event · E0014
Decrees of Antiochus and the Maccabean Revolt גזרות אנטיוכוס ומרד החשמונאים
Antiochus outlawed the Torah itself — Shabbat, circumcision, the Temple service — and set up an abomination on the altar. The revolt that answered him, led by Matityahu's sons, fought its way back to Jerusalem within four years and rededicated the defiled Temple on the twenty-fifth of Kislev. The Gemara remembers the day by its smallest detail: one flask of pure oil, sealed by the Kohen Gadol, that burned for eight days.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- גזרות אנטיוכוס ומרד החשמונאים
- Also known as
- Chanukah, Hasmonean Revolt
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- 3593–3597 AM
- Academic
- 167–164 BCE
- Date range
- 168–164 BCE
- Duration
- ≈4 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "What is Chanukah? As the Rabbis taught: from the twenty-fifth of Kislev, eight days... for when the Greeks entered the Heichal they defiled all the oils, and when the Chashmonai dynasty overcame and defeated them, they searched and found only one flask of oil sealed with the Kohen Gadol's seal, enough to light for one day — and a miracle was done with it, and they lit from it for eight days. The next year they fixed them as festival days of Hallel and thanksgiving."
Hebrew verified against the Sefaria text of Shabbat 21b. |
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| Megillat Taanit — the earliest rabbinic list of days on which fasting and eulogy are forbidden — records under Kislev: "on the twenty-fifth of it, Chanukah, eight days, on which one may not eulogize," with the scholion telling the same story of the single sealed flask. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| I Maccabees, a Hasmonean-era account, describes Antiochus's decrees banning the Torah's observances on pain of death, and dates the rededication of the altar precisely: the twenty-fifth of Kislev of the Seleucid year 148 (164 BCE), "on the very day the gentiles had defiled it" — three years to the day.
Sefaria hosts The Book of Maccabees I, so both chapters carry clickable sefaria keys. Traditional AM arithmetic (3593–3597 = 168–164 BCE) and the Seleucid-era academic dates agree here to within a year — after the Persian period the two chronologies run together.
|
external | ★★★★★ |