The most likely time for his birth is during the festivals of the seventh month, either near the middle of the month during Sukkot or at the beginning of the month at Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah). We know that Messiah Yeshua was not born on December 25, a date adapted from ancient Roman festivals. There is one other highly significant event that likely took place during Hanukkah. Whether or not the legend of the oil is true, it has become a big part of the Hanukkah story and is the basis for also calling this the Festival of Lights. They lit the menorah anyway, and to their amazement the light burned for eight days until the new oil was ready. It would take eight days to prepare more oil. Jewish tradition says that when they searched for oil to light the menorah, they found only enough to burn of one day. And they celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the Feast of Booths, remembering how not long before, during the Feast of Booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which was Chislev. And when they had done this, they fell prostrate and prayed earnestly the Lord that they might never again fall into such misfortunes, but that, if they should ever sin, they might be disciplined by him with forbearance and not be handed over to blasphemous and barbarous nations. They purified the sanctuary and made another altar of sacrifice then, striking fire out of flint, they offered sacrifices, after a lapse of two years, and they burned incense and lighted lamps and set out the bread of the Presence. Now Maccabeus and his followers, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city and they tore down the altars that had been built in the public square by the foreigners and also destroyed the sacred precincts. Then on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev, they offered sacrifices on the newly dedicated altar. Turning their attention to the defiled Temple and altar, Judah Maccabeus and his men repaired the sanctuary and the interior of the Temple and purified the courts. After Mattathias’ death, his son Judah continued the revolt and eventually crushed their enemies. The first four chapters of 1 Maccabees recount the story of Greek oppression of the Jewish people under Antiochus Epiphanes IV, and the rebellion led by Mattathias and his sons. Yeshua was walking in the Temple around Solomon’s Colonnade. Then came Hanukkah it was winter in Jerusalem. The Hebrew word חנכת chanukkah means “dedication,” and the “Feast of Dedication” in our English Bibles is Hanukkah.Īt that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. Hanukkah is mentioned in the New Testament, in the book of John – though it might not be immediately recognized. The “entire congregation of Israel,” though here referring to the people assembled with Judah (Judas) Maccabeus, is really much more than just “the whole Jewish nation.” If you are not sure how you fit into that, check out my post on The Blindness Of Jacob. Then Judas and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with joy and gladness on the anniversary every year for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month Chislev. The account in 1 Maccabees extends this a little further: True, 2 Maccabees 10:8 does say that “the whole Jewish nation should celebrate these days every year.” (NAB). You may be wondering why someone who isn’t Jewish would celebrate Hanukkah. There is no mention if it in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Old Testament), but there are detailed accounts of both the celebration and the events leading up to it in the Apocrypha in 1 & 2 Maccabees. In fact, Hanukkah didn’t come about until the Hasmonean period, long after the Babylonian captivity in Jewish history. Hanukkah isn’t one of the Appointed Times, or moedim, described in the Torah. More accurately, with the day beginning at sundown this holiday actually begins on Thursday evening, December 7, and lasts until the end of daylight on Friday, December 15. For the Gregorian year 2023 it is from Friday, December 8 through Friday, December 15. The Festival of Hanukkah (or Chanukah) is celebrated for eight days beginning on 25 Kislev (the ninth Biblical month).
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