Why Hanukkah is the key to understanding Jesus historically?
The feast of Hanukkah usually occupy a rather marginal in many studies about Jesus of Nazareth. However, the Gospel of John retains a fact historically relevant: Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Feast of the Dedication, popularly known as the Festival of Lights. This detail is not secondary. Places Jesus within the jewish liturgical calendar of the Second Temple, and it allows you to understand your teaching in a frame full of symbolism: the dedication of the Temple, the light and the spiritual identity of Israel.
This analysis addresses:
- What was Hanukkah at the time of the Second Temple
- How was celebrated in the time of Jesus
- What says exactly the Gospel of John
- What not to say to the gospels, and why
- How some of the teachings of Jesus fit naturally with the symbolism of Hanukkah
- The relationship of Jesus with the self-righteousness, the oral law and disputes halájicas of your time
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Hanukkah: historical origin and meaning of the Second Temple
Source macabeo
Hanukkah commemorates the purification and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 164 to.e.c., after its desecration under the domain seleucid. The ancient sources are explicit:
- 1 Maccabees 4:36-59 describes the rededication of the altar, and the decree of celebrating a feast of eight days each year.
- 2 Maccabees 10:1-8 he points out that the celebration lasted eight days, “the way of Sukkot”, with gladness, hymns, bouquets and lights.
- Flavius Josephus explains that this festival was popularly known as the Festival of Lights, associated to the restoration of the worship, and the hope national.
The meaning of Hanukkah in the I century
In the time of Jesus, Hanukkah was not:
- A party centered in the miracle of the oil
- A domestic celebration as the current
It was mainly:
- A Temple festival
- A celebration of dedication, purification, and restoration of the cult
- A reminder of faithfulness to the Torah in front of the assimilation
- A feast of light as a symbol of spiritual restoration
The emphasis was not in the war, but in the recovery of the holy life.
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How was celebrating Hanukkah at the time of the Second Temple
The ancient sources enable us to say with a high degree of certainty that Hanukkah:
- Lasted eight days, starting on the 25th of Kislev
- I had a public character and collective
- It was linked to the Temple and into his courts
- Included light, hymns, and joy, without a ritual domestic standardized
The well-known story of the oil that lasted eight days does not appear in either the books of the Maccabees, nor in Josephus. This tradition is formulated centuries later, in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b). His absence in the gospels is not an omission, but a true reflection of the early stage of the tradition.
Jesus and Hanukkah in the Gospel of John
The only gospel that mentions Hanukkah
John 10:22-23 says explicitly:
“It was celebrated in Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication. It was winter. And Jesus walked in the Temple, in the Portico of Solomon.”
This passage confirms three historic data key:
- Hanukkah was a holiday recognized and established
- Jesus participated in the festive calendar jewish
- His teaching is carried out in the space of the Temple
John does not describe domestic rituals or turning lights on houses because, at that historical moment, Hanukkah was not yet shifted from the Temple to the home, a phenomenon that will happen after the year 70.
Teaching 1: visible light as a spiritual principle
The teaching of the lamp
Jesus teaches us repeatedly:
“No one lights a lamp to hide it, but puts it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone.”
This principle appears in Matthew 5:15, Luke 8:16, and Luke 11:33.
Relationship with Hanukkah
In the rabbinic tradition later, Hanukkah is defined by the principle of pirsumei nisa, to make public the miracle. Therefore:
- The light is placed in front of the door or the window
- Must be visible from the public domain
Although the halachah later establishes technical details, the principle is the same that Jesus teaches us: the light is not hidden, manifest. This teaching fits perfectly with the symbolism of Hanukkah, especially in the context of the Temple, where the light had a national dimension and the spiritual.
Teaching 2: leadership as a service, and the symbolism of the shamash
The shamash in Hanukkah
In practice rabbinic introduces an additional light, the shamash, whose function is to:
- Turn on the other lights
- Allow the practical use of your light
- Not to count as the main light of the mitzvah
Your value is not in their status, but in his service.
The teaching of Jesus
Jesus says:
“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant... for the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve”.
This logic coincides with the function of the shamash: gives light to others, is consumed for others to shine and does not seek the limelight.
The right hidden
The jewish tradition later developed the figure of the righteous hidden, the one that holds the light of the world without recognition. Although this idea does not belong to the first century, works as a theological interpretation rear consistent with the symbolism of the shamash and with the service message taught by Jesus.
Mishnah, oral teaching and the style of Jesus
What it means to Mishnah
Mishnah it means teaching transmitted by repetition: oral instruction is recorded, discussed and applied.
Jesus as a jewish master
Although it cannot be classified technically as tanna editorial, Jesus:
- Teaches through parables
- Uses aphorisms short
- Interprets the Torah
- Discussion questions halájicas
All this is fully situated within the world of the jewish wise men of his time.
Pharisees, Hillel and Shamai: by undoing a historical myth
The error of “Jesus antifariseo”
Submit to Jesus as an enemy of the self-righteousness is historically incorrect. He, himself, recognizes his authority, interpretation, stating that the scribes and pharisees sit in the chair of Moses.
Jesus shares:
- The belief in the resurrection
- The use of oral interpretation
- The recognition of the judicial authority
His criticism is ethical and moral, not institutional.
Hillel and Shamai
Many of the postures of Jesus coincide more with the spirit of Hillel —mercy and inclusion— that with the interpretations most strict associated to the school of Shamai. It is likely that their disputes were with the disciples radicalized and not with the original teachers.
Hanukkah, Jesus and the light in the face of war
Hanukkah is not a party orderly explicitly in the written Torah. Even so:
- It was accepted by the pharisees
- It was experienced by the people
- It was assumed by Jesus
The message that emerges both of Hanukkah as of the teaching of Jesus is not the exaltation of the war, but the light of the Torah, the spiritual faithfulness, education as transformation and the silent service in front of the armed power.
Conclusion
Jesus of Nazareth:
- He participated in the jewish calendar live
- Taught within the framework of the Second Temple
- Used symbols of light consistent with Hanukkah
- Taught as the sages of his generation
- It was not antifariseo, but a jewish master critical of the school of Shamai and other radical groups and nationalists.
Hanukkah, read from the gospels and jewish sources, it is not a marginal note, but a key scenario for understanding Jesus as a teacher jew of the first century, whose light did not hide, but rather sought to enlighten others, even at the expense of himself.
