Deuterocanon/Apocrypha Commentaries: 1&2 Maccabees

"The volume contains essays on various problems of the early Jewish works: the Books of the Maccabees. Authors include renowned international specialists in the literature and thinking of early Judaism." - Brill

"The second-century (B.C.E.) Maccabean revolt against Seleucid oppression was a watershed event in early Jewish history and Second Maccabees is an important testimony to the revolt and its aftermath. Robert Doran's commentary on 2 Maccabees explores the interplay between history and historiography in the document. Providing detailed philological analysis of the elegant Greek of the text, Doran carefully sifts the evidence for the historicity of the events recounted, while giving full attention to the literary and rhetorical qualities that mark this dramatic narrative." - Fortress Press

"... this undertaking by Schwartz is a great boon to students of (i) ancient Judaism, (ii) a significant episode in Jewish-Greek relations, and (iii) the Septuagint. Its importance is difficult to overstate; only the author can fully appreciate the huge task he has accomplished, while the rest of us are genuinely grateful for his courageous candor and industry. For anyone interested in the serious study of 2 Macc. a great impediment has been the dated nature of the major works on it: Goldstein's Anchor Bible commentary is 26 years old; Habicht's JSHRZ volume is aged 33; Abel's tome is now 60. Schwartz's book rectifies this situation and will prove to be the work that all individuals sincerely investigating 2 Macc. will turn to for some time to come, at least until Doran's Hermeneia volume is ready, and probably for a long time afterward." - Frank Shaw, BCMR

"This is a book for anyone interested in the political and cultural results of the entry of the small state of Judah and its capital Jerusalem into the wider Hellenistic world in the second century BCE. In particular it forms a helpful introduction to the biblical writing called 1 Maccabees, which is preserved in the Apocrypha. 1 Maccabees is a history of the rebellion of the Jews against their Syrian rulers in the 160s BCE. The rebellion's leader was Judas Maccabee, and from his family and its success sprang a dynasty that ruled Judah for the century before the arrival of Herod the Great. The author of 1 Maccabees was a keen supporter of that dynasty, and saw their early rulers as made in the mould of the early kings of Israel. The present book introduces the student to modern scholarly research on 1 Maccabees and its author." - Sheffield Academic Press

"In the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great, the ancient world of the Bible—the ancient Near East—came under Greek rule, and in the land of Israel, time-old traditions and Greek culture met. But with the accession of King Antiochos IV, the soft power of culture was replaced with armed conflict, and soon the Jews rebelled against their imperial masters, as recorded in the Biblical books of the Maccabees. Whereas most scholars have dismissed the biblical accounts of religious persecution and cultural clash, Sylvie Honigman combines subtle literary analysis with deep historical insight to show how their testimony can be reconciled with modern historical analysis by conversing with the biblical authors, so to speak, in their own language to understand the way they described their experiences. Honigman contends that these stories are not mere fantasies but genuine attempts to cope with the massacre that followed the rebellion by giving it new meaning. This reading also discloses fresh political and economic factors." - University of California Press

"These accounts of the Maccabean revolt, by which the sons of Mattathias reclaimed the temple of Jerusalem, tell an important story of the founding of the Jewish people. "The Hammerers" is the meaning of the nickname "Maccabees," given to Mattathias's sons, who lived in a time of revolution. Empires struggled for control of Greece, Egypt, and Asia, and the small population of Jews tried to preserve their claim to Judea. The five brothers also made heroic contributions to the practice of Judaism. Their rededication of the temple establishes the annual celebration of Hanukkah, and the martyr stories in Second Maccabees emphasize faithfulness to the law of Moses. The books of First and Second Maccabees are also important for Christians, as in them is told how the Jewish people established the political and religious culture into which Jesus was born. The martyr stories inform the early Christian martyrdoms, and the books are written in Greek, the language in which the Jews of Jesus' time read the Scriptures. As Father Harrington notes, without the Maccabees "the fate of Judaism (and with it Christianity and Islam) was uncertain." - Liturgical Press