Changes

===Date===

===Date===

The author's datings of all events are according to the terms of the Seleucid era which have a known correspondence to the current [[Gregorian calendar]]. The ''terminus a quo'' (earliest possible date) of the work is found in the fact that John Hyrcanus I, who began to reign in 135 B.C., is mentioned at the close of the book (16:21-24). As the Romans are presented throughout in terms of respect and friendliness, it is clear that the ''terminus ad quem'' (latest possible date) must be found at some time before the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 B.C.. Scholars are not agreed on whether the date can be more nearly determined, and the determining fact is held by most to be the statement in 16:23, 24, that "''the rest of the acts of John...are written in the chronicles of his high-priesthood.''" Many think that this implies that John had died and that a sufficient time had elapsed since his death to permit the circulation of the chronicles. Bissell (Lange's "''Commentary''," page 479 <ref>Edwin Cone Bissell, "The Apocrypha of the Old Testament," in John Peter Lange, ed., ''A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical'' (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880)<br/>Edwin Cone Bissell, in ''Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures'' 12 Double Volumes, by John Peter Lange. Zondervan (1960) ASIN: B00133NOEM.</ref>) thinks that no more than a score or two of years had passed, while Schürer ("''Hist. of the Jewish People,''" div. ii., vol. iii., p. 8 <ref>Emil Schürer. ''A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ'', by Emil Schürer, D.D., M.A., Professor of Theology at the University of Göttingen, Being a Second and Revised Edition of a "Manual of the History of New Testament Times", Second Division, The Internal Conditions of Palestine and of the Jewish People, in the Time of Jesus Christ, Translated by Sophia Taylor and Rev Peter Christie. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 38 George Street (1886)</ref>) and Fairweather (in "''Cambridge Bible''" and Hastings, "''Dict. Bible''") think that not more than a decade or two had elapsed, and they date the work in the first or second decade of the first century B.C. Torrey, on the other hand, concludes ("''Encyc. Bibl.''") that this reference to the chronicle of the priesthood is an imitation of well-known passages in the Books of Kings, that it was intended solely as a compliment to John, and that the work instead was composed early in his reign (that is, soon after 135 B.C.) by one who had been an interested observer of the whole Maccabean movement. The vivid character of the narrative, and the fact that it closes so abruptly after the death of Simon, make this a very plausible view.

The author's datings of all events are according to the terms of the Seleucid era which have a known correspondence to the current [[Gregorian calendar]]. The ''terminus a quo'' (earliest possible date) of the work is found in the fact that John Hyrcanus I, who began to reign in 135 B.C., is mentioned at the close of the book (16:21-24). As the Romans are presented throughout in terms of respect and friendliness, it is clear that the ''terminus ad quem'' (latest possible date) must be found at some time before the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 B.C.. Scholars are not agreed on whether the date can be more nearly determined, and the determining fact is held by most to be the statement in 16:23, 24, that "''the rest of the acts of John...are written in the chronicles of his high-priesthood.''" Many think that this implies that John had died and that a sufficient time had elapsed since his death to permit the circulation of the chronicles. Bissell (Lange's "''Commentary''," page 479 <ref>Edwin Cone Bissell, "The Apocrypha of the Old Testament," in John Peter Lange, ed., ''A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical'' (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880)<br/>Edwin Cone Bissell, in ''Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures'' 12 Double Volumes, by John Peter Lange. Zondervan (1960) ASIN: B00133NOEM.</ref>) thinks that no more than a score or two of years had passed, while Schürer ("''Hist. of the Jewish People,''" div. ii., vol. iii., p. 8 <ref>Emil Schürer. ''A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ'', by Emil Schürer, D.D., M.A., Professor of Theology at the University of Göttingen, Being a Second and Revised Edition of a "Manual of the History of New Testament Times", Second Division, The Internal Conditions of Palestine and of the Jewish People, in the Time of Jesus Christ, Translated by Sophia Taylor and Rev Peter Christie. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 38 George Street (1886)</ref>) and Fairweather (in "''Cambridge Bible''" <ref>W. Fairweather. ''The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: 1 Maccabees'', by Fairweather, William, Black, J. Sutherland • Cambridge University Press. 1897</ref> and Hastings, "''Dict. Bible''") think that not more than a decade or two had elapsed, and they date the work in the first or second decade of the first century B.C. Torrey, on the other hand, concludes ("''Encyc. Bibl.''") that this reference to the chronicle of the priesthood is an imitation of well-known passages in the Books of Kings, that it was intended solely as a compliment to John, and that the work instead was composed early in his reign (that is, soon after 135 B.C.) by one who had been an interested observer of the whole Maccabean movement. The vivid character of the narrative, and the fact that it closes so abruptly after the death of Simon, make this a very plausible view.

===Sources and Integrity===

===Sources and Integrity===