First and foremost, a miracle caused by Yahweh on behalf of His Chosen People is much more unlikely than all of the other things in this post put together. So the question, as you’ve stated it, is about when the description of the miracle was invented.
Perhaps the number 8 came from the fact that it really did take 8 days to get new sacramental oil. Suppose that the flame was lit, after which it was discovered that there wasn’t enough oil for 8 days, so the religious authorities, as they so often have done, said, “Well, we really screwed this one up, but we can just not let anyone look, then claim it was a miracle.”
I certainly don’t claim to have any evidence to support this claim, but I do think that it’s plausible, and I agree that the number 8 does need some kind of explanation. I’ve done basically the same research as you have, although I’m sure I wasn’t as thorough—I just needed to explain the story of חֲנֻכָּה (I know it’s dumb, but I’ve never found a Romanization that I was happy with) in a blog post because I named my vaporizer “The חֲנֻכָּה Device”… but that’s another story. My point is: based on what I’ve read on the subject, it seems quite likely to me that the myth is a good deal older than 500 CE.
Oh, and I really object to your use of the word “unknowable”. I’m not sure if there’s any context in which it can be used appropriately, but we could most certainly still find evidence that would allow us to know.
I certainly don’t claim to have any evidence to support this claim, but I do think that it’s plausible, and I agree that the number 8 does need some kind of explanation.
It is more likely that the 8 days came since Succot and Shimini Atzeret last 8 days. Thus, when the Maccabees rededicated the temple they had a festival that was essentially a late Succot. This is consistent with the text in Maccabees 1 as well as that in Josephus.
Perhaps the number 8 came from the fact that it really did take 8 days to get new sacramental oil. Suppose that the flame was lit, after which it was discovered that there wasn’t enough oil for 8 days, so the religious authorities, as they so often have done, said, “Well, we really screwed this one up, but we can just not let anyone look, then claim it was a miracle.”
Except that it isn’t a major screw-up. Given how badly everything else was going, if they had waited a few days to relight the Menorah it wouldn’t have been a big deal. It only seems like a big deal to people now precisely because they’ve heard the miracle story.
You’re right, when I think about the situation as if I hadn’t heard the miracle story, it seems very plausible that it would have been a comparatively trivial delay, and in retrospect I did read that about Succot somewhere… anyway:
First and foremost, a miracle caused by Yahweh on behalf of His Chosen People is much more unlikely than all of the other things in this post put together. So the question, as you’ve stated it, is about when the description of the miracle was invented.
Perhaps the number 8 came from the fact that it really did take 8 days to get new sacramental oil. Suppose that the flame was lit, after which it was discovered that there wasn’t enough oil for 8 days, so the religious authorities, as they so often have done, said, “Well, we really screwed this one up, but we can just not let anyone look, then claim it was a miracle.”
I certainly don’t claim to have any evidence to support this claim, but I do think that it’s plausible, and I agree that the number 8 does need some kind of explanation. I’ve done basically the same research as you have, although I’m sure I wasn’t as thorough—I just needed to explain the story of חֲנֻכָּה (I know it’s dumb, but I’ve never found a Romanization that I was happy with) in a blog post because I named my vaporizer “The חֲנֻכָּה Device”… but that’s another story. My point is: based on what I’ve read on the subject, it seems quite likely to me that the myth is a good deal older than 500 CE.
Oh, and I really object to your use of the word “unknowable”. I’m not sure if there’s any context in which it can be used appropriately, but we could most certainly still find evidence that would allow us to know.
It is more likely that the 8 days came since Succot and Shimini Atzeret last 8 days. Thus, when the Maccabees rededicated the temple they had a festival that was essentially a late Succot. This is consistent with the text in Maccabees 1 as well as that in Josephus.
Except that it isn’t a major screw-up. Given how badly everything else was going, if they had waited a few days to relight the Menorah it wouldn’t have been a big deal. It only seems like a big deal to people now precisely because they’ve heard the miracle story.
You’re right, when I think about the situation as if I hadn’t heard the miracle story, it seems very plausible that it would have been a comparatively trivial delay, and in retrospect I did read that about Succot somewhere… anyway:
Your Version > My Version
Thanks for the clarification!