text · B0005

Megillat Taanit מגילת תענית

The earliest document the rabbinic tradition itself describes as written — a terse Aramaic list of minor festival days from the Second Temple period. Precisely because writing the Oral Torah was otherwise avoided, the Talmud singles out who wrote this scroll, making it a key data point for the atlas's story of oral-to-written transition.

I. Who

Hebrew: מגילת תענית
Also known as: The Scroll of Fasting
Era: tannaim

II. When

Traditional: compiled by Chananiah ben Chizkiyah and his circle, shortly before the Destruction, c. 3800–3830 AM (c. 40–70 CE)
Academic: core list 1st c. CE; the accompanying scholion is a later, composite commentary
Duration: ≈30 years
Precision: approximate

IV. What

Language: Aramaic (scholion in Hebrew)
Redaction: "Who wrote Megillat Taanit? Chananiah ben Chizkiyah and his colleagues" (Shabbat 13b) — the circle that met in his attic in the last generation before the Destruction (Destruction of the Second Temple).
Structure: A calendar-ordered Aramaic list of about 35 days on which fasting (and on some, eulogizing) is forbidden because of events commemorated on them, arranged by month from Nisan; a later Hebrew commentary (the scholion) explains each entry.

V. How do we know

Claim	Evidence	Confidence	Sources
"Who wrote Megillat Taanit? They said: Chananiah ben Chizkiyah and his colleagues, who cherished the troubles" — the Talmud's explicit attribution, tied to the same attic gatherings it credits elsewhere on that page.	rabbinic	★★★★☆	Shabbat 13b
The amoraim dispute whether Megillat Taanit was annulled after the Destruction — "Rav and R' Chanina say: Megillat Taanit was annulled; R' Yochanan and R' Yehoshua ben Levi say: it was not annulled" — and the accepted halakhah annulled its days except Chanukah and Purim.	rabbinic	★★★★☆	Rosh Hashanah 18b Rosh Hashanah 19b
Academic scholarship distinguishes sharply between the Aramaic list itself, accepted as a genuine Second Temple-era document, and the Hebrew scholion, shown to be a later composite transmitted in two distinct recensions.	reconstruction	★★★★☆	V. Noam, Megillat Ta'anit: Versions, Interpretation, History (2003) Megillat Taanit, Nisan (the list itself)