3 Maccabees

A Greek Jewish narrative often printed with the Septuagint and used in some Orthodox collections.

3 Maccabees is a Greek Jewish narrative, dated here to the first century BCE or the first century CE, often printed with Septuagint manuscripts and used in some Orthodox collections. It is not one of the deuterocanonical books defined for the Catholic Church at Trent, and it is not a book of the Protestant sixty-six or the Tanakh. It is also not 3 Meqabyan. The similar numbers are a naming trap. This entry is the Greek book about conflict in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, as the traditional title presents it, not the Ethiopian Meqabyan cycle.

Not among the Catholic deuterocanon defined at Trent; not one of the Ethiopian Meqabyan books.

Date

1st century BCE–1st century CE (medium confidence)

Confidence

medium

Languages

Greek

Traditional authorship

Not named in the book

Authorship note

Author not named; received by the Eastern Orthodox churches

• A · Codex Alexandrinus

  5th century CE · Greek · Greek 3 Maccabees

  Codex Alexandrinus is a fifth-century Greek parchment Bible, shelfmark Royal MS 1 D V–VIII in the British Library. Its Old Testament is Septuagint-shaped and includes books that later Western lists call deuterocanonical, among them Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, 1 Esdras, and 1–4 Maccabees, plus the Prayer of Manasseh among the Odes. The New Testament includes Jude. After the biblical books the codex copies 1 Clement. A fifth-century binding shows what one scriptorium copied. It is not the Council of Trent and not the Westminster Confession.

• mentions

  Hebrew canon / Greek-speaking Jews

  3 Maccabees is not a book of the Tanakh. Josephus, near the end of the first century, describes twenty-two Jewish books his people trust and sets later writings in a lower rank. The later rabbinic Bible, counted as twenty-four books, likewise leaves 3 Maccabees outside Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. 3 Maccabees is a Greek Jewish story set in Egypt under Ptolemy, not a history of Judas Maccabeus and not a Tanakh book. Jewish copying or quotation, where it exists, is reception. It is not the same fact as a place in the Hebrew canon, and it is not a Christian council’s decision.

• uses liturgically

  Greek and Latin churches

  Greek-speaking churches met 3 Maccabees in Septuagint Bibles. Fourth- and fifth-century pandects copy it beside other Old Testament books. Early lists do not all use the same boundary. Athanasius in 367 keeps a shorter Old Testament and still names some of these books as useful to read. Hippo in 393 is reported to have approved a wider list, and Carthage in 397 names several of them among books to be read in church. Alexandrinus copies 3 Maccabees. Many early Latin lists do not. Later Orthodox collections more often keep it than the Catholic list defined at Trent. Those are early Christian acts. Trent, Luther’s Apocrypha, and Westminster are later and stay on the councils list.

• ProtestantRelated literature

  Not among the Protestant 66.

• CatholicRelated literature

  Not among the Catholic deuterocanon listed at Trent.

• OrthodoxCanonical

  Often included in Eastern Orthodox Old Testament collections.

• EthiopianRelated literature

  Not the same as the Ethiopian Meqabyan books.

• TanakhNot applicable

  Not part of the Tanakh.

• LXXCanonical

  Transmitted with many Septuagint collections.

• Early ChristianDisputed

  Greek Jewish narrative; not universally listed in early Latin canon lists.

• Second TempleRelated literature

  Greek Jewish work circulating beside later canons.

No council, confession, or canon list in this dataset names 3 Maccabees. Tradition status is recorded in the section above.

• Shared tradition · Ge'ez 3 Meqabyan ↔ Greek 3 Maccabees

  Low confidence — disputed or tentative.

  The similar names do not make these the same book. Ethiopian 3 Meqabyan is not a translation of Greek 3 Maccabees.

No dated canon event in this dataset is tied to 3 Maccabees.

• Westminster Confession I.2–3 names the 66-book Protestant canon and says the books commonly called Apocrypha are not of divine inspiration and are not part of the canon of Scripture.
• Council of Trent, Session IV (8 April 1546), lists the Catholic canonical books including the deuterocanonical writings received in the Vulgate.
• Brenton’s public-domain Septuagint translation includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, the Additions, and Maccabees as part of the Greek Old Testament corpus.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church publishes an 81-book list that includes 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• Josephus, Against Apion 1.8, speaks of 22 Jewish books and distinguishes later writings as not equally trusted.
• Codex Alexandrinus is a fifth-century Greek Bible. It includes a Septuagint-shaped Old Testament, the New Testament, and 1 Clement.