Which language was 1 Maccabees originally written in?

Which language was 1 Maccabees originally written in? 1 Maccabees was probably originally written in Hebrew.

The anonymous work recounts the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire and the rise of the Hasmonean dynasty. Most scholars infer a Hebrew original from its Hebrew idioms, biblical style, Judean setting, and ancient testimony that Hebrew copies once existed.

That original Hebrew text has been lost. The complete surviving version is in Koine Greek, preserved in the Septuagint tradition. This can cause confusion: the language of the surviving manuscript tradition is Greek, but the likely language of composition was Hebrew.

1 Maccabees is also different from 2 Maccabees. The latter was composed in Greek as an abridgment of an earlier work by Jason of Cyrene, while 1 Maccabees presents a broader historical narrative covering roughly 175–134 BCE. Its account includes the rededication of the Temple in 164 BCE, the event behind Hanukkah.