Book Review:
My Glorious Brothers – Written 1948 by Howard Fast
I read this book in two sittings… 130 pages on Saturday and the remaining 150 on Sunday. It was a tour de force, based upon 1st and 2nd Maccabees which is found in the Catholic Bible, or as Protestants call it the “Apocrypha” – the books missing from the Protestant version of the Bible. I actually have the Apocrypha in my bookshelf and now have adequate motivation to read the story from the Biblical perspective… which I started tonite!
The story would appeal to any boy searching for a story of manhood… of love, revenge, justice, and freedom. It tracks the five sons of Matthias the Adon of Midon, a village 13 miles from Jerusalem. John the eldest, Simon the judge, Judas the Maccabee, Eleazar the hammer, and Johnathon the swift. It takes place 150 years before the birth of Jesus the Christ, in the years the Greeks ruled the civilized world, before the Roman Empire conquered the known world. As for valor and courage, this story has it all, as these brothers led a revolt against the mercenary armies of the North for 30 years… yes, you read that correctly 30 years of WAR.
The story is phenomenal. Both gripping and heart wrenching as God’s chosen people are targeted for slaughter and genocide by the ruling Greek King of Kings Antiochus. Israel’s answer to this threat is the Maccabean, a man chosen by the people to lead Israel against the great armies of the Greeks. This is the story of the Maccabean, his four brothers and the victory that was Yahweh’s.
