Given the
delay between the victory and the rededication Goldstein wonders what Judah Maccabee and
his followers were waiting for.
He suggests that the Maccabees may have been waiting for the prophecies of
the books of Daniel and Ezekiel to be fulfilled.
 | God would act against Antiochus at the end
of 3½ years of persecutions, i.e. at Rosh Hashanah on 164 BCE, (Daniel, 12:11).
|
| The Seleucid Empire would end, dead Jews
would be resurrected, and God’s Temple would miraculously descend from Heaven.
|
There was also the issue of precedents of divine intervention in lighting sacrificial
fires.
Goldstein thought these miracles didn't
happen, so he had to come up with an alternative reason for the choice of date. |
The vision of Ezekiel by Francisco collantes |
