Textual History
The book survives in Arabic, but was probably composed in Hebrew, judging from numerous Hebraisms. As no trace of a Hebrew text exists, some scholars (e.g. Zunz, Heinrich Graetz and Samuel Davidson) consider the work to have been in Arabic from Hebrew memoirs.
The author probably was a Jew living some time after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
The books bears some relationship to the history of Josippon.
The book has never been recognized as canonical by either Jews or Christians.
Read more about this topic: 5 Maccabees
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“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)