The Book of Maccabees is not read on Chanukah - but why not?

Uniquely among Jewish festivals, Chanukah has no associated biblical text. The rabbis managed to find something for every other occasion (sometimes rather imaginatively — the grim book of Kohelet was coupled with the joyous festival of Succot), but apparently they couldn’t come up with something for the Festival of Lights.

Even more strangely, there was a highly suitable candidate: the First Book of Maccabees, which tells the story of the Hasmonean family’s leadership of the Jewish rebellion against the oppressing Seleucid Greeks in the second century BCE. Why didn’t the rabbis jump at it? Why wasn’t it included in the Tanach (Bible) and appointed for reading on Chanukah?

The first problem might have been language. 1 Maccabees (and its associated books, 2-4 Maccabees) has come down to us in Greek, the language of the oppressors — though also, as we often forget, the language of many Jewish communities of the time, notably the huge Jewish community of Egypt.

However, most scholars agree that the original book was written in Hebrew, as can be deduced from its literal translations of biblical idioms into Greek, so that shouldn’t have been a major problem. 2, 3 and 4 Maccabees were originally written in Greek, and 3 Maccabees doesn’t even deal with the story of the revolt, so they were probably never on the short list. But what about Book 1? If language wasn’t the bar, what was?

Another possibility is its date of composition. 1 Maccabees seems to have been written by a fervent supporter of the Hasmoneans who lived in the land of Israel, and it covers the story from 175 BCE down to 134 BCE. We’re not sure exactly when it was written: it must have been after 134 BCE, but before the Roman invasion in 63 BCE, as it speaks approvingly of the Romans.

Most scholars would date it to somewhere in the late second to early first centuries BCE. This might have seemed a bit late for inclusion in the sacred canon of the Bible. We have evidence from the Mishnah (200 CE) that the biblical status of some books (Esther, Song of Songs and Kohelet, for instance) was fiercely disputed in the second century CE, when the slow and mysterious process of deciding which texts would be “in” and which “out” of the Bible was coming to an end.

We even know that a very good candidate for biblical status ,the Wisdom of Ben Sira (also known as Ecclesiasticus), didn’t make the cut. That book was written around 180 BCE and was very popular. But the Tosefta — an early text similar in character and date to the Mishnah — explicitly states that “the books of Ben Sira and all the books written from then onwards” cannot be considered part of the Bible. So perhaps 1 Maccabees just seemed too recent — current affairs, rather than sacred history.

Its historical character might also have been a factor. Unlike the Wisdom of Ben Sira, which is chock full of wise sayings, or the Song of Songs, which could easily be interpreted by rabbinic readers as a metaphorical work about the relationship between God and the people of Israel, 1 Maccabees is a plain, hellenistic-style history which makes no claims to be holy or divinely inspired. It didn’t have that star “holiness factor’”that might have edged it over the barrier to biblical status.

But the main bar to its eager acceptance by the rabbis may well have been political and theological. The Hasmonean family started off well as leaders of the Jewish people and were still shining examples when 1 Maccabees was being written, but things went sour.

A priestly family from the tribe of Levi, they claimed the kingship (reserved for descendants of King David, of the tribe of Judah), and later members of the dynasty were corrupt and mercenary, killing innocent people and squabbling over the succession. It was one of two Hasmonean contenders for the throne who invited the Romans in — with disastrous results in 70 CE, when they destroyed the Temple.

We know from historical sources that some Hasmonean kings opposed and even massacred members of the Pharisee movement, often understood to be ancestral in some way to the later rabbis. When we look at rabbinic texts such as the Mishnah, the Talmud and indeed our prayer book, it is clear that when they dealt with the Chanukah story, the rabbis played down the military glory of the Hasmoneans and instead highlighted the role of God and the strong faith of the victorious Jews.

The Talmud, for example, has little to say about the Hasmonean leaders but foregrounds the story of the miraculous jug of oil that served to light the Temple menorah for eight days instead of the expected single day — a story that does not appear in 1 Maccabees (or indeed anywhere else before it turns up in the Talmud).

So perhaps it’s not such a surprise that the rabbis weren’t enthusiastic about 1 Maccabees, a book that glorified the Hasmoneans and was more focused on history than on miracles.

Luckily for us, however, the early Christians preserved the Greek version as part of the Apocrypha, and we can still read it today. I’d recommend the English version published with an introduction and notes in J. Klawans and L. M. Wills, The Jewish Annotated Apocrypha — it would make excellent Chanukah reading this year.

Rabba Dr Taylor-Guthartz is writing a history of Limmud. She will be speaking on the Book of Maccabees and other topics at this year’s Limmud Festival, which runs from 23 -28 December. Tickets are still available from limmud.org/festival

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