Book Written: 100 B.C. during the reign of John Hyrcanus (a grandson of Mattathias, the Maccabee who first revolted in 167 B.C.). The author is unknown.
Time Period/Setting: 175 to 134 B.C. during the reign of the new Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This is also the time period during which the book of Daniel was written even though the events in Daniel unfold at the time of the Babylonian exile.
Title: Maccabees means 'hammer' and is the name of the priestly family that led the revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Maccabees were also called the Hasmoneans.
I looked forward to reading Maccabees because I knew it dealt with the Hellenized Jewish world, a time period with which I am not overly familiar but about which I was curious to know more. I gleaned what I could from the notes and background in both HC and Baker, but in the end the books themselves were a little dry and there was so much history with a quantity of unfamiliar names that the actual reading of the books failed to live up to what were my somewhat false expectations. For example, I wrongly assumed the story of Hanukkah to be a central event of the Maccabee reign, but it was just one event among many. Similarly, the ghastly torture of the mother and her seven sons resonates with greater significance when the verses stand on their own as a single reading as opposed to being a chapter in Maccabees 2. In Maccabees 1, God's presence occurs within the first seven chapters.
Why would Maccabees not be included in the Protestant and especially in the Jewish Bibles? Is it of any significance that Baker includes his discussion of the Maccabees books in his section on prophets? In the Catholic Bible, the books follow the book of Esther.
Revisiting Maccabees 1,2 would be a good thing to do at a later time.
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