from , ("Book of the House who strive for God"). Gustaf Dalman, meanwhile, suggests that the title is a corruption of the Aramaic "The Book of the House of the Hasmoneans". Language and style The book was probably originally written in Hebrew. Both Origen and Jerome claim to have seen a Hebrew text of 1 Maccabees. The surviving Greek script has Hebraisms and Hebrew idioms. It also seems to have been written in Judea where knowledge of Hebrew would have been more widespread. If it really was originally written in Greek, then the author was intentionally imitating Hebrew style in Greek. The book is not written in colloquial "common" Koine Greek of the 2nd century BC, but rather a more archaic style of Greek consciously imitative of the style of older scriptures. It frequently imitates biblical phraseology and directly cites biblical precedents. The English equivalent would be writing new books in the style of the King James Version. It also uses anachronistic terms at times to make explicit parallels between the exploits of the Hasmoneans and earlier Jewish heroes; for example, it refers to the coastal region of Palestine as the land of the Philistines, despite the Philistines no longer being a relevant cultural grouping in the era. The narrative is primarily prose text, but is interrupted by seven poetic sections, which imitate classical Hebrew poetry. These include four laments and three hymns of praise. Various historical documents are included as well, notably of negotiations and letters with the Roman Republic and Hellenistic Sparta. Contents Structure The Jerusalem Bible divides the book into five sections: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Mattathias and the Holy War 3:1 to 9:22, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus 9:23 to 12:53, under the leadership of Jonathan Chapters 13–16, under the leadership of Simon Synopsis The setting of the book is about a century and a half after the conquest of Judea by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, after Alexander's empire had been divided so that Judea had become part of the Greek Seleucid Empire. It tells how the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to suppress the practice of basic Jewish law, resulting in the Maccabean Revolt. The book covers the whole of the revolt, from 175 to 134 BC, highlighting how the salvation of the Jewish people in this crisis came through Mattathias' family, particularly his sons, Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan Apphus, and