| Before we finish completely with Hannukah, I thought I'd throw in a
historical note. Most of what we know of the Hasmonean uprising and
the Second Commonwealth comes from two books, I Maccabees and II
Maccabees. The naming and numbering is misleading, since a) only Judas
was known as Maccabee, and b) they are not successive books (as, e.g. I
Kings and II Kings), but completely separate versions of the story.
I Macc. seems to have been written in Hebrew and translated into Greek,
where it became attached to the Septuagint, and has come down to us in
this form. It emphasizes the central role of Mattathias and his
descendants (who are not referred to as Hasmoneans; only Mattathias is
so designated) in restoring both the Temple and political independence.
In a number of places it describes the actions of the dynasty in terms
that parallel descriptions of David in the Books of Samuel, or implies
a similarities to, for instance, Phineas, son of Aaron. In short, it
was written by a supporter of the Hasmonean line.
II Macc. appears to have been written originally in Greek and purports
to be an abridged version of a longer work by a Jason of Cyrene (in
what is now Libya). If one only read II Macc., one would not know that
Judas had any brothers. Some scholars think it was written after I
Macc., and specifically as counter-propaganda. II Macc. puts
considerable emphasis on the supernatural, and plays down the role of
human action, whereas I Macc. is much more naturalistic.
(It is important to emphasize that both contain material that can
be authenticated in various ways, but neither is objective. Each
was clearly written to further a particular purpose.)
(As most people probably know by now, the "miracle of the oil" was not
reported in either of these books. I have found no evidence that the
story was told until 400-500 years after the events took place.)
Josephus, at one time a Jewish commander in the 66 revolt, wrote (in
Greek) several histories of the Jewish people. In _The Jewish Wars_ he
portrays much (not all) of the conflict as being between groups of Jews
rather than between Jews and Syrians. Josephus seems to have had both
I Macc. and II Macc. and some other documents (now lost) about the
period.
I could find only one mention of Hannukah in the Mishna (Baba Kama),
and that only a passing reference. There is some Gemara, but this
was written centuries after the events, and probably represents
speculation about what might have/ought to have taken place, rather
than history as we think of it. A version of the story, apparently
based on the Gemara and various legends, was put together in the
early medieval period as Megillah Antiochus and this was read in
some synagogues. You can find an English translation in Birnbaum's
siddur.
One interesting thing is that the desecration of the Temple is reported
to have occurred on 25 Kislev and rededication took place three years
later, on the exact same date--sort of. Because the calendar in those
days was set "manually" rather than by computation, "leap" months could
only be intercalated by proclamation. Unfortunately, the disruptions
caused by the persecution and revolt seem to have prevented this, and
as a result (say some historians) 25 Kislev came in the fall, close to
what would normally have been Sukkot. This has led to speculation that
the association of lights with Hannukah only came several centuries
later, when the Jews copied some of the winter solstice ceremonies
introduced by the Greeks and Romans.
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