WThe First Book of Maccabees, also called 1 Maccabees, is a book written in Hebrew by an anonymous Jewish author after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom by the Hasmonean dynasty, around the late 2nd century BC. The original Hebrew is lost and the most important surviving version is the Greek translation contained in the Septuagint. The book is held as canonical scripture by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches, but not by Protestant denominations nor any major branches of Judaism; it is not part of the Tanakh. Some Protestants consider it to be an apocryphal book.
WThe Second Book of Maccabees, also called 2 Maccabees, is a deuterocanonical book originally in Greek which focuses on the Maccabean Revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of the Seleucid Empire general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the "hero of the Jewish wars of independence".
WThe Third Book of Maccabees, also called 3 Maccabees, is found in most Orthodox Bibles as a part of the Anagignoskomena. Catholics consider it to be an example of pseudepigrapha and do not regard it as canonical. Protestants likewise regard it as non-canonical, though some like the Moravian Brethren include it in their bibles as apocrypha. It is included in the Bible used by the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Apostolic Canons approved by the Eastern Council in Trullo in 692 but rejected by Pope Sergius I cited as canonical the first three books of Maccabees.
WThe Fourth Book of Maccabees, also called 4 Maccabees or IV Maccabees, is a homily or philosophic discourse praising the supremacy of pious reason over passion. It was written in Koine Greek in the first or second century AD.
WAshteroth Karnaim, also rendered as Ashtaroth Karnaim, was a city in the land of Bashan east of the Jordan River.
WAtargatis or Ataratheh was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical antiquity. Ctesias also used the name Derketo for her, and the Romans called her Dea Syria, or in one word Deasura. Primarily she was a goddess of fertility, but, as the baalat ("mistress") of her city and people she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her chief sanctuary was at Hierapolis, modern Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, Syria.
WEleazar was a Jewish man whose story is portrayed in 2 Maccabees 6:18-31. Verse 18 describes him as "one of the leading teachers of the law", and "of distinguished bearing". According to verse 24 was ninety at the time of his death. Under a persecution instigated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Eleazar was forced to open his mouth and eat pork, but he spat it out and submitted to flogging. He was then privately permitted to eat meat that he could pretend was pork, but he refused and was flogged to death. The narrator relates that in his death he left "a heroic example and a glorious memory,".
WThe Nahr al-Kabir, also known in Syria as al-Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi or in Lebanon simply as the Kebir, is a river in Syria and Lebanon flowing into the Mediterranean Sea at Arida. The river is 77.8 km (48.3 mi) long, and drains a watershed of 954 km2 (368 sq mi). Its headwaters are at the Ain as-Safa spring in Lebanon and it flows through the Homs Gap.
WMeqabyan, also referred to as Ethiopian Maccabees and Ethiopic Maccabees, are three books found only in the Ethiopian Orthodox Old Testament and Beta Israel Mäṣḥafä Kedus Biblical canon. The language of these books is Geʽez, also called Classical Ethiopic. These books are completely different in content and subject from the various better known books of Maccabees in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.
WThe woman with seven sons was a Jewish martyr described in 2 Maccabees 7 and other sources, who had seven sons that were arrested by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who forced them to prove their respect to him by consuming pig meat. When they refused, he tortured and killed the sons one by one in front of the unflinching and stout-hearted mother.