Preface to The Scroll of Antiochus

Said Saadia b. Joseph, the head of the academy (of blessed memory), after he had concluded the translation of the Scroll of Esther.

I think it proper to add to this story of what took place in the time of the Persians, when Mordecai and Esther were charged with delivering the nation from what had befallen it at that time, the story of what happened in the time of the Greeks, when the Levites were charged with delivering the nation from what had befallen it. The reason I took the pains to establish it [the story] is that I saw that most of the nation read it but do not fully realize the import of its content: how it came to pass and what caused it. Some people even reject it. When I realized the import of the matter—how it had all happened according to the tradition of our old authorities in whose footsteps we follow—and who had handed the tradition down to us by an unbroken chain for there were no longer any prophets at that time—I even went back to the books of the prophets and thumbed their pages. And I speculated deeply whether I should find mention of the Greeks and of a war with them in which they were prominent, and whether I should find a victory of the Levites over the enemy announced by one of the prophets. I found that both instances had been affirmed by the prophets in the books handed down to us by the ancients. I found the points in agreement and the references in consonance. That urged me to collect them in a script and establish it as true for those who follow this story that they should continue to have regard for it, and to refute those who reject and oppose it [the story]. I pray God for His help. I precede each deed with a blessing, and after each deed I invoke His Name. I say, I found first that Moses our master, peace upon him, mentioned that the sons of Levi would be made by God victorious over their enemies and that they would thus have a pronounced victory. It is said in Deuteronomy 33:11: Bless, Lord, his substance, etc. The translation of that is “Oh, God, bless his host, and accept the work of his hands; smite through the loins of them that rise up against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again.” When [the text] reached the word of God brought by Moses, that Levi would have “them that rise up against him and them that hate him” and that God would smite their loins, i.e., that he would put them to flight before the Levites and would destroy them, I traced all the information Scriptural and post-Scriptural and considered: whether I should find in it any mention of the Sons of Levi waging war or conquering. Yet I found no [mention] except of what happened under the rule of the Greeks. For our people has a tradition about five of them [the Levites] called Sons of Matattia surnamed Hashmonai; how they fought one of their [Greek] kings called Antiochus and were victorious over him, drove him out, and assumed power for 206 years. Then I knew it was this that Moses had referred to. [ . . . ]

As the story of the Hasmonaeans was one hundred and eighteen years after that of Mordecai and Esther which will be obvious in my book about it, I had to place the story after the account of Esther and Mordecai. And I saw fit to break it up into verses and to equip it with the signs of vowels and cantillation in order that the understanding of it might be more complete and perfect.