Apocrypha
1 Maccabees
16 chapters
About this book
A sustained historical narrative of the Maccabean revolt and the decades that followed, told from the perspective of the family who led it. It covers the suppression of Jewish practice under Antiochus IV, the outbreak of armed resistance, the recapture and rededication of the Temple, and the establishment of Hasmonean rule.
Why read this
It is the fullest surviving account of a period that shaped the world the New Testament is set in. Anyone who has wondered what happened in Judea between the close of the Old Testament narrative and the opening of the Gospels will find much of the answer here, told as history rather than as commentary.