Megillat Antiochus (“The Scroll of Antiochus”) is an apocryphal work recounting the story of Chanukah and the military victories of the Maccabees over the Syrian Greeks in the 2nd century BCE. Composed in Aramaic sometime between the 1st and 5th centuries CE, it was translated into Hebrew early on and into Arabic by the prominent 10th-century rabbinic leader Saadiah Gaon. The text was included in several medieval Bibles and prayer books. In some medieval Italian synagogues, the scroll was read publicly on Chanukah, just as the Book of Esther is read on Purim. It still forms part of the liturgy in some Yemenite Jewish communities.
