Maccabees
Maccabees names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Maccabees a name applied to a patriotic family whose achievements were most notable
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a name applied to a patriotic family whose achievements were most notable. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian king, having been expelled from Egypt by the Romans, relieved his vexation by attempting to put down the Jewish worship. Palestine then being under his sway, the aged Mathathias, priest of Modin, was urged to set his people the example of sacrificing to the Greek gods. In place of doing so, he killed the king's messenger, and escaped to the mountains, his sons being companions of his flight. Their names were John called Caddis, Simon called Thassi, Judas called Maccabæus, in connection with whom the name Maccabees originated, Eleazar called Avaran, and Jonathan called Apphus. The revolt began 168 B. C., and in 165 Judas took Jerusalem, and purified the Temple, in commemoration of which the winter festival called the Feast of Dedication was annually kept, and is alluded to in John x: 22. After achieving success, a Maccabean, called also an Asmonean, dynasty reigned for about a century, Herod the Great, slaughterer of the infants of Bethlehem, putting to death Hyrcanus, was inoffensive, pious, and the high priest. The books of Maccabees: Four books of our present Apocrypha, with a fifth not in that collection. (1) Maccabees: A work giving an account of the Maccabean struggle, with a simplicity and candor which render its statements eminently credible. It seems to have been written originally in Hebrew by a Palestinian Jew, probably a Sadducee. The Roman Church considers it an inspired production; the Protestant, uninspired but of high historical value. (2) Maccabees: A much less valuable production than I Maccabees. It was compiled by a person whose name is not given, from a more extended narrative written by Jason of Cyrene. Jason's book seems to have been published about 160 b. c. (3) Maccabees: A book narrating events earlier than the Maccabean times. It commences with Ptolemy IV. (Philopator) 217 B. C. The author seems to have been an Alexandrian Jew, who wrote in Greek. (4) Maccabees: A work written to encourage the Jews, who lived in the midst of a contemptuous heathen population, to remain true to the Jewish faith. It contains the history of the Maccabean martyrdoms. It seems to have been written A. D. 39 or 40. (5) Maccabees: This work embraced the history of 178 years, from Heliodorus's attempt to plunder the treasury at Jerusalem, 184 B. C., to 6 B. C., when Herod was on the throne. There are many parallelisms with Josephus. It is a valuable historical production.
Maccabees THE, a fraternal
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE, a fraternal, mutual-benefit organization established for social and benevolent purposes in 1881. The present society united with the Modern Knights in 1914. The Modern Maccabees admit to membership all male whites of good moral character between the ages of 18 and 70. The order provides benefits in case of the disability of its members and at death. There are now more than 300,000 members of the organization, which controls a fund of $20,000,000. The head offices are at Port Huron, Mich., U. S. A.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 outline of the revolt still holds in its essentials, though most historians now date Antiochus IV's decrees to 167 B.C. and the rededication of the Temple to December 164 B.C. rather than 165, and they read 1 Maccabees as frankly pro-Hasmonean propaganda rather than the work of a Sadducee writing with "simplicity and candor." The biggest new evidence came in 1947, when the Dead Sea Scrolls began turning up at Qumran, giving scholars the writings of a Jewish community that broke with the Hasmonean priest-kings the books celebrate. The second entry has changed beyond recognition: the fraternal order at Port Huron, Michigan, which in 1921 admitted only "male whites of good moral character," evolved into a conventional life insurance company, dropped such restrictions long ago, and no longer exists as an independent fraternal society. Hanukkah, the "Feast of Dedication" the article mentions almost in passing, is now the most publicly visible Jewish festival in the United States.
Written for this edition, 2026.