Recently, someone asked, “Isn’t Chanukah a holiday invented to compete with Christmas?” The question brought to mind the William Hazlitt quote, “Prejudice is the child of ignorance.” That is, the less we know, the more we suspect.
So here is the story of Chanukah pieced together from rabbinic scholars, “First Maccabees,” and more recent books about the Hasmonean family. First though, three facts: Chanukah means dedication and celebrates the rededication of a people to their religion and their temple—serious stuff; “First Maccabees” is not accepted as a sacred book by Jews or Protestants but is considered deuterocanonical (of the canon) by the Catholics; and the events celebrated by Chanukah happened in 167 BCE.
The Story of Chanukah is the story of the Maccabees
One hundred and sixty-seven years before the birth of Jesus, Mattathias of the Hasmonean family was ill-disposed to Antiochus IV the king who ruled over the region. Mattathias was a priest, and Antiochus issued a decree forbidding Jews to practice their religion. The king seized the temple in Jerusalem and built altars for sacrifice. Antiochus sent soldiers to Judea to force the Priest, his sons, and the Jewish people to make sacrifices to the Hellenic gods. To Jews, the people of the one God, that was anathema.
So repellent was the act that the priest was forced to violence. When one Jew, frightened or physically compelled, moved to comply, Mattathias rushed forward and killed him before he could make the sacrifice. Mattathias then killed the soldiers and destroyed the Hellenic altar. That is how the revolt began, but the persecution began much earlier.
Over a century earlier, Hellenistic forces of the Seleucid Empire took control of Judea and forced Greek culture and religion upon the people. The Seleucid Empire was a Greek state in West Asia that existed from 312 BCE to 63 BCE. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the Macedonian General Seleucus—thus the name.
According to “First Maccabees,” kings of the Seleucid Empire defiled the temple, forbade circumcision, and set up altars to their gods. Some Jews went along with the changes while others did not, but there was no open rebellion until 167 BCE.
And Mattathias said, “Woe is me! Why was I born to see the ruin of my people, the ruin of the holy city—To dwell there as it was given into the hands of enemies? Her temple has become like a man disgraced, her glorious vessels carried off as spoils, her infants murdered in her streets, her youths by the sword of the enemy.”
Mattathias led the revolt. With his five sons, Mattathias fled and set up camp in the Judean hills. Mattathias fought for two years, and when he died, his sons carried on. Judah the Maccabee, the priest’s third son, was selected to succeed Mattathias as the leader of the rebellion. For that reason, the entire army was called The Maccabees. While it is true that the Jews were outnumbered almost three to one, the Jewish army was not small. It certainly was not merely the five sons of the priest Mattathias. It was estimated to be 22,000 trained men. The army was referred to as The Maccabees because that was the name of their general not because it was actually anyone but Judah’s last name.
Maccabeus was the surname of Judah, but each of Mattathias’ five sons had his own last name: John the Gaddi, Simon the Thassi, Judas the Maccabeus, Eleazar the Avaran, and Jonathan the Apphus. The supposition is that the last names represented personal characteristics. For example, Judah the Maccabee is thought to mean Judah the Hammer, signifying his strength and aggressiveness as a fighter. Eleazar the Avaram means Eleazar the Piercer because he once pierced the hide of an elephant and thereby killed it.
In the end The Maccabees prevailed. They recaptured Jerusalem and once more controlled their temple. They regained their freedom and ruled over all Judea until the rise of the Herod family in 63 BCE.
The Maccabean revolt is celebrated because it shaped Jewish faithfulness to its laws. It also formed its response to invasion and suppression. The story of Chanukah is the story of The Maccabees.
The Festival of Chanukah is the Festival of Lights
The eight days of Chanukah commemorates a miracle. In 164 BCE, after three years of battle, in the moment of victory, Judah the Maccabee went to the temple. He wished to rededicate the Temple, but there was just one vial of oil remaining.
To rededicate the temple, the eternal (or everlasting) light must be lit in the temple and never allowed to go out. It must burn until more oil could be found and brought. That required eight days, and they had oil for one day only.
It was law that the temple must have an everlasting light. That light burning in the temple was both a symbol of God’s presence and an offering to God. Because “… the LORD will be your everlasting light … Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light …”
According to the Talmud (the book of Judaism’s ceremonial and civil laws), when the Seleucid soldiers “carried [the temple’s] glorious vessels off as spoil they left only one intact vial of oil.” It was enough to light the Temple’s eternal light for one day only. The miracle was that God spoke and assured Judah that he would cause the light to burn for eight days, and it did.
So that is the story of Chanukah remembered not invented—one religious celebration unique and unrelated to any other. The story of Chanukah is a story of courage and a demand for religious and personal freedom. The story of Chanukah is a battle fought for identity and self-government. It is a story for the ages reminiscent of other such battles, in other times, and other countries—in Ukraine for example.
