (narrative set under Ptolemy IV) |
| 4 Maccabees | Non-canonical | Greek | Philosophical treatise on reason and passions |
1 and 2 Maccabees do not form a continuous work in two volumes. They are two independent works, by different authors, that recount partially the same events from two opposing angles: the first as a sober military chronicle, the second as a religious drama. 3 and 4 Maccabees, found in some major Greek manuscripts such as the Codex Alexandrinus, have never been considered canonical by the Latin Church: 3 Maccabees is received into the canon of several Orthodox Churches of Greek and Slavic tradition, while 4 Maccabees generally appears as an appendix, non-canonical — sometimes presented as received into the canon of the Georgian Church alone, a presentation others dispute: its exact status thus remains debated. 3 Maccabees recounts a persecution of Jews in Egypt unrelated to the revolt; 4 Maccabees is a philosophical meditation inspired by Stoicism on the empire of reason over the passions[4].
Place in the Canon: The Last Historical Books
In the Catholic Bible, the books of the Maccabees close the series of historical books of the Old Testament — this great fresco running from Joshua to Esther, which tells the history of Israel from the entry into Canaan[5]. They are the last chronological link: with them, the biblical narrative of the Old Testament advances closest to the New, just over a century before the birth of Christ. After the Maccabees, the Bible is silent on Israel’s history until the appearance in the Gospel of “Jesus, born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod.”
This ultimate position is not just a matter of chronology. It places the Maccabees at the threshold of messianic expectation: the people fighting for their Temple and Law are precisely those who, a little over a century and a half later, will see the Messiah enter that Temple. And it is precisely in these books that Israel’s faith matures toward its heights — resurrection, eternal life — which Christ will fulfill.
Text and Language: A Legacy of the Septuagint
The two books have come down to us in Greek, through the Septuagint — the Greek translation of the Bible made in Alexandria from the 3rd century BC, which the early Church received as its Bible[6]. For 2 Maccabees, Greek is the original language: the work was conceived and written in Greek, in the elegant rhetorical style of the Hellenistic diaspora. For 1 Maccabees, the case is different: all evidence indicates the author wrote in Hebrew — Saint Jerome even claimed to have seen the Hebrew text[7] — but this original has been lost, and only the Greek remains. This detail is important in the debate over the canon: it is partly because the Hebrew had disappeared and the books circulated only in Greek that they were not included in the Jewish rabbinic Bible.
The Context: The Hellenistic Crisis and Antiochus IV
To understand the Maccabees, one must go back to Alexander the Great. At his death (323 BC), his empire was divided among his generals. Judea first fell under the control of the Ptolemies of Egypt, then, after 200 BC, under the Seleucids of Syria. With them came the wave of Hellenism: the Greek language, gymnasiums, Greek-style cities, and the Olympian pantheon. Part of the Jewish aristocracy in Jerusalem was seduced and sought to "modernize" Israel by aligning it with the dominant culture. This is the backdrop of the drama[8].
Hellenization and the Crisis of the Priesthood
The crisis erupted at the very heart of the priesthood. The legitimate high priest, Onias III, a pious man, was ousted by his brother Jason, who bought the office from the king and transformed Jerusalem into a Greek city, even building a gymnasium at the foot of the Citadel where young priests abandoned the altar for stadium games (2 M 4). Jason was soon supplanted by an even worse intriguer, Menelaus, who plundered the sacred vessels of the Temple. The sanctuary of God became the scene of escalating corruption. The Hellenistic disease did not come only from outside: it found accomplices within Israel itself, and it is this internal apostasy that the Maccabees fought as much as the king’s army.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Abomination of Desolation
In 175 BC, Antiochus IV ascended the Seleucid throne, taking the name Epiphanes — “the [god] manifest” — a title of hubris that his contemporaries mocked as Epimanes, “the madman.” Returning frustrated from a campaign in Egypt, he decided to break Jewish distinctiveness once and for all. In 167 BC, he crossed the line: he stopped the daily sacrifice, forbade the Sabbath, circumcision, and reading of the Law under penalty of death, burned the scrolls of Scripture, and — the height of horror for a Jew — erected a pagan altar to Zeus Olympius on the altar of burnt offerings, where pigs were sacrificed. This is what the Bible calls the “abomination of desolation”[9].
“On the fifteenth day of the ninth month, in the year 145, Antiochus erected the Abomination of Desolation on the altar of sacrifice, and in the towns of Judah around Jerusalem his supporters erected pagan altars.”
— 1 Maccabees 1:54[10]
The expression is not new: it comes from the Book of Daniel (Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11), which had foretold this profanation in veiled terms. The two books illuminate each other: Daniel prophesies the persecution under the symbol of the “four kingdoms,” the Maccabees narrate it plainly. And Christ himself will reuse Daniel’s expression to announce the future ruin of Jerusalem (Mt 24:15) — proof that the Maccabean ordeal became, in the Bible, the type of all persecution of the faith[11].
The First Book of the Maccabees: The Hasmonean Epic
The first book is a war chronicle with a spare, almost annalistic style. Its author, a Judean Jew and fervent supporter of the Hasmonean dynasty, probably wrote under the reign of John Hyrcanus (134–104 BC), close enough to the events to keep their memory vivid[12]. It recounts, in sixteen chapters, how a family of rural priests saved the faith of Israel.
Mattathias and the Refusal of Apostasy
It all begins in the village of Modin, where royal officers come to force the Jews to sacrifice to idols. The elderly priest Mattathias is summoned to set an example. His response is the manifesto of the entire revolt:
“All the nations that belong to the king’s domains may obey him [...]. But as for me, my sons, and my brothers, we will follow the covenant of our ancestors. Heaven forbid that we should forsake the law and the ordinances!”
— 1 Maccabees 2:19-21[13]
Seeing another Jew step forward to sacrifice, Mattathias, inflamed with ardor for the Law, kills him on the altar itself, slays the royal officer, overturns the pagan altar, then shouts through the town: “Those who burn with a jealous ardor for the Law, and who uphold the Covenant, let them all go out of the town after me!” (1 M 2:27). He flees to the mountains with his sons, and armed resistance is born. Dying the following year (166 BC), he entrusts command to his son Judas — not without reminding his children of the example of the heroes of faith, from Abraham to Daniel.
Judas Maccabeus, “The Hammer”
Judas Maccabeus is the great hero of the book. Leading a handful of poorly armed men, he defeats in succession the Seleucid generals Apollonius, Seron, Gorgias, and Lysias. His strategy is guerrilla warfare, but his true weapon is faith. Before each battle against overwhelming forces, he reminds his men that victory does not depend on large numbers:
“It often happens that a multitude falls into the hands of a few [...]. Indeed, victory in battle does not depend on the size of the army; strength comes from Heaven.”
— 1 Maccabees 3:18-19[14]
This statement sums up the theology of the entire book: Israel does not conquer by its own power, but because God fights for it — just as in the time of Joshua and Gideon. Judas’s figure struck Western Christianity so deeply that in the Middle Ages he was counted among the Nine Worthies, those nine models of chivalry alongside David, Alexander, and Charlemagne[15].
The Purification of the Temple and the Feast of Dedication
The climax of the first book is the recapture of Jerusalem and the purification of the desecrated Temple. Judas demolishes the defiled altar, builds a new one with intact stones, restores the sacred vessels, and relights the sanctuary lamp. On the 25th of Kislev, 164 BC — three years after the profanation — the sacrifice is offered again. The joy is so great that an annual feast is instituted:
“Judas Maccabeus decided, with his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel, that the anniversary of the dedication of the altar would be celebrated for eight days every year on this date, with joy and gladness.”
— 1 Maccabees 4:59[16]
This feast is Hanukkah — the “Dedication” — still celebrated by Jews today for eight days, centered on the lighting of lights. Remarkably, it is the only feast of Maccabean origin mentioned in the New Testament: the Gospel of John notes that Jesus taught in the Temple during “the feast of the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem [...] it was winter” (Jn 10:22)[17]. Jesus is therefore present in the Temple at this feast inherited from the Maccabees.
Jonathan, Simon, and Independence
Judas fell in battle at Elasa in 160 BC, but the struggle continued with his brothers. Jonathan took leadership, became high priest (152), and skillfully exploited Seleucid rivalries until his death by treachery (143/142). Simon, the last of Mattathias’s sons, finally secured de facto independence: in 141 BC, he expelled the Seleucid garrison from the Citadel (the Acra) of Jerusalem, and the people proclaimed him hereditary leader and high priest. Thus was born the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled an independent Judea until the arrival of the Romans and Herod. The first book ends on this page of national glory, passed on to Simon’s son, John Hyrcanus.
A sober account: the historical value of 1 Maccabees
Historians consider 1 Maccabees a first-rate source on the Seleucid era. Its author is familiar with the geography, chronology (dated according to the Seleucid era), institutions, and his account largely agrees with Greek sources and with Flavius Josephus, who makes extensive use of it in his Jewish Antiquities[18]. Specialists note, however, that the author, as a good biblical writer, sometimes stylizes his scenes following the model of ancient Scriptural narratives — Judas as a new Joshua, the enemies as new Philistines[19]. This theological shaping does not undermine the reliability of the core facts: it only shows that, for the sacred author, Israel’s history is always a holy history, where God acts.
The Second Book of Maccabees: the theology of martyrdom
The second book is of a very different nature. Where the first lined up battles, this one reflects on the meaning of the events. Its Greek is more ornate, its interest more religious: it multiplies celestial interventions, apparitions, prayers, and gives a central place to martyrs. It is not a sequel to 1 Maccabees, but an independent and partially parallel narrative, covering a shorter and earlier period (approx. 180–161 BC).
An abridgment of Jason of Cyrene
The author of 2 Maccabees does not hide his source: he declares himself to be summarizing a larger work, in five volumes, by a certain Jason of Cyrene, now lost. He compares his work to that of an architect who decorates a house built by another, and admits the difficulty of such an abridgment:
“But as for us who have undertaken this arduous work of abridgment, the task, far from being easy, cost us sweat and sleepless nights.”
— 2 Maccabees 2:26[20]
This preface is precious: it is one of the rare places in the Bible where a sacred author describes his own method of work, acknowledging that he selected, condensed, and shaped earlier documentation. Far from weakening inspiration, this testimony illuminates it: God inspires real men, who labor over their work like any writer. The dating of the abridgment remains debated — between 150 and 100 BC — with biblical scholar Daniel R. Schwartz arguing for an earlier date, close to the events[21].
The martyrdom of Eleazar
The heart of the book is a gallery of martyrs, the first martyrs in the entire Bible to die explicitly for the faith in the hope of resurrection. The first is the old scribe Eleazar, aged ninety years (2 M 6:24), who is forced to eat pork. He is even offered a charitable ruse: to pretend, to save his life. He refuses, fearing to scandalize the young by cowardice:
“Such pretense is unworthy of my age [...]. In choosing to die with determination and nobility for our venerable and holy laws, I will have left to the young the noble example of a noble death.”
— 2 Maccabees 6:24-28[22]
Eleazar inaugurates a new idea in religious thought: it is better to die than to sin, and the testimony of blood is more fruitful than survival bought by betrayal. The Church Fathers saw in him, and even more in the seven brothers who follow, the precursors of Christian martyrs[23].
The seven brothers and their mother
Then comes the most famous passage of the book: the martyrdom of seven brothers and their mother, tortured one after another before King Antiochus. At each torture, one of them confesses his faith in the resurrection of the bodies — the clearest affirmation of this truth in the entire Old Testament:
“You are a villain, you who tear us away from this present life, but since we die for fidelity to his laws, the King of the world will raise us up to eternal life.”
— 2 Maccabees 7:9[24]
“It is better to die at the hands of men, when one awaits the resurrection promised by God, whereas you will not know the resurrection for life.”
— 2 Maccabees 7:14[25]
But it is the mother who dominates the scene. Seeing her seven sons perish in one day, she encourages them one by one in the language of their fathers, “this heroic woman spoke to them with a manly courage” (2 M 7:21). To her youngest, the last surviving, she addresses an exhortation containing one of the deepest texts in the entire Bible — the affirmation of the creation of the world from nothing:
“I beg you, my child, look at the heaven and the earth and all that is in them: know that God made all this out of nothing, and that the race of men was born in the same way.”
— 2 Maccabees 7:28[26]
The mother’s reasoning is admirably strong: the God who brought the universe out of nothing can, all the more, restore life to torn bodies. Faith in the resurrection is founded on faith in creation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly cites these martyrs as the moment when “the resurrection of the dead” begins to be expressed in Israel[27].
Onias and Jeremiah: the saints intercede from Heaven
Another passage, less known but doctrinally major, shows the saints who have died praying for the living. Before the decisive battle against General Nicanor, Judas recounts a vision: the high priest Onias III, dead, appears to him with outstretched arms, praying for all the people; then appears “a man remarkable for his white hair,” whom Onias presents as Jeremiah, the prophet dead for centuries, “the friend of his brothers, who prays much for the people and for the Holy City” (2 M 15:12-14). Jeremiah then hands Judas a golden sword:
“Receive this holy sword that God gives you. By it, you will break your adversaries.”
— 2 Maccabees 15:16[28]
This text is one of the clearest biblical testimonies of the intercession of the saints: the righteous already entered into glory continue to pray for those who fight on earth. Catholic tradition recognizes here the beginning of the doctrine of the communion of saints[29].
History or literary reconstruction? The limits of modern criticism
Part of contemporary exegesis classifies 2 Maccabees — especially the martyrdom narrative in chapter 7 — in the Hellenistic genre of “pathos history” (tragic history): a style that uses dramatic scenes, reconstructed speeches, and amplified numbers to move the reader, which would invite caution regarding the factual accuracy of the account[30]. The argument deserves to be heard, but it is not enough to disqualify the core of the episode. According to the reading of Jonathan A. Goldstein, one of the best experts on the subject, popular historians of the Hellenistic era commonly used reconstructed speeches and amplified numbers without thereby abandoning the transmission of a faithful factual framework of events: the literary device does not equate to pure invention[31]. The official documents that the author inserts in chapters 9 and 11 (royal letters, decree) are rooted, according to the work of Elias Bickerman on the Seleucid chancery, in real diplomatic practices — even if the literal authenticity of some pieces continues, on certain precise points, to be debated[32]. This critical caution must itself be put into perspective. Daniel R. Schwartz, one of the most authoritative commentators on 2 Maccabees, has shown that scholarly readings of the Maccabees have constantly varied according to the concerns of each generation of historians: Abraham Geiger saw in the 19th century a Pharisaic manifesto supporting his program of Jewish reform; 20th-century Israeli historians favored 1 Maccabees as a model of a sovereign Jewish state; Christian theologians after the Shoah, such as Martin Hengel, reread the revolt as essentially a religious resistance[33]. This observation, coming from one of the most recognized critical exegetes on the subject, clearly illustrates the limits of any scholarly reconstruction of the past: the “consensus” is never a neutral and definitive verdict, but a dated reading, caught in the presuppositions of its time. It does not diminish in any way the continuous reception — Jewish then Christian, patristic then liturgical — which, from antiquity, has honored these martyrs as real and venerable[34].
The Major Doctrinal Questions
If the Church holds these two books in such esteem, it is not only for their heroic narrative: it is because they explicitly contain four truths of faith that the rest of the Old Testament only expressed in seed form. The following table summarizes them before detailing each.
| Doctrine | Text from the Maccabees | Confirmation in the Church |
|---|---|---|
| Resurrection of the body | 2 M 7:9,14,23; 12:44 | CCC § 992; common faith |
| Creation ex nihilo | 2 M 7:28 | Lateran IV (1215); CCC § 297 |
| Purgatory / prayer for the dead | 2 M 12:38-46 | Florence, Trent; CCC §§ 1031-1032 |
| Intercession of the saints | 2 M 15:12-16 | Communion of saints; CCC § 956 |
The Resurrection of the Body
Before the Maccabees, Israel’s hope in the afterlife remained vague: the abode of the dead, Sheol, was an indistinct shadow. It is in 2 Maccabees 7, against the backdrop of martyrdom, that one of the most explicit expressions of faith in a bodily resurrection for eternal life bursts forth. The seven brothers do not settle for mere survival of the soul: they expect God to restore their limbs torn from them (“I hold these members from Heaven [...] and I hope to receive them again from him”, 2 M 7:11). This hope, soon shared by the Pharisees (cf. Acts 23:6), will be taken up and fulfilled by Christ: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). The Catechism therefore explicitly places the testimony of the Maccabean martyrs among the stages of the “progressive revelation of the Resurrection”[35].
Creation “from Nothing”
The verse 2 M 7:28 — “God made all this out of nothing” — is the clearest biblical text on creation ex nihilo, that is, the production of the universe from absolutely nothing, without any preexisting matter. It is on this that the dogmatic formulation of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) will rely, defining God as “creator of all things visible and invisible [...], who by His omnipotence created both creatures out of nothing”[36]. That this foundational truth of all Christian metaphysics is proclaimed by a mother at the foot of the scaffold, and not by a philosopher, sufficiently shows that the Bible teaches the highest doctrine in the flesh of the most wrenching experience.
Purgatory and Prayer for the Dead
This is the passage with the most far-reaching consequences and the most disputed. After a battle, Judas Maccabeus exhumes the bodies of his fallen soldiers and discovers, under their tunics, amulets dedicated to idols — objects forbidden by the Law. Understanding that these men died marked by sin but wanting to help them, Judas organizes a collection and sends two thousand drachmas to the Temple to offer an atoning sacrifice on their behalf. The sacred author comments:
“For if he had not hoped that those who were slain would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. [...] This is the reason he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be freed from their sin.” — 2 Maccabees 12:44-46[37]
The reasoning is unassailable, and the Church has embraced it. Praying for a dead person only makes sense if: (1) they survive death; (2) they can still be purified of sin; (3) they are neither in Heaven (where they no longer need it) nor in Hell (where nothing can help them). Therefore, there exists an intermediate state of purification — what tradition will call purgatory — and the prayer of the living is effective there. The Catechism of the Catholic Church directly cites this verse to ground the doctrine:
“This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: ‘That is why he (Judas Maccabeus) made atonement for the dead, so that they might be freed from their sin’ (2 Maccabees 12:46).” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1032[38]
The Councils of Florence (1439) and Trent (1563) solemnly confirmed this faith[39]. It is precisely this doctrine that the Reformation rejected — and we will see later that this rejection is not unrelated to the removal of the Maccabees books from the Protestant Bible.
The Intercession of the Saints
Finally, the vision of Onias and Jeremiah praying from Heaven (2 Maccabees 15:12-16) provides scriptural support for the doctrine of the intercession of the saints. If righteous people long dead “pray much for the people”, it means that death does not break the communion of believers: the saints in Heaven remain united with the Church militant and intercede for it. This truth, developed in the dogma of the communion of saints, finds here one of its most explicit Old Testament roots.
The Question of the Canon: Why Catholics and Protestants Diverge
No article on the Maccabees would be honest if it avoided the big question: why do these books appear in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but not in Jewish or Protestant Bibles? The answer involves the entire history of the canon of Scripture.
Deuterocanonical: a "second canon"
The term deuterocanonical ("of the second canon") refers to seven books of the Old Testament — Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1-2 Maccabees — as well as parts of Esther and Daniel, which were accepted into the Catholic canon but whose canonicity was recognized later or more controversially than that of the others[40]. Coined by the theologian Sixtus of Siena in the 16th century, the term does not imply any inferiority of value: a deuterocanonical book is fully inspired and canonical. It simply indicates that its reception took a longer historical path.
These books share a common feature: they were included in the Septuagint, the Greek Bible, but not in the rabbinic Hebrew Bible. The early Church, which was Greek-speaking, received the Septuagint as its Old Testament — the Old Testament quotations in the New Testament most often follow the Greek. Thus, the deuterocanonical books entered the Church with the very Bible of the Apostles.
The Jewish canon and the "myth of Jamnia"
Why are the Maccabees missing from the Jewish Bible? For a long time, the answer was: because a "Council of Jamnia" (Yavneh), around 90 AD, supposedly fixed the Hebrew canon by excluding the Greek books. But contemporary historians have largely abandoned this explanation: there is no evidence that a formal council at Jamnia established a definitive list of books[41]. The reality is simpler: after the destruction of the Temple (70 AD), rabbinic Judaism narrowed its canon to the books preserved in Hebrew. The Maccabees, whose Hebrew of 1 Maccabees had disappeared and whose 2 Maccabees was originally Greek, remained outside this shorter canon — especially since these books exalted a dynasty, the Hasmoneans, who had become unpopular. The Jewish exclusion was therefore not a doctrinal verdict on inspiration but the result of historical circumstances.
Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine
Within the ancient Church itself, two great doctors embodied the two sensitivities. Saint Jerome (c. 347–420), translator of the Vulgate and a great Hebrew scholar, clearly distinguished the books of the Hebrew canon (hebraica veritas) from the others, which he classified among the "ecclesiastical" books: the Church reads them for the edification of the people, he wrote, "but does not receive them among the canonical Scriptures to establish the authority of dogmas"[42]. Saint Augustine (354–430), on the other hand, considered them fully canonical. He acknowledged that the Jews did not count the Maccabees in their canon but maintained that the Church receives them, precisely because of the admirable martyrs they recount:
"These books of the Maccabees, the Jews do not hold as canonical, but the Church holds as canonical, because of the extreme and admirable sufferings of certain martyrs." — Saint Augustine, The City of God, XVIII, 36[43]
It was Augustine’s position, along with the regional councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), which listed the Maccabees in the canon, that prevailed in the Latin Church and was transmitted throughout the Middle Ages[44].
From Florence to Trent: the solemn definition
The Catholic canon was solemnly defined twice. First by the Council of Florence, in the union bull Cantate Domino (1442), which enumerated the sacred books, including the Maccabees. Then, in response to the Reformation, by the Council of Trent, in its decree De Canonicis Scripturis of April 8, 1546, which established the definitive list and included "the two books of the Maccabees, the first and the second", pronouncing anathema on anyone who would reject them[45].
| Stage | Date | Decision on the Maccabees |
|---|---|---|
| Septuagint | 3rd–1st century BC | present in the Greek Bible |
| Hippo / Carthage | 393 / 397 | listed in the Church canon |
| Saint Jerome | c. 400 | "ecclesiastical," not Hebrew canon |
| Florence (Cantate Domino) | 1442 | included in the canon |
| Reformation (Luther) | 1534 | rejected ("Apocrypha") |
| Trent (De Canonicis Scripturis) | 1546 | canonical, under penalty of anathema |
Why Luther removed them
The removal of the Maccabees from the Protestant Bible was not a mere scholarly whim. Luther relied on a real argument — the books were not in the Hebrew canon, and the New Testament does not formally cite them as Scripture. But a direct doctrinal issue was intertwined with the critical argument: 2 Maccabees 12 provided the foundation for prayer for the dead, purgatory, and indulgences, which the Reformation precisely opposed. This rejection thus went hand in hand with the fight against purgatory. Luther therefore relegated the deuterocanonical books to an appendix under the title "Apocrypha," books "useful and good to read" but not normative for faith[46].
The Church responded that the norm of the canon is not the Bible itself — which nowhere contains a list of its own books — but the living Tradition that received, transmitted, and discerned it. To recognize the Maccabees as the Word of God is not to add to Scripture: it is to receive Scripture as the Church has always read it, since the Bible of the Apostles.
Spiritual Reading and Contemporary Relevance
Beyond history and controversy, the books of the Maccabees offer Christians a spirituality of courage and hope that remains remarkably relevant today.
The Courage of the Martyrs
The Maccabees gave the Church its first models of martyrdom. Long before the Roman arenas, Eleazar, the seven brothers, and their mother showed that it is better to die than to deny God, and that the blood shed for faith is not a defeat but a seed. The Church of both East and West has honored them as saints: the “holy Maccabees” are among the rare figures of the Old Testament honored with a feast in the Roman Martyrology, on August 1 — a feast kept in the traditional calendar (in the current General Calendar, August 1 is the memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori) — so much did their witness seem to foreshadow that of the Christian martyrs[47]. In a time when faith is again persecuted in many countries, their example has lost none of its power.
“Victory Does Not Depend on Numbers”
Judas’s words before battle — “Victory does not depend on the size of the army: strength comes from Heaven” — remain a profound lesson in trust. Today’s Christian, who often feels like a minority and powerless in the face of an indifferent or hostile world, finds reassurance in the certainty of the faithful small flocks: it is not numbers, power, or resources that save, but God. This same logic runs throughout the Bible, from Gideon to the Cross.
Praying for Our Dead
Finally, the Maccabees establish one of the most tender acts of Catholic faith: praying for those who have passed away. Having a Mass said for a deceased person, offering a prayer, gaining an indulgence on their behalf — all these extend the gesture of Judas sending his offering to the Temple “so that the dead might be freed from their sins.” This practice expresses a consoling truth: charity is stronger than death, and the communion between the living and the dead is not broken. That is why the Church celebrates the commemoration of all the faithful departed every November 2, and why the “holy and salutary thought” of the Maccabees remains, twenty-two centuries later, at the heart of Christian prayer.
Further Reading
- Bible, First and Second Books of the Maccabees — to be read in a complete Catholic translation: Jerusalem Bible, Official Liturgical Translation (AELF), or Bible Crampon (Protestant Bibles do not include them or place them in an appendix).
- For the biblical collection as a whole and the question of the canon, see The Bible and the overview article Old Testament.
- For the prophecy illuminating the persecution by Antiochus IV (the “abomination of desolation”), see the Book of Daniel.
- For other historical books of the Old Testament, see Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
- For another deuterocanonical book recounting a heroic act of resistance, see the Book of Judith.
- Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature, Walter de Gruyter, 2008 — authoritative commentary.
- Jonathan A. Goldstein, I Maccabees and II Maccabees, Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1976 and 1983.
- Bezalel Bar-Kochva, Judas Maccabaeus: The Jewish Struggle Against the Seleucids, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Notes and References
1 M 16:14 dates the assassination of Simon to the month of Shebat in year 177 of the Seleucid era. Depending on the starting point adopted for this era (autumn 312 BC, Macedonian reckoning, or spring 311, Babylonian reckoning), this corresponds to February 135 or 134 BC — hence the two dates according to chronologies. The choice adopted in this article: 134 is retained, consistent with the chronology of John Hyrcanus (134–104) followed throughout the article; works following the Macedonian reckoning give February 135.
1The nickname Maccabee (Greek Makkabaios) is generally linked to the Aramaic/Hebrew maqqaba(t), “hammer” — an image of the warrior who hammers the enemy. Other hypotheses see it as an acronym of the war cry drawn from Exodus 15:11 (Mi kamokha ba-elim YHWH, “Who is like you among the gods, Lord?”). The “hammer” etymology is commonly retained by commentators (cf. inter alios Jonathan A. Goldstein, I Maccabees, Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1976).
2The Catholic canon (Council of Trent, 1546) includes only 1 and 2 Maccabees. 3 Maccabees appears in the Codex Alexandrinus and is received into the canon of several Orthodox Churches of Greek and Slavic tradition; 4 Maccabees generally appears as an appendix to certain Greek Bibles, non-canonical — sometimes presented as held canonical by the Georgian Church alone, a presentation that is disputed (status debated). Neither is canonical for the Latin Church nor for Protestants. Cf. Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, de Gruyter, 2008, introduction; “4 Maccabees” synthesis (recent state of the question, with references).
33 Maccabees (Alexandrian Jew, composition dated by scholars between ca. 100 BC and 30 AD) recounts a persecution of Jews in Egypt whose narrative is set under Ptolemy IV Philopator, unrelated to the Hasmonean revolt. 4 Maccabees (1st century AD) is a treatise inspired by Stoicism on “reason as master of the passions,” using the martyrdom of the Maccabees as illustration. Cf. H. Anderson, “3 Maccabees” and “4 Maccabees,” in J. H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, Doubleday, 1985; M. Harl, G. Dorival, O. Munnich, La Bible grecque des Septante, Cerf, 1988.
4In the Catholic Bible, the historical books include Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and 1-2 Maccabees, which are the last of these. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, canon table (§ 120).
5The Septuagint (LXX) is the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible made in Alexandria from the 3rd century BC. It contains the deuterocanonical books absent from the rabbinic Hebrew Bible, including the Maccabees. The early Church, Greek-speaking, received it as its Old Testament. Cf. Marguerite Harl, Gilles Dorival, Olivier Munnich, The Greek Bible of the Septuagint, Cerf, 1988.
6In his Prologus Galeatus (preface to the books of Samuel and Kings), Saint Jerome claimed to have seen a Hebrew (or Aramaic) text of 1 Maccabees: “Machabaeorum primum librum hebraicum repperi.” The original text has since disappeared; only the Greek survives. 2 Maccabees, however, was composed directly in Greek.
7On the Seleucid context and the Hellenization of Judea, see Emil Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, revised edition by G. Vermes, F. Millar, M. Black, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1973-1987, vol. I; and Elias Bickerman, The God of the Maccabees (transl. of Der Gott der Makkabäer, 1937), Brill, Leiden, 1979.
8The “abomination of desolation” (Hebrew shiqquts shomem) refers to the pagan altar or statue erected on the Temple altar in December 167 BC. A widespread (though uncertain) philological hypothesis reads a polemical pun on Baal Shamem (“Lord of the heavens,” identified with Zeus Olympios). Cf. Daniel R. Schwartz, 2 Maccabees, de Gruyter, 2008, commentary on 2 M 6:2.
91 Maccabees 1:54, liturgical translation (AELF), text re-verified on aelf.org on October 4, 2026. The “year 145” is counted according to the Seleucid era (era beginning in 312/311 BC according to the Macedonian or Babylonian reckoning), i.e., December 167 BC. The “ninth month” is Kislev (November-December).
10The expression “abomination of desolation” comes from the Book of Daniel (Dn 9:27; 11:31; 12:11), which announces the Seleucid persecution in veiled terms. Christ repeats it in Mt 24:15 (“When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel…”) to announce the ruin of Jerusalem. The Maccabean crisis thus becomes the biblical type of the persecution of the faith.
11The dating of 1 Maccabees commonly accepted by scholars places it under the reign of John Hyrcanus (134-104 BC), since the book ends with Hyrcanus’s accession (1 M 16:23-24) and shows admiration for Rome that presupposes a composition before Pompey’s conquest (63 BC). Cf. Goldstein, I Maccabees, Anchor Bible, 1976.
121 Maccabees 2:19-21, liturgical translation (AELF). Manifesto of the revolt: Mattathias opposes the servile obedience of the nations with Israel’s fidelity to the Covenant of the fathers, even at the cost of disobedience to the king.
131 Maccabees 3:18-19, liturgical translation (AELF). Before the battle of Bethoron against Seron. Central theme of the book: victory comes from God and not from the strength of arms (cf. 1 Sam 14:6; Judg 7).
14In the Middle Ages, Judas Maccabeus was counted among the Nine Worthies (Nine Worthies: three pagans — Hector, Alexander, Caesar; three Jews — Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus; three Christians — Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon), models of knightly virtue. Cf. Jacques de Longuyon, Les Vœux du paon, poem composed in 1312-1313 for Thiébaut de Bar, Bishop of Liège, which introduces the theme of the Nine Worthies.
151 Maccabees 4:59, liturgical translation (AELF), text re-verified on aelf.org on October 4, 2026. Institution of the feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah), celebrated for eight days starting on the 25th of Kislev (cf. 1 M 4:52-54: the 25th of the ninth month of year 148). The purification of the Temple took place in 164 BC, three years after the profanation of 167 (year 145 of 1 M 1:54).
16John 10:22-23, liturgical translation (AELF), text verified on aelf.org: “Then came the feast of the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus walked in the Temple, under the colonnade of Solomon.” The only explicit mention of the Maccabean feast in the New Testament: Jesus is present in the Temple at the feast of the Dedication.
17Flavius Josephus (37–c. 100 AD) closely follows 1 Maccabees in his Jewish Antiquities (Books XII–XIII), which corroborates the historical value of the book. The agreement with Seleucid Greek sources (Polybius) is generally held to be good (cf. Bezalel Bar-Kochva, Judas Maccabaeus, Cambridge UP, 1989).
18On the literary shaping of the narrative (episodes modeled on biblical patterns: Judas as a new Joshua, enemies as new Philistines), see in summary the reading of Jonathan A. Goldstein (I Maccabees, Anchor Bible, 1976): this device does not undermine, in his view, the reliability of the historical core, corroborated by Josephus and archaeology.
192 Maccabees 2:26, liturgical translation (AELF). The author declares he is abbreviating the five-volume work of Jason of Cyrene (2 M 2:23), now lost. A rare biblical passage where a hagiographer explicitly describes his method of work (selection, condensation, shaping).
20The date of 2 Maccabees (the abridgment) is debated, between 150 and 100 BC. Daniel R. Schwartz (2 Maccabees, de Gruyter, 2008) defends an early date (c. 150–140), close to the events; other commentators place it later. The period covered (c. 180–161 BC) is earlier than the end of 1 Maccabees.
212 Maccabees 6:24-28, liturgical translation (AELF), text re-verified on aelf.org on October 4, 2026, condensed. The elderly scribe Eleazar — verse 24 specifying that he was ninety years old — refuses even to pretend to eat forbidden meat, out of concern not to scandalize the young—the first of the martyrs recounted by the book.
22The Fathers see in the Maccabean martyrs (Eleazar, the seven brothers, their mother) the precursors of Christian martyrs. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Orations 15, On the Maccabees) and Saint John Chrysostom dedicated homilies to them. They are among the rare Old Testament figures honored with a feast in the Roman Martyrology (August 1, traditional calendar).
232 Maccabees 7:9, liturgical translation (AELF), verified on aelf.org. Words of the second of the seven brothers. One of the most explicit affirmations in the Old Testament of the bodily resurrection for eternal life (cf. Dn 12:2). Cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church § 992.
242 Maccabees 7:14, liturgical translation (AELF). Words of the fourth brother: resurrection is promised to the just, but the persecutor “will not have the resurrection to life”—a distinction between resurrection to life and resurrection to judgment (cf. Dan 12:2; John 5:29). Cited by the Catechism of the Catholic Church § 992.
252 Maccabees 7:28, liturgical translation (AELF), verified on aelf.org. Words of the mother to her youngest son: the clearest biblical text on creation ex nihilo (God made everything “from nothing”), a scriptural foundation taken up at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).
26Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 992 (text verified on vatican.va, French edition): “The resurrection of the dead was gradually revealed by God to his people. [...] In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confess: ‘The King of the world will raise us up to live again forever, we who die for his laws’ (2 M 7:9).”
272 Maccabees 15:16, liturgical translation (AELF), text verified on aelf.org. In a vision before the battle against Nicanor, the prophet Jeremiah, dead for centuries, hands Judas a golden sword—an image of the intercession of the saints who have died for the living (cf. 2 M 15:12-14).
282 M 15:12-16 (vision of Onias III and Jeremiah praying for the people) is one of the scriptural supports for the doctrine of the intercession of the saints and the communion of saints (CCC §§ 956, 962). The just who have entered glory continue to intercede for the pilgrim Church.
29“Pathetic history” (tragic history) is a Hellenistic historiographical genre that favors dramatic effect and appeals to the reader’s emotions (vivid scenes, reconstructed speeches, amplified numbers), in contrast to the sober, annalistic style of 1 Maccabees. Cf. F. W. Walbank, “History and Tragedy,” Historia 9 (1960), pp. 216–234, foundational study on this genre applied to Hellenistic historians (Duris of Samos, Phylarchus).
30In summary, the position defended by Jonathan A. Goldstein, II Maccabees, Anchor Bible, Doubleday, New York, 1983: popular Greek historians used overt sympathy, amplified statistics, and composed speeches without this literary license preventing them from conveying a generally faithful outline of events.
31On the chancery origin of official documents inserted in 2 Maccabees (letters and Seleucid decrees, notably in chapter 11), see the foundational work of Elias Bickerman on Seleucid diplomatics, especially “The Seleucid Charter of Jerusalem,” Revue des Études Juives, vol. 100, 1935, pp. 4–35, and Der Gott der Makkabäer, 1937 (transl. The God of the Maccabees, Brill, 1979). The exact literal authenticity of some documents remains debated among specialists.
32Daniel R. Schwartz, “Modern Scholarship on 1–2 Maccabees in Its Historical Context: Three Episodes,” The Bible and Interpretation, August 2024 (https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/modern-scholarship-1-2-maccabees-its-historical-context-three-episodes) — article re-read online on October 4, 2026 for this correction: the three episodes (Geiger’s reading, the Zionist reading favoring 1 Maccabees as a work of state, the religious rereading following Hengel) are indeed found there.
33The “holy Maccabees” (Eleazar, the seven brothers, and their mother) are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on August 1 — among the rare saints of the Old Testament to receive their own feast there, kept in the traditional calendar (in the current General Calendar, August 1 is the memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor). Their cult, attested in Antioch from antiquity, testifies to the early importance given to their martyrdom witness. Cf. Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Maccabees.
34 47Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 992–993: faith in the resurrection is first expressed by “the Maccabean martyrs”, then by the Pharisees (Acts 23:6) and many contemporaries of Jesus (John 11:24), before being fulfilled by Christ: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25).
35Fourth Lateran Council (1215), constitution Firmiter credimus: God “by his omnipotence created out of nothing (de nihilo) both spiritual and corporeal creatures at the beginning of time.” Denzinger-Schönmetzer 800. The formula is rooted in 2 M 7:28. Cf. also CCC § 297.
362 Maccabees 12:44-46, liturgical translation (AELF), verses verified on aelf.org. The Crampon variant (1923), more famous in the liturgy, reads: “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” Scriptural foundation of purgatory and prayer for the dead.
37Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1032 (text verified on vatican.va, French edition): the doctrine of purgatory “is also supported by the practice of prayer for the dead already mentioned in Sacred Scripture”, citing 2 M 12:46. Cf. also §§ 1031 (Florence, DS 1304; Trent, DS 1820, 1580) and 958.
38Purgatory was defined at the Council of Florence (Decree for the Greeks, 1439; Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1304) and at the Council of Trent (Decree on Purgatory, Session XXV, 1563; DS 1820). Both councils rely on tradition and on 2 M 12. Cf. CCC § 1031.
39The deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1-2 Maccabees, and sections of Esther and Daniel. The term (“second canon”) was coined by Sixtus of Siena, Bibliotheca Sancta, 1566. It implies no inferiority of inspiration, only a later or debated reception. Protestants call them “Apocrypha.”
40The hypothesis of a “Council of Jamnia” (Yavneh, around 90 AD) fixing the Hebrew canon is today largely abandoned: there is no evidence of a formal council establishing a list of books. Cf. Jack P. Lewis, “What Do We Mean by Jabneh?”, Journal of Bible and Religion 32 (1964), p. 125-132; Lee M. McDonald, The Biblical Canon, Hendrickson, 2007.
41Saint Jerome, Prologus in libris Salomonis (preface to the books of Solomon, Vulgate; Latin cross-checked against the critical text): concerning the two Solomonic books, by analogy with Judith, Tobit and the Maccabees which “the Church indeed reads, but does not receive among the canonical Scriptures,” Jerome writes that they are read “for the edification of the people, but not to support the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas” (ad aedificationem plebis, non ad auctoritatem ecclesiasticorum dogmatum confirmandam). A nuanced position, distinct from Protestant rejection: Jerome does not exclude these books from the Church’s use.
42Saint Augustine, The City of God, Book XVIII, ch. 36 (Latin cross-checked against the augustinus.it edition): “These books of the Maccabees, the Jews do not hold as canonical, but the Church holds as canonical, because of the extreme and admirable sufferings of certain martyrs” (“Macchabaeorum libri, quos non Iudaei, sed Ecclesia pro canonicis habet propter quorumdam martyrum passiones vehementes atque mirabiles”). Augustine defends their canonicity, based on the Church’s reception.
43The regional councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397, reaffirmed in 419), under the influence of Saint Augustine, list the two books of Maccabees among the canonical Scriptures. This list, transmitted through the Latin Middle Ages, was taken up unchanged by Florence and then Trent.
44Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree De Canonicis Scripturis (April 8, 1546): enumerates the complete canon, including “the two books of the Maccabees, the first and the second”, and anathematizes anyone who does not accept these books as sacred and canonical. Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1501-1504 (old numbering Denzinger 783-784). Confirms the canon of the Council of Florence (Cantate Domino, 1442; DS 1334-1336, range cited by CCC § 120).
45Martin Luther, in his German Bible (1534), grouped the deuterocanonical books in an appendix to the Old Testament under the title “Apocrypha”, “books which are not held equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are nevertheless useful and good to read.” The rejection of 2 Maccabees is linked to the Reformation’s fight against purgatory and indulgences, which this book scripturally supported. The link is attested as early as the Leipzig Debate (1519): to Eck, who invoked 2 Maccabees in favor of purgatory, Luther replied that the passage had no binding force, the book being outside the canon; in his 1534 Bible, he relegated the deuterocanonical books to an appendix. Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia, “Canon of the Old Testament” (New Advent).
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