1 Maccabees

1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book that details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest history of the independent Hasmonean kingdom. It describes the promulgation of decrees by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes forbidding traditional Jewish practices, and the formation of a rebellion against him by Mattathias, a member of the Hasmonean family, and his five sons. Mattathias's son Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) takes over the revolt, and the rebels are collectively called the Maccabees; the book chronicles in detail the successes and setbacks of the rebellion. While Judas is eventually killed in battle, the Maccabees achieve autonomy and, under the leadership of the Hasmonean family, independence for Judea. Judas's brother Simon Thassi is declared High Priest of Israel by the will of the Jewish people. The time period described is from around 170 BC to 134 BC.

The author is anonymous, but he probably wrote in the newly independent Hasmonean kingdom after the success of the Maccabean Revolt in the late 2nd century BC. 1 Maccabees was probably written in Hebrew originally. However, this original Hebrew has been lost, and the work survives only in translation in Koine Greek in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Jewish scriptures. The Septuagint was preserved by Christians as the basis for the Christian Old Testament. It became part of the deuterocanon in early Christianity. The book is held as canonical scripture today in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches (except for the Orthodox Tewahedo). The book is not included in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and is not recognized as canonical by Protestant denominations or any of the major branches of Judaism. Some Protestants include the book in the biblical apocrypha, as material useful for background and edification but not canonical. Rabbinic Judaism generally disapproved of the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty, but the book is openly pro-Hasmonean, one of several factors contributing to its lack of enthusiasm within later Judaism.

1 Maccabees is best known for its account of the recapture of Jerusalem in the year 164 BC and rededication of the Second Temple: the origin behind the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.