This sunday's lectionary
reading from John 10: 22 - 30 has Jesus in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival
of the Dedication of the Temple ... Hanukkah.
It's a weird sort of lectionary time warp jump from the post-resurrection
stories back to this winter story. Nevertheless...
The twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev, in the
year 164 was the anniversary of the day the Gentiles had desecrated the altar.
On that day a sacrifice was offered on the new altar in accordance with the Law
of Moses. The new altar was dedicated and hymns were sung to the accompaniment
of harps, lutes, and cymbals. All the people bowed down with their faces to the
ground and worshiped and praised the Lord for giving them victory.
For eight days they celebrated the rededication of the altar. With
great joy they brought burnt offerings and offered fellowship offerings and
thank offerings. They decorated the front of the Temple with gold crowns and
shields, rebuilt the gates and the priests' rooms and put doors on them. Now
that the Jews had removed the shame which the Gentiles had brought, they held a
great celebration. Then Judas, his brothers, and the entire community of Israel
decreed that the rededication of the altar should be celebrated with a festival
of joy and gladness at the same time each year, beginning on the twenty-fifth
of the month of Kislev and lasting for eight days. 1 Maccabees 4:52 – 59
I like to imagine Jesus
spinning the dreidel and eating latkes – though I don’t think those were part
of the Hanukkah traditions in the first century. He may have lit the menorah, though. (Some would make the distinction that this is
technically a "Hanukiah"… to differentiate it from the regular
menorah.)
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