Jesus and the Feast of Hanukkah

As mentioned in previous articles, the Jews, led by the Maccabean family, recognized that when they went to purify and dedicate the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by Antiochus IV with a service to Olympian Zeus, God manifested His power with a miracle that amazed everyone. When the scant oil of the Menorah burned for eight consecutive days, they understood and began to connect the dots of each event that had occurred, realizing that God’s hand had miraculously been present from the beginning, even in details they had thought were insignificant or random. Like the nine lights that women lit to recall the Temple’s Menorah, or the victory despite the numerical disproportion of the armies, or the four letters on the dreidels (N, G, H, CH) that mysteriously formed an acrostic in Hebrew saying, “A miracle has happened here.”

Apart from all that the Feast of Hanukkah meant, the fact that they analyzed everything that happened and highlighted every detail revealing a divine miracle showed their great desire and humility to recognize God’s sovereignty over the nation. In other words, there was a clear message throughout the feast: GOD IS LORD OF ALL DETAILS, NOTHING ESCAPES HIS CONTROL, AND HE HAS THE UNIQUE POWER TO TRANSFORM THEM TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE.

However, Jesus faced the opposite from His arrival in this world. The descendants of those who had seen God’s hand at work in the time of Antiochus IV, and after celebrating this feast for over 190 years, were now unable to see what God was doing right before their eyes on a much grander scale.

If we analyze the context of the only passage in the Apostolic Writings where this feast is explicitly mentioned (John 10:22), we can understand the above. Moreover, since they could not say that what Jesus did were not miracles, they attributed them to demons instead. Thus, there were those trying to understand, but they were also confused by those attributing these acts to darkness, sparking a debate in the crowd: “At 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.” (John 10:19-23). Like every year since the first Dedication by the Maccabees, every city in Judea was filled with lights placed where they could be seen from outside each home. While it is true not everyone celebrated, such as the Sadducees and the Essenes, the majority following Pharisaic teaching did. So cities, especially Jerusalem, became brighter than any other for eight nights each evening. Anyone traveling through the area would ask, “Why are all Jewish cities shining from within each home during these days?” All responses would focus on one: “Because a miracle happened years ago in Jerusalem when God saved us from extermination.”

Yet, on these days’ feasts, God had personally visited His people, walking among them, performing thousands of daily miracles, and they did not see Him. Thus, they surrounded Him and said to the Jews, not the Sadducees or the Essenes, but the very people who had learned from the Pharisees: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24-25). But on the first Hanukkah celebration, there was no need for a voice from heaven, nor did anyone ask the Maccabees to explain this; they were so open to God’s ways that they simply believed. Now they were asking Jesus to tell them what they already knew from their ongoing debate. Thus, Jesus’s answer was precious: “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me; but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30). In other words, those with the Maccabees believed in God’s works, demonstrating they were His people, but those surrounding Jesus did not believe in the many miracles because they were not His people. It wasn’t that Israel was not His people, as the apostles were also Israel and believed, but these particular ones who did not accept Jesus were not. They were such enemies of God that despite being very religious and celebrating a feast like this: “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.” (John 10:31).

Then: “Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.‘” (John 10:32-33). Thus, it wasn’t that they didn’t see the miracles, which of course would be illogical not to see, but rather they were directly rejecting Jesus. Their reasoning was clear: If you are performing miracles that only God can perform, then we have an issue with you, and we must recognize you as we recognized God during that Hanukkah and worship you as God was worshipped in those days.

In the midst of this, Jesus posed a textual challenge. Because the word we translate from Greek as God (θεος) doesn’t hold much significance in Spanish and is even confusing (we won’t go into that), but the word appearing in this Psalm and that Jesus should have cited in Hebrew is elohim, which doesn’t exactly mean ‘god,’ though it’s translated as such to better understand, but rather a term originating from Akkadian referring to various beings with or attributed to a specific power, whether human (Exodus 21:6) or even a false deity (Jeremiah 44:15). Thus, He said to them: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:34-38).

And this has been the stumbling block for many Jews to this day, not understanding that Jesus is God Himself. It is true that one cannot believe anyone who claims to be God; that would be irresponsible and a sin, especially when a few throughout history have done so. But if someone lives strictly according to God’s law, capable of a life filled with miracles every second of existence, His message proclaims this, and furthermore, He is capable of dying for it, then it is understandable why Jesus told them to believe in the works themselves. They needed to set aside their prejudices, their analyses, what they had learned since childhood, and analyze the reality before them.

Was it very difficult for a Jew to believe that God became man? No, just as it is not difficult to believe it today for those who believe all of Scripture. If the biblical text is full of examples of men who spoke (Genesis 4:6), walked (Genesis 5:24), and even ate with God (Exodus 24:9-11), the question would be: What limited or human-like form did God assume when making this possible? The answer is simple, and we find it in the same one who cited this feast in His gospel: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18).

Now, clearly, if we today analyze each event celebrated in Hanukkah, we can also find their connection to Jesus. For example, those letters on the dreidel reveal something very interesting. And although previously we talked about one type of dreidel, in reality, there are two with different letters; one of them speaks from Jerusalem, and the other from outside it, so as not to be redundant in this article, we will look at them now. From outside, it said: “a miracle happened there,” and its letters equate to: Nun is 50 (נ), Gimel is 3 (ג), Hei is 5 (ה), Shin is 300 (ש), if we sum them, the value would be 358. And this value coincides with the total value if we sum the letters of the word Messiah (Mashiah), which are: Mem is 40 (מ), Shin (300), Lamed (30), Yod (10), and Het (8). The other from within Jerusalem would say: “a miracle happened here,” and its letters would be: Nun is 50 (נ), Gimel is 3 (ג), Hei is 5 (ה), Pei is 80 (פ), summing them varies the value to 138, but this also coincides with one of the names attributed to the Messiah, which is Menachem (Comforter), whose letter values are: Mem which is 40 (מ), Nun which is 50 (נ), Het which is 8 (ח), and Mem which is 40 (מ).

So when we say that God is in control, it is not a simple conclusion or a religious phrase to repeat. His sovereignty is so real and infinite that not only did He fulfill the moedim that He Himself designed for mankind since the foundation of the world, but He has also fulfilled and fulfills every human celebration intended to announce Him. As the angel who announced the revelation to John said, His people must: “worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelation 19:10c).

In the next article, we will be addressing how the apostles used the messianic announcement of this feast in their teachings.

Author: Dr. Liber Aguiar