3 Maccabees

Despite its name, 3 Maccabees has nothing to do with the Maccabean revolt. It tells of a persecution of Egyptian Jews under Ptolemy IV Philopator and their miraculous deliverance from death by elephants.|||Written in Koine Greek. Survives in the Septuagint, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and Codex Sinaiticus.|||Composed by an anonymous Alexandrian Jew, likely in the 1st century BCE during the late Ptolemaic period, or possibly in early Roman Egypt (1st century CE).|||Deuterocanonical in the Eastern Orthodox Church (since the Council in Trullo, 692 CE). Canonical in the Armenian and Syriac Orthodox Churches. Not canonical in Catholic or Protestant traditions.|||A window into Jewish life in Ptolemaic Egypt. Shows resistance to forced Hellenization and the preservation of Torah identity.|||Emmet, C. W. The Third Book of Maccabees. SPCK, 1918.|||Hadas, M. The Third and Fourth Books of Maccabees. Harper, 1953.|||Johnson, S. E. "3 Maccabees." In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2. Doubleday, 1985.|||3 Maccabees — Early Jewish Writings|https://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/3maccabees.html|Full translation and scholarly resources.;; 3 Maccabees — Wikipedia|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Maccabees|Background and scholarly discussion.|||" Then the Jews, delivered from death, sang hymns of thanksgiving to their Savior God." — 3 Maccabees 6:33