4 Maccabees
E38029
Hellenistic Jewish philosophical work
Jewish religious text
intertestamental literature
martyrdom narrative
philosophical treatise
4 Maccabees is a Hellenistic Jewish philosophical work that uses the story of the Maccabean martyrs to argue for the supremacy of reason guided by Torah over the passions.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 4 Maccabees canonical | 3 |
| Fourth Book of Maccabees | 1 |
| IV Maccabees | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T285532 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 4 Maccabees Context triple: [Hellenistic Jews, notableWork, 4 Maccabees]
-
A.
3 Maccabees
3 Maccabees is an ancient Jewish text, preserved in the Septuagint and accepted in the Eastern Orthodox biblical canon, that recounts the persecution and miraculous deliverance of Jews under the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt.
-
B.
1 Maccabees
1 Maccabees is a historical Jewish work recounting the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid rule in the 2nd century BCE, regarded as deuterocanonical by some Christian traditions.
-
C.
2 Maccabees
2 Maccabees is a Jewish historical and religious work recounting the Maccabean revolt and associated martyrdoms, recognized as deuterocanonical in some Christian traditions.
-
D.
Letter of Aristeas
The Letter of Aristeas is a Hellenistic Jewish pseudepigraphal work that narrates the legendary origins of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint.
-
E.
Book of Sirach
The Book of Sirach is a deuterocanonical Jewish wisdom text offering practical moral instruction and reflections on piety, ethics, and the law.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 4 Maccabees Target entity description: 4 Maccabees is a Hellenistic Jewish philosophical work that uses the story of the Maccabean martyrs to argue for the supremacy of reason guided by Torah over the passions.
-
A.
3 Maccabees
3 Maccabees is an ancient Jewish text, preserved in the Septuagint and accepted in the Eastern Orthodox biblical canon, that recounts the persecution and miraculous deliverance of Jews under the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt.
-
B.
1 Maccabees
1 Maccabees is a historical Jewish work recounting the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid rule in the 2nd century BCE, regarded as deuterocanonical by some Christian traditions.
-
C.
2 Maccabees
2 Maccabees is a Jewish historical and religious work recounting the Maccabean revolt and associated martyrdoms, recognized as deuterocanonical in some Christian traditions.
-
D.
Letter of Aristeas
The Letter of Aristeas is a Hellenistic Jewish pseudepigraphal work that narrates the legendary origins of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint.
-
E.
Book of Sirach
The Book of Sirach is a deuterocanonical Jewish wisdom text offering practical moral instruction and reflections on piety, ethics, and the law.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Hellenistic Jewish philosophical work
ⓘ
Jewish religious text ⓘ intertestamental literature ⓘ martyrdom narrative ⓘ philosophical treatise ⓘ |
| audience | Hellenistic Jews ⓘ |
| basedOnEventsDescribedIn | 2 Maccabees ⓘ |
| canonicalStatusIn |
appendix to Greek Orthodox Bible
ⓘ
generally non-canonical in Roman Catholic canon ⓘ included in some editions of the Septuagint ⓘ non-canonical in Jewish Tanakh ⓘ non-canonical in Protestant Old Testament ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
martyrdom as victory of reason
ⓘ
rational piety ⓘ self-control ⓘ |
| dateOfComposition | 1st century CE (approximate) ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
control of bodily passions
ⓘ
moral reasoning ⓘ obedience to the Law ⓘ |
| ethicalFocus |
courage in persecution
ⓘ
fidelity to Jewish law unto death ⓘ |
| focusesOnCharacter |
Eleazar
ⓘ
mother of the seven brothers ⓘ seven Maccabean brothers ⓘ |
| genre |
diaspora Jewish literature
ⓘ
philosophical discourse ⓘ |
| hasTitle |
4 Maccabees
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Fourth Book of Maccabees
4 Maccabees self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
IV Maccabees
|
| influenced | later Christian views of martyrdom ⓘ |
| language | Koine Greek ⓘ |
| literaryDevice | philosophical argumentation using historical exempla ⓘ |
| literaryForm | rhetorical oration ⓘ |
| philosophicalInfluence |
Hellenistic ethics
ⓘ
Stoicism ⓘ |
| placeOfOrigin |
Eastern Mediterranean
ⓘ
surface form:
Eastern Mediterranean (probable)
Syrian or Palestinian Jewish diaspora (hypothesized) ⓘ |
| preservedIn | manuscripts of the Septuagint tradition ⓘ |
| primaryTheme |
martyrdom for the Law
ⓘ
reason guided by Torah ⓘ supremacy of reason over the passions ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
1 Maccabees
ⓘ
2 Maccabees ⓘ 3 Maccabees ⓘ |
| religiousTradition | Judaism ⓘ |
| scripturalAuthority | Torah ⓘ |
| structure | homiletic or sermon-like composition ⓘ |
| survivesIn |
Greek manuscripts
ⓘ
ancient translations and quotations ⓘ |
| usesNarrativeOf |
Maccabees
ⓘ
surface form:
Maccabean martyrs
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: 4 Maccabees Description of subject: 4 Maccabees is a Hellenistic Jewish philosophical work that uses the story of the Maccabean martyrs to argue for the supremacy of reason guided by Torah over the passions.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Fourth Book of Maccabees
this entity surface form:
IV Maccabees