The First Book of Maccabees was written in Hebrew, incorporating some earlier Hebrew historical records. The book is not wholly narrative but includes portions of passionate poetry and prayer.

We have lost the original Hebrew manuscript. But a Jewish translation into Greek was made very soon after it was written, for use by the large Jewish population now living in Egypt and other Hellenistic cultures, including Judea itself. As these Jewish communities were transformed in character by the Roman rise to power and Jewish Greek died out, the Greek version was kept intact by the early Christian church, which included the first two Books of Maccabees in their version of the Old Testament.

In place of the original Hebrew text, the legend of the Maccabees was kept alive among Jews in the form of parochial Hebrew paraphrases and poems, such as the medieval scroll of Antiochus. However, these later versions do not approach the original book in depth, range, style, or authenticity, and their use has largely died out in modern times. I have gone back to the original book, aided by the remarkable Hebrew version of Abraham Kahana (first published in Jerusalem in 1931).

The First Book of Maccabees tells the story of Jewish resistance to the Greeks and then chronicles the Maccabean campaigns and the Hasmonean dynasty that comes to power in Judea. The seeds of Hanukkah's ultimate transformation into a major holiday may be found in the scattered psalms and prayers quoted by the author of First Maccabees and attributed to Mattathias or Judah.

Mattathias was a priest from Jerusalem who had moved to the village of Modi'in, escaping Jerusalem's devastation. He is the father of Judah Maccabee and Judah's brothers John, Simon, Eliezer and Jonathan. Mattathias' is the first act of Jewish resistance: he refuses to offer a sacrifice to the Greek-Seleucid king, is driven to kill an apostate collaborator together with the king's officer, pulls down the pagan altar, and takes to the hills and mountains with his sons, making armed revolt a reality. When he is ready to die, he speaks to his son about the need to continue the armed resistance. Within this speech is the short psalm that follows, an echo of earlier biblical psalms.

The following psalm is offered by Judah, as he surveys the battlefield — an early instance of a prayer that begins with the same words used to preface benedictions in Jewish life Barukh Atah Adonai. It is not a request for vengeance, but a prayer for the strength of a deeper motivation.... When Judah saw how huge the enemy expedition was, he prayed as follows: