The primary focus of Chanukkah is on the miracle of the oil. The Maccabees rededicated the Temple after their victory over the Greeks, and found only enough oil to last for one day. But miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, leading to the 8-day celebration of Chanukkah and the lighting of the menorah. When was the story of the oil miracle first mentioned?
A. The Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus wrote about the oil miracle in his book Jewish Antiquities, about a hundred years after the Maccabean victory. He described in great detail the decrepit condition of the Temple when the Maccabees arrived, including “plants growing in the temple of their own accord.” He also noted the effort of the Maccabees to find oil for the rededication of the Temple, writing, “they searched throughout the Temple, and in every corner, but did not find enough holy oil for their needs.” But Josephus ends by saying that “Judas and his men praised God for the light which shone for eight days and eight nights.”
B. The oil miracle was not mentioned until about 600 years after the rededication of the Temple by the Maccabees. In the Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 21b states that “there was sufficient oil there to light the candelabrum for only one day. A miracle occurred and they lit the candelabrum from it eight days. The next year the Sages instituted those days and made them holidays with recitation of Hallel and special thanksgiving in prayer and blessings.”
C. The miracle is described in the first Book of Maccabees which was written soon after the Maccabean victory. The book describes Alexander the Great’s conquest of Judea, his eventual replacement by Antiochus, and the Maccabean revolt and victory. The last chapter of the Book of Maccabees describes the return to the Temple and its rededication, stating “They rose early on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, that is, the month of Kislev, in the year one hundred and forty-eight, and offered sacrifice according to the law on the new altar for burnt offerings that they had made...For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar and joyfully praised God for the miracle of light.”
D. The Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince around 200 CE, about 350 years after the Maccabean victory. Much of the Mishnah focuses on the Oral Tradition, noting the debates of the rabbis on such topics as marriage, civil law, and sacrificial rites. In the Tractate Chanukkah, Rabbi Judah writes about the miracle of the oil lasting eight days, and goes on to describe the debate between Hillel and Shammai regarding the correct way to light the menorah (Shammai said that it was correct to light eight candles on the first night, and one less each subsequent night, while Hillel argued that “On the first day one kindles one light, and from there on, gradually increases the number of lights until, on the last day, they kindle eight lights.”)
E. In the Book of Chevron, written centuries after the rededication of the Temple, it was posited that oil could last forever, a concept which maintains primacy among certain politicians in America to this very day.