In this special Study, Hanukkah: Fact and Fiction, Nehemia Gordon explains that the real story of Hannukah, where the Rabbinic tradition of lighting candles for eight days comes from, and how the victory should be celebrated today.
The Seleucid Greek Jewish Persecution
The miracle of Hanukkah was born in the flames of the Seleucid Greek persecution of the Jews. This began three years before the first Hanukkah when the Seleucid Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, issued a series of decrees designed to eradicate the Jewish faith. The first round of anti-Jewish decrees went into force on the 3rd day of Tishrei in the year 168 BCE. These decrees are recorded in a 1st century CE document called "The Scroll of Fasting" (Megillat Ta'anit) which says:
"on the third of Tishrei... the evil Greek kingdom decreed eradication of Israel saying to them, 'deny the Kingdom of heaven' and say 'we have no portion with the God of Israel' and do not mention the name of the God of heaven on your mouths." Megillat Ta'anit, Tishrei
These initial decrees were followed with a prohibition against practicing circumcision and observing the Sabbath. Three months later, on the 25th day of Kislev, the Greeks re-dedicated the Jerusalem Temple as a sanctuary to the sun-god Apollo, sacrificing pigs on the altar. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and it led to a Jewish uprising.
After three years of fighting, the Maccabees liberated the Temple, tore down the defiled altar, and on the third anniversary of its defilement dedicated a new one. To this day, the full name of the holiday is Hanukkat Ha-Mizbe'ach, Dedication of the Altar, in memory of this event. The real miracle of Hanukkah is the victory of a band of ill-equipped and untrained farmers and priests defeating a world super-power that tried to force them to eat pig, give up circumcision and the Sabbath, and forbade them to utter the name of our heavenly Father Yehovah.
Three hundred years after that first Hanukkah, the Roman emperor Hadrian re-instituted the anti-Jewish decrees. One Jewish leader, Rabbi Hanina ben Teradion, was burned in the Roman fires for defying these decrees. According to the Talmud, he was wrapped in a Torah scroll and burned alive "because he used to pronounce the name the way it is written" (Avodah Zarah 17b-18a). This rabbi was only one of thousands martyred by the Romans for publicly proclaiming the name of our heavenly Father "Yehovah"!
Hanukkah as a Day of Joy
The festival of Hanukkah is not commanded in the Tanach but there is nothing inherently wrong with it as long as you can separate fact from fiction. In Biblical terms, Hanukkah would be classified as a Yom Simchah, a day of joy. Numbers chapter 10 verse 10 talks about blowing the silver trumpets "on your days of joy, on your appointed times, and on your new moons". In modern times, the Jewish People observe a number of Days of Joy such as Jerusalem Day in commemoration of the liberation of the Holy City in 1967 and Independence Day in memory of Israel surviving an invasion by several Arab armies in 1948-1949. I celebrate these Days of Joy every year to give honor to the miracles that our Creator bestowed upon us in these two historic events.
Up until the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 CE the Jewish People observed dozens of days of joy in honor of great events that took place in that period. These days of joy are listed in the aforementioned 1st century document Megillat Ta'anit, the Scroll of Fasting. The scroll consists of a list of dates and associated events that were observed as national days of joy. The purpose of the scroll was to instruct people when not to fast. Fasting is associated with mourning and sadness and it would not be appropriate to fast on a day of joy. The most important day of joy listed in Megillat Ta'anit was Nicanor Day, which commemorated the decisive battle between Judah the Maccabee and the Seleucid Greek general Nicanor on the 13th of Adar in 161 BCE. When the Temple was destroyed in the year 70 CE, all of the days of joy were abolished with the sole exception of the 8 days of Hanukkah....
....
Hanukkah and Yeshua
Writen by Paul Sumner
Introductory Comments
The extended study below argues the case that Yeshua of Nazareth did not celebrate or endorse Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication.His non-observance wasn't because it was a Jewish holiday, but because it was contrary to his mission and message of redeeming people (both Jew and Gentile) by extending God's offer of forgiveness to all who repented, sought deliverance from their sins, and longed for eternal life in Olam HaBa-ah.
Redemption from sin is not the core message of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah is an eight-day memorial to a Jewish revolt against an oppressive Gentile power in the second century before Yeshua. The revolt was led by a priestly family named Maccabee. In the end, the Jews drove out the pagans, recaptured the desecrated Temple, and rededicated the Altar to God. A modified rekindled menorah is a modern symbol of this historical event.
The Hebrew Bible does not mention the Feast of Hanukkah.
Yeshua was not an armed Maccabean activist who filled the Jerusalem Temple with the divine flame of revolution. The Gospel of John reports that he was walking on the grounds of the Temple during "the Feast of Dedication" (chap 10). But it doesn't say he celebrated Hanukkah.
In fact, Yeshua's character and teaching opposed it. His enemies knew that and they wanted to stone him.
One time, he did act like a zealous prophet when he "cleansed" the Jerusalem Temple of greedy commercial vendors because the house of God was meant to be "a house of prayer for all nations" (John 2:14-17; Mark 11:15-17). His anger was aimed at his countrymen—Jews—not Gentiles.
But he didn't kill them. Nor did he call for armed revolution against Gentiles for desecrating the Temple and Jerusalem.
Some people see surface parallels between Yeshua and Hanukkah, the "Feast of Lights." In a symbolic vision he is seen as the heavenly Menorah who gives light through his seven branches (Rev 1:12-16). He called himself "the Light of the world" (John 8:12; 9:5). Yet, he didn't say this when he was at the Temple during Hanukkah.
There is no evidence in the New Testament that Yeshua's Jewish followers observed Hanukkah in memory of him....
Why I don't celebrate Hanukkah
I want to share with you why there are no dreidels nor latkes on my side of the internet at this time of year. But I also don't want to hurt feelings or cause arguments. I value each of you that takes the time to read Land of Honey and want to continue having good relationships with you guys. I've decided to share about this because I get questions and want to clear up any confusion. As always, thank you for your grace and kindness.
I don't celebrate Hanukkah. Okay I did, a couple of times. As someone who grew up celebrating Christmas there is a big void every December. It was easy to embrace Hanukkah as a beautiful and inspirational story of Yehovah's provision, especially since it validated precious family time, special foods, and gifts at this time of year. And it certainly made the transition away from Christmas easier. I think the Maccabee story is stunning in so many ways. But I no longer celebrate it.
The realization came one day when someone asked why I don't celebrate Christmas. My answer was that I only celebrate the festivals of Yehovah. They asked if I kept the other 'Jewish' holidays' like Hanukkah and Purim. "Well yeah," I stumbled. "Since they are biblically based and all..." I knew it had to stop.
That was the it moment for me. I am so tired of justifying why my life is different than how Scripture says it should be. Of making excuses for why I add to or take away from Yehovah's instructions. Isn't that what I was doing with Christmas? That obviously has biblical tie ins. I have made too many changes to do this again in a different way.
But Hanukkah is the festival of lights and Yehoshua is the light! This reasoning is one most in the Messianic movement use. The verses that speak of Yehoshua being light are some the most beautiful passages in Scripture, in my opinion. We take them and apply it to the miracle of the oil miraculously burning for eight days. Who doesn't get goosebumps over the 'he is with us' symbolism? There's just a small problem here: while Yehovah certainly could have caused one day's supply of oil to last for eight there is no record of that actually happening. Even if there were, I personally don't see how that would justify...
The Maccabees and the Hellenists
Hanukkah as Jewish civil war.While Jewish children, one way or another, manage to acquire insight into somber holidays like Yom Kippur, Jewish parents tend to assume that they have nothing to learn from kiddy celebrations. As a result the “minor” holidays of Purim and Hanukkah escape scrutiny, like lullabies whose sweet melodies drown out disturbing lyrics. Many a community knows how to use children as shields against confrontation with its own darker truths. I can think of no better illustration of this strategy than our current ways of marking Hanukkah. For it turns out that Hanukkah is a festival built upon a mound of suppressed memories and censored texts, a putative celebration of light that in fact commemorates a Jewish civil war.
The Hanukkah story is unremarked in the Hebrew Bible and barely referenced in the Talmud. Instead, it is recorded in books that were banished from the biblical canon by third-century rabbinic authorities and exiled, as the Books of the Maccabees, to the Apocrypha. That collection, which takes its name from the Greek “hidden away” or “secret,” is mostly made up of Jewish writings in Greek—novels, sermons, histories, prophecies. The original story of Hanukkah, then, is the literary expression of a people that had deeply absorbed the language, thought, and values of Hellenistic civilization.
There are a number of reasons why rabbinic Judaism abandoned these texts. In the aftermath of the devastating losses inflicted by Rome on the Jews of Judea—beginning with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., more than 200 years after the time of the Maccabees—the rabbis wanted to shape an inward-looking Judaism. They chose to portray the Jews as a historically small, proud, self-isolating people ready to martyr themselves in the battle against tyranny, a people capable of sustained spiritual resistance to foreign domination. The rabbis recast the Hanukkah story to match that self-image. They emphasized God’s intervention on behalf of the Jews who’d been forced by the Greek Syrian King, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, publicly to violate Jewish law in 168 B.C.E. The Jews revolted, led by Mattathias, an elder in the Hasmonean family of priests, and his sons, the eldest of whom was Judah the Maccabee. With God’s help, they succeeded in capturing the defiled Temple and rededicating it four years later.
Read in its historical context, however, the Hanukkah story is really about a revolt against the Hellenized Jews who had fallen madly in love with the sophisticated, globalizing superculture of their day. The Apocrypha’s texts make it clear that the battle against Hellenization was in fact a kulturkampf among the Jews themselves. Here is how the first Book of the Maccabees describes Jerusalem on the eve of civil war and revolt in the time of Antiochus:
"At that time there were some evil-doers in Israel who tried to win popularity for a policy of integration with the surrounding nations. It was because the Jews had kept themselves aloof for so long, they claimed, that so many hardships had befallen them. They acquired a following and applied to Antiochus, who authorized them to introduce the Greek way of life. They built a Greek gymnasium in Jerusalem and even had themselves uncircumcised."
Uncircumcision as the price of admission to the Jerusalem gym! When they were eight days old, the “sign of the covenant” had been carved in their flesh; now as young men, these Jews risked health and sacrificed sexual pleasure to “become one flesh” with the regnant beauty culture. In Judea, then, there were Jews choosing to die rather than publicly profane Jewish law—and there were Jews risking death to free themselves from the parochial constraints of that law. The historic Jewish passion to merge and disappear confronted the attested Jewish will to stand apart and persist.
That’s the clash of Hanukkah. Armed Hasmonean priests and their comrades from the rural town ofModi’in attacked urban Jews, priests and laity alike, who supported Greek reform, like the gymnasium and new rules for governing commerce. The Hasmoneans imposed, at sword’s edge, traditional observance. After years of protracted warfare, the priests established a Hasmonean state that never ceased fighting Jews who disagreed with its rule...
Why I do not Celebrate Christmas and Hanukk
What you are about to hear may stun you, hurt you, and be very hard to accept. Whether your religious tradition that you hold most dear is Christmas or Hanukkah, please understand that the truth from Elohim's Word may hurt at first but it brings life, life eternal. [Hebrews 4:12]
It is an abomination is to suggest that Messiah would ever endorse Christmas or Hanukkah as a set-apart day to be observed, because that would be adding to the commandments of Elohim, a sin, and we know the Messiah did not sin. It is Elohim Elohim alone who defines in Elohim's Word how we are to worship him, honor him, obey him, and please him. All of Elohim's commanded "official" and "Biblical" set-apart days are clearly outlined in Leviticus Chapter 23. Hanukkah and Christmas are not on the list and thus ARE NOT "set-apart" or "righteous" or pleasing to Elohim. To suggest otherwise will only anger Elohim because you are adding to his instructions, the Scripture, a serious crime against Elohim [Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32].
IT IS NOT that all tradition is evil, the problem is: IN ELEVATING any man-made tradition or non-Biblical commandment TO THE CONCEPT OF HOLINESS, a part of the path of righteousness, or that it pleases Elohim in any way. Elohim probably does not care if you celebrate your country's independence day with a cook-out (bbq), picnic, and fireworks show - just don't think that it will bring you closer to Elohim in any way. Don't talk about it like it is the "set-apart" or "righteous" thing to do, because by doing so you will only anger Elohim by perverting his Word, his standard - by adding to Elohim's perfect instructions (Elohim's Word).
Man-made Holidays Can Never Be Set-apart or Pleasing to Elohim
By observing Christmas or Hanukkah as set-apart, special, or set-apart unto Elohim, you have perverted Elohim's commanded set-apart Days in Leviticus chapter 23 by mixing what is common with that is set-apart AND you have just added to Elohim's Instructions (Elohim's Word). You have just committed multiple abominations and sins that Elohim hates most. So in your attempt to do something set-apart to Elohim, you have just terribly angered him and he will distance himself from you, for we are to only worship Elohim in the manner that Elohim specifically declares in Elohim's Word, and in no other way.
They have "done violence to my law and have profaned my set-apart things.
They have made no distinction between the set-apart and the common ..." - Ezekiel 22:26
In Matthew 15:13, Jesus (Yeshua) said:
"Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up."
Psalms 19:7
"The law of Yehovah (YHVH) is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of Yehovah (YHVH) is sure, making wise the simple."
Perfect means lacking nothing, whole or complete. We have no need of other set-apart days. What Elohim has ordained is perfect. Leviticus Chapter 23 reveals Elohim's heart as to what his set-apart days are that we are to observe. Stand firm on the PERFECTION of Elohim's Word! Do not add to or take away from Elohim's Word [Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32]. Since when does Elohim need our help to set standards of holiness and righteousness that have already been established forever? Who are we to consult the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth?
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares Yehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
All of Elohim's commanded "official" and "Biblical" set-apart days are clearly outlined in Leviticus Chapter 23. Hanukkah and Christmas are not on the list. Who told you to observe Christmas or Hanukkah? It was not Elohim!
Elohim has never endorsed or declared Christmas or Hanukkah as "set-apart" or "righteous" because Elohim clearly defines these things as commands in the Bible - and not obeying these commands is the very definition of sin (1 John 3:4). To suggest these holidays should be observed as a way to please Elohim, to get close to Elohim, or as something that is set-apart and special - is a clear abomination because you have just added to the instructions of Elohim. Stay focused my friends! The only path of righteousness is Scripture. The traditions of men are empty calories. They may fill you up but do not feed or nourish you for they cannot. They are often a complete waste of your time, since they absolutely cannot get you closer to Elohim, nor please him in any way...
Mai Hanukah | Karaite Insights
Written by: Melech ben Ya'aqov
Hanukah is a holiday the very reason for whose existence is to commemorate the struggle and ultimate victory of Torah over pagan culture. The Pharisees (Rabbis) have always presented themselves as the upholders of true Torah. How ironic then, for those who do not yet truly know the Pharisees, that they inserted pagan elements into the celebration of Hanukah and, in doing so, redefined its meaning to this very day. What exactly am I talking about? Read on.
The main primary historical sources for the events of Hanukah are the Books of Maccabees I 1 & II 2. Read these books from cover to cover and you will notice a very curious omission: nowhere in the entire text is there mention of a flask of oil which lasted miraculously for eight days. The Book of Maccabees covers ??? comprehensively ??? the events of Hanukah, sometimes in excruciating detail, and nowhere is such an event ever recorded.
Next, look at the writings of Josephus, c. 70-100 CE, (originally) a Pharisee, and you will see much the same thing ??? no mention anywhere of a miracle concerning a flask of oil which lasted for eight days. Josephus states that Hanukah is known as the Festival of Lights, but the explanation he gives for the appellation has nothing to do with miraculous oil: ???And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was, because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival.???3
Look also at Megilat Ta???anit 4 (first century CE), considered to be the earliest extant Pharisaic document (not to be confused with its scholion, or Hebrew commentary, which is a Talmudic or post-Talmudic document), and again there is no mention of a miracle of oil lasting for eight days. And these are Rabbinical documents! So what???s going on here?
To help us understand, let us ask ourselves the following obvious question: When is the first time that mention of a miraculous flask of oil is made? The answer: in a braita in the Babylonian Talmud, Shabbath 21b5, which dates it at around 200 CE. (A braita is a statement from Mishnaic times which didn???t make it into the final cut of the Mishnah, but which is preserved in the Talmud.)