By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
PIKESVILLE, Maryland — People of all religions frequently describe some things as holy and devise sacred ceremonies that involve them without realizing they are false. They do so because others thought they were holy or because of superstition or flawed reasoning. The Scroll of Antiochus is an example.
The Scroll of Antiochus was written to describe what caused the creation of the holiday of Hannukah and to praise its history as significant and sacred. It does so by writing the tale using language and acts similar to those in the biblical book Esther. While well-intentioned, the Scroll is fiction.
The prominent Babylonian Jewish leader, sage, and philosopher Saadiah Gaon (882-942) claimed the Scroll was composed by the Maccabees, whose story is told in the Scroll, a couple of centuries before the common era. Scholars reject his view and assign a date between 500 and 1,000 CE.
A Gaon, the plural is Gaonim, was the head of one of the two Babylonian Talmudic Academies in the cities of Sura and Pumbedita. From the 7th to the 13th century, Jews worldwide accepted Gaonim as their spiritual leaders. Gaon, translated as “genius,” is a title of honor given to these Jewish scholars. The Geonim were responsible for interpreting and developing Talmudic laws and protecting Jewish legal traditions. They were in contrast to the Rosh Galuta, the Exilarch, who exercised secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands.
Many consider Saadiah to have been the greatest Gaon. His masterpiece, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, was the first systemic attempt to present Judaism as a rational body of beliefs.
The scholars are correct. While Saadiah was bright and should be respected, he had incorrect ideas. A significant example, one rejected by Targum Onkelos, Maimonides, and other rational thinkers but accepted even today by many Jews, is that there is a being called Shekinah, which is not mentioned in the Torah.
Shekinah is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “dwelling” or “settling” and denotes the presence of something in a place. A version of the word is mentioned in Exodus 25:8. Jewish mystics think the Shekinah is the feminine divine part of God that descended to this world, dwells with the people of Israel, and helps Jews in their struggles.
While other Jews reject the idea that God has a feminine part, they still think there is a divine being that is separate from God. They fail to realize that they accept that there is more than a single divinity. This is polytheism and why Maimonides and other rational thinkers rejected the idea.
They pointed out that the Bible does not indicate the existence of a Shekinah. When the Torah states in Exodus 25:8 veshakanti betocham, “and I will dwell among them,” it does not mean a divine being will be with them, but the people will “feel” a divine presence.
So, while Saadiah Gaon was bright and strived to teach rational ideas, he, like all humans, made mistakes. He was wrong about Shekinah and The Scroll of Antiochus.
Ibn Ezra is another of millions of examples. I enjoy Abraham ibn Ezra’s writings and humor. He was poor and financially unsuccessful. He wrote, “If I became an undertaker, people would stop dying. If I sold umbrellas, it would stop raining.” Despite being very intelligent, he accepted the idea of most people of his generation that people are influenced by astrology, by the stars and planets.
In his commentary on Genesis 6:4, he shows his rational thinking. He states that the verse is anthropomorphic when it describes God as grieved when he must punish his creatures. He rejected the interpretation that va-yinnachem means “and repented.” God does not become emotional. He wrote that it should be rendered as “set a time.”
But ibn Ezra, like Saadiah and all of us, was not entirely rational. He explained many biblical passages based on his belief in the powers of astrology. For example, in his commentary on Genesis 31:19, he said that Rachel took her father Laban’s idols (teraphim) because, had she not done so, Laban, an astrologer, could have used them to discover where her husband Jacob fled. She did so to protect Jacob.
He also used astrology to explain Genesis 6:2-4: “The sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair. They took them as wives… and they bore children by them. These were the mighty men of old, men of renown.” Ibn Ezra interpreted Elohim not as “God,” the usual translation, but as wise men who understood astrology. They found excellent wives by examining the stars and, as a result, had outstanding children.
Jews in Italy and Yemen considered the Scroll of Antiochus holy. As stated in the Tosaphot commentary on the Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 42, they read it in their synagogues on Hannukah, as Jews read the book of Esther today.
The Scroll is available for under three dollars on Amazon Kindle. The brief, just over a dozen pages in English, is followed by the text in Hebrew and over a dozen explanatory notes. Scholars think the original was composed in Aramaic, the language spoken by many people at the time it was written, as English is today,
According to the Scroll, Antiochus, a Greek king, was the most powerful king then. (Scholars disagree. They say he ruled the Seleucid empire from 175 to 164 BCE and was a very unsuccessful monarch. The Scroll also states that his general was Bagris, which scholars say is not mentioned in history.)
The Scroll states that Antiochus decided to attack Jerusalem 213 years after the second temple was built and wanted to annul the Jewish Shabbat, the New Moon celebration, and circumcision. (Since the second temple was built about 70 years after the first temple was destroyed in 586 BCE, this would date his decision to 303 BCE- 516 minus 213, more than a century before Antiochus was king.)
Antiochus sent Nikanor, one of his commanders, to implement his plan. Nikanor slaughtered many Jews, set an altar in the Jewish temple, and sacrificed a pig on it. Judah, son of Matisyahu, was a high priest at that time. (This is also not true.) Judah killed Nikanor for committing this foul deed. He gathered a force and killed 772,000 Greek soldiers that same day. (An unbelievable number). Judah was called Maccabee.
Antiochus sent General Bagris to do what Nikanor failed to do. Bagris arrived and murdered many Jews.
Judah and his four brothers fought against Bagris, who persuaded Antiochus to invite many nations with elephants to help him defeat the Jews. They came, and the five brothers and their army defeated the many countries, but Judah was killed during the battle.
Matisyahu, his father, took over command and was victorious. (This is the only source for Matisyahu leading the Jews in battle.) A second son was killed during the fight when he tried to kill an elephant. The elephant’s shit smothered him. Bagris was also killed.
The Jews destroyed the Greek kingdom. “From that time forth, there was no remnant of the Greek kingdom.” (This is not true. Jewish leaders had good relations with later Greeks.) The sons of Matisyahu made themselves kings and ruled for 206 years until the second temple was destroyed. (Again, this is not true; others took over the throne. Also, according to the Scroll, the second temple stood for 420 years. The Bible, Jewish tradition, and history date it around 516 BCE to 70 CE, about 586 years. Another error.)
After the victory, the Jews went to the temple, cleansed it, and found a single pure jar of oil to light the candelabrum, the Menorah. This jar contained only sufficient oil for one day, but it lasted eight days.
The Scroll’s story differs significantly from the versions in the Book of Maccabees, the Talmud, and history. Despite Saadiah Gaon, the Jews of Italy and Yemen, and others’ claims, it is fiction.
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Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps and is the author of more than 50 books.