andrewcriddle

There have been previous threads on this forum as to whether the Dead Sea Scrolls represent mainstream Judaism or a sectarian Jewish group. (This is often presented as an argument about whether the DSS were composed by Essenes but the question of the sectarian nature of the scrolls is separate from the precise identity of the sect (if any) involved.)

I came across something that may be relevant.

In the 1st century BCE Calendar fragments from Qumran (AKA 'Calendars of Priestly Courses') there are mentions of the main Jewish festivals ie Passover, Waving of the Sheaf, Second Passover, Weeks, (New Year) Memorial, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles. What is absent is any mention of Chanuchah/Hanuchah, the Feast of Dedication.

Now although post-biblical (instituted by the Maccabees c 163 BCE), this was (unlike Purim) an official feast of the Temple year, with ceremonies involving candles etc, at the Temple.

If the calendar fragments derive from priestly circles at the Temple in the 1st century BCE one would expect mention of the Feast of Dedication. If, however, they derive from a schismatic group which rejected the Maccabean high-priests and all their works, then no such mention would be expected. Which is what we find.

Andrew Criddle

spin

What's the exact source for this claim that hannukah was a part temple cultus at the time of the mishmarot?


spin

andrewcriddle

looking into it the evidence is weaker than I realised.

However:
1/ hannukhah commemorates the (re)-dedication and purification of the temple, a purification originally performed in the temple itself.
ii/ hannukhah is explicitly modelled on Tabernacles (see 2 Maccabees 1:9 and 9:6-8), which is obviously a temple festival.

Although it is not explicitly claimed in any contemporary text that hannukhah is celebrated in the temple itself, the idea of commemorating the dedication of the temple by a Tabernacles-like festival performed independently of the temple seems very unlikely.

Also John 10:22 'It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem...' seems to imply at the very least that the author of John regarded hannukhah as celebrated at the Jerusalem temple in the period before 70 CE.

(Some scholars argue that the use of lights in the Temple at Tabernacles as described in the Mishnah, is ultimately derived from a similar ceremony at hannukhah but this may be speculative.)

Andrew Criddle