Arabic Maccabees

Arabic Maccabees is the longest surviving book of Maccabees, however, does not appear to have originated as a book of Maccabees, but a pseudo-history book of the independent Kingdom of Judea from the Maccabean Revolt through the death of Herod the Great. The book concludes by claiming the story of Herod's son Antipater in the book the author had previously written, which does not appear to have survived to the present. This lost book was probably not translated into Arabic like Arabic Maccabees, as it would have covered the era when Jesus was born, but probably did not mention him. The Arabic translation appears to have been made by a Christian, while the original text appears to have been written in Palestinean Aramaic by a Jewish woman, sometime in the mid 6th century AD.

The text only survives in Arabic, which is the reason it is named Arabic Maccabees. It is also known somewhat erroneously as 5th Maccabees, based on the similar Syriac book of 5th Maccabees, however, the Syriac book is simply a translation of Josephus' The Judean War. The title of 5th Maccabees was introduced to the Arabic book by Anglican historian Henry Cotton in 1832, and picked up by other English authors, however, is not accurate. Josephus' The Judean War is considered extended canon in the Syriac Bibles under the name 5th Maccabees, as well as the Ethiopic Bibles under its original name, while Arabic Maccabees is not considered canon in any bible.

The author appears to have intended the book as a 'Jewish' history book, which is often not dependent on historical facts. The author clearly had access to ancient sources, like Josephus' Antiquities of the Judeans, however, deviates from the older sources so often that the deviations cannot be errors. The author uses poetic terminology, such as referring to Judea as the 'Holy Land,' and Jerusalem as the 'city of the sacred temple,' giving the work a mythic quality. It suggests she intended the work for adolescents, unlike the earlier writers' works, which were intended for adults.

Most of the content of the book is a retelling of the stories found in the Septuagint's 1