4 Maccabees

A Greek discourse on reason and martyrdom, often an appendix in Greek Bible manuscripts.

4 Maccabees is a Greek discourse on reason and martyrdom from the first century CE. Greek Bible manuscripts often carry it as an appendix rather than as part of the core historical books. That appendix placement is why this dataset can call it both manuscript-adjacent to the Septuagint and not a universal canonical book. It is not in the Catholic list from Trent, not in the Protestant sixty-six, and not an Ethiopian Meqabyan book. Being copied at the end of a Greek Bible is preservation. Canonical rank is a further decision each tradition records in the matrix.

Frequently copied with Septuagint manuscripts but not universally treated as canonical.

Date

1st century CE (medium confidence)

Confidence

medium

Languages

Greek

Traditional authorship

Not named in the book

Authorship note

Author not named; Eusebius and Jerome attributed it to Josephus

• א · Codex Sinaiticus

  Mid-4th century CE · Greek · Greek 4 Maccabees

  Codex Sinaiticus is a Greek parchment pandect from the middle of the fourth century, associated with Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Sinai and now shared by the British Library and partner libraries. Its designation is aleph. After the New Testament it copies the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas in full enough form for this dataset to link both writings. That binding is a fact about one great Bible manuscript: early Christian scribes put those books in the same codex as the New Testament. Athanasius, in Festal Letter 39, still treats the Shepherd as a book appointed to be read for instruction and not as part of his canon list. Later twenty-seven-book New Testament lists generally leave both Barnabas and Hermas outside the closed canon. Preservation in Sinaiticus is manuscript evidence. The canonical decision is a separate witness.

• A · Codex Alexandrinus

  5th century CE · Greek · Greek 4 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

  4 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 4 Maccabees outside Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. 4 Maccabees is a Greek Jewish sermon on reason and the Maccabean martyrs. It is not in the Tanakh. 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 4 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. Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus both copy 4 Maccabees. Early lists usually leave it outside the canon even when the manuscript binds it with biblical books. 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 a Trent deuterocanonical book.

• OrthodoxBroader canon

  Often an appendix in Greek Bibles rather than a universally equal canon book.

• EthiopianRelated literature

  Not one of the Ethiopian Meqabyan books.

• TanakhNot applicable

  Not part of the Tanakh.

• LXXBroader canon

  Copied with some Septuagint manuscripts as an appendix.

• Early ChristianRelated literature

  Greek discourse preserved beside biblical books.

• Second TempleRelated literature

  Jewish-Greek philosophical narrative.

No council, confession, or canon list in this dataset names 4 Maccabees. Tradition status is recorded in the section above.

• Possible dependence · Martyr sermon ↔ 2 Maccabees 6–7

  High confidence — strong primary or manuscript support.

  4 Maccabees retells the martyrdoms known from 2 Maccabees as a philosophical sermon on reason. It is not another chapter of that history.

No dated canon event in this dataset is tied to 4 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 Sinaiticus preserves a fourth-century Greek Bible and, after the New Testament, includes the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas.
• Codex Alexandrinus is a fifth-century Greek Bible. It includes a Septuagint-shaped Old Testament, the New Testament, and 1 Clement.