Megillat Taanit

The Megillat Taanit (Hebrew: מגילת תענית‎, lit. "the Scroll of Fasting"), written before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, summarizes oral traditions listing 35 days to celebrate joyous events in early Jewish history; primarily during the Hasmonean period (167-37 BCE) (Karcz, 2004). These days were celebrated as feast-days. Public mourning was forbidden on 14 of them, and public fasting on all. The Scholions associated with the Megillat Taanit contain commentary on the underlying text. Jewish 1st century CE for the Megillat Taanit and later for the Common Scholion The Megillat Taanit itself does not mention an earthquake but the commentary (scholion) on it mentions a zia {shock] which may suggest an earthquake. In addition, the commentary (scholion) says that on the same day the sea upwelled and destroyed a third in the settled land which could be a description of a tsunami.

Although the Common Scholion dates these events to 92 BCE when notoriously cruel and opressive Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103 - 76 BCE) was pursuing Jewish Pharisaic rebels into Syria at the end of the Judean Civil war, this historical context does not seem to suggest a day which would be later commemorated as a joyous feast day. Thus, some scholars suggest that the events described may have occurred when the more favorably viewed Hasmonean King Jonathan Maccabeus (r. 160-142 BCE) was fighting King Demetrius Nicator and the Arabs in Lebanon and Syria.