Summary of 1 Maccabees (View)
Date: 100 B.C.E.
Description: The books 1 and 2 Maccabees are twin accounts of the Maccabean/Hasmonean revolt against the Greeks. In 1 Maccabees Judaism is sometimes described in political terms, with the law of Moses as a constitution, but the text also relies on more theological, Deuteronomic language. The author contrasts the conceptions of Hellenistic rule—and their attraction for the Jews of Jerusalem—with biblical covenant language of separation and distinctness.
Wills, Lawrence M. Introduction to the Apocrypha: Jewish Books in Christian Bibles, Yale University Press, 2021