(Continued from
Nehemiah)
I remember way back, perhaps in the 60's, having a large hardbound book which was an "illustrated" version of
THE BIBLE. Not too much different from some of the parts of the
BOYS' LIFE series, it was entirely in black & white, with a limited amount of text and an emphasis on lavish illustrations. It told the stories of both the
Old Testament and the
New Testament, in chronological order.
I bring this up because, out of that entire book, the one story I always remember having the hardest time comprehending was "
The Maccabees". It's the FINAL story of the
Old Testament, and it involves another revolt against an outside oppressor-- a successful one this time. Apparently taking place quite a lot of years after the story of "
Nehemiah", but also quite a few years before the
Roman occupation. It seems like the country of
Israel could never cut any breaks.
Though not referred to by that name, the
BOYS' LIFE series did cover "
Hanukkah"
5 times in its run--
4 of them relatively early-on, starting with
December 1953-- just
15 months after the series began.
Considering the mostly-
Jewish slant of the
BL series, it's surprising that "
Hanukkah" hasn't been covered more often-- and not at all in the last
37 years.
This is really a case where I highly reccomend clicking on the link to the related
Wikipedia page at the bottom. I feel this particular story isn't one that can easily be "gotten" without some reading and concentration.
VERSION 1
December 1953 / art by CREIG FLESSEL (??)
VERSION 2
December 1955 / art by CREIG FLESSEL
VERSION 3
December 1960 / art by IRV NOVICK
VERSION 4
Decembr 1961 / art by IRV NOVICK
VERSION 5
November 1975 / art by (??)
(Continued in
The Nativity)
Copyright (C)
BOY'S LIFE Magazine
Restorations by Henry Kujawa
Read the entire
STORIES FROM THE BIBLE series
from the beginning!
For More:
Read the
Wikipedia page on
The Maccabees
