Also, both books of Maccabees are only in the Catholic Bible and not in Protestant versions. If you want to read them, here they are.
1 Maccabees is a lot about wars and treaties (wars are old, but treaties are something we haven't heard of a lot so far). There are a lot of copies of treaty documents. And the lesson learned is: Don't trust people named Demetrius. They don't stick to their promises, even if they are written in a treaty. (There are two King Demetrii in 1 Macc, father and son.)
The Romans, on the other hand, are pretty awesome allies.
My favorite quote from 1 Maccabees is the following:
"They made the elephants drunk on grape and mulberry wine to provoke them to fight." (1 Macc 6:34)
Now there are some fine military tactics!
I'm going to admit that 2 Maccabees made me a bit bored, and I may have had trouble focusing while reading. Just maybe.
It's less focused on the treaties than 1 Maccabees, and a bit more focused on how God saves his people. There's also one of the earliest models of martyrdom (2 Macc 7), and a huge focus on gruesome deeds. Not very pretty.
Sorry, not much today. The Wisdom books are next, so I'm hoping those are a bit more interesting.
~Sophia
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