These books are so called, because they contain the history of the
people of God under the command of Judas Machabeus and his brethren:
and he, as some will have it, was surnamed Machabeus, from carrying in
his ensigns, or standards, those words of Exodus 15.11, Who is like to
thee among the strong, O Lord: in which the initial letters, in the
Hebrew, are M. C. B. E. I. It is not known who is the author of these
books. But as to their authority, though they are not received by the
Jews, saith St. Augustine, (lib. 18, De Civ. Dei, c. 36,) they are
received by the church: who, in settling her canon of the scriptures,
chose rather to be directed by the tradition she had received from the
apostles of Christ, than by that of the scribes and Pharisees. And as
the church has declared these two Books canonical, even in two general
councils, viz., Florence and Trent, there can be no doubt of their
authenticity.