אחרת: מאי חנוכה דתנו רבנן בכ"ה בכסליו יומי דחנוכה תמניא אינון דלא למספד בהון ודלא להתענות בהון שכשנכנסו יוונים להיכל טמאו כל השמנים שבהיכל וכשגברה מלכות בית חשמונאי ונצחום בדקו ולא מצאו אלא פך אחד של שמן שהיה מונח בחותמו של כהן גדול ולא היה בו אלא להדליק יום אחד נעשה בו נס והדליקו ממנו שמונה ימים לשנה אחרת קבעום ועשאום ימים טובים בהלל והודאה
[What is Chanukkah, that our Sages taught: On the 25th of Kislev - the days of Chanukkah, they are eight, not to eulogize on them and not to fast on them? When the Greeks entered the Temple, they polluted all the oils in the Temple, and when the Hasmonean dynasty overcame and defeated them, they checked and they found but one cruse of oil that was set in place with the seal of the High Priest, but there was in it only [enough] to light a single day. A miracle was done with it, and they lit from it for eight days. The following year [the Sages] fixed those [days], making them holidays for praise and thanksgiving.
1 Macc 4:52–59
"Now on the five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is called the month of Kislev, in the hundred forty and eighth year [164 BCE], they rose up in the morning, and offered sacrifice according to the law upon the new altar of burnt offerings, which they had made. At the very season and on the very day that the Gentiles had profaned it, it was dedicated with songs, citherns, harps, and cymbals . . . And so they kept the re-dedication of the altar (ἐγκαινισμός τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου) for eight days . . . Moreover Judah and his brethren, with the whole congregation of Israel, ordained that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to year for eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month Kislev, with mirth and gladness."
2 Macc 1:1-9
"We the Jews (of Jerusalem and Judea) wrote to you (the Jews of Egypt) in those times of excruciating pressure, in those years when Jason and those around him revolted from the Holy Land and from the kingdom, burnt part of the Temple and shed innocent blood. And we prayed to the Lord and we were heard. And we brought sacrifice and flour, lighted the lamps, and we put out the show-breads. And now, will you please celebrate Sukkot ([eight] days of 'erecting booths' [σκηνοπηγία]) in the month of Kislev."
2. The Financial Crisis Before Chanukkah
2 Macc 3:4-9
One Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, becoming guardian (προστάτης) of the Temple, fell into disagreement with the high-priest concerning the administration of the market in the city; and unable to overcome Onias, he went to Apollonios son of Thraseas, the governor of Koile-Syria and Phoinike at this time, and said that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of unspeakable wealth, so that the amount of the sums was uncountable, and that this did not belong to the account concerning the sacrifices, so that it could all fall into the king's fortune. Apollonios speaking to the king passed on the information concerning the money; he addressed Heliodoros the high minister and sent him with instructions to bring back these moneys. Heliodoros set out immediately, under the pretext of visiting the cities of Koile-Syria and Phoenicia, but in fact to execute the king's order. Coming to Jerusalem and cordially recieved by the high-priest, he mentioned the revelation that had been made, and declared why he had come; and he asked if the matter was truthful.
The "Heliodoros Decree"
Dorymenes to Diophanes, greetings. The copy of the letter addressed to us from Heliodoros the high minister is appended; you will do well to take care that all matters are executed according to the instructions. Year 134, Gorpiaios 22.
Heliodoros to the Dorymenes, his brother, greetings; the copy of the edict sent to us from the king
concerning the matter of Olympiodoros is appended, You will do well then to conform to the instructions.
Year 135, Gorpiaios 22?
King Seleukos to Heliodoros his brother, greetings. Taking the greatest care of the safety of our subjects, and thinking it the greatest good for our affairs, when the inhabitants of the kingdom go about their lives without fear, and seeing that nothing can partake of the fitting happiness without the good disposition of the gods, we have from the start made it our policy that the shrines established in the other satrapies should receive the ancestral honours with the befitting care, but since the affairs in Koile Syria and Phoencia do not benefit from an appointed official for the care of these matters, we have taken fought in order that Olympiodoros should take care of the good order of the shrines, since he has shown us the trustworthiness of his understanding (?) from earlier times onwards; for having grown up with us and contributed the best disposition in all matters, he was duly placed in charge of the bedroom, having appeared worthy of such a great trust, and he was rightly appointed to the First Friends; having attained such a position of [trust ?J and paid attention to the fact that we are disposed towards the increase of the gods' honours ... for which reason...we are convinced ...
3. The Problem of Hellenism
2 Macc 4:7-17
After Seleukos died and Antiochos called Epiphanes ascended to the throne [175 BCE], Jason, Onias’ brother, usurped the high priesthood, 8. promising to the king through a petition 360 silver talents and an additional revenue of 80 talents. 9. In addition he promised to pay 150 if he should be granted by virtue of his office the power to establish a gymnasion and an association of the young men (ephebeion) and to draw up the list of the Antiochenes in Jerusalem. 10. The king consented. On taking office he brought his fellow citizens over to the Greek style of life Casting away the royal exemptions gained for the Judaeans by Ioannes, the father of the ambassador Eupolemos, who negotiated the treaty of friendship and alliance
with the Romans and overthrowing the lawful order of things (politeia), he instituted new, unlawful customs. 12. Indeed, he took pleasure in founding a gymnasion beneath the very citadel and in making the education of the noblest adolescent boys consist in arranging them under the broadbrimmed felt hat [of ephebes]. 13. Such a peak of Greek ways was reached, and such a height of alien ways, because of the exceedingly unholy wickedness of the impious Jason—no high priest indeed—, 14. that the priests were no longer eager to perform their duties at the altar but, making light of the temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they hastened to partake in the unlawful ceremony
upon the summon of the discus calling to the wrestling yard. 15. Setting at nought their hereditary distinctions, they put the highest value on Greek chimeras. For that very reason, grievous troubles came upon them: those whose education they admired and whom they aspired to be fellow-like in every way, became their enemies and the executers of their punishment. 17. It is no light matter to be impious (, 3 ) toward the divine laws. That, however, will be seen from the events which followed.
4. The Persecution
2 Macc 6:1-9
After little time, the king sent Geron of Athens to force the Jews to leave the ancestral laws and not gather in community in the laws of God, and to desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem and rename it temple of Zeus Olympios and the shrine in Gerizim, as the inhabitants asked, temple of Zeus Xenios. The extent of the evil was harsh and difficult to bear for all. For the shrine was filled with debauchery and revels by the nations, who caroused with hetairai and approached women within the precinct, and carrying within the forbidding things, and the altar was filled with things forbidden by the laws. It was not possible to observe sabbath or to keep the ancestral festivals or simply to call oneself Jew. In bitter compulsion, indeed, they were brought to partake of innards on the anniversary day of the king each month; when the festival of Dionysos took place, the Jews were forced, wearing ivy, to process for Dionysos. And a decree went to the neighboring Greek cities, at the proposal of Ptolemy, to have the same attitude towards the Jews and to make them partake of innards, and to cut the throat of those who did not wish to change to the Greek ways.
1 Macc 1:41-55
And king Antiochos wrote to his whole kingdom that all should become one people, and all should abandon their customs, and all the nations made show according to the word of the king. And many in Israel went along with his religion and sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath. And the kings sent books in the hand of messengers to Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, to follow customs alien to the land and prevent holocausts and sacrifice and drink offerings and profane the sabbath and the festivals and defile the shrine and the sacred folk, and build altars and sacred precincts and idols and sacrifice pigs and common cattle and let their sons uncircumcised, and to pollute their souls in all impure matter and profanation, so as to forget the law and change all the rites; and who ever did not act according to the king's edict, would die. According to all these words did he write to whole kingdom, and he established spies over
all the people and ordered the cities of Judea to sacrifice by city, and many of the people joined them, anyone who abandoned the law, and they committed evil in the land and hid Israel in all their refuges. On the 15th(?) day of Kislev, in year 145, they build the abomination of desolation in the temple and they built altars all around in the cities of Judea, and they sacrificed at the doors of the houses and in the streets ...