commencement of the book in ii. 19., presumes that something has preceded them; this is readily answered: for in Jewish Greek the occurrence of de in the beginning of a discourse is not a matter which need shock the reader: or the particle de may have been introduced by the person who prefixed the letters.-2) The history of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes in c. ix. varies from that contained in I Mac. vi. 1-17. However, the discrepancy is not of much consequence, for the principal fact, the death of Antiochus in Persia while on a journey, is stated in both places.-3) The accounts of apparitions and prodigies which are given in iii. 25. s., 33, 34. v. 1—3. x. 29. s., xi. 8—10. xv. 11. ss., do not occur in the first book of Maccabees, and have the appearance of being additions to the true history. The author seems to refer to them when he says, in ii. 28. and xv. 38. that he had left the investigation of the several events and actions recounted, to the writer (Jason), and had confined himself to what had been written by him. But these adjectitious circumstances produce no change in the facts themselves. See SANDBUECHLER Erläuterungen der Biblischen Geschichte, 1794. I. Th. S. 426, 427. § 263. Author and Age of the Second Book of Maccabees. The conjectures which have been advanced respecting the author of this book are so unfounded, that it is best to confess our ignorance. The determination of its age is also involved in difficulties, since the author has not told us when Jason lived; doubtless, because at that time he was a writer well known. There is, however, abundant evidence, arising from the work itself, that it was written out of Syria, and some considerable time posterior to the transactions which it relates. We shall not therefore greatly err, if we place it before the middle of the century immediately preceding the Christian era. In a more modern age, a work of this kind would scarcely have obtained readers. § 264. Language and Versions of the Second Book of Maccabees. JEROME has remarked (Prolog. Galeat.) that the second book of Maccabees was written in Greek, which, he adds, may be proved from its very phraseology.* The Greek of this work is pure, and occasion * [Quod ex ipsa quoque phrasi probari potest.] ally elegant, so that the Jew who composed it must have been well acquainted with that language. The Latin Vulgate version is older than Jerome, and is a free translation from the Greek text.The age of the Syriac version in the London Polyglot is unknown. It was made immediately from the Greek, although it does not always faithfully adhere to the meaning of its original.-The Arabic book of Maccabees is not a version, but an entirely different narrative; compiled from our books of Maccabees, and from Josephus, or from the treatise relating to the Maccabees which is appended to the work of Josephus.—The Jews in China possess two books of Maccabees, but it is uncertain whether they are the same as ours; it is suspected by some that they are the fabulous work which the Jews at present read on the feast of dedication. See MICHAELIS alte orient. Biblioth. Th. V. S. 20. ERASMUS FROELICH, formerly librarian in the Academy of Theresa at Vienna, published in 1744, Annales compendiarii regum et rerum Syriæ, nummis veterum illustrati, in folio. In this work he admirably illustrated the history of the Maccabees, and the books which we possess at present, and established the chronology and certainty of the accounts which they contain. He was opposed by ERN. FRED. WERNSDORF in his Prolusio de fontibus historiæ Syriæ in libris Maccabæorum, Lipsia, 1746, 4to., to whom Frölich replied in a book entitled, De fontibus historiæ Syriæ in libris Maccabæorum prolusio in examen vocata, Vindobona, 1746, 4to. This work was attacked by GoTTL. WERNSDORF, brother of the former, in his Commentatio historico-critica de fide historica Maccabæorum, 1747, Vratislavix, 4to. and was answered by an anonymous Jesuit in a work called, Authoritas utriusque libri Maccabæorum canonico-historica adserta, Vienna, 1749, 4to. |