The events described in the book of Judith took place in Israel during the time of King Manasseh. The book of Judith is named after the main person acting in the narrative of the book. Judith was a beautiful and pious widow of a certain Manasseh from the tribe of Simeon in the city of Bethulia. By her heroic deed, she saved her city and the whole country from the Assyrian army, which came to ravage them under the leadership of Holofernes (about 650 B.C.).

Holofernes, having captured the entire coastal region, stopped with a huge horde on the borders of Judea, under the walls of Bethulia in the tribe of Issachar. The inhabitants of Bethulia, enduring hunger and thirst, were ready to surrender. But Judith, firmly believing in God's help, appeared in the enemy's camp. Having favored Holofernes, Judith cut off his head at night after a feast. Then, taking the head of the commander as a trophy, Judith brought it to her fellow citizens. Encouraged by this, the Jews put the Assyrian army to flight. Judith, surrounded by honor, after a long pious life, reposed in extreme old age, having lived to be 105 years old.

The Books of Maccabees

The books of Maccabees are named after the heroes whose deeds are described in them. These books tell about the events of 330-130 B.C. The Persian Empire was replaced by the Greek Empire, founded by Alexander the Great. His huge empire did not last long. After the death of Alexander the Great, it broke up into four kingdoms, two of which – Egypt and Syria – were very important in the history of the Jews. During the succession wars that followed, Palestine was a bone of contention between the rulers of the two countries. In 203 B.C., power over Judah passed into the hands of the Syrian kings, and from that time a difficult time began for the Jews, since the Syrian kings tried to implant paganism among them. A particularly cruel persecutor of the Jews, who believed in the true God, was King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.). Under him, the Greek cult was declared the state religion. People who refused to accept paganism were persecuted and killed. The temple of God was desecrated. (Antiochus, claiming divine honors, called himself Epiphanes, which means "the appearance of God." For his fierce persecution of believers, he became a prototype of the last persecutor of the faith, the Antichrist, who was to come. Al. Paul, speaking of the Antichrist, predicts that he will "sit in the temple of God, pretending to be God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4), recalling a similar incident with Antiochus. Jesus Christ, speaking of the "abomination of desolation" in the sanctuary of the temple of God (foretold by the prophet Daniel in chapter 9, verse 27, see Mat. 24:15), is reminiscent of the state of the Temple in Jerusalem under Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus suffered a severe disease, from which he died after being eaten alive by worms).

The 1st Book of Maccabees, after mentioning the conquests of Alexander the Great and the division of his kingdom among his generals (330-310), goes on to the history of Antiochus Epiphanes' persecution of the Jews (175 B.C.) and depicts the horrors of this persecution. In defense of the faith, the priest Mattathias and his five sons, nicknamed the Maccabees - "hammers" for their successful struggle against the champions of paganism, spoke out. Of the sons of Mattathias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simeon were especially famous.

The 2nd book of Maccabees supplements the previous book by giving new details about the struggle of the Palestinian Jews against the oppression of the faith by the Syrian kings, beginning with Heliodorus, sent by King Seleucus Philopator to plunder the temple in Jerusalem, to the victory of Judas Maccabee over Nicanor, the military commander of Demetrius Seleucus. During the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, the ninety-year-old priest Bleazar suffered, then seven brothers and many others, who, after fierce tortures, were killed in 166 B.C. (6-7). These sufferers for the faith were later called the "Maccabean Martyrs" and are commemorated by the Church on August 14.

The 3rd Book of Maccabees tells about the earlier persecution of the Jews in Egypt from Ptolemy IV Philopator, which began in 216 B.C., i.e. 50 years before the time of Judas Maccabee. The reason for the persecution was the anger of King Ptolemy because he was not allowed by God to enter the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple through the prayer of the High Priest Simon. The book goes on to describe how King Ptolemy plotted to exterminate the Jews: to lure them to the hippodrome and trample them under elephants. Through the prayer of the high priest, God sent two angels who frightened the elephants, and the Jews were saved.

To sum up, it should be said that the books of Maccabees abound in stories about feats for faith in God and examples of courage. In times of persecution by the pagans, Christians drew from the books of Maccabees edifying examples of patience and firmness.

The Last Years Before the Coming of the Savior

Further events in the life of the Jewish people did not make it into the Bible. In 63 B.C., the Holy Land was conquered by the Roman general Pompey. From that time on, Palestine, with its four provinces, became subject to Rome and paid tribute to it. Soon power was concentrated in the hands of a cunning Edomite named Antipater, who managed to gain the trust of Rome. From Antipater, power passed to his son, the cruel Herod the Great, who in 37 B.C. declared himself "king of the Jews." He was the first king to call himself Jewish without being of Jewish descent. Under him, in the small city of Bethlehem, the true King and Savior of the world, Christ, was born. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of the Patriarch James, spoken two thousand years before the birth of Christ: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from her loins, until the Mediator comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the nations" (Gen. 49:9-11).

4. Teaching books

Content:

Introduction. The Book of Job. Psalter. The meaning of the Psalter. The Book of Proverbs of Solomon. The Book of Ecclesiastes. The Book of the Song of Songs. The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon. The Book of the Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach. Conclusion on the Teaching Books. Selected parables.