Megillat Antiochus

There are several theories as to the work's authorship. Some scholars date Megillat Antiochus to somewhere between the 2nd and 5th centuries, with the greater likelihood of it being composed in the 2nd century.[1] The work is first mentioned by Simeon Kayyara (ca. 743 CE) in Halakhot Gedolot,[2] wherein he claims that the scroll was compiled by the "elders of the School of Shammai and the elders of the School of Hillel."[3] Saadia Gaon (882‒942 CE) argued that it was composed in the Chaldaic (Aramaic) language by the Hasmonaeans themselves, and entitled Megillat Beit Hashmonai.[4] He translated it into Arabic in the 9th century. Hakham Moses Gaster argued for a 1st-century BCE date.[5]

Louis Ginzberg declared it a "spurious work" based on "unhistorical sources," with the exception of its citations taken from certain passages from First Book of the Maccabees.[6] Nevertheless, it was held in very high esteem by Saadia Gaon, Nissim ben Jacob, and others, while a passage contained therein is still used to determine the date of the Second Temple's building, based on Jewish chronology (see "Chronology in Megillat Antiochus" section below).

During the Middle Ages, Megillat Antiochus was read in the Italian synagogues on Hanukkah just as the Book of Esther is read on Purim. The Mahzor of the Kaffa Rite from the year 1735 gives the order to read the Megillat Antiochus in the Mincha of Shabbat Hanukkah.[7] It still forms part of the liturgy of the Yemenite Jews: some Baladi rite congregations had it as a custom to read the scroll to the older students during Hanukkah.

Section from the Aramaic Scroll of Antiochus in Babylonian supralinear punctuation, with an Arabic translation

According to the Scroll of Antiochus, 213 years passed from the Second Temple's rebuilding until the 23rd year of the reign of Antiochus Eupator (son of Antiochus Epiphanes who invaded Judaea).[8] According to Josephus,[9] Antiochus Eupator began his reign in anno 149 of the Seleucid Era (= 162 BCE). Twenty-three years into Antiochus Eupator's reign would have then been 139 BCE. Since, according to the Scroll of Antiochus, the Second Temple had already been standing 213 years, this means that the Second Temple was completed in 352 BCE.

This date matches traditional Jewish sources, which say that the Second Temple stood 420 years,[10] before being destroyed in the 2nd year of the reign of Vespasian, in 68 CE.[11]

However, it disagrees with modern scholarship which places the building of the Second Temple in 516 BCE, based on chronologies that emerge from the Babylonian Chronicles.[12]

Early texts of the work exist in both Aramaic and Hebrew, but the Hebrew version is a literal translation from the Aramaic original. It was probably written in the 2nd century,[13] with the Hebrew dating to the 7th century.[14] In 1557 it was first published in Mantua, in northern Italy. The Hebrew text, with an English translation, can be found in the Siddur of Philip Birnbaum.[15] The first known printed text is found in a Siddur from Salonika, then part of the Ottoman Empire, which was published in 1568. The original Aramaic text can also be found in old Yemenite Baladi-rite Prayer Book from the 17th century.[16]