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Audiobook edition · 5 h 53 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 202 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 202 pagesAbout this book
What happens when a king demands that a people abandon the worship at the heart of their lives?
In 1–4 Maccabees, anonymous ancient Jewish writings explore resistance, loyalty, and survival under Greek rule. According to First Maccabees, Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposes Greek customs on Judea and desecrates the Jerusalem Temple. The priest Mattathias and his sons resist, and Judas Maccabeus leads the struggle to reclaim Jerusalem.
These are separate works, not one continuous history. First Maccabees follows war and the Temple’s rededication; Second turns toward martyrdom and resurrection. Third moves to danger in Egypt under Ptolemy IV Philopator, while Fourth offers a philosophical sermon on reason. Together, they ask what faithfulness demands when worship, identity, and life are threatened.
What you’ll discover
- First Maccabees: armed resistance Follow Mattathias and his sons from village resistance toward the struggle for Jerusalem.
- Second Maccabees: costly faithfulness Encounter martyr tales that explore loyalty, suffering, and the text’s hope of resurrection.
- Third Maccabees: danger in Egypt Enter a different setting, where Ptolemy IV Philopator brings new threats to Jewish lives.
- Fourth Maccabees: reason under pressure Explore a philosophical sermon that places reason beside the demands of religious faithfulness.
- The roots of Hanukkah Discover the Temple’s rededication and the struggle that forms the background of the feast.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love ancient history, stories of courage under pressure, the roots of Hanukkah, and early thinking about martyrdom, and for anyone curious how a small people kept its identity against an empire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An empire attacks everyday faith
- Refusal becomes an armed revolt
- Restored worship becomes shared memory
- Resistance grows into political authority
- The same struggle gains another meaning
- Faithfulness refuses even a pretense
- Imperial anger follows Jews into Egypt
- Devout reason can govern strong feelings
- Four voices defend a people's identity
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1–4 Maccabees
An old priest kills a man at an altar in Modin, and a hill war against an empire begins.
Challenging2–5 hours to readEnglish
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“Let everyone who is zealous for the law and stands by the covenant follow me!”
In short
What would you do if the ruler of the known world ordered you to give up the way of life your family kept for centuries, and death was the penalty for refusing? That is the question behind 1, 2, 3 and 4 Maccabees, four ancient Jewish books gathered into one collection.
1–4 Maccabees at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 5 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 58,300 words
- Pages
- 202 pages322 in large print
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Listen freeOr hold it in print: paperback, hardcover or large print, at costFrom the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A king's decree tries to erase a people
The story opens with Alexander the Great dividing his empire among his officers. From that line comes Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who rules the Seleucid kingdom that controls Judea in the second century BCE.
The crisis has two sides. Some Jews inside Jerusalem want a treaty with the surrounding nations, and they build a gymnasium in the Greek style. Antiochus strips the Temple of its golden altar and lampstand, and his troops seize the city. Then he decrees that all peoples must become one people and drop their own customs.
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An old priest kills a man at an altar in Modin, and a hill war against an empire begins.
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- Level
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- Paperback
- 202 pages · 6 × 9 in
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- 202 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 322 pages · 6 × 9 in
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Cite this edition
1–4 Maccabees. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-1-4-maccabees.
1–4 Maccabees. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-1-4-maccabees
1–4 Maccabees. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-1-4-maccabees.
@book{anonymous202614,
title = {1–4 Maccabees},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-1-4-maccabees}
}
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What is 1–4 Maccabees about?
The collection covers the Jewish revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the second century BCE, the martyrs who died rather than break the Law, a story of Jews threatened in Egypt under Ptolemy IV, and a philosophical sermon on reason and the passions.
Are the Maccabees books in the Bible?
It depends on the tradition. They are not in the Hebrew Bible. First and Second Maccabees belong to the Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments. Protestants treat them as Apocrypha, and Third and Fourth Maccabees stand outside most canons.
What is the connection between the Maccabees and Hanukkah?
First and Second Maccabees tell how Judas Maccabeus and his followers cleansed the defiled Temple and rededicated the altar on the twenty-fifth of Chislev. They then decreed an eight-day festival, which Jews now celebrate as Hanukkah.
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