Editing Hanukkah (section)

=== Books of Maccabees ===
The story of Hanukkah is told in the books of the [[First Maccabees|First]] and [[Second Maccabees]], which describe in detail the rededication of the [[Second Temple|Temple in Jerusalem]] and the lighting of the [[menorah (Temple)|menorah]]. These books, however, are not a part of the [[Development of the Hebrew Bible canon|canonized]] [[Masoretic Text]] version of the [[Tanakh]] (Hebrew and Aramaic language Jewish Bible) used and accepted by normative [[Rabbinical Judaism]] and therefore modern Jews (as copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the [[Masoretes]] between the 7th and 10th centuries of the [[Common Era]]). However, the books of Maccabees were included among the [[deuterocanonical books]] added to the [[Septuagint]], a Greek-language translation of the Hebrew Bible originally compiled in the mid-[[3rd century BCE]]. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider the books of Maccabees as a [[Biblical canon|canonical]] part of the Old Testament.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/old_testament.html|title=The Old Testament in the Orthodox Church|website=OrthodoxChristian.info|last=Stergiou|first=Fr. R.|access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

The eight-day rededication of the temple is described in 1 Maccabees,<ref>{{bibleverse||1 Maccabees|4:36–4:59|NRSVCE}}</ref> though the miracle of the oil does not appear here. A story similar in character, and older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees<ref>{{bibleverse||2 Maccabees|1:18–1:36|NRSVCE}}</ref> according to which the relighting of the altar fire by [[Nehemiah]] was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee.<ref name=JewishEncyclopedia/> The above account in 1 Maccabees, as well as 2 Maccabees<ref>{{bibleverse||2 Maccabees|1:9|NRSVCE}}</ref> portrays the feast as a delayed observation of the eight-day Feast of Booths ([[Sukkot]]); similarly 2 Maccabees explains the length of the feast as "in the manner of the Feast of Booths".<ref>{{bibleverse||2 Maccabees|10:6|NRSVCE}}</ref>