It has been suggested that the Ethiopian church had no knowledge of the deuterocanonical Books of the Maccabees until well into the 14th century, and that the composition of the Meqabyan must have taken place sometime in the high medieval period.
Unlike the more familiar narrative found in the books of Maccabees, his name is given as "Tseerutsaydan" (or "Tsirutsaydan"); this is possibly a folk memory of the historical Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who held court at the Phoenician cities, after he began minting coins with the names "Tyre and Sidon" (Tsur u Tsaydan) stamped in Punic alongside his image.
They are called Judah (Amharic: ይሁዳ), Meqabis (or Maccabeus) and Mebikyas, and they are said to have led a successful revolt against the ruthless King Akrandis of Midian.
This is possibly a historical allusion to the king Alexander I Balas, who ruled the Seleucid Empire after the death of Antiochus IV,[12] and who supported the legitimacy of the Maccabees cause.
[14] Chapters 18 and 19 seem to contradict 1 Enoch regarding the origin of the Nephilim, depicting them as descendants of Cain's sons and Seth's daughters, whereas the Enochian literature identifies their fathers, the Watchers, as fallen angels.
Included in the text's more general religious teachings, are a strong emphasis on the doctrine of physical resurrection of the body and the sectarian splits in 1st century Judaism.
[16] It is a diffuse account of salvation and punishment, and the importance of maintaining faith in God, illustrated from the lives of various Biblical patriarchs, such as Adam, Job, and David.