Hanukkah aka the Feast of Dedication is supposed to commemorate the Maccabean victory over the Greeks in 165 BC, and candles are lit for 8 days to represent the oil miraculously lasting for 8 days although there wasn’t enough to do so. Is this true? And is this a day that we should be celebrating as followers of YESHUA? Many believers will celebrate this day because they say that YESHUA celebrated it. Is this true? Let’s examine the scriptures.
John 10:22-23 (Most translations)
“At that time the Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication) came to be in Jerusalem, and it was winter and YESHUA was walking in the Set-Apart Place, in the porch of Solomon.”
John 10:22-23 (Hebrewgospels.com)
“These things were said in Jerusalem, and it was winter. As YESHUA was walking in the Sanctuary in the porch of Shelomo (Solomon)…”
As we can see from the authentic Hebrew manuscript that “Hanukkah” is not mentioned and therefore shows that YESHUA did not celebrate it. This was the one scripture that believers heavily rely upon to support their celebration of this day. Furthermore, reading 2 Maccabees you will notice something that will immediately jump out at you and will lead you to look further into it.
2 Maccabees 1:9
“And now see that you keep the Sukkot in the month of Kislev.”
Why is this so important? Sukkot is on the 15th Day of the 7th month on YAHWEH’s calendar, but Kislev which is a Babylonian name is in the 9th month. So how can Sukkot be celebrated in the 9th month when we are commanded to celebrate it in the 7th month? An article from “My Jewish Learning” will reveal the true origin of Hanukkah and show that once again that believers are walking in the traditions of men.
The First Hanukkah
It was actually a Sukkot celebration.
NOAM ZION
“In addition to the victory parades of the ancient Maccabees that celebrated their political independence, the original holiday also took the form of a Temple rededication ceremony. In the Second Book of the Maccabees, which quotes from a letter sent circa 125 BCE from the Hasmoneans to the leaders of Egyptian Jewry, the holiday is called “The festival of Sukkot celebrated in the month of Kislev,” (9th month in November/December) RATHER than Tishrei (7th month), which usually falls in September. Since the Jews were still in caves fighting as guerrillas on Tishrei (7th month), 164 BCE, they could not properly honor the eight-day holiday of Sukkot (and Shemini Atzeret) The 8th Day Closing Assembly, which is a Temple holiday; hence it was postponed until after the recapture of Jerusalem and the purification of the Temple.
This — not the Talmudic legend of the cruse of oil — explains the eight day length of Hanukkah . The use of candles may reflect the later reported tradition of Simchat Beit HaShoava (water-drawing festival),the all-night dancing in the Temple on Sukkot, which required tall outdoor lamps to flood light on the dance floor of the Temple courtyard.
They celebrated it for eight days with gladness like Sukkot and RECALLED how a little while before, during Sukkot they had been wandering in the mountains and caverns like wild animals. So carrying lulavs [palm branches waved on Sukkot]…they offered hymns of praise (perhaps, the Hallel prayer) to ELOHIM who had brought to pass the purification of his own place. (II Maccabees 10:6-7)
The connection between Sukkot and Hanukkah goes beyond the ACCIDENT of a postponed Sukkot celebration. Sukkot is the holiday commemorating not only the wandering of the Jews in the desert in makeshift huts but the end of that trek with the dedication of the First Temple (i.e. the permanent Bayit/ Home of God in Jerusalem by King Solomon circa 1000 BCE).”
My brothers and sisters Hanukkah is a DISGUISED REPACKAGED SUKKOT and this is the reason why it is celebrated for 8 days just as Sukkot is along with the 8th day Closing Assembly! We saw from the article that they postponed Sukkot and moved it to the 25th day of the 9th month as a makeup day for those who were unable to celebrate it at its appointed time in the 7th month. So, even though the day has been named “Hanukkah” which means “Dedication” it is nothing more than a SECOND SUKKOT. Furthermore, nowhere in scripture has our Father YAHWEH given a makeup day for SUKKOT as He has done for Passover.
Numbers 9:1-11
“YAHWEH spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after the children of Yisra’el had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Yisra’el keep the Passover at its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month in the evening, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its rites, and according to all its ceremonies, shall you keep it. And Moses told the children of Yisra’el that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that YAHWEH commanded Moses, so did the children of Yisra’el. And there were certain men who were defiled by touching the dead body of a man so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. And those men said unto them, we are defiled by touching the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the offering of YAHWEH at the appointed time among the children of Yisra’el? And Moses said to them, Stay where you are, and I will hear what YAHWEH will command concerning you. And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Yisra’el and say to them, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by touching a dead body, or is on a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover to YAHWEH. On the fourteenth day of the SECOND MONTH at the evening they shall keep it, and shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”
As recorded in scripture YAHWEH gives a makeup day for Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month exactly one month later for anyone who is unclean or away on a long journey, this same command is not given for any other appointed time; therefore, how did they have the authority to set aside a makeup day for Sukkot in those days? And why is that makeup day of Sukkot still be celebrated to this very day under the name of Hanukkah.
So, technically those who are celebrating Hanukkah are celebrating 2 SUKKOTS in a year when we are only commanded to keep ONE and again would qualify as following the traditions of men. Instead of calling it “Second Sukkot” they gave it the name Hanukkah and it has remained that way for years. This is another example of what Jeroboam did:
1 Kings 12:28-33
“So the king (Jeroboam) took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to all Yisra’el, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your mighty ones, O Yisra’el, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! And he set the one in Beth-el and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a transgression; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made a temple of idols, and made priests from among the people who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, LIKE THE FEAST IN JUDAH (SUKKOT 15TH DAY OF 7TH MONTH), and he went up to the altar to offer sacrifices. So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he appointed in Beth-el priests for the temples of idols which he had made. And he went to the altar which he had made in Beth-el, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had DEVISED OF HIS OWN HEART; and made a feast to the children of Yisra’el; and he went up to the altar to burn incense.”
Jeroboam committed great transgressions and one of them was creating his own festival on the 15th day of the 8th month which he devised of his own heart that mocked Sukkot which was exactly one month earlier. Now, the same thing is happening with Sukkot again, accept this time it’s called Hanukkah a second Sukkot, if it was a transgression with Jeroboam then it’s a transgression today. No one has the authority to change, move, or rename the appointed times of YAHWEH. No matter how good it looks on the outside you must not be deceived! Yes, the Maccabees did some good, but they also did not always do the right thing; for example they illegitimacy usurped the priesthood that belonged to the sons of Zadok and the kingship then they combined them together. The office of priests and kings were always separate in Yisra’el, and we know the priesthood belonged to the Levites, so how could the Maccabees who were Jews be priests? This is the same transgression that Jeroboam committed. Brittanica.com writes “Maccabees, also spelled Machabees, (flourished 2nd century BCE, Palestine), PRIESTLY FAMILY OF JEWS who organized a successful rebellion against the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV and reconsecrated the defiled Temple of Jerusalem.” That same bad decision of usurping the priesthood rolled over into making a second sukkot.
In an article written by “Rabbi” Arthur O. Waskow he states “Moreover, if Hanukkah is not merely a solstice but a darkness festival, then the 25th of Kislev is the perfect time. In some years, the solstice day itself would be a night of bright full moon–especially powerful in an agrarian (agricultural)-pastoral culture with few artificial lights. So even the solstice itself would feel less like the darkest day of the year on such a moonlit night. By setting Hanukkah on the 25th of the month, the Jews made sure that the night would be dark. By setting it in Kislev, they made sure the day would be very short and the sun very dim.
It may even be that the Maccabees’ desire to celebrate a late Sukkot, or to celebrate this NEWLY Judaized solstice festival in ways reminiscent of Sukkot was tied to Sukkot’s earlier career as in part a festival of the sun. As we have seen in our examination of Sukkot, the Mishnah goes out of its way to preserve the memory that “Our forebears turned toward the East, to the Sun. . .” and the torches of Sukkot, juggled by the Levites as they danced through Jerusalem, may have been reminders of the sun.”
Michele Apirin adds “Given their ambivalence about the Maccabean victory, the Rabbis had a problem: What could they do about the popular holiday established by the Maccabees and celebrated each year on the 25th of Kislev? They could get rid of it, as they had done with other holidays instituted by the Maccabees and their descendants — after all, Hanukkah was not a holiday of biblical origin. Or they could transform the meaning of Hanukkah in line with their own theology, which is what they did.
The Rabbis’ first tack seems to have been to try to suppress the holiday altogether. The books of the Maccabees, which recount the historical events surrounding the genesis of Hanukkah, were not included in the biblical canon. (The books of First and Second Maccabees are still accessible today only because they were incorporated into Catholic and Orthodox Christian Bibles.) Among the Jews, these books are called sefarim hitzonim, external books, or in Greek, apocrypha, and the Rabbis expressed their opinions about such books in no uncertain terms in Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1. Following a list of several categories of individuals “who have no share in the world to come,” Rabbi Akiva adds, “Also one who reads the external books….”
As you can see the bold statement by Akiva that those who read the missing books have no share in the world to come. That is because they know that once you read these books that you will know the truth and will not fall for the traditions of men and that is what I pray has been learned today by anyone who is watching. Let us continue to walk in the truth of what our Father YAHWEH has commanded and not men.
As always may our Father YAHWEH bless you in YESHUA’s Name!