Is there a reason as to why Hanukkah is celebrated in Judaism even though Jews do not consider Maccabees part of the Tanakh? Probably a dumb question but from what I’m reading Maccabees is considered “apocryphal” to Jews as it is to Protestants. When did Maccabees get “dropped” from the Jewish canon and when was Hanukkah warranted to widespread celebration as a commemorative holiday in the Jewish calender?
I’m back for the moment.
Scholars still argue today about whether a biblical ‘canon’ existed during Second Temple period Judaism (530 BC-AD 70). Some argue that yes, a canon consisting of the 23 (or 39, if we go by the Christian reckoning) book protocanon was already in place at least by the 1st century AD, while others would be wary, preferring instead to say that there was still a very loose definition of what canon is. But as far as I know, almost no one would say that the canon is already ‘closed’ at that point. Even those who prefer to think that the protocanon was already in place by that time would still accept that a few books within the canon was still under some dispute (read: Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs).
I should point out that 1 and 2 Maccabees are really two separate works: one was probably composed in Hebrew or Aramaic (although only the Greek version survives today), while the other - an epitome, or a condensed version of a five-volume work by a Jason of Cyrene - was an original Greek composition.
I could think of a number of reasons why both books of Maccabees didn’t make the cut. In the case of 2 Maccabees, there’s the fact that it’s a Greek work. Unlike books such as Tobit or Sirach (which were originally composed in Hebrew/Aramaic), documents in Greek like say, 2 Maccabees or Wisdom of Solomon apparently didn’t become popular in Palestine as they did in the Jewish diaspora.
Even within Palestine, the Maccabees are very polarizing figures. Most people praised them as heroes of course because they managed to liberate Jews from the Seleucid yoke (which is what the author of 1 Maccabees was doing - he was casting them as God-sent deliverers fight against the evil oppressor who was trying to eradicate the traditional Jewish way of life in the style of earlier biblical narratives), but there were Jews who didn’t like them at all, mostly because of the dynasty of high priests-slash-kings they subsequently founded (the Hasmonean dynasty). For instance, you have the Community at Qumran. The fact that the books of Maccabees is not attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls has been taken to be a confirmation of what the Community claimed: that their founding members (particularly the so-called ‘Teacher of Righteousness’) were originally priests from the high priestly Zadokite line who were usurped from their positions by the Hasmoneans - something which the Maccabees originally could not do. (The Maccabees were priests, but only priests from the Zadokite line could become high priests.)
That’s really what’s controversial. For some Jews, the Maccabees, in their struggle against Antiochus, seemed to go overboard: the Jewish rebels decided to break the Sabbath in self-defense (1 Maccabees 2:39-42), something which would have seemed to be an arrogant decision, plus when they finally drove the Seleucids out they claimed
both the kingship and the high priesthood - something which (if we go by the biblical promises) properly belonged respectively to the houses of David and Zadok - with Roman backing no less.
There’s probably also the fact that Judah Maccabee made a treaty with Rome against the Seleucids (1 Maccabees 8:17-20) - which wouldn’t have sat down well to Jews, especially after all the events of the late 1st-early 2nd century. The author of 1 Maccabees even goes on to great lengths praising the Romans. Not exactly the type of thing you’d want to hear after the same people conquered your country, slaughtered all your freedom fighters and burnt your Temple to the ground.
And that’s what also may have contributed to Maccabees not being accepted into the Jewish canon: the works have a positive view of the idea of holy war, of nationalistic and religiously-motivated uprising against the foreign oppressor - which the Jews (especially after the failed Bar Kochba revolt of AD 120) were trying to distance themselves from. You’d notice that the books of Maccabees and the later Rabbis (who really helped develop the modern Jewish perception of Hanukkah) emphasize different aspects of a single event (the retaking and the rededication of the Temple): the books celebate the divinely wrought victory of the small Judaean forces over the more powerful pagan enemy, while the Rabbinic sources choose to ignore the military side of the event and focuses instead on an entirely different aspect (which does not appear in both 1 and 2 Maccabees), the miracle of the oil that never ran out.
