https://www.humanreligions.info/4_maccabees.html
By Vexen Crabtree 2012
Included as holy:
Eastern Orthodox Bibles
Title: 4 Maccabees
Section: 'History' Books
Prev: 3 Maccabees
Next: Job
Rejected by:
Jewish Tanakh
Protestant Bibles
Catholic Bible
Chapters in 4 Maccabees:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14
Total verses: 376
4 Maccabees isn't in most Bibles, because Jerome didn't translate its heavy and complex Greek into Latin for the Vulgate, and so it never made mainstream circulation. Only some of the oldest and most ancient Christian churches use it - most notably the Georgian Orthodox Church1. It was written between 20CE and 135CE, and is a philosophical-religious commentary of 2 Maccabees2, from two centuries earlier. Although it appeared in most of the earliest Septuagiant bibles1, its complex Greek and philosophical focus, and grim content, meant that it was not commonly used by Jews (and was never well referenced), it was instead copied and preserved by early Christians.
It encourages selfish rationality - you should follow God's Hebrew law, have faith, and control your emotions (that can lead you astray) in order to get a divine reward at the end. It tells stories of Eleazor (a scribe) and a woman's seven sons, who all face persecution and torture by King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, to demonstrate the benefits of proper faith.