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1 Maccabees 1:1-2
New Catholic Bible
1 Maccabees 1:1-2
New Catholic Bible
A Great Danger for the Faith
Chapter 1[a]
The Succession of Alexander the Great.[b] 1 After Alexander of Macedon, the son of Philip, had come from the land of Kittim[c] and defeated Darius, the king of the Persians and the Medes, he succeeded him as king, in addition to his position as king of Greece. 2 He engaged in many campaigns, captured strongholds, and executed kings.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Maccabees 1:1 In the sixth century B.C., the Exile had endangered the existence of Israel as a nation. Out of this crisis, the national hope came forth purified: the vocation of Israel, reduced to a little protectorate, was not that of being a power but of remaining, above all, the people bearing witness to God. The crisis of the Maccabean period is more grave. For the first time, Israel is threatened as a spiritual family: it is the trial of hope.
- 1 Maccabees 1:1 The young Macedonian conqueror had formed an immense empire for himself (333–324 B.C.). He died prematurely, and his kingdom was divided among the generals who quarreled over his inheritance. Judea profited from the benevolence of the Lagids who ruled Egypt. However, at the beginning of the second century B.C., it became subjugated by the successors of Seleucus, the Seleucids, who ruled in Syria and spread Hellenism throughout the Middle East. With the advent of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 175 B.C., the pressure reaches its zenith.
- 1 Maccabees 1:1 Kittim: designates primarily Cyprus but encompasses other foreign countries among which was Macedonia. Greece here designates the region of Asia Minor that had already been colonized by the Greeks for a long time.
