Fourth Book of Maccabees

Praises the superiority of reason over passion. In it, biblical teaching is combined with ancient philosophy. This book is a philosophical discourse on the topic “pious mind defeats affects” and in more detail than in the Second Book of Maccabees , describes the martyrdom of the Maccabees , (the seven brothers, their mothers and teachers who were victims of the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes against Jews) to which the author refers as an example. A distinctive feature of the book is the interweaving of Greek philosophy and traditional Jewish motifs. The book serves as a first-class sample of writing in the style of the “Asian” school and the only significant surviving example of Greek rhetoric in Jewish literature. In it, the biblical teaching is combined with the antique, which is characteristic of Alexandrian and Jewish works.

Along with the psalms of Solomon and Oda, it was included in the ancient Septuagint manuscripts, but the number of non-canonical books of the Slavic-Russian Bible and the number of deuterocanonical books were not included in Catholicism.

It is written, in all likelihood, in the first century AD in the 90s (according to other sources - in 18-37 years BC) in Syria or Asia Minor.

Jerome Stridon and Eusebius of Caesarea believed that its author is Josephus . ^[1] . The author, perhaps, is Josephus Flavius , since this book is attributed to him and placed at the end of his writings, but there is no evidence that the author of the essay is the aforementioned Roman historian; and no one really knows who actually wrote this book.

The book is placed in the appendix to the Old Testament in the Greek Bible ^[2] . It is placed in the Code of Alexandria , as well as in the Georgian Bible, but is not accepted by either the eastern or western church. However, it is often referred to by the holy fathers . It was originally after the third book of Maccabees and before the Psalter , but placed in the annex in the Orthodox canon.

Initially, the book was called "On Composure and the Power of Judgment," but it did not take root and was replaced by a modern one. In the Moscow edition of 1821, translated from the Greek original, the work bore the title "The Fourth Word of the Maccabees."

The translation of the book into Russian was carried out by the bishop of the Orthodox Church, Porfiry Uspensky ^[3] in the 19th century, along with translations of some other biblical books. Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy, 1873, No. 11 . - S. 69-107.

• The first book of Maccabees
• Second Book of Maccabees
• Third Book of Maccabees
• Maccabees
• Old Testament Canon