The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 45: 1 Machabees / The Challoner Revision

This eBook was produced by David Widger
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.
Translated from the Latin Vulgate
Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek, and Other Editions in Divers Languages
THE OLD TESTAMENT First Published by the English College at Douay A.D. 1609 & 1610
and
THE NEW TESTAMENT First Published by the English College at Rheims A.D. 1582
With Annotations
The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner A.D. 1749-1752
These books are so called, because they contain the history of the people of God under the command of Judas Machabeus and his brethren: and he, as some will have it, was surnamed Machabeus, from carrying in his ensigns, or standards, those words of Exodus 15.11, Who is like to thee among the strong, O Lord: in which the initial letters, in the Hebrew, are M. C. B. E. I. It is not known who is the author of these books. But as to their authority, though they are not received by the Jews, saith St. Augustine, (lib. 18, De Civ. Dei, c. 36,) they are received by the church: who, in settling her canon of the scriptures, chose rather to be directed by the tradition she had received from the apostles of Christ, than by that of the scribes and Pharisees. And as the church has declared these two Books canonical, even in two general councils, viz., Florence and Trent, there can be no doubt of their authenticity.
1 Machabees Chapter 1
The reign of Alexander and his successors: Antiochus rifles and profanes the temple of God: and persecutes unto death all that will not forsake the law of God, and the religion of their fathers.