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In addition to these five books of the Maccabees found within the Peshitta there are several other texts related to the Maccabees preserved by Syriac churches These other texts are of unclear origin and not treated as sacred They are nevertheless very old and preserved as part of the early Christian writings by the churches that house them The most welldocumented of these additional texts is the poem called Martha Shamoni and the Maccabean Martyrs which Western biblical scholars have dubbed 6ᵗʰ Maccabees The poem goes into more detail regarding the torture of the sons of Shamoni than 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees where the author skipped over most of the gruesome details and then ended the chapter with This is enough about the eating of sacrifices and the extreme tortures
The text of 6ᵗʰ Maccabees is itself somewhat confusing Scholars agree the original text was the thirdperson perspective historical narrative that forms most of the text however this is repeatedly interrupted by an editor who interjects their own thoughts in firstperson perspective The editor was clearly a Christian as he references Jesus however even the Christian edits use a mix of terms that confuse their dating It is entirely plausible that more than one Christian editor handled the poem
The older thirdperson historical narrative appears to be preChristian as it is consistent with Judean writings from the Second Temple era The focus of the story returns consistently to the preservation of the Orit the Aramaic version of the Torah that was in use before the Hasmonean dynasty translated and standardized the ancient Samaritan Judahite and Aramaic texts into Classical Hebrew Some scholars believe that this older historical narrative is drawn from the same source the author of 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees used which is why it retains more of the details This is conjectural as the details may be fictional additions to the story found in 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees However the author of 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees claimed to be condensing Jason of Cyrenes fivevolume work on the Maccabees and certainly skipped over some of the torture Jason of Cyrenes work is lost and so this may be a section of his work that was later converted into a Syriac Christian poem.
The text of 6ᵗʰ Maccabees is itself somewhat confusing Scholars agree the original text was the thirdperson perspective historical narrative that forms most of the text however this is repeatedly interrupted by an editor who interjects their own thoughts in firstperson perspective The editor was clearly a Christian as he references Jesus however even the Christian edits use a mix of terms that confuse their dating It is entirely plausible that more than one Christian editor handled the poem
The older thirdperson historical narrative appears to be preChristian as it is consistent with Judean writings from the Second Temple era The focus of the story returns consistently to the preservation of the Orit the Aramaic version of the Torah that was in use before the Hasmonean dynasty translated and standardized the ancient Samaritan Judahite and Aramaic texts into Classical Hebrew Some scholars believe that this older historical narrative is drawn from the same source the author of 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees used which is why it retains more of the details This is conjectural as the details may be fictional additions to the story found in 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees However the author of 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees claimed to be condensing Jason of Cyrenes fivevolume work on the Maccabees and certainly skipped over some of the torture Jason of Cyrenes work is lost and so this may be a section of his work that was later converted into a Syriac Christian poem.