I Maccabees
I Maccabees
Technical
Critical

I Maccabees

in Anchor Yale Bible

by Daniel R. Schwartz

4.5 Rank Score: 4.56 from 1 reviews, 0 featured collections, and 2 user libraries
Pages 504
Publisher Yale University Press
Published 4/26/2022
ISBN-13 9780300159936

I Maccabees, composed in the second century BCE, chronicles four decades of clashes between Hellenistic Syria and Judea, from Antiochus Epiphanes’s ascent to the throne in 175 BCE to the Hasmoneans’ establishment of an independent Judean state, ruled by Simon and his sons. In this volume, Daniel R. Schwartz provides a new translation of the Greek text and analyzes its historical significance.

In dialogue with contemporary scholarship, the introduction surveys the work’s themes, sources, and transmission. The commentary addresses textual details and issues of historical reconstruction, often devoting special attention to the lost Hebrew original and its associations. Schwartz demonstrates that I Maccabees, despite its Hebraic biblical style and its survival within the Christian canon, deviates from biblical and Judaic works by marginalizing God, evincing scorn for martyrs, and ascribing to human power and valor crucial historical roles. This all fits its mandate: justification of the Hasmonean dynasty, especially the Simonides.

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AndrewKlein46 AndrewKlein46 April 3, 2023
Schwartz particularly sets out to examine how 1 Maccabees appropriates Hebrew Bible language while flying in the face of the morals and religion of the Hebrew Bible. With this goal in mind, Schwartz is very successful. I especially enjoyed his examination of the contrasts in theology between 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Full length commentaries on books of the Apocrypha are rare, so every entry is appreciated!