M A C M A C 131 "hammerman" appears as a natural surname enough, the occasion of which it would be vain to inquire into. 1 From Judas the name was in later times extended to the whole family, or to the party it represented, or even, as in the title of 3 Maccabees, to other contenders or sufferers for the faith of Israel in the Greek period. The more cor rect name of the family was Hasmoneans, Acr[<r]a//,o)vato<,,
- X31BtJT! n s 2 (Tgm. Jon. on 1 Sam. ii. 4). According to
Josephus, Ant,, xii. 6, 1, this name is taken from Asamonaeus, the grandfather of Mattathias. Modern writers have suggested a connexion with the town Heshmon (Josh, xv. 27) or with CWtpn, magnates, in Psalm Ixviii. 31 [32]. The history of the Hasmoneans is given in ISRAEL (vol. xiii. p. 421 sq.) ; in the appended genealogical tables (after Schiirer) the dates are those of the death of each individual in years B.C. Mattathius (ICO). 1 1 | | John, Simon Judas Eleazar Jonathan shin in the (135). (160). (1C3-2). (143). troubles after the death of Judas. John Hyrcanus I. (105). Aristol ulus I. 1 Alexandei Salome (104;. Janurcus (7< i) j Alexandra (69). Hyrcanus II. (30). Aristobulus II. (49). Alexandra (28) == Alexander (49). Antigonus (37). Aristobulus (35). Mariamme (29), the wife of Herod. The chief authorities arc 1 and 2 Maccabees (see next article) and Josephus. For details as to other sources see Schurer s Neutcsta- mentliche Zcitgeschichte, which gives also a good summary of the history. Of other works subsequent to Ewald s GcscMchte, vol. iv., it is enough to name Derenbourg, Histoirc de la Palestine (1867), and Wellhausen s Pharisder and Sadducdcr (1874). For the coins of the Hasmoneans see Madden, Coins of the Jews, 1881. MACCABEES, BOOKS OF. Two books of this name are included among the Apocrypha of the English Bible, as they had formerly been in the Vulgate, and were accepted as canonical by the council of Trent. A third book is usually included in editions of the Septuagint, and is found in common with books iv. and v. in the Syriac, but never took a place in Latin Bibles ; a fourth is found in some MSS. of the Septuagint (including the Sinaitic and Alexandrian the Vatican does not contain the Maccabee books) and also in MSS. of Josephus, and has been printed in both connexions. 1 Maccabees was originally written in Hebrew, as ap pears, not only from the testimony of Jerome (Prol. Gal.), who had seen the Hebrew text, but from internal evi dence. Josephus, however, already used the Greek, 2 and no trace of the Semitic original survives except the proble matical title recorded by Origen (ap. Eus., H, E,, vi. 25). 3 1 One theory which has had much acceptance is that the name is made up of the initials of the first words of Exod. xv. 11. This is a pure guess, and requires the spelling TDD or ""HMD found in the late work of Jos. ben Goriou. Equally unproved is the guess of S. J. Curtiss, resting on the Latin spelling Machabseus, that the word is properly from PQ3, Isa. xliii. 17, the "quencher" or "queller" (The Name Machabee, Leipsic, 1876). 2 Such at least is the current view (see Grimm, p. xxvin sq.). J. D. Michaelis in his German translation of 1 Mac. argued that Josephus used the original ; and a modified form of this view, viz., that he used an anonymous source resting on the original, has been put forth by Destinon (Quellen des Fl. Josephus, Kiel, 1882). 3 This title is usually given crapfiW ffap&we e, and the attempts at decipherment, none of which are satisfactory (see Grimm s Com., p. xvn ; Derenbourg, La Palestine, p. 450 sq.), proceed from it. Heinichen, however, reads (rap^Q <racn/aie A., on overwhelming MS. The book gives the history of the national movement in Judaea from the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes (175 B.C.) to the murder of Simon (135 B.C.), in a plain and honest style, and evidently from good information. When the book was written there already existed a history of the reign or high priesthood of John Hyrcanus, to which the author refers for the continuation of his narrative. On the other hand, the friendly tone in which he always speaks of the Romans seems to justify the inference that he wrote before G3 B.C. 4 2 Maccabees, covering the liistory from 176 B.C. to the victory over Nicanor (100 B.C.), is much inferior in value. It begins with two epistles which are certainly forgeries, and then proceeds to the task of summarizing in one book the five books of a certain Jason of Cyrene on the war of liberation against Antiochus Epiphanes. The narrative is a useful supplement to that in the first book, but is not nearly so trustworthy, and can never claim the preference where the two are in conflict. Geiger has shown that in 2 Maccabees the history is coloured and distorted by sym pathy with the Pharisees, who became the bitter enemies of the Hasmoneans (Ursckrift und Uebers., book i. 4). 3 Maccabees records a persecution of the Alexandrian Jews by Ptolemy IV. Philopator, with the ultimate re pentance of the tyrant. It is quite unhistorical, and the local feast of the Alexandrian Jews, of which it professes to explain the origin (vi. 36), is connected by Josephus (Cont. Ap., ii. 5) with an event that took place under Ptolemy Physcon. Ewald s conjecture that the story con tains a hidden reference to the emperor Caius (Gesch., iv. 611 sq.) has found considerable favour. It seems strange that this book should ever have found entrance in Christian circles. It had, however, considerable accept ance in the Eastern Church. 4 Maccabees, also known by the title Trepi avTOKparopos Xoy cr/xov, " on the sovereignty of reason," was ascribed to Josephus by Eusebius and Jerome. This opinion is now given up, and nothing certain can be said of its origin. It is a not uninteresting specimen of a Jewish philosophical theme composed under Stoic influence. The author illus trates the sovereignty of pious reason over the passions by historical examples, and is thus led to give anecdotes from the time of the Maccabees. Fritzsche s edition of the Apocrypha (1871) is the best, and con tains the four books of Maccabees. Grimm s commentary on 1 Mac. appeared in 1853, on the other three books in 1857. There is also a commentary on 1 Mac. by Keil, 1875. On 4 Mac. there is an elaborate study by Freudenthal, Die Fl. Joscfihus bcigelcgte Schrift Ueber die Hcrrschaft der Vcrnunft, Breslau, 1869. For further literature see Schiirer, NTliche Zeitgcschichte (1874), pp. 19, 650 sq. , and his excellent article " Apokryphen " in Herzog-Plitt, R.E., vol. i. An Arabic "Book of Maccabees," giving a compend of Jewish history from the affair of Heliodorus to the last part of Herod s reign, is printed in the Paris and London Polyglotts. A so- called " Fifth Book of Maccabees " is also contained in the great Ambrosian Peshito. It is in fact the sixth book of Josephus DC Hello Judaico. MACCLESFIELD, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of Cheshire, England, is situated on a declivity near the borders of what is still known as the Macclesfield Forest, 17 miles south-south-east of Manchester, and 37 east-north-east of Chester. It consists authority, and in the Nitrian MS. used by Lagarde for Lis edition of the Syriac Apocrypha (cf. Wright s Cat., i. 98), the title runs JK Njno noniD xnnv ni 1 ? ppncn wapon Naip K-IBD. This seems to confirm Heinichen s reading (JJ and 3 being easily inter changed in Syrian MSS.). The sense may be "the prince of the house which God hath built up. " 4 Ewald (Gesch. iv. 436) and before him Winston conjectured that Josephus did not possess the last part of the book. Destinon (ut supra, p. 80 sq. ) develops this conjecture, and believes that the book originally ended with the liberation of Judaea under Simon, and that the interval between this book and the annals of Hyrcanus was filled
up later.
