Editing Maccabees (section)

==Christian veneration and possible Jewish preceding tradition==
===The nine "Holy Maccabean Martyrs" in Christianity===
[[File:Koeln st andreas Machabaeerschrein.jpg|thumb|left|What are believed to be the Maccabees' relics – kept in the ''Maccabees Shrine'' – are venerated in [[St. Andrew's Church, Cologne]], Germany.]]

{{main|Woman with seven sons}}
{{Infobox saint
|name       =The Holy Maccabees
|birth_date =2nd century BCE
|death_date =167–160&nbsp;BCE
|feast_day  =August 1
|venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]]<br/>[[Eastern Orthodox Churches]]<br/>[[Oriental Orthodox Churches]]
|image      =Stattler-Machabeusze.jpg
|imagesize  =230px
|caption    =[[Wojciech Stattler]]'s "''Machabeusze''" ("''The Maccabees''"), <small>1844</small>
|birth_place=[[Judea]] (modern-day [[Israel]])
|death_place=[[Judea]]
|titles     =
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=[[Pre-congregation|Pre-Congregation]]
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=
|patronage=
|major_shrine=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}

The second and fourth books of the Maccabees recount the martyrdom of seven Jewish brothers, their mother and their teacher. Although these are not said to be of the Maccabee family, they are referred to in Christianity as the "Holy Maccabean Martyrs" or the "Holy Maccabees." According to one tradition, their individual names are Habim, Antonin, Guriah, Eleazar, Eusebon, Hadim (Halim), Marcellus, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher [[Eleazar (2 Maccabees)|Eleazar]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/August/01-03.htm |title=The Seven Holy Maccabean Martyrs |publisher=Holytrinityorthodox.com |date=2007-05-20 |access-date=2013-07-29}}</ref>

The three Ethiopian books of [[Meqabyan]] (quite distinct works from the other four books of Maccabees), which are canonical in the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church]], also refer to the Maccabee martyrs. The first of these books states that their father was a Benjamite named Maccabeus and that three of the brothers, who are called Abya, Seela, and Fentos, were captured and martyred for leading a guerrilla war against Antiochus Epiphanes.

From before the time of the [[Tridentine calendar]], the Holy Maccabees had a [[commemoration (liturgy)|commemoration]] in the [[Roman Rite]] liturgy within the feast of [[Liberation of Saint Peter|Saint Peter in Chains]]. This commemoration remained within the weekday liturgy when in 1960 [[Pope John XXIII]] suppressed this particular feast of Saint Peter. Nine years later, 1 August became the feast of Saint [[Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori]], and the mention of the Maccabee martyrs was omitted from the [[General Roman Calendar]], since in its [[Mysterii Paschalis|1969 revision]] it no longer admitted commemorations.<ref>"Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vatican, 1969), p. 132</ref> The feast day of these saints{{which|It was just said: Holy Maccabean Martyrs supressed in 1969 in Roman Cath. Ch.! |date= February 2024}} is 1 August in both the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] (for which 1 August is also the first day of the [[Dormition Fast]]) and the [[Catholic Church]].{{dubious|See previous tag! Nonsensical.|date=February 2024}}{{cn|date=February 2024}}

===Theory: Jewish ancient veneration===
{{Clear}}
While studying a floor mosaic discovered during the 2012-2016 campaigns at the [[Huqoq]] synagogue near the [[Sea of Galilee]] and dating to the 4th–5th centuries, Russian researcher Nina V. Braginskaya comes to a different conclusion from that of the dig director, [[Jodi Magness]].<ref name=NVB>{{cite web |author= Braginskaya, Nina V. |title= Нина Брагинская о загадочной мозаике из библейской деревни |trans-title= Nina Braginskaya about the mysterious mosaic from the biblical village |date= 19 December 2017 |publisher=[[Higher School of Economics]] (HSE), Institute of Classical Orient and Antiquity |location= Moscow |lang= ru |url= https://iocs.hse.ru/news/213162968.html |access-date= 2 February 2024}}</ref> Braginskaya puts forward that the mosaic reflects the ancient Jewish veneration of the nine Maccabee martyrs from the books of the Maccabees, which is later perpetuated just in Christianity, while Jewish tradition preserves only the rite of lighting a nine-branched [[candelabrum]] during [[Hanukkah]].<ref name=NVB/> In her opinion, there is a direct relationship between the Jewish symbolic object and the Christian symbolic story, with the [[Hanukkah menorah]] undergoing a one-and-a-half-millennium long secondary symbolic interpretation in Judaism, while the Christian tradition kept the original meaning, that of a martyrdom-for-the-faith tradition.<ref name=NVB/> This interpretation would help to explain the unique [[iconography]] of this particular mosaic carpet, which is the only one found so far in synagogues of its period depicting scenes [[Jewish apocrypha|not found]] in the [[Hebrew Bible]].<ref name=NVB/> Only due to the discovery of the Huqoq mosaic could the connection between the Jewish and Christian traditions be noticed and proposed for discussion, to Braginskaya.<ref name=NVB/>